Milestone for Iraqi Security Forces

Another accomplishment to note is the PortAl Iraq wesbite, who is reporting the story below. You can link To PortAl Iraq for the latest developments in Iraqi business news, to submit a job ad, network with others and find job opportunities. PortAl is a beginning in uncensored news and information being offered to a worldwide audience from Iraq.

Under the regime of Saddam Hussein, the internet was government controlled and government owned except in Kurdish territories. Saddam's regime charged a hefty fee to access the internet. It was common for a user to be interrogated before logging onto the internet, and denied use if that person looked suspicious. Once a user was logged on, only a few state approved sites could be visited (all else was blocked) and e-mail had to be approved by a censorship department before it could be sent. The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (Iraq A look behind bars, link) reports that," Due to the many prohibitions and conditions set in place by the former Iraqi regime, Iraq was ranked 17th or 18th amongst the Arab states in the efficiency of its Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.." Developments of businesss, communication, and technology have all improved since Saddam has been removed from power. The Iraqi people need our support as they continue to rebuild their country, and their lives.
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Iraqi Security Forces reaches milestone
Monday, October 24th 2005

The effort to train, equip and mentor Iraq’s security forces hit a milestone recently, with the number of men and women serving in uniform stretching past 200,000, according to Multi-National Security Transition Command - Iraq.

Currently the Iraqi Ministry of Interior has 106,112 personnel serving as part of security forces. The Ministry of Defense has 93,959 service members in the military.There are now more than 60,000 additional Iraqi security forces available than there were for the January election.Since the effort to rebuild the country’s forces began about 15 months ago, more than 115 special police and army combat battalions have been formed as well as regular police, border enforcement and highway patrol for the Ministry of Interior and motor transport regiments, Navy, Air Forces and numerous training organizations for the Ministry of Defense. The majority of those combat battalions are fighting side-by-side Coalition forces and several dozen are already taking the lead in operations, officials said.


Links:

Iraq A look behind bars
http://www.hrinfo.net/en/reports/net2004/iraq.shtml

Iraqi Security Forces reaches milestone
http://www.portaliraq.com/news/Iraqi+Security+Forces+reaches+milestone__1111584.html