Iraqi commando battalion pulled out of Samarra (for looting, arson)

[Barrett808]

Iraqi commando battalion pulled out of Samarra
US officers say battalion of Iraq's elite commando troops withdrawn from Samarra for looting, torching houses.
By Ned Parker - SAMARRA, Iraq

A battalion of Iraq's elite commando troops was pulled out of the rebel bastion of Samarra last month after repeated incidents of looting, culminating in the torching of a home, several US officers said Thursday.

The battalion, headed by a colonel named Jalil, was widely perceived as running amok, officers said.

US soldiers regularly referred to the commandos as "thieves" and said there were several incidents where Jalil's men looted homes.

In an incident in the second week of March that sealed the unit's fate, the commandos searched a home near Samarra, found no incriminating evidence and then set it on fire, officers said on condition of anonymity.

US officers and soldiers preferred their names not be disclosed due to their working relationship with the interior ministry and the awkward position of criticising the commandos, considered the vanguard of Iraq's security forces.

(more)

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=13427

[atreides1]

1. If this unit is the Vanguard

Then all the US has done is replaced the old with the same!!!

[jayfish]

2. "Glory"

John Rawlins: "The town is clean sir. Ain't no rebs here, just some women."

Colonel James M. Montgomery: "You hear that! Let's clear er out!"

His men begin looting the town

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: "What are you doing?"

Col. Montgomery: "Liberating this town in the name of the Republic."

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0097441/

Jay

[Barrett808]

3. Good candidates for the "Salvador option" n/t

[daleo]

4. Well trained soldiers of the BFEE.

Looting, plunder, arson - Bush must love these guys.

[Jacobin]

5. How DARE the Iraqi troops plunder Iraq!!!

That's the job of Murkin Soldiers and Halliburton!!!!

[leftchick]

6. NYT Magazine Just Ran an Article on these Guys on Sunday....

Another US "Success"....


The Way of the Commandos
By PETER MAASS

Published: May 1, 2005

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/magazine/01ARMY.html?

<snip>

It was in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad in the heart of the Sunni Triangle, where, in early March, I spent a week with Adnan, himself a Sunni, and two battalions of his commandos. Samarra is Adnan's hometown, and he had come to retake it. As the offensive to drive out the insurgents got under way, the only area securely under Adnan's control was a barricaded enclave around the town hall, where he grimly presided over matters of war and peace, but mostly war, chain-smoking Royal cigarettes at a raised desk in the mayor's office. With a jowly face set in a permanent scowl, Adnan is perfectly suited to the grim realities of Iraq, and he knows it. When an admiring American colonel compared him to Marlon Brando in ''The Godfather,'' Adnan took it as a compliment and smiled.

Early one evening, I was sitting in his office when an officer entered with a click of his heels -- an Iraqi salute of sorts. He reported to Adnan that a rebel weapons cache had been discovered, and Adnan congratulated him -- but issued a warning. ''If even one AK-47 is stolen,'' he said, ''I will kill you.'' After a pause, he smiled and refined the threat. ''No,'' he said, ''I will kill your'' -- and he used a coarse word that referred to the officer's most private body part. There was nervous laughter. Everyone seemed certain that not a single gun, or single anything, would go missing.

Not long ago, hard men like Adnan, especially Sunnis, were giving orders to no one. Six weeks after the fall of Baghdad, the Coalition Provisional Authority dismissed the Sunni-led Iraqi Army, and the United States military set out to rebuild Iraq's armed forces from the ground up, training new officers and soldiers rather than calling on those who knew how to fight but had done so in the service of Saddam Hussein. By late last year, though, it had become clear that the new American-trained forces were not shaping up as an effective fighting force, and the old guard was called upon. Now people like Adnan, a former Baathist, have been given the task of defeating the insurgency. The new strategy is showing signs of success, but it is a success that may carry its own costs.

A couple of hours after Adnan issued his AK-47 threat, I sat with him watching TV. This was business, not pleasure. The program we were watching was Adnan's brainchild, and in just a few months it had proved to be one of the most effective psychological operations of the war. It is reality TV of sorts, a show called ''Terrorism in the Grip of Justice.'' It features detainees confessing to various crimes. The show was first broadcast earlier this year and has quickly become a nationwide hit. It is on every day in prime time on Al Iraqiya, the American-financed national TV station, and when it is on, people across the country can be found gathered around their television sets.

[anarchy1999]

7. This screams to me of Negroponte.

It is just a god damned shame upon us all "in our name".

[Barrett808]

8. My thought exactly.

These are just the kind of folks you need for "El Mozote by the Tigris".