Well, look, it's a good way of padding war profiteer bank accounts, 'kay, and letting guys like Bernard Kerik play Rambo.
All paid for with the good old American's tax buck, as they face social service cuts and skyrocketing costs back home. Too bad you can't get any of that money back, huh, Americans?
I mean, if I ripped off the government they would be getting in touch with me real quick. But fraud-scheming banks and cost overrun war-looters? Those cases are too tough for the government to investigate or prosecute. Better of getting a chump-change kickback of a fine.
"US scales back training of Iraq police; Local officials say help is unwanted" by Tim Arango | New York Times, May 13, 2012
BAGHDAD - In the face of spiraling costs and Iraqi officials who say they never wanted it in the first place, the State Department has slashed - and may jettison entirely by the end of the year - a multibillion-dollar police training program that was to have been the centerpiece of a hugely expanded civilian mission here.
Good!
What was originally envisioned as a training cadre of about 350 US law enforcement officers was quickly scaled back to 190 and then to 100. The latest restructuring calls for 50 advisers, but most experts and even some State Department officials say even they may be withdrawn by the end of this year.
The training effort, which began in October and has already cost $500
million, was conceived of as the largest component of a mission billed
as the most ambitious US aid effort since the Marshall Plan. Instead, it
has become the latest high-profile example of waning US influence here
after the military withdrawal, and it reflects a costly miscalculation
by US officials, who did not foresee the Iraqi government aggressively
asserting its sovereignty.
Well, uh-duh!!!!!!!
The PROBLEM is this is NOT THE FIRST TIME this has happened to U.S. officials, in fact, it SEEMS TO BE HAPPENING ALL the TIME NOW!
I mean, LOOK AROUND YOU!! Every plan and scheme the EUSraeli empire has put forth lately have turned to absolute shit! Afghanistan is a loss any way you look at it; Libya is in chaos, and maybe that is what they have intended. Somalia a success? Yemen?
I mean, EVERY TIME YOUR GOVERNMENT and MOUTHPIECE MEDIA come at you, American, it is all this s*** and promised s*** that NEVER HAPPENS -- but it DOES ADVANCE CERTAIN AGENDAS and I guess that is ALL WE REALLY CARE ABOUT, huh?
No offense to Iraqis, but I AM WONDERING WHY I WAS NEVER ASKED?!?!
Here I am an American paying taxes to fund it all and NO ONE EVER ASKED ME????
NO ONE EVER ASKED AMERICANS what the presence should be!!!
Last year the State Department embarked on $343 million in construction projects across the country to upgrade facilities for the police training program, which was to have comprised hundreds of trainers and more than 1,000 support staff members in three cities - Baghdad, Erbil, and Basra - for five years. But like so much else in the nine years of war, occupation, and reconstruction here, it has not gone as planned.
There was no reconstruction, sorry. Iraqis are still suffering power privations and plumbing problems. We smashed a country over a crock of lies, murdered millions, polluted the place with radioactive munitions, and that's that.
Does a sorry even mean anything anymore? I've been mentioning or saying it for over five years here, but then again, I don't represent the voice of my government. Never have. I suppose the bitterness and betrayal has come out in my writing, huh?
A lesson given by a US police instructor to a class of Iraqi trainees neatly encapsulated the program’s failings. There are two clues that could indicate someone is planning a suicide attack, the instructor said: a large bank withdrawal and heavy drinking.
Then why aren't they arresting Wall Street criminals over their large withdrawals?!
The only problem with that advice, which was recounted by Ginger Cruz, a former deputy inspector general at the US Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, was that few Iraqis have bank accounts, and an extremist Sunni Muslim in a suicide attack would consider drinking a cardinal sin....
Yup, only problem is IRAQIS HAVE NO MONEY and "Al-CIA-Duh" is not supposed to drink (9/11 patsies 'cepted, of course).
The trainers are primarily retired state troopers and other law enforcement personnel on leave from their jobs, and a number of officials who criticized the program questioned what those trainers have to offer Iraqi police who have been operating in a war zone for years.
--more--"
Still a war zone if you are an Iraqi cop:
"6 killed, 22 hurt in bombings in Iraq" May 14, 2012
BAGHDAD - Bombings killed six people Sunday in separate attacks targeting Iraq’s security forces, officials said, while the US Embassy in Baghdad maintained it will continue training Iraqi police despite cutbacks to the program.
In Falluja, west of Baghdad, a car bomb hit an Iraqi army patrol, killing two soldiers and wounding six people, according to police and hospital officials.
A roadside bomb exploded near a security patrol in the western city of Ramadi, killing a police officer and wounding seven people. In Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at a checkpoint, killing himself and two police officers and wounding nine people.
Violence has dropped across Iraq since the days when the country teetered on the brink of civil war just a few years ago, but deadly attacks still happen nearly every day.
Insurgents launch frequent attacks on Shi’ites and security forces loyal to the Shi’ite-led government in an attempt to revive sectarian fighting.
