by Patrick Lang (bio below)
The two suicide bombers managed to enter the Interior Ministry compound in east Baghdad, as dignitaries including the U.S. ambassador were at a nearby parade to mark National Police Day.
One was wearing the uniform of an Iraqi police major while the other was dressed as a lieutenant-colonel. Both had security passes that enabled them to go through the compound’s main checkpoint and would have admitted them to the ministry itself.
“We’re dying to know how they got hold of these badges to enter the building,” one police source told Reuters. “This is a disaster. We can’t understand how they managed to get inside without being searched.”
Once inside the checkpoint, guards became suspicious of one of the attackers because of his bulk and shot at him, detonating his explosive belt. The second bomber then blew himself up, causing more carnage. Besides the 28 dead, 25 people were injured.
“Two brothers…got through nine checkpoints that the infidels set up around the building, then one of them piled into dozens of ministry officers,” Al Qaeda said in a statement posted on a Web site generally used by insurgents.
“After fear spread among the apostates, the second brother blew up his belt, bringing great misfortune upon them,” read the statement, whose authenticity could not be verified.” Reuters
“We’re dying to know how they got hold of these badges to enter the building,” one police source told Reuters. “This is a disaster. We can’t understand how they managed to get inside without being searched.”
Really!! You are penetrated, idiot! That’s how! The Iraqi government (with US assistance) has been hiring and promoting policemen on the basis of standardized tests provided by an American industrial psychology company that specializes in testing people for employment in public sector jobs that require quality and reliability screening. The tests were built on models used in other cultural contexts and were further adapted for the Iraq environment.
This company was warned by people familiar with Iraq and the Arab World that the tests would not be predictive of behavior or loyalty. i.e., the candidates will lie either to get a job or to infiltrate the police.
This advice was ignored. Is there a connection between that means of choosing people and today’s events? You figure it out.
There have been enough close calls now for Khalilzad that HE should have “figured out” that eventually….
Pat Lang
Col. Patrick W. Lang (Ret.), a highly decorated retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces, served as “Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism” for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and was later the first Director of the Defense Humint Service. Col. Lang was the first Professor of the Arabic Language at the United States Military Academy at West Point. For his service in the DIA, he was awarded the “Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive.” He is a frequent commentator on television and radio, including MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann (interview), CNN and Wolf Blitzer’s Situation Room (interview), PBS’s Newshour, NPR’s “All Things Considered,” (interview), and more .
Personal Blog: Sic Semper Tyrannis 2005 || Bio || CV
Recommended Books || More BooTrib Posts
Novel: The Butcher’s Cleaver (download free by chapter, PDF format)
“Drinking the Kool-Aid,” Middle East Policy Council Journal, Vol. XI, Summer 2004, No. 2
Iraq, the model for incompetence, arrogance and hubris by Americans.
Wow. Talk about framing.
Sorry to be petty about a serious event, but this statement probably sums up the deadly fantasy that is the Iraq “war” better than anything that’s come along.
I think you’re preaching to the choir here. Many of us have long advocated leaving other people to the cultural differences they embrace.
Maybe this is part of George’s ‘No Riled Left Behind’
I know how they got in Pat. They were never there!
I am convinced this is a lie. There were no suicide bombers. They were car bombs.
This from the Chicago Tribune which is now more liberal than the New York Times.
.
You should start noting that in almost every case of suicide bombers, the suicide bomber report comes after the initial report of a car bomb or some other type of bomb by those on the scene and then morphs into suicide bombers.
The accusation of Suicide bombing is more propaganda by the US. I think there is little to none going on in Iraq.
It’s all part of a P.R. campaign. Why don’t these sucicide bombers come to the U.S.? It’s becuase they don’t exist or don’t have the required interest or means.
Suicide Bombers are usually people who blow themselves up for personal revenge…more often than not….and that is not typically how SUNNI arabs think, espeically in Iraq. But our government wants to portray all Arubazoids as potential suicide bombers.
This is Bullshit’
JUST GET OUT.
I would like to know Pat Langs position on whether we should continue the begginings of our support for the insurgents against the “elected” government who is now “our” enemy allied with Iran and who is now blaming the United States for this and other Blasts.
The interior Ministry is the target of US efforts to undermine the newly formed governments independence from the U.S. as the Intererior ministry supports the formidable Militias which are a potential and in my view inevitable source of conflict between the US and the Shiite government.
Perhaps the blast was caused by the United States and it’s genius undercover, secret, super smart intelligence appartus.
And yet when there is an actual suicide bombing incident, or as close to it as appears like the one at the Oklahoma football game last fall, we never hear a word about it.
What happened at the Football game. I have onlly a vague recollection…
There were conflicting reports, as usual, but a student at OU supposedly tried to enter a football game and was turned away because he refused to consent to a backpack search. He hung around for a while and eventually there was an exxplosion from the backpack. Some say he was alone on a bench, others say near a tree and some place him near a vehicle, bus, I think.
I may have put an invalid link in there. This one might be better,..might not.
Link
Khalilzad … didn’t I hear on a radio report yesterday that he narrowly missed being hit himself by one of those suicide bombers?
Yes, but is that really true? I mean that’s typically what they would say, it reflects nicely on him.
The Interior Ministry is the center of US opposition in Iraq. How could they get through 9 checkpoints……they could if it was done by the Americans.
I wish I knew who was at the checkpoints and who exactly was killed.
Who got killed? That reveals everything. Even suicide bombers have specific targets in mind.