Law & Disorder

Patrick Cockburn reports on what can only be termed the most extreme sort of cynicism:

US intelligence and military police officers in Iraq are routinely freeing dangerous criminals in return for a promise to spy on insurgents, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

In one case where the IoS has seen documents, police rescued a doctor after a gun battle with his kidnappers and arrested two of the kidnap gang, who made full confessions. But US military police took over custody of the two men and let them go. The doctor had to flee to Egypt after being threatened by the gang.

Is it any wonder that Iraqis despise the occupation? The US military is not in a position to provide civil order--but they'll free kidnappers with the hope that some sort of useful intelligence can be obtained, which is at best a dice roll. Operation Go Cheney Ourselves is proceeding apace.