[Onthebarricades] IRAQ: "missing" police still drawing salaries

[Andy]

Nice way to scam some money out of the occupiers...

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32,000 Iraq police 'lost,' more on payroll

WASHINGTON, June 12 (UPI) -- About 32,000 Iraqi police who have been trained
and equipped are no longer on the job, having left for various reasons over
the last 18 months.

And as many as 12,000 police not on the job are drawing salaries anyway,
said U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who has just returned from more than
two years in Iraq overseeing the development of Iraqi security forces.

The United States has overseen the training and equipping of more than
194,000 Iraqi police. But a data check in January revealed that over the
last 18 months, 32,000 of them are no longer coming to work.

Between 8,000 and 10,000 Iraqi police have been killed in action. Another
6,000 to 8,000 have been severely wounded, Dempsey told a House Armed
Services subcommittee Tuesday.

At least 5,000 Iraqi police have deserted and the rest are unaccounted for.

That means there are at most 162,000 trained and equipped police in Iraq.
But there may be as many as 75,000 more policemen drawing a salary.

Getting exact numbers is difficult because there is no single automated
database that can accurately track that figure.

"We have been getting better and better visibility on what's really out
there, to the point where now there is something between 60,000 and 75,000
policemen on the payroll over the authorization and untrained by us," he
said.

Of the additional untrained police, 10 percent to 20 percent are "ghosts" --
just names on the payroll to collect a salary, he said.

No database can yet answer another question: How many police deserters are
now in jail for insurgent activity?

"At this point in time the databases don't talk to each other, and I've
invested some money within the last six months to try to make that happen,"
he said.

http://www.upi.com/Security_Terrorism/Briefing/2007/06/12/32000_iraq_police_lost_more_on_payroll/1159
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