In The Washington Post today, an aide to Akila Hashimi, the member of the Iraqi Governing Council who was shot yesterday, was reported to have said that "she had dismissed the need for bodyguards and refused to carry weapons in her car" before her shooting. But another Governing Council member wonders why he and other members of the council can't get more security assistance from the U.S.

...Governing Council members ... are not provided with American bodyguards or police escorts.... Although the council's leaders, who head large political organizations, are protected by their militias, independent members are responsible for their own protection. While they are leery of being seen with U.S. guards, several independent members have recently complained about not being given at least an Iraqi security detail.

"The security is insufficient," said Mowaffak Rubaie, a physician who returned from London to join the council. He said he purchased three guns on the street with his own money to arm his guards, whom he must also pay.

Yet a couple of weeks ago, as I told you at the time, Paul Bremer insisted,

We have met every single request for security that has been made of us.

And another female council member, Dr. Raja Habib Khuzai, said at the time, according to The New York Times, that

she had been pleading for days with American officials to provide her with cars and bodyguards, but that so far, they had failed to respond. In an interview, Dr. Khuzai said her brother had volunteered to become her bodyguard, along with three other men who have no training. She said she was paying them out of her own pocket.

Dr. Khuzai said the Americans had provided her with bodyguards several weeks ago, but had later taken them away. Lately, she said, she has been asking the Americans to train her guards if they cannot provide her with any of their own.

"They keep telling me they will train my men, but I have given them their names on 10 occasions, and they told me they lost the list," Dr. Khuzai said.

That was in the wake of the car bombings in August. Apparently nothing's changed.