Chapter 17
0030, 16 June 2004
Laith Hadeed House
Ar Ramadi, Iraq
On Laith’s orders, Haitham and Ahmed moved the taxi driver’s body to the trunk of the taxi and mopped up the blood, guts, and urine using buckets of sand from the backyard. Next, Laith told his third cousins, Saif Malek and Abdul Hamed, to get rid of the body.
Prior to the fall of Saddam, Saif and Abdul had been low-ranking police officers in Ramadi. They were not much different than other police officers. None had any training, and all got their jobs through some family connection. In any event, as far as Saif and Abdul were concerned, police training would be a waste of time. What was the point of investigating a crime or arresting criminals if the judges ignored the facts? They made a living from their salaries, bribe
