Headline riddle

[Zounoko]

On another site (can't remember what it was) there was a fun thread of English- and Japanese-speakers offering riddles for the non-natives to solve. This headline inspired me to start that kind of thread here.

This is a riddle for non-native English speakers, please. (Though of course native English speakers are welcome to add their 2 cents worth after the riddle is solved.)

Please explain the following headline (an actual headline found on CNN.com today) and explain why it looks funny:

Leahy wants FBI to help corrupt Iraqi police force

I picked this headline because a) it is funny and b) we English-speakers should let the Japanese and others laugh at our own English mistakes and 3) I think the headline illustrates something interesting about English grammar.

The Elephant's Child

[flammable hippo]

That's hilarious. 　I wouldn't really call it a mistake since it is easy to get the intended meaning out of the sentence and there aren't any actual errors. You just need to look at it a certain way to get the joke

[tanuki]

Hm, I think the thing is, "corrupt" was supposed to be an adjective there, but can be interpreted as a verb "to corrupt".

So, it would be: "Leahy wants FBI to help Iraqi police force become corrupt".

Is that it?

[flammable hippo]

DING DING DING We have a winner lol.

Yeah, so the sentence can be interpreted as "Leahy wants the FBI to help the Iraqi police that are corrupted" or "Leahy wants the FBI to help the Iraqi police force become corrupt."

[Zounoko]

Um... this was supposed to be a riddle for those who are not native speakers of English?

The Elephant's Child

[hungryhotei]

Zounoko wrote:
Um... this was supposed to be a riddle for those who are not native speakers of English?

The Elephant's Child

But tanuki isn't a native speaker...

[Zounoko]

Really? Tanuki's English is excellent!

The Elephant's Child