Brazen kidnapping in Baghdad

There have been other raids and kidnappings which seemed to involve police assistance or at least awareness. This incident almost certainly involved high-ranking police. CNN (my emphasis):

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's interior minister ordered the arrest and interrogation of several high-ranking police officers over their handling of security in the Baghdad area where scores of people were kidnapped from a government research institute Tuesday.

Higher Education Minister Abed Dhiyab al-Ajili originally said 100 to 150 people were abducted at the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research-Scholarships and Cultural Relations Directorate building.

However an aide said fewer than 100 were kidnapped, and 16 have been freed, most of them Shiites.

The Interior Ministry said 60 people were abducted.

Facing discipline are the police brigade commander in charge of the area, the police chief of Karrada -- where the kidnappings took place -- and a number of police officers. However, they are not suspects in the actual kidnappings.

The Guardian:

Since the US invasion in 2003, Iraq's academic institutions and staff have come under regular attack from insurgents and religious extremists. Scores of senior academics have been killed or assassinated and thousands more threatened.

Adnan Pachachi, an Iraqi politician and ex-governing council member, said: "There is evidence of a systematic and very sad attempt to drain Iraq of its brains."