FBI Calls It 'Instrumental.' Gen. Jones Calls It 'Dysfunctional.'

"The assistance provided by the Iraqi national police was instrumental to our success of our mission." That's what FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Joseph Persichini, Jr., tells reporters when unveiling the government's case against five former Blackwater men allegedly involved in the 2007 Nisoor Square shootout.

This is the same force that's so plagued with corruption and infiltrated by terrorists that it can scarcely function.

The same force under the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, which a panel of retired US generals and police chiefs said was so dysfunctional that it should be shut down and that the police should be "disbanded and reorganized." The panel, called the Independent Commission on the Security Forces of Iraq, concluded,

"The Ministry of Interior is a ministry in name only. It is widely regarded as being dysfunctional and sectarian, and suffers from ineffective leadership. Such fundamental flaws present a serious obstacle to achieving the levels of readiness, capability, and effectiveness in police and border security forces that are essential for internal security and stability in Iraq."

One of the members of the panel was Gen. James Jones USMC (Ret.), whom President-Elect Barack Obama recently appointed to be his National Security Advisor.

The group's report was published and released in a highly publicized news conference just 10 days before the Nisoor incident.

And the FBI says the force that Gen. Jones said should be shut down was "instrumental" in helping build the case?

Click here for a PDF of the independent commission's report.