US Training of Death Squads in Iraq? - War Is A Crime .org

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http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/18967/Here Come the Death Squad VeteransAlternetBy Louis Nevaer, Pacific News ServicePosted on June 16, 2004If Josao Miguel Pizarro has his way, he will recruit 30,000 Chileans as mercenaries to protectAmerican companies under Pentagon contract to rebuild Iraq. And undoubtedly, within thoseranks will be former members of death squads that tortured and murdered civilians whendictatorships ruled in Latin America."There is no comparison with what they can earn in the active military or working in civilianjobs, and what we offer," JosÃ© Miguel Pizarro, Chile's leading recruiter for internationalsecurity firms, says. "This is an opportunity that few in Chile can afford to pass up."Pizarro's firm, Servicios Integrales, was contracted by Blackwater USA to recruit the firstbatch of Chileans in November 2003. By May 2004 he had placed 5,200 men who, afterone week of training in Santiago, head to North Carolina for orientation with Blackwater,the private security firm that made headlines when four of its employees where killed inFalluja, their bodies mutilated and hung from a bridge. After training, Blackwater fliesthe men to Kuwait City to await their assignments in Iraq.As democratic governments were voted into office throughout Latin America in the 1990s, Latinmilitaries were downsized. Thousands of military officers lost their jobs. "This is a way ofcontinuing our military careers," Carlos Wamgnet, 30, explained in a phone interview fromKuwait while awaiting his assignment in Iraq. "In civilian life in Chile I was making $1,800 amonth. Here I can earn a year's pay in six weeks. It's worth the risks."At 30, Wamgnet is too young to have participated in any crime of the Pinochet regime. But notall the Chileans in Iraq are guiltless. Newspapers in Chile have estimated that approximately 37Chileans in Iraq are seasoned veterans of the Pinochet era. Government officials in Santiago arealarmed that men who enjoy amnesty in Chile -- provided they remain in "retirement" from theirpast military activities -- are now in Iraq.In an interview with the Santiago-based daily newspaper La Tercera, Chilean Minister ofDefense Dr. Michelle Bachelet stated that Chilean "mercenaries for American firms doingbusiness in Iraq" may be subject to "arrest or detention in third countries," a reference to recentarrests in Spain and Mexico of South Americans with war-crimes pasts. South American mediareport that Chileans have requested travel from Chile to the United States and then directly to theMiddle East, to bypass Mexico and the European Union. The thousands of Chileans in Iraq havebeen nicknamed "the penguins" by American and South African soldiers for hire, a referenceboth to Chile's proximity to the South Pole and the fact that many Chilean mercenaries are ofmixed race.54
Not everyone in Chile is opposed to the presence in Iraq of former Chilean army members. "It istrue that the majority [of Chilean recruits] see this as an opportunity to earn money," La Terceracolumnist Mauricio Aguirre wrote."But it is also an opportunity for our soldiers to provethemselves on the ground, and to put to use the skills for which they trained in the Armed Forcesover the years.""Blackwater USA has sent recruiters to Chile, Peru, Argentina, Colombia and Guatemala for onespecific reason alone," said an intelligence officer in Kuwait who requested anonymity. "Allthese countries experienced dirty warsâ€_ and they have military men well-trained in dealingwith internal subversives. They are well-versed in extracting confessions from prisoners."As the security situation in Iraq deteriorated in the spring of 2004, more "dedicated recruiting"began.Though Chile is in vigorous debate about the role of military servicemen becoming hired guns inIraq, in Argentina there is virtual silence. Several Argentine mercenaries have made their way tothe United States to meet with American security firms before heading to Iraq. "No one wants todiscuss what is becoming clear," says Mario PodestÃ¡, 51, an independent Argentine journalist."I know of seven military officers responsible for disappearing opponents of the dictatorship"who are now in Iraq. During Argentina's "dirty wars," opponents of the military regime were"disappeared" (abducted), tortured and then killed.Podesta spoke to this reporter in early April. He was in Jordan preparing to travel by road toBaghdad, along with Mariana VerÃ nica Cabrera, 28, an Argentine camerawoman. "I wantto find these men," he said of the Argentine 'dirty war' criminals he had identified as beingmercenaries in Iraq. It was not to be.Podesta and Cabrera were killed, along with their Iraqi driver, in an automobile accident beforereaching Baghdad.Louis Nevaer is an author and economist whose most recent book, "NAFTA'S Second Decade"(South-Western Educational Publishing, 2004), examines the political economy of internationaldevelopment and trade.© 2006 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/18967/55
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Page 11 and 12: After the commandos set up their he
Page 13 and 14: more skilled than American troops I
Page 15 and 16: ‘‘I think it was all an act to
Page 17 and 18: Ministry of Interior Security Force
Page 19 and 20: ‘‘For some, there’s definitel
Page 21 and 22: with prominent Shiite cleric Hussei
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Page 27 and 28: http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Nov2005/da
Page 29 and 30: In another twist, the bodies of 8 m
Page 31 and 32: Subject: [oneheartpeacework] Traine
Page 33 and 34: 3. Maass, Peter, "The Way of the Co
Page 35 and 36: We now have Judith Miller’s New Y
Page 37 and 38: arrangements with the CEO of the Ir
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Page 41 and 42: March 9, 2006 -- Los Angeles Times
Page 43 and 44: http://www.newyorker.com/printables
Page 45 and 46: The former official says that the B
Page 47 and 48: officials in Colombia. The book “
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Page 59 and 60: If ever possible…FOOTNOTES:Seymou
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Page 63 and 64: The organization said U.S. and Iraq