The US Embassy’s $500 million police training program has been proclaimed as one of the main efforts to continue supporting Iraqi security forces after the American military’s withdrawal last December.
The program has been scaled back in recent months, but the US Embassy said Sunday that it would not be eliminated.
Unless the Iraqis say so?
--more--"
"Death toll linked to violence rises
BAGHDAD - The number of Iraqis killed in violence increased slightly during the past two months, according to figures released by the Defense, Interior and Health Ministry. They showed 132 people were killed in May, including 90 civilians, 20 police officers, and 22 soldiers, up from 126 deaths in April and 112 in March - the lowest death toll since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. (AP)."
"23 killed in attack on Shi’ites in Iraq" by Tim Arango | New York Times, June 05, 2012
BAGHDAD - A sectarian controversy over control of a holy religious shrine where a 2006 bombing set off waves of sectarian killings turned violent again Monday, when a suicide car bomber struck a Shi’ite religious office in Baghdad, leaving at least 23 dead and more than 70 wounded.
You do know I am no longer buying the agenda-pushing papers and their sectarian propaganda, right?
The strike against the Shi’ite office was the deadliest single attack in the capital in nearly three months. It occurred as a dispute escalated between Sunnis and Shi’ites over control of the Askariya Shrine in Samarra, a largely Sunni city north of Baghdad.
Such things had not happened for centuries until we showed up, 'murkn.
Later Monday, an improvised explosive device was discovered in the rear of the Sunni Endowment office in Adhamiya, a Sunni stronghold, and was detonated under the supervision of security officials.
The Shi’ite and Sunni endowment offices, which administer mosques and other religious and cultural sites around the country, are the competing authorities at the center of the dispute over the shrine.
“Iraqis need to stop killing each other,’’ said Sadeq al-Mousawi, who was nearby but unharmed when the suicide bomber struck. “What did the victims of today do to be killed? Sectarianism has no mercy against anyone, and there are groups of criminals and militias used by officials and politicians to achieve their specific agendas.’’
Yes, IRAQIS KNOW the TRUTH of WHAT I SAY!
While violence in Iraq has moderated in recent months, in the wake of the US troop withdrawal, the nature of Monday’s attacks laid bare the sectarian disputes that still poison Iraqi society.
They just keep on shoveling, don't they?
Attacks on Shi’ite pilgrims are still common, and several days ago a series of explosions rocked Baghdad, killing at least 17, including more than a dozen in a single strike in a market in a predominantly Shi’ite neighborhood.
Some at the bombing scene Monday said they believed the government was behind the attack, a frequent sentiment expressed in the wake of violence by Iraqis who know too well that many of their elected officials have in the past been linked to militias.
And to American intelligence agencies.
At the Sunni Endowment in Adhamiya, where the roadside bomb was discovered, an employee complained that the Shi’ites “are trying to take everything from the Sunnis, and now they are taking our mosques, one by one.’’
The 2006 bombing of the Askariya Shrine escalated the cycle of sectarian violence and dragged Iraq deeper into civil war.
--more--"
"At least 66 killed in Iraq bombings" by Sinan Salaheddin | Associated Press, June 13, 2012
BAGHDAD (AP) — A coordinated wave of car bombs struck Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad and several other cities Wednesday, killing at least 66 people and wounding more than 200 in one of the deadliest days in Iraq since US troops withdrew from the country.
The bloodshed comes against a backdrop of political divisions that have raised tensions and threatened to provoke a new round of the violence that once pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war. Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but they bore the hallmarks of Sunni insurgents who frequently target Shiites in Iraq.
That is AmeriKan mouthpiece media code for an intelligence agency false flag covert operation. I've been reading them long enough to know.
Wednesday’s blasts were the third this week targeting the annual pilgrimage that sees hundreds of thousands of Shiites converge on a golden-domed shrine in Baghdad’s northern neighborhood of Kazimiyah to commemorate the eighth century death of a revered Shiite saint, Imam Moussa al-Kadhim. The commemoration culminates on Saturday.
Puddles of blood and shards of metal clogged a drainage ditch at the site of one of the bombings in the city of Hillah, where hours before pilgrims had been marching. Soldiers and dazed onlookers wandered near the charred remains of the car that had exploded and ripped gaping holes in nearby shops.
Most of the 16 separate explosions that rocked the country targeted Shiite pilgrims in five cities, but two hit offices of political parties linked to Iraq’s Kurdish minority in the tense north. Authorities had tightened security ahead of the pilgrimage, including a blockade of the mainly Sunni area of Azamiyah, which is near the twin-domed Shiite shrine.
The level of violence has dropped dramatically in Iraq since peaking in 2006-2007 as the country faced a Sunni-led insurgency and retaliatory sectarian fighting that broke out after the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein. But Iraqis still face near-daily attacks and Shiite pilgrimages are often targeted....
The political stagnation has set back hopes for stability in Iraq and stalled efforts to rebuild the country after eight years of US occupation....
