Word: vermeesch
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That mission may become a greater challenge within the parameters of the pact. Vermeesch and his battalion are based in a former Shi'ite militia hot spot, which promises only more sectarian tensions as Sunni families who fled the town begin to return to their old neighborhoods, which remain dominated by the Shi'a. Attacks are much fewer than last year but still average one a day, Vermeesch says. Now, under the security agreement, U.S. forces can no longer carry out a raid, search, cordon or even a patrol without their Iraqi counterparts. In the past two weeks, four minor...
...moved from base to base in the final days of December, Vermeesch urged Iraqi commanders to pay more attention to noncombat tasks like equipment maintenance - another fresh responsibility as January gets under way. And even in "combined" patrols, like one Tuesday to search houses for a U.S. soldier's lost weapon, the relationship remains unbalanced at best: a handful of Iraqi police acted as little more than chaperones for a U.S.-led search...
...General Kadre Abdel Latif, the director of the Interior Ministry's criminal investigations branch in northwest Baghdad, views this as a frustrating new burden - and one the Iraqis aren't ready for. "The army and police - especially the army - impedes our efforts in arresting these [wanted] people," he told Vermeesch during a visit this week. Once information about a target is distributed to Iraqi forces, "the information gets to the wanted people, and they take off." Latif doesn't like the idea of detainees being handed over to Iraqi forces either: they are often released before they can be prosecuted...
Some Iraqi government officials tie the behavior of Iraqi troops to corruption, incompetence and party loyalties that continue to permeate the ranks. In some areas, tensions and mistrust, though once far stronger, still linger between the Iraqi army and the police. One of the Iraqi army commanders Vermeesch visited recently had been involved in a shoot-out with police forces just 10 months before. Some army commanders are not shy about complaining about the police. "I am very sure that the Iraqi Army is equipped and ready to handle the situation after Jan. 1," said another commander, Col. Abbas...
...need to consult the Iraqis if responding to an imminent threat or in self-defense - a provision so broad that most of the limits on U.S. troop operations could effectively be bypassed if commanders deem it necessary to do so. "I would not view them as loopholes," Vermeesch says. "I would view them as provisions to allow U.S. forces in everyday situations to protect themselves...