The United States warned Iraqi officials Thursday against allowing Shiite militias a role in the security services following allegations of torture of Sunni Arabs by the Shiite-led Interior Ministry. The official in charge of the ministry said torture claims were exaggerated.Has anyone in the "american officials" actually checked in with the Current American Administration as to which of the positions on the need to retain the right to extract information by any means possible is the actual current american policy on the use of information retrieval experts to keep those who need to know well enough informed as to take such actions as would be appropriate without leaving anyone actually legally liable for being informed of the information that was being retrieved.
Sectarian rhetoric sharpened four days after U.S. troops found up to 173 malnourished detainees — some showing signs of torture — in an Interior Ministry building in the capital's Jadriyah district. Most were believed to be Sunni Arabs, the main group in the insurgency.
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In a statement Thursday, the U.S. Embassy said Iraqi authorities had given assurances that they will investigate the conditions of detainees found Sunday night and that the abuse of prisoners "will not be tolerated by either the Iraqi government" or U.S.-led forces.
"We have made clear to the Iraqi government that there must not be militia or sectarian control or direction of Iraqi security forces, facilities or ministries," the U.S. statement added.
Prominent Sunni Arabs have complained for months about abuse by Interior Ministry forces, whom they claim have been infiltrated by Shiite militias. The Sunnis called for an international investigation after the Jadriyah detainees were found.
[ cf YahooNews ]
I'd hate to think that there were democrats who were opposing the president....
Or that persons were willing to send the wrong signal to the enemy on the american policy on information retrieval.