USAID Paper Details Security Crisis in Iraq

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 17, 2006; Page A13

The U.S. Agency for International Development paints a dire and detailed picture of the Iraq security situation in its request for contractors to bid on its $1.32 billion, 28-month project to help stabilize 10 major Iraqi cities

The breakdown of Iraqi society and "the absence of state control and an effective police force" have let "criminal elements within Iraqi society have almost free rein," the paper states. Iraqi criminals in some cases "have aligned themselves with most of the combating groups and factions to further their aims" and Baghdad "is reportedly divided into zones controlled by organized criminal groups-clans," it states.

washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/16/AR2006011601005.html

The U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) is, of course, very close to the CIA, as is Walter Pincus, for that matter.