Iraq: <b>December 9, 2003</b>

December 9, 2003

While the new Iraqi police are doing a good job at making the streets safe once more, proposals to revive the Iraqi secret police have run into some problems. There were actually several secret police organizations when Saddam was in power, and the only Iraqis who know about this intelligence and internal security work are tainted by association with the Saddam era organizations. Iraqi police want some kind of "FBI" to go after the pro-Saddam and al Qaeda organizations. But while screening could clear maybe 10-20 percent of the Saddam era agents for work, there is great popular opposition to any Saddam era agents returning. This means that Iraqis must be trained for the job, and will not have access to the many contacts and connections the Saddam secret police had. Most of the Saddam era secret police records were captured, and this will make up for the inability to use the Saddam era agents. It's also rumored that some of the Saddam era agents have been quietly hired as consultant by coalition intelligence organizations.