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

guard was called upon. Now people like Adnan, a former Baathist who was sentenced to deathfor conspiring to overthrow Hussein, have been given the task of defeating the insurgency. Thenew strategy is showing signs of success, but it is a success that may carry its own costs.A couple of hours after Adnan issued his AK-47 threat, I sat with him watching TV. This wasbusiness, not pleasure. The program we were watching was Adnan’s brainchild, and in just a fewmonths it had proved to be one of the most effective psychological operations of the war. It isreality TV of sorts, a show called ‘‘Terrorism in the Grip of Justice.’’ It features detaineesconfessing to various crimes. The show was first broadcast earlier this year and has quicklybecome a nationwide hit. It is on every day in prime time on Al Iraqiya, the American-financednational TV station, and when it is on, people across the country can be found gathered aroundtheir television sets.Those being interrogated on the program do not look fearsome; these are not the faces to befound in the propaganda videos that turn up on Web sites or on Al Jazeera. The insurgents, orsuspected insurgents, on ‘‘Terrorism in the Grip of Justice’’ come off as cowardly lowlifes whokill for money rather than patriotism or Allah. They tremble on camera, stumble over their wordsand look at the ground as they confess to everything from contract murders to sodomy. Theprogram’s clear message is that there is now a force more powerful than the insurgency: the Iraqigovernment, and in particular the commandos, whose regimental flag, which shows a lion’s headon a camouflage background, is frequently displayed on a banner behind the captives.Before the show began that evening, Adnan’s office was a hive of conversation, phone calls andtea-drinking. Along with a dozen commandos, there were several American advisers in the room,including James Steele, one of the United States military’s top experts on counterinsurgency.Steele honed his tactics leading a Special Forces mission in El Salvador during that country’sbrutal civil war in the 1980’s. His presence was a sign not only of the commandos’ crucial role inthe American counterinsurgency strategy but also of his close relationship with Adnan. Steeleadmired the general. ‘‘He’s obviously a natural type of commander,’’ Steele told me. ‘‘