Page 65 and 66: For starters, what’s been written
Page 67 and 68: http://www.counterpunch.org/hersh01
Page 69 and 70: Fallujah I called him at home. I'm
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Page 73 and 74: http://nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/d
Page 75 and 76: y shifting their targets, concentra
Page 77 and 78: * Arun Gupta, former editor of The
Page 79 and 80: From Iran-Contra To IraqThe NationB
Page 81 and 82: his actions this time around become
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Page 89 and 90: However, the analogy is misleading
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Page 93 and 94: which have raised sectarian tension
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Page 97 and 98: A grocer in west Baghdad told Salih
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The slaughter and destruction in we
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SEC. RUMSFELD: I'm not going to com
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insurgency. The Iraqi forces, the m
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Part Five:2006111
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They told soldiers they were taking
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http://www.countercurrents.org/iraq
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One photo showed what appeared to b
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Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, who announ
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Baghdad, the 14 Sunnis seized from
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"You've got the facilities protecti
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Peterson, the U.S. officer in charg
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homes or mosques by men in uniform
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moniker that sounds about as unauth
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there is a general consensus that t
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the government officials, media lac
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experience with Saddam's government
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http://www.globalecho.org/view_arti
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working within the country's interi
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Mr. Karim was originally sentenced
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Close to one million Iraqis, most o
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Neither Republicans nor Democrats s
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Democratic position and that of the
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This year's Democratic primaries an
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http://www.informationclearinghouse
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Of Hariri's assassination, Syrian o
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Sourcewatch information on Aegis:
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RAMOPS RISK MANAGEMENT GROUP (compr
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Section 2: Organization of the FPS1
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The UK was criticized for starting
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http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/
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FPS, proposing to give its members
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http://www.greenleft.org.au/2006/68
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personnel and CIA operators and con
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Although Bush hasn't specifically s
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massive military aid to the Salvado
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The convoy was traveling in the Cam
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/articl
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http://news.independent.co.uk/world
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The Mehdi Army does not always have
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clarification of what happened in S
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http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Bri
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"What our police found in their car
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3. the international cadre of war f
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If you thought the U.S. wouldn't bl
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Regrettably, that is prospect that
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The initial demand from the puppet
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www.prisonplanet.com/articles/septe
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FLASHBACK: Sick strategies for sens
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into the river. That thought alone
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Zarqawi is actually a real person o
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Examples “were found during the M
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Witnesses said about 150 Iraqi pris
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A British military source has said
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Meanwhile, frantic negotiations con
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The British troops believed the two
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Naturally, the sleazy Laurence-emul
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eing arrested by the Iraqi police o
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When viewed in the context of all t
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throw rose petals at the invaders,
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enders’ in the Sunni Community. S
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thus making people believe that cas
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