Iraqis to give security forces a freer hand
Government stops short of martial law
BAGHDAD -- Hadi Kadhim, an Iraqi police detective, can't wait to throw off the American-style restrictions that he says prevent him from rounding up criminals he can identify by ''looking into their eyes."
Soon, he may get his wish.
The Iraqi government plans to unveil emergency regulations in the coming days to give police and security forces a freer hand to crack down on the violence gripping the country, Iraqi and US officials said. The rules will allow security forces to detain suspects without warrants and hold them longer without charges, to impose curfews, and to call in US Army and National Guard units for help, according to senior officials at the Interior Ministry and their top US adviser.
The Iraqi government, while stopping short of declaring martial law, expects to invoke the regulations for short periods and in specific locations to respond to crises, the officials said, adding that they aim to curb rampant kidnappings, car bombings, and violent crime while avoiding a return to the police state of Iraq's past.
''There's always a pendulum between freedom and security, and in Middle Eastern culture they've always allowed that pendulum to swing more toward security," said Steven Casteel, a former intelligence chief of the US Drug Enforcement Administration who headed the Iraqi Interior Ministry until the sovereignty handoff and remains its highest-ranking US adviser. ''The Iraqi people are looking for this government to take a strong stance."
By launching emergency police powers in one of their first major acts after the sovereignty handover Monday, Iraq's leaders would strike a different note than the United States expected when it pledged to establish a new order of democracy and human rights.
But for Iraqis from many walks of life, true sovereignty means Iraqi officials decide how justice should be imposed.
''Now, it is our law," Kadhim said. The detective has been frustrated for months, he said, because US advisers and military police insisted that he release suspects he felt sure would commit more crimes. ''We had evidence, but the Americans said it wasn't enough," he said.
Sadiq Mussawi, one of the organizers of an Iraqi legislature to be selected this summer through a quasi-democratic process, is arguably one of the last people one would might have expected to call for emergency police powers. He was deported from Iraq in one of Saddam Hussein's purges, studied philosophy in Iran, and helps lead a political party advocating a secular constitutional monarchy with strong human rights guarantees.
But his wish list includes powers for police to shoot people carrying guns illegally and to arrest anyone lacking valid identification. Without stronger measures from Iraqi police, he said, the country will not be safe enough for democratic elections scheduled for January.
''The other side has no idea about human rights," he said of the insurgents. ''The Americans have no idea how to manage this."
The planned regulations are part of a broader crackdown on crime that has begun with more visible police presence and an aggressive raid that netted 149 suspects last week in the Baghdad neighborhood of Betawain, a suspected hub of organized crime.
The crackdown raises the unusual prospect of US troops enforcing a state of emergency for Iraq's interim government and backing up Iraqi police as they take a tougher approach to suspects. President Bush offered an endorsement last week, saying Prime Minister Iyad Allawi may have to ''take tough measures" to deal with security threats.
But differing notions of acceptable law-enforcement standards will no doubt provoke disputes on the ground between Iraqis and the 160,000-strong US-led multinational forces, and may complicate the fragile relationship between Iraqis and their former occupiers.
One such dust-up took place Tuesday, Iraq's first full day of sovereignty, when a turf battle between Iraqi Interior Ministry officials and US military police ruffled feathers all the way up to the prime minister's office.
Interior Ministry agents in plain clothes were questioning suspects from the Betawain raid at a ministry outbuilding, dragging them from one place to another in the hot sun, officials said.
US military police thought abuse might be going on and were not sure whether the non-uniformed Iraqis were police. They stormed in, separated the police from the suspects and made the police lie on their stomachs while they checked their identification.
Interior Ministry officials were outraged by what they saw as a violation of sovereignty. They called in Casteel, who said he spent three or four hours to smooth out the problem. In the end, the MPs agreed that the Iraqis were in charge of the prisoners.
''Some soldiers think they're still the occupation forces and behave that way," Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah al-Anbaqi said.
But at the Interior Ministry, Brigadier General Hussein Ali Kamal said the incident built morale because Iraqi control had prevailed.
Tuesday's incident suggested that the US ability to curb rights abuses may be limited once soldiers are guests of a sovereign government. ''Obviously, we support human rights. And the Iraqi police understand they're not supposed to do anything outside the Iraqi legal framework," Casteel said. ''But that legal framework is not the US legal framework."
Kamal said, ''The police should serve the people, not oppress them. But because of the amount of crimes that are happening? Iraqi citizens want the police to get rid of [the rash of crime] by any means necessary. Their sons and daughters can't go to work. Students are putting off their classes for a year because they're afraid."
Yet Casteel and Kamal cited the Betawain raid as an example of US-Iraqi cooperation, in which US troops shared satellite images of the neighborhood and backed up the police with Humvees. They said Interior Ministry officials emphasized human rights and ethics as they prepared more than 80 agents to take part.
They brought 25 internal affairs police with them to monitor the operation. Casteel said only one theft occurred -- a case of beer -- and that the policeman who stole it is being disciplined.
Iraqi shopkeepers and journalists who saw the raid said the Iraqi police were rough with some suspects. But they praised the scene as a sign that the government was taking control.
Others expressed ambivalence. Zein Al Naqshabandi, 42, who has written several books on Baghdad history, said he worried that Iraqi police would ''misbehave" if given more power because they are either inexperienced or veterans of Hussein's security forces. But he added that only ''overwhelming force" would work against the threats police now face. He also said he would prefer to see tough measures carried out by Iraqis than by Americans: ''It's Iraqis' judgment -- not Americans who don't care about Iraqis."
Whether Iraqi police have the skills to capitalize on new powers remains to be seen, Casteel said.
Hundreds of Iraqi police have been killed in insurgent bombings and other attacks over the past year. Many officers lack flak jackets, vehicles, and radios. And in April, after many police officers abandoned their posts in the face of uprisings in Fallujah, Baghdad, and Najaf, US officials acknowledged that the force had been underprepared.
Across Baghdad last week, there were signs that police were gaining traction. Cars and weapons that were slow to arrive from the occupation authority were arriving. Patrols and traffic police were more visible on the streets than at any time since Hussein's fall, in a deliberate show of strength in the first days of sovereignty, Casteel said.
He outlined plans for a bigger beef-up of Iraq's 89,000-strong police force, with a counterterrorism unit, a 250-member SWAT team, two battalions (eventually as many as nine) for keeping public order, and three emergency response battalions that will be equipped with heavy weapons and armored vehicles.
For the moment, many of the Iraqi forces that are supposed to enforce the crackdown are more proud than they are effective. On the day of the handover, Colonel Haider Abdul Rasul, commander of an Iraqi National Guard battalion, removed his US colonel's insignia and wore only his Iraqi gold eagle. His soldiers now salute palm out -- Iraqi style -- instead of the American way.
On Monday, they patrolled without US escorts for the first time, flying an Iraqi flag behind their pickup. Iraqis ululated in celebration.
There was one glitch. Their fuel is now supposed to come from the fledgling Defense Ministry rather than the US military. But the ministry has not come through.
''They had to fill up a garbage can with gas. They were siphoning into the trucks for their first patrol," said a US sergeant who was training them. ''But they're eager."
Just then, a tank truck drove up to the compound. ''Is this our gas?" the sergeant asked. Then his face fell. ''They're just here to clean the port-o-potties," he said. 