In Iraq, It’s Difficult to Trust Anyone in Uniform

August 3, 2006
Security

In Iraq, It’s Difficult to Trust Anyone in Uniform

By DAMIEN CAVE

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 2 — The camouflaged Iraqi commandos who kidnapped 20 people from a pair of central Baghdad offices this week used Interior Ministry vehicles and left little trace of their true identities.

Were they legitimate officers? Members of a Shiite or Sunni death squad? Or criminals in counterfeit uniforms bought at the market?

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American and Iraqi officials have been promising for weeks to address the problem. This week, the interior minister, Jawad Bolani, acknowledged that rogues were among his ranks. He told Parliament that new uniforms and identification cards would soon be supplied to hobble those “who carry out bad activities under the cover of this institution.”

The first 2,000 of 25,000 new uniforms are scheduled to be handed out later this month, officials said. Made with imported camouflage cloth and intricate patches and insignias, they are designed to be difficult to copy. Their source, as well as other details about them, is being kept secret in part to reduce the risk of counterfeiting. But only a small percentage of the 145,000 Interior Ministry officers — from the national police, public order brigades and other forces — will get them.

Even if they all had new uniforms, trust would be hard to resuscitate in Baghdad, where dozens of people are killed or found dead every day. With more forces being added to the streets as part of a security plan begun two months ago, the permutations of officialdom have spiraled.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/world/middleeast/03uniforms.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin