When Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., advised the Bush administration Friday morning that the best way to restore order to Iraq was to make sure Iraqi-trained police officers play a high-profile role in security forces in Baghdad, he apparently hadn't seen the front page of the New York Times.
"If you had serious police officers, say four or five Italian [security guards], along with six or seven Iraqi-trained police officers, you'd have an Iraqi face on the patrol," Biden told radio host Don Imus.
"Ultimately," urged the Delaware Democrat, "[Iraq's security force] has to have an Iraqi face" in order to succeed.
Apparently the United Nations agreed with Sen. Biden's thinking, since it retained several members of Saddam's secret service to guard the U.N. compound that was blown to smithereens on Tuesday.
According to the Times, American investigators now suspect the blast was an inside job, aided and abetted by the Iraqi guards.
An unnamed U.S official told the paper that all of the guards at the compound were agents of the Iraqi secret services who worked for the U.N. before the war. The United Nations continued to employ them right up until Tuesday's blast, the official said.
Luckily for the Americans working in U.S. compounds in Baghdad, the Bush administration disagrees with Sen. Biden's advice to turn over their security to Saddam's police force.
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Saddam Hussein/Iraq
War on Terrorism
Editor's note:
The Iraqi "Deck of Death" playing cards – Get yours today!
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