October 1, 2003: Iraqi Council Objects to Bremer’s Decision to Award Security Contract to Jordan

The US-appointed Iraqi council voices its disagreement with Paul Bremer’s decision to spend $1.2 billion training 35,000 Iraqi police officers in Jordan. The council members argue that Iraq can do it for considerably less. Germany and France have actually offered to do it for free. US authorities in Iraq insist that Iraq does not have the needed facilities to train the troops. According to Naseer K. Chadirji, a lawyer and Governing Council member, “If we had voted, a majority would have rejected it. He [Bremer] told us what he did; he did not ask us.” Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of the Governing Council, tells the New York Times, “There is no transparency and something has to be done about it.… There is mismanagement right and left…. A lot of American money is being wasted, I think. We are victims and the American taxpayers are victims.” The Iraqis are also irked by Bremer’s move “because Jordan would draw a large payment from the dwindling Iraqi treasury and because many Iraqis resented Jordan’s close ties to old government,” reports the Times. [New York Times, 10/4/2003] Iraq’s new police force will be trained at a facility in Muwaqqar, Jordan, despite objections from the Iraqi Council. The program will be run by Reston, Va-based DynCorp (see Early 2003). [Financial Times, 1/30/2004]