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09/21/2005:

"Iraq police militants 'must go'"

"Rogue elements" in Iraq's police force must be rooted out, the head of the multi-national force in Basra has said.
Colonel Bill Dunham told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he wants to work with Iraqi authorities "to weed them out".

This comes after the British Army said it had to rescue two of its soldiers after they were arrested in Basra and handed to a militant group by police.

UK defence chief John Reid is to discuss Basra tensions when he meets Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim Jaafari.

Chief of staff Col Dunham told BBC News of the need to "reinforce the good parts" of Iraq's police service.
bbc.co.uk

Look at what this story has morphed into: 'militant elements' in the police force!
What about two British 'elite special forces' DRESSED AS ARABS IN A CAR PACKED WITH EXPLOSIVES'?? Getting set for a 'suicide bombing'? How did the two Iraqi police end up dead? When in a spot, just flip the script and blame 'them'. I presented the three articles from yesterday's bog to a class and we went to town on them, especially the BBC one, with its o so civilized talk of 'staging' and 'theater' and clinical precision James Bond in and out...THEY BLEW OPEN A JAIL AND 150 PRISONERS RAN OUT! Why did they want those guys back so badly? The way they're playing off the story here just raises suspicion that they have been caught attempting a faux-'insurgent' attack. If that's not the case, why don't they just explain? Instead they use the old strategy of blaming 'them.'

UK Guardian:Military anger at delay to Iraq pull-out plan
Plans to withdraw substantial numbers of British troops from Iraq next month have been abandoned after the explosion of violence in Basra on Monday night. The decision has dismayed military commanders, who are concerned about growing pressure on their soldiers.

"We are not planning a withdrawal," a senior defence source said yesterday, referring to a plan to hand over control of two southern provinces to the Iraqis.

The fragile situation in the south of the country was dramatically exposed when Iraqi police arrested two undercover British SAS soldiers on Monday and handed them over to militiamen before they were rescued. The incident came after months of concern that local security forces in the region had been infiltrated by radicals.

Both the left-wing rags, the Guardian and Independent, ran articles with the same theme: we need to get out. Another way to deflect. This particular 'explosion of violence' appears to have little or nothing to do with infiltration by 'radicals'!

The New York Times take:
In Basra, the bizarre fight on Monday between some police officers and British soldiers threatened to further destabilize the region, a Shiite-dominated area that had been relatively calm but has had a surge of skirmishes among rival Shiite militias that control much of the Iraqi police and military forces there. The fight broke out when British forces attacked a police station after the detention of two British soldiers apparently disguised in local dress.

Offering new details about the incident, the British military accused the Basra police of turning over the soldiers to hostile Shiite militiamen. That action was a crucial factor in the decision to begin a rescue attempt and knock down the police station's walls with armored vehicles, British officials said.

Pictures of the fighting included images of a British soldier aflame as he scrambled from his burning armored vehicle, and of hundreds of Iraqis throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at the troops. The British military said no soldiers were seriously wounded.

Ultimately, the two soldiers were not at the jail but were later rescued from a home in Basra, the British military said.

The governor of Basra Province, Muhammad al-Waili, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying militiamen loyal to the rebel Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr had taken custody of the soldiers because of the looming British attack on the police station. He also called for the soldiers to be handed back to the Basra authorities for trial.

This was buried deep in another story. At least they said the guys were 'in local dress'.