--more--"
"Shi’ite Muslims targeted in Iraq bombings; More than 90 are killed amid religious festival" by Tim Arango | New York Times June 14, 2012
BAGHDAD - In the deadliest day in Iraq since the withdrawal of the US military in December, a series of explosions that mostly targeted Shi’ite Muslims amounted to an emphatic demonstration of the still potent capabilities of the Sunni insurgency and a reminder of the instability left behind by US forces....
The attacks were a reality check for a country that has made substantial steps toward a sense of normalcy.
I just can't take the insults anymore, readers. A sense of normalcy?
One front-page article in a local newspaper Wednesday heralded the return of women to local cinemas. Lately, new red double-decker buses have begun operating in Baghdad, and checkpoints and blast walls have been dismantled, providing some relief to the city’s notorious traffic delays.
But after the first attacks struck Wednesday morning, security forces closed off roads, lending a sense of siege to the capital that will continue over the next several days....
The attacks came against the backdrop of a political crisis that erupted in December and has continued unabated for months. The crisis began when an arrest warrant was issued for the Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi, on terrorism charges; the effect worsened a sense of disenfranchisement among Iraq’s Sunni minority. Lately, Sunni and Kurdish lawmakers have been engaged in an aggressive effort to force the Shi’ite prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, from office through a vote of no confidence in the Parliament.
Most analysts and diplomats said that is unlikely because Maliki’s opponents are too divided, but the crisis has paralyzed the government and raised fears that insurgents will continue to use the political situation as an impetus for more attacks. At the same time, two recent polls showed that Maliki has weathered the crisis well, increasing his popularity among his Shi’ite base and even among some Sunni tribes.
Yes, because the IRAQI PEOPLE are NO FOOLS!! THEY KNOW WHO IS BEHIND the VIOLENCE! Only the POOR, PATHETIC, Amurkn people do not because of this INTELLIGENCE AGENCY OPERATION we call a NEWSPAPER!!
Yeah, SCREW the SECTARIANISM PROPAGANDA!
The polls reflect a sense of disillusionment about Maliki’s rivals over the perception that they are divided and obstructionist, even as fears persist that the prime minister is becoming too powerful, especially because of his firm grip on the security forces and the judiciary.
Rising popularity indicates a sense of disillusionment, huh? I gotta tell you, readers, I'm disillusioned with this pos I call a morning paper.
--more--"
"Iraq tightens security for Shi’ite pilgrimage; Precautions come after car bombs kill 72, wound 270" by Kay Johnson and Sinan Salaheddin | Associated Press, June 15, 2012
BAGHDAD - Despite the violence, hundreds of thousands of Shi’ites continued their marches to commemorate a revered saint, Imam Moussa al-Kadhim....
The attacks around the country came amid political tension over power-sharing. Iraq’s Sunnis and Kurds accuse the Shi’ite prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, of consolidating power.
No one has claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attacks but the bombings bore the hallmarks of Al Qaeda and its Sunni militant allies seeking to exploit the sectarian tensions.
Yes, it was "CIA-Duh."
Iraqi authorities played down any suggestion that the devastating attacks that have taken place every few weeks or so since the US military withdrew in mid-December portend a return to the all-out sectarian violence that tore the nation apart in 2006-2007.
The commemoration culminates on Saturday. Maybe the Globe will give me an article tomorrow.
--more--"
Next Day Update:
"26 die as last day of Iraq pilgrimage hit by bombs" by Kay Johnson and Sinan Salaheddin | Associated Press, June 17, 2012
BAGHDAD - Two car bombs in Iraq’s capital killed at least 26 people Saturday on the last day of a Shi’ite pilgrimage already hit by multiple bombings.
The blasts, one in a heavily guarded area close to a revered shrine, raised the week’s death toll to more than 100 and cast further doubt on the divided government’s ability to secure the country after the American withdrawal....
The fierce wave of bombings targeting Shi’ites suggest that the Al Qaeda-allied Sunni militants are stepping up their periodic attacks - which recently have come every few weeks - to try to exploit sectarian cracks in the elected government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and possibly spark another round of the violence between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims that brought Iraq to the brink of civil war only a few years ago.
Because they keep persisting with that intelligence operation lie I just can't believe a word.
The sheer number of blasts during the Kadhim pilgrimage shows the ability of Al Qaeda to retain and perhaps rebuild its bombing networks despite heavy blows struck to the organization by US forces and allied Sunni militias prior to the American withdrawal.
Yes, isn't it AMAZING that "CIA-Duh" never goes away?
The bombers’ ability to penetrate so close to the shrine indicates the challenges faced by Iraq’s security forces in securing huge religious gatherings.
--more--"
Update:
"Iraqi suicide bombing kills 15 at Shi’ite funeral" Associated Press, June 19, 2012
BAGHDAD - An official blamed Sunni militants allied with Al Qaeda. “Absolutely this is the way of Al Qaeda,’’ said Sadiq al-Husseini, head of the Diyala provincial council.
--more--"
