The uniformed kidnappers of Baghdad (BBC NEWS)

[Yrys]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6756425.stm

The search is continuing for a British computer expert and his four bodyguards who were seized last month from a building belonging
to the Iraqi finance ministry by men in police uniform. All foreigners in Iraq dread being kidnapped.
...
One of my Iraqi colleagues at the BBC bureau told us about his cousin and his cousin's neighbour, both Sunnis. A week ago, policemen came
to their homes and arrested them. They were terrified when, as they were led away, they saw Mehdi Army fighters with the police, apparently
directing operations. The neighbour has now been found dead, bound and shot in the back of the head. The cousin is still missing.

One of our drivers told me about a friend - another Sunni - snatched while waiting at the bus station in Baghdad. His kidnappers were policemen.
They tortured him for three days, using an electric drill to make holes in the muscles of both legs. They left him for dead atop a pile of rubbish
in the suburb of Mansur.

So, when crimes are blamed on men in police uniform most people take it as read that they are actually the police.

 

[Trooper Hale]

Christ, thats awful. Thanks mate, interesting story. I heard something like this a while ago, not the sort of thing you want to be reminded of i suppose. Bloody awful.

 

[Big Red]

This is nothing new. The MOI Commandos seem to be the most blatant of the bunch, but vast majority of the security forces are corrupt.

"In fact, militia infiltration is believed to be such that no-one walks anywhere in the Green Zone for fear of being snatched off the street."

Funny, I go running in the Green Zone everday. While the IZ isn't safe, as long as your a male and carry a pistol odds are the only thing that's going to hurt you is IDF.

 

[KevinB]

Tripe...

Fuck, I've walked/stumbled loaded drunk, unarmed in the IZ. Of course they where probably worried I would have puked on them...

 

[Trooper Hale]

Haha, you two bastards have got to be the warriest buggers in the world! Just because they dont touch you blokes doesnt mean that a mere mortal like me would get away with it.

Is this another case of the media fuelling our fears and misconceptions of Iraq?