Old brutality among new Iraqi forces

US officials admit to shortcomings in the training. In response, police officers are now taught survival skills tailored to Iraq's dangerous environment and the use of heavier weapons needed to combat well-armed insurgents. They have also been spending more time on lessons in human rights, and forces raised by the Iraqi government are receiving Western training, says Col. Richard Hatch, staff judge advocate for the military's Security Transition Command in Iraq.

"We recognize it and take it very seriously," says Colonel Hatch, of security forces abusing Iraqis. "What the Iraqi security forces can't do is lose the support of the Iraqi people."

He says there have been several investigations into allegations of abuse by Iraqi police and soldiers.

"What we emphasize is the need to break from the past practices of the former regime," says Hatch. "Another thing is to convince them that these tactics and procedures are less effective. By treating detainees humanely, we have seen information is more accurate than from coerced sources."

That has not been lost on one Iraqi police officer who first became an officer four years ago under Hussein's police force, which was notorious for corruption and abuse. Now, he says, he takes pride in his respect for human rights and proper handling of prisoners.

"We don't hit them because they are not animals and we are not animals," says the officer, who refused to give his name. He says he didn't have permission from the Ministry of Interior to speak to the media.

But Jabbar and Ali say instinct often takes over when they arrest someone whom they are sure is an insurgent. They also say they're concerned that if they don't exact some justice, no one will.

"It's soldiers' democracy," says Jabbar. "The reason we want to kill them is because of rumors that the Americans will release them."

Perito says such vigilante justice among security forces is common in countries with a weak justice system and prisons that allow the guilty to go free.

Police in Haiti in 1996 and 1997 shot prisoners that had been arrested and then released by corrupt prisons or judges on several occasions for fear they would seek retribution against the officers.

"It's not to be condoned but it's not unexpected," Perito says. "You need to develop police, courts, and prisons simultaneously."

But Jabbar and Ali's motivations don't stem from corruption or blood thirst. To them, beating people that they feel are guilty is avenging the deaths of fellow soldiers or ridding their country of the people trying to destroy it.

They abuse prisoners only when, Ali says, they "find evidence they are real terrorists. If there is no evidence, we respect them." He says that his superior officers don't condone the abuse. "If they kill [a prisoner] and he is unarmed, they will punish us," he says.

But Jabbar shows little remorse for the January raid on a house in Baghdad's Hurriyah neighborhood, in which, he says, three detainees were beaten so badly that they died.

When he and fellow soldiers broke down the door, they found six men inside. They had cellphones that contained pictures taken surreptitiously of soldiers, which Jabbar and the others took as signs they were marking targets.

"These guys kill our colleagues and friends and we beat them, but they didn't feel anything because they had been drinking. We didn't hit them in the head. Only on the body, and using the donkey stick but three guys died from that," says Jabbar, using the nickname they have given a long stick they often hit detainees with.

"The police investigated and [found that] they were terrorists and they were dangerous guys. They attacked police and police stations," he says.

They also point out that the rampant violence and instability of the country means many Iraqis are willing to tolerate harsh practices of their security forces if it means bringing some order.

"Medfee!" says Ali, an Arabic phrase that means "it's not worth it," of using more humane approaches with people they arrest.

"Diplomacy does not work with those guys," he says.

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