Mukhabarat (Iraq intelligence service)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   "Mukhabarat" is not in the OED.  Will it be in an upcoming revision?
   The OED has "KGB" (from only 1960?).
   See this web site:

http://www.fas.org/irp/world/iraq/mukhabarat/intro.htm


   This article (which uses the proper name as a term) is in Google Groups:

TORONTO STAR,
November 20th, 2001
SECURITY LAWS ARE WORTHY OF DICTATORS
Thomas Walkom
COLUMNIST

IN THE Arab countries of the Middle East, they are called
the mukhabarat. In the old Soviet Union, they were usually
referred to as the organs. Here we might call them secret
police, although a more sweeping phrase, such as national
security apparatus, is probably more appropriate.

Indeed, the term "secret police" hardly does justice to this
institution. The national security apparatus involves more
than men in leather trench coats, late-night arrests and
secret jails (although it involves these, too).

It also includes sophisticated and all-encompassing
surveillance techniques, "special" tribunals and almost
unlimited government power to decide who is a threat.

A cadre of obedient cheerleaders in the press is useful,
but not mandatory. In a more advanced mukhabarat state,
such as Iraq, the press is simply controlled by the state.
Newcomers to the modern mukhabarat style, such as the
Canadian and U.S. governments, can rely instead on the
media's inherent laziness, lack of intellectual rigour
and overwhelming desire to toady to public prejudice. (...)