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The Report of the Iraq Inquiry
1177.  Acting Assistant Chief Constable Michael Colbourne became the Chief Police
Adviser in autumn 2006. In his bi‑weekly report on 31 May 2007, he wrote that Prime
Minister Maliki had passed an order permitting the creation of Police Support Units,
attempting to win the allegiance of “middle of the road militias”.1107 Members of a Police
Support Unit were paid 75 percent of a policeman’s wage and were provided with
uniforms. They were not armed as Mr Maliki reportedly believed that they had “enough
weapons of their own”. The new units did not receive the full basic recruit training and
were expected to be in place for a maximum of 18 months.
1178.  In his bi‑weekly report on 18 June, ACC Colbourne wrote that Police Support
Units had been created “in the usual rushed and hurried way”.1108 He commented:
“The Iraqis are not on board with this and our MOI counterparts are opposed to it.
“The reputation of the police as a whole may be badly damaged by the arming of
the militia and calling them policemen. The MOI are not equipped to undertake yet
another ‘good idea’ that the coalition is trying to push through.”
1179.  ACC Colbourne suggested that the Police Support Units could be moved under
the IMOD’s control and trained as a “National Guard”: “There are many positives to
separating this from the MOI and putting it under the [Iraqi] MOD.”
1180.  On 14 June, Mr Banner reported to Mr Blair:
“The US are … focused on the Anbar model, but this is creating real tension with
Maliki. Violence continues to be down in Anbar, but the motivations of the tribes
remain unclear, and they continue to express their opposition to the Government
of Iraq. Nor do they tie in to any convincing, wider, Sunni leadership … Maliki
is … coming under pressure from other Shia over the creation of a well‑armed
Sunni militia, particularly as the US now propose to extend the model to areas of
Baghdad …
“The Pentagon this week also released its now regular quarterly report on progress
in Iraq. This noted that overall levels of violence in the country had not decreased
since the start of the surge, noted that the GoI’s delivery had been ‘uneven’, and that
it had made ‘little progress’ on the political front – reconciliation was described as a
‘serious unfulfilled objective’.”1109
1181.  In an interview with Newsweek on 15 June, Prime Minister Maliki said:
“Now, some field commanders make mistakes since they do not know the facts
about people they deal with. They make mistakes by arming tribes sometimes,
and this is dangerous because this will create new militias … I believe that the
1107  Minute Colbourne, 31 May 2007, ‘Bi‑weekly Report of the UK Chief Police Adviser in Iraq’.
1108  Minute Colbourne, 18 June 2007, ‘Bi‑weekly Report of the UK Chief Police Adviser in Iraq’.
1109  Minute Banner to Prime Minister, 14 June 2007, ‘Iraq Update, 14 June’.
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