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Saddam's secret police still have long
reach
13.7.2005
By Michael Georgy
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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The midnight knock at the
door is gone. But Iraqis say Saddam Hussein's old
Mukhabarat secret police have created a new
"republic of fear" two years after his downfall.
Operating with ruthless efficiency, former Baathist
agents are hunting down those who work for, or even
voice support for, the new U.S.-backed government,
say security experts who monitor the insurgency
among Saddam's Sunni Arab minority in Iraq.
"I never take the same road to work and I always
spend half an hour checking my car for bombs before
I drive," said Abbas, a Baghdad police officer who
asked that his family name not be used for fear of
reprisals. |
Former dictator
Saddam Hussein
Photo : AP |
"Iraqis know that Saddam's people are still very
active and are watching everyone."
Hundreds of officials and security personnel in the
new administration have been killed in often
sophisticated attacks.
Colonel Amr Mozer, from the Baghdad criminal
investigation department, joined them on Tuesday
when gunmen in three cars shot up his own vehicle as
he was being driven to work.
The campaign has reminded Iraqis of the long reach
of those former intelligence agents whose
terrorizing of dissidents coined the title of an
early expose of the Saddam era, "The Republic of
Fear," by Iraqi expatriate Kanan Makiya.
While young zealots may be at the wheel of car bombs
driven at the vehicles of senior officials, it is
often Saddam's former agents who are planning and
funding such attacks, experts say.
U.S. military commanders say the violence of the
insurgency can only end when Saddam's former
operatives are beaten at their own game --
intelligence gathering.
Yet Iraqis know they risk death by handing over
information on the activities of Saddam's Baathist
supporters, a cadre modeled on Stalin's Soviet
police state which, many believe, has long planned
for an underground war against the occupiers.
New security forces charged with restoring stability
can barely protect themselves, let alone defeat the
Baathists and foreign Muslim militants who officials
say are cooperating.
WELL PREPARED
"These are very intelligent people who knew that
they could not win the war against the United States
so they patiently prepared for an insurgency," said
a Western security consultant.
"They took measures like building tunnels and hiding
weapons and now it has all evolved."
Saddam's agents were once so pervasive that Iraqis
risked jail, or worse, if they uttered even a
slightly critical word, even in their own homes. A
midnight visit from the Mukhabarat could herald a
nightmare for victims and their families.
Many believe the intelligence network is still in
place.
"They are able to do a lot of surveillance. They
know how to gather a lot of information and analyze
it better than anyone else," said a police official
who asked to remain anonymous.
Police say lax screening in the rush to build up
forces has enabled Saddam loyalists to infiltrate
the police and army.
"During Saddam's time people were thoroughly
investigated before joining the police department.
They were questioned on their family, their history,
whether they had any political views," said one
serving police officer.
"Now anyone can join. A few hundred dollars can buy
you information on officers' movements."
In June, a uniformed former police commando killed
at least three men from his former unit, the elite
counterinsurgency Wolf Brigade, when he walked into
their Baghdad headquarters in a bid to assassinate
the brigade's commander.
FRUSTRATED MINORITY
Many Iraqis say they are paying a heavy price for a
U.S. decision to disband the Iraqi army after
invading Iraq in 2003.
Jobless and frustrated after a privileged life under
Saddam, army intelligence officers and others took
over the insurgency and offered logistical and
financial support to young fighters, according to
Iraqi officials.
"The key now is to try and win these people over and
give them jobs in security forces and the army or
other state institutions or offer them a retirement
deal," said Nabil Salim, a professor of
international relations at Baghdad University.
That is not easy at a time of rising sectarian
tensions.
Senior officials of the new Shi'ite-led government
are resisting calls to rehire Sunni senior
intelligence agents, saying they have too much blood
on their hands. Sunnis say Shi'ite promises to give
them a share of power are empty.
Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said this week he
believed Saddam loyalists were behind much of Iraq's
bloodshed, including last week's kidnapping and
killing of the Egyptian envoy to Baghdad, which was
claimed by al Qaeda Islamists.
"All Iraqis who work in ministries face a daily
threat of death," Zebari said.
Reuters
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