AFP, Baghdad, Feb 27, 2010  – Almost 600 Iraqi security officers have been removed from their positions for alleged links to Saddam Hussein’s regime, the head of the committee responsible for the decision told AFP on Saturday.
Ali al-Lami said that the officers banned came from ’the highest ranks’ after the Justice and Accountability Committee (JAC) had looked through the security ministries for officers with ties to Saddam’s Baath party.
’We decided to eliminate about 150 officers from the current intelligence service into retirement, and about 150 officers from the ministry of defence,’ Lami said in an interview.
’Also, 190 officers from the ministry of interior have been sent to retirement.’
He added that 84 others had been dismissed because of suspected links to the Fedayeen Saddam, the paramilitary force loyal to the now executed dictator.
The JAC was responsible for barring 511 candidates from standing in Iraq’s parliamentary election on March 7. Twenty-eight of those candidates have since been reinstated, Lami said.