Maliki's Special Forces moves worry some

BAGHDAD, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is accumulating too much power by moving to keep an anti-terrorism unit separate from the defense ministry, critics say.

The 4,000-member Iraqi Special Forces unit is widely considered the finest military outfit in the country and the prime minister has had sole discretion through emergency anti-terrorism decrees in how it is deployed.

But Maliki's moves to institutionalize the arrangement by granting the Special Forces its own budget separate from the defense and interior ministries are raising fears he could turn the unit into a private police force, USA Today reported Tuesday.

"It mimics very much the old days of darkness," said former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, referring to the use of secret police under the regime of executed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

U.S. officials in Iraq would not comment to the newspaper on the proposed Iraqi legislation, but did say the current arrangement, under which the Special Forces must answer to legal and financial checks and balances, is working.