Trained not to get caught
"The US general helping train Iraq's police forces on Wednesday said none of the death squad members detained in the past month during a security operation in Baghdad had ties to the Ministry of Interior or other government agencies." — Associated Press, September 20.
Re-training ordered
"The Iraqi Interior Ministry has suspended an entire Iraqi police brigade on suspicions that some members may have permitted, or even participated in, death squad killings... An American military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that some of the members of the unit had been directly implicated in death-squad killings... The suspension involved the transfer of about 800 special police commandos out of their base in the Aalam neighborhood in western Baghdad to a training site north of the capital." — New York Times, October 4.
Rolled over
"Tucked away in fine print in the military spending bill for this past year was a lump sum of [US]$20 million to pay for a celebration in the nation's capital 'for commemoration of success' in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not surprisingly, the money was not spent. Now congressional Republicans are saying, in effect, maybe next year. A paragraph written into spending legislation and approved by the Senate and House [of Representatives] allows the $20 million to be rolled over into 2007." — New York Times, October 4.