Americans promise training to produce Najaf's finest

NAJAF, Iraq -- Like a suspect posing for a mug shot, Col. Hilal al-Obeidi holds up identification as the camera shutter clicks. But al-Obeidi isn't a crook. He's a cop -- or, at least, he wants to be.

He is the first of 613 men, most of them Najaf police officers under Saddam, to register for training by U.S. Marines. They'll form a new, American-watched police force -- if they pass a background check that examines just how close they were to Saddam's fallen regime.

Calling them "officers of peace," Lt. Col. Christopher Conlin, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, welcomed the men in uniform -- in ranks from brigadier to warrant officer to ordinary beat cop -- gathered under a blazing sun at a sports stadium in the holy city of Najaf.

Those who can continue with the training, he said, will make the cut. And those who cannot? "We have to let them go, because we want the best."

And there's no room for competition.

"There's one police force," said Maj. James McKenna, in charge of training the police. "We do not get power from guns, but from the way we perform."

Many of the hopeful worried they wouldn't qualify.

"I am old. My body will not stand the kind of training or performance you might expect of me. I have done all that before," said Lt. Col. Aziz Abdel-Rahman, a 30-year veteran of the force, pleading with McKenna.

"We appreciate your service," replied McKenna, who assured him he could probably claim a desk job.

American assistance

Conlin said the Americans would teach the Iraqis how to carry a weapon, patrol and conduct police investigations. The Marines also handed out $20 to the policemen, most of whom have not been paid for two months.

"Iraq is a rich country. No one should feel sorry for us," said Lt. Col. Ahmed Jasim, head of the criminal division. "We don't want handouts."

Police Commissioner Mohammed Abdel-Qader and Lt. Col. Aziz Abdel-Rahman acknowledged that salaries under Saddam were so low that most of his colleagues, and himself, accepted bribes to make ends meet.

The police force, made up of uniformed and plainclothes officers, work under the control of the U.S.-installed governor, Abdel Moneim Abboud. Even though most of Najaf's people and political parties appear to support the police, some religious parties accuse Abboud of being a former intelligence officer in Saddam's army. The Americans say he was an officer in the regular army.

Brig. Gen. Hussein Ali al-Asal, Najaf's deputy police chief, said there were "question marks" about only nine of the former police officers in Najaf.

They had fled to their villages, he said. Al-Asal, who worked in Baghdad before Saddam's regime fell, blamed the current lawlessness and chaos largely on the release of 35,000 common criminals in a general amnesty by Saddam late last year.

He said Maher el-Baghdadi, who was arrested following a shooting and grenade attack outside the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf Friday, was among those freed in January. Al-Baghdadi, a suspect in the murder of an Islamic cleric last month, had been sentenced to death for theft and drugs.

"These are the most difficult days," said al-Asal. "There's no law, no government, no salaries. The strong will eat the weak."

He said half of the police cars had been seized by the various political and religious parties that have sprouted in the aftermath of Saddam's fall and the rest were stolen by thieves.

Conlin, overseeing it all, is sensitive to charges that law and order is nonexistent.

"I'm the government," he said. "Am I not paying the police? I keep hearing it's a lawless city. I don't see a riot."

But old habits can die hard in a country ruled for much of its modern history by repressive regimes. Earlier this week, Abboud's security men roughed up a group of farmers earlier this week when they tried to get near a mass grave to look for relatives.

Grumbled one farmer: "They sounded just like the old police."