Facilities Protection Service

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The Facilities Protection Service works for all Iraqi government ministries and agencies, but its standards are set and enforced by the Iraqi Ministry of Interior. It can be privately hired. The FPS is tasked with the fixed site protection of buildings, facilities and personnel. The FPS includes Oil, Electricity Police and Port Security.

The majority of the FPS staff consists of former service members and former security guards. The FPS will also secure public facilities such as hospitals, banks, and power stations within their districts. The guards work with US military forces protecting critical sites like schools, hospitals and power plants. Being part of the Baath Party does not disqualify an Iraqi from joining the Facility Protection Service or working elsewhere with coalition forces.

As of early August 2003 more than 4,000 Iraqis had been hired to be security guards with the Facility Protection Service. As of mid-October 2003 about 20,000 members of the new Facility Protection Service were guarding more than 240 critical sites. The Facilities Protection Service, charged with protecting Iraq's strategic infrastructure, government buildings and cultural and educational assets, has more than doubled since November 2003. As of 15 February 2004, there were more than 70,000 guards on duty.

In the An Najaf area, two hundred one facility protection service guards graduated from security training on 03 July 2003. Sixty-seven guards will work at oil and gas facilities and 134 will work at hospitals.

The FPS are paid on either on a contractual basis or according to a civil pay scale which is lower than that of the Iraqi Police or the New Iraqi Army. The FPS' uniforms consists of light grey shirts with brassards, which if worn, clearly indicate the letters 'FPS' and the Iraqi flag. FPS members may also wear dark blue pants, a leather belt, and a grey beret. They are armed with AKs. The FPS' vehicles are provided by the Ministries.

Contents 1 FPS in service 2 Controversy 3 See also 4 External links

[edit] FPS in service

Many Iraqi Police Service (IPS) officers and Facility Protection Service (FPS) officers were honored by commanders of the 1st Armored Division and a representative of the Ministry of the Interior 29-30 October 2003 at the Iraqi Forum. 124 awardees were honored during the IPS ceremony, including 24 medals for valor and 79 medals for sacrifice. Twenty-one medals for sacrifice were awarded posthumously to IPS family members. The FPS award ceremony, held in the same place, but on the following day, recognized 24 awardees for valor and 21 for sacrifice. The awards given out were golden medals, each emblazoned with an imprinted map of the country of Iraq, with Arabic script reading, "It is an honor to serve country,"

There are more than 150,000 Facility Protection Service personnel,and 8,700 security guards, who work for 26 ministries and 8 independent directorates. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some of them are unreliable and responsible for violent crimes. PM Maliki has announced a reform to consolidate all Facilities Protection Service personnel into a unified organization responsible to the MOI. As of December 2005, the Coalition no longer provides material or logisitcal support to the FPS. ^[1]

[edit] Controversy

U.S. military commanders believe the FPS provides manpower for sectarian party militias and death squads. The Iraq Study Group December's Report, highlighted the problem, describing the Facilities Protection Service members as having "questionable loyalties and capabilities" and quoted an unnamed senior U.S. official saying they are "incompetent, dysfunctional and subversive." It is alleged that radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr who controls the ministries of Health, Transportation and Agriculture, and the FPS units employed by those ministries are "a source of funding and jobs for the Mahdi Army," his militia, according to the Iraq Study Group report. The latest Defense Department report on Iraq said there is "anecdotal evidence" that FPS personnel "are unreliable and in some cases responsible for violent crimes and other illegal activities." Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, U.S. Army Commander, Multinational Security Transition Command, told reporters he will be working next year with Jawad Bolani, Iraq's interior minister, to get the FPS under the minister's control. A U.S. official in Baghdad told Newsweek, "The FPS has basically become a private army for the ministers. They have no accountability."

[edit] See also

• Security guard
• Security police
• Federal Protective Service
• Central Industrial Security Force
• United States Institute of Peace
• Australian Protective Service

[edit] External links

• United States Institute of Peace:Reforming the Iraqi Interior Ministry, Police, and Facilities Protection Service
• Iraqi police deaths 'hit 12,000'
• Iraqi Force Development in 2006, by Anthony H. Cordesman and William D. Sullivan
• Fact Sheet: Training Iraqi Security Forces, The White House
• Measuring Security and Stability in Iraq, Quarterly reports from the US Department of Defense to US Congress.
• Washington Post article: Iraq Begins to Rein In Paramilitary Force; 'Out of Control' Guard Unit Established by U.S. Suspected in Death Squad-Style Executions:
• Washington Post article Official: Guard Force Is Behind Death Squads
• Global Security article
• globalguerrillas Sunday, 27 June 2004 JOURNAL: Iraq's facility protection service
• MSNNBC Inside Iraq’s Mutant Security Agency & Phantom Force: In the 'Year of the Police,' a murky security group is mutating and growing.
• [http://www.iraqcoalition.org/regulations/20030904_CPAORD_27_Establishment_of_the_Facilities_Protection_Svc.pdf
• Contra Costa Times article Protection service agency labeled subversive. U.S. report criticizes 150,000-strong force intended for security purposes, saying it is fulfilling sectarian agenda
• Iraqi Militias Take Refuge in Facilities Protection Service