Quarterly Report: Iraq security effort lagging

Above: After passing through checkpoints and being searched for weapons or explosives, potential Iraqi police recruits wait for processing and testing in Baghdad in June.

A committee directed by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and President Bush to accelerate the transfer of security responsibility to Iraq's army and police has warned that Iraq is lagging in a number of categories.

The quarterly report, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, says the Finance Ministry is blocking the Iraqi military from spending $660 million to build a logistical network; that militias are an obstacle to handing over to Iraqis responsibility for security in three mainly Shiite Muslim provinces; and that competition among rival security organizations has prevented the country from settling on a national security structure...

The report also points up divisions over who should control Iraq's intelligence apparatus.

One piece of legislation written with American backing would give control to Rubaie; another would give it to Sherwan Waili, the minister of state for national security.

Waili's critics accuse him of following a hard-line Shiite nationalist agenda.

Read the rest at the LA Times

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