By P. Mitchell Prothero
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Baghdad, Iraq, Jun. 28 (UPI) -- The Americans might not be gone, but the Iraqis are back in charge of Baghdad law enforcement and the kid gloves are off. On Sunday, the most notorious criminal haven in central Baghdad was the target of the first major operation mounted by the newly formed Iraqi Ministry of Interior Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT, team and by members of the new intelligence services as they went house to house rounding up known criminals and anti-coalition terrorists.
Well over a hundred suspects were identified, arrested, beaten and processed in an afternoon raid.
And the residents of the Tahrir Square neighborhood -- commonly known as the Thieves Market and a central location for "Ali Baba," the local slang for criminals -- seemed shocked as the doors came crashing in and metal batons and plastic hoses were prominently -- and somewhat gratuitously -- deployed to send a message to Baghdad's criminal elements.
After a year of watching criminals operate with near impunity in the anarchy that has been a side effect of the American invasion and subsequent botched reconstruction effort, this elite Iraqi police unit and the members of the newly formed intelligence services know they have a mammoth task ahead if the new government -- which has essentially taken power in advance of the June 30 handover -- is to survive, let alone win the confidence of the people.
Not only do they face an insurgency throughout Baghdad and much of the Sunni portions of Iraq, but the general sense of lawlessness and a perception of judicial impotence also need to be changed on the fast.
The Deputy Minister of the Interior for Intelligence Affairs, Major General Hussein Ali Kamal, decided to start with the common criminals, knowing that Baghdadis live in constant fear of street crime. His team spent two months sending out spies, identifying criminal gangs and planning for the operation.
"With the advice of the Minister of Interior (Falah al-Nakib), we began collecting information about these gangs," he explained. "They are involved with kidnapping, stealing, drugs, prostitution and some are terrorists who put bombs out."
Tahrir Square was the scene of a suicide bombing earlier this month that killed several foreign contractors, and in the ensuing scene the crowds became so agitated that Iraqi police and U.S. military forces had to retreat or begin firing into an unarmed crowd. It was the perfect venue for a massive show of force.
Leading the operation himself in a flak jacket and sporting an assault rifle, Kamal brooked no nonsense on the street. He only agreed to allow UPI to accompany his men on the operation after personally ordering the arrest of its reporter-photographer, when he noticed his team being photographed from 50 meters away.
But upon seeing the captured American journalist, he broke into a broad smile and welcomed the company. This was a big day for him and his men and he wanted the message out that his group was serious.
And they had been busy. Consulting lists, Kamal and his commanders ordered men into selected addresses and businesses. Names were checked on lists, but many of those arrested were implicated only by having been in one of the known criminal locations. While some American troops in armored vehicles maintained a security cordon around the ten-block radius being searched, inside that cordon this was an Iraqi-only operation.
As arrests were made, men were dragged from their homes disheveled and screaming. Kamal and his commanders moved fast through the area, going from target to target as a combination of Iraqi police, the paramilitary-style SWAT team and plainclothes intelligence officers swarmed through the area. Gunshots periodically rang out in the surrounding blocks, but the massive show of force confined resistance to a few incidents.
As the arrestees were piled into cars, trucks, vans and buses, they received humiliating slaps, kicks and occasionally significant beatings. This display of power by the police was as much about showing the local residents that the new Iraqi authorities are serious about punishment as it was about taking known criminals off the streets.
After Kamal was satisfied that the operation had served its purpose, a large convoy of vehicles sped away from the scene and toward the very heavily fortified Interior Ministry compound.
In the backs of pickup trucks, Iraqi police officers worked over some of the detainees with lengths of garden hose and metal batons. Even as the convoy wended its way through the streets of Baghdad the beating continued for those who had drawn specific ire. It was a public display to remind Baghdad of a time when the security services were respected and feared.
Inside the compound, the arrestees were roughly dragged from the vehicles and forced to run a gauntlet of screaming police officers, who slapped, kicked and whipped them until they formed a human puddle on the ground in front of the building. Most of the detained wisely went limp and passive on the ground. Those who resisted or attempted to protest received harsh beatings, and blood streamed from the faces of those who failed to fall into line.
Just outside the gate, informants lined up for payment from intelligence officers, who want the word out on the streets: the new regime pays good money for the locations of wanted men and terrorists. Some of the intelligence operatives explained that people who did not come forward to the Americans have offered their help to the new Iraqi government in stopping both crime and terrorism.
The men were then identified and some were allowed to wash the blood from their faces as they were processed and jammed into a large room in the back of a mostly empty building far within the large compound.
Despite the level of corporal punishment, the police were not cruel. One older man was treated gently by the younger officers, who moved him with some respect, and another man with blood streaming down his face cried out that he was a government employee, a civil servant, who just lived in the neighborhood. He was unshackled and taken away to prove his identity. But most of the prisoners lay motionless on the ground, hoping to draw little attention. Some clutched identity cards in their hands as they lay face down, because non-Iraqi prisoners were particularly roughed up.
Within this tableau of moans, slaps and protests, the Iraqi police were thrilled. The SWAT team proudly posed in their black masks, while Iraqi police displayed the tattoos of criminal gang members to a reporter, explaining what each one meant.
Kamal did not mince words about why this operation was conducted so ruthlessly. The Iraqi police have been constant targets for both criminals and insurgents. As the top spymaster in Iraq he wants everyone to know that while due process and courts will be used to pursue those who make Iraq unsafe, he is also involved.
"This is a new kind of operation for a new Iraq, this is a new war by a new government," Kamal said. "Those who kill Iraqi police, the Iraqi people, our allies or American soldiers cannot escape my punishment."
Sunday's operation was a success not meant for public relations, as no other media were present. The raids found drugs, guns, explosives and three men that Kamal called "three of the biggest criminals in Baghdad." It also discovered and arrested a kidnapping ring and freed three hostages.
Despite the welcome arrival of frontier-style law enforcement, the tactics also have a down side. Off to one side of a police car sat a woman cloaked in a traditional black Muslim covering, her face hidden. She was charged with being a prostitute. Next to her were two young boys, who could go to jail with her unless other family members take them. Without any real social services, the children of imprisoned women often go to jail themselves for want of any other option.
Copyright 2004 United Press International