Saddam's Officers to Receive Pensions (lower-ranking soldiers may serve)

Source: Associated Press

Saddam's Officers to Receive Pensions

Friday April 6, 2007 1:46 PM

BAGHDAD (AP) - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government has ordered
that senior officers of Saddam Hussein's military receive pensions and
requested that lower-ranking soldiers be allowed to serve again as part
of a sectarian reconciliation plan, the government said Friday.

Al-Maliki's office said the decision was made during a Cabinet meeting
late last month.

Many former top intelligence, security and military officials are believed
to have joined the Sunni insurgency after L. Paul Bremer, the former U.S.
administrator, disbanded Iraq's 350,000-member military on May 23, 2003,
a month after Saddam's regime was ousted.

The al-Maliki statement said any former officer above the rank of major
would be given a pension equal to that of officers now retiring. Former
officers above major who wanted to rejoin the army were encouraged to
check with the military command to learn if they were acceptable in the
Iraqi army that is being rebuilt by American forces.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6537787,00.html

Too little, and much too late.