[Mb-civic] CBC News - IRAQI POLICE INFILTRATED BY MILITIA: JOURNALIST

Sat Oct 22 17:36:53 PDT 2005

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IRAQI POLICE INFILTRATED BY MILITIA: JOURNALIST
WebPosted Sat Oct 22 09:25:51 2005

---An Irish journalist who was kidnapped in Iraq while covering the
trial of Saddam Hussein says the police in Baghdad have been infiltrated
by militia.

Rory Carroll, a correspondent for The Guardian newspaper of Britain, was
released unharmed on Thursday after being held for 36 hours.

He says that one of three cars involved in his kidnapping was a police
land cruiser, and he says that when he was seized, a man in a police
uniform pointed a pistol at his head.

"Senior police commanders have admitted that their police force has
been infiltrated by militia members, especially on the part of the
Shia militia."

"We know that police moonlight as kidnappers. Now, whether the men in
police uniforms who abducted me were pretending to be police or were real
police who happen to be moonlighting as kidnappers, I don't know."

Carroll, 33, says his kidnapping is a symptom of a larger problem in the
country. "There is a serious question mark over elements of the police,
and that they cannot be relied upon all the time."

Carroll says he owes his release to Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad
Chalabi, who brokered a deal with the kidnappers.