US trainer says Iraq police helping secure country

By Charles Aldinger

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Iraq’s police commandos are becoming
a major spearhead of security in the country but must learn to
temper battlefield aggression with democratic values, a U.S.
military trainer said on Friday.

Army Col. Jeffrey Buchanan told Pentagon reporters in a
teleconference from Iraq that the new National Police Commando
Division was making progress in fair treatment of civilians
under the close watch of U.S. and other coalition troops.

Unlike local police, the commandos are recruited at a
national level and most have served in the security forces of
former President Saddam Hussein’s government.

Despite incidents of sectarian violence by Iraqi security
forces and reported torture of Sunni Muslims in secret Iraqi
jails, Buchanan said, “We think we’re making great progress in
the behavioral dimension.”

But “values — understanding what it’s like to be a servant
of society as part of a democratically elected government — is
something that is going to take time to learn,” he said.

Buchanan is commander of the 2nd Brigade of the Army’s 75th
Division and heads the U.S. military teams that train and
operate with the national police, who deploy like fast-moving
infantry units instead of cops directing traffic.

A commando force of 11,000 has been authorized but only
8,900 positions have been filled so far, he said.

“The commandos actually do a very good job vetting all
recruits, which is one of the reasons why we’re not at full
strength,” Buchanan said.

“They recruit only through word of mouth. We don’t have
recruiting centers set up in a mall or something like that.
Basically, every guy that comes in is known to some of his
fellow comrades, which is a way of cutting down potential
infiltration.”

Buchanan cited only two incidents of successful
infiltration by insurgents in the past year. One of those
resulted in a suicide bombing that killed five Iraqi police and
injured more than a dozen other.

“Obviously, these guys, one of their strengths is that they
are aggressive,” Buchanan said of the police infantry troops,
hundreds of whom guard the once-deadly but now-secure road
between downtown Baghdad and the Iraqi capital’s airport.

“What we try to do is ensure that their aggressiveness does
not go over the top and that they operate in accordance with
Iraqi law.”

Buchanan said at one point he personally had to step in and
halt police aggression against a captured Iraqi insurgent.