In what can be viewed as an unusual move, United States-led occupation authorities have started a secret campaign to recruit and train agents with the Iraqi intelligence service to help identify resistance to US forces in Iraq after a long period of ongoing attacks and bombings, the Washington Post reported, citing US and Iraqi officials.
However, officials decline to reveal how many former agents have been recruited since the clandestine effort started. According to Iraqi officials, they number anywhere from dozens to several hundred, and US officials acknowledge that the recruitment is wide-ranging.
In its Sunday edition, the Post reported that the unusual measures to recruit agents of ousted president Saddam Hussein's security services highlights a growing recognition among US officials that American military forces cannot alone prevent attacks like the recent devastating massive bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad, they said.
Officials say the first line of intelligence-gathering remains the Iraqi police, who number 6,500 in Baghdad and 33,000 nationwide.
According to the report, authorities have stepped up the recruitment over the period of the past two weeks, one high-level US official said, despite some objections by members of the Iraqi Governing Council, who complain that they have too little control over the pool of recruits.
While US officials acknowledge the sensitivity of cooperating with such a force, they believe that an urgent need for better and more precise intelligence has forced such compromises.
"The only way you can combat terrorism is through intelligence," a senior official said. "It's the only way you're going to stop these people from doing what they're doing." He added, "Without Iraqi input, that's not going to work." (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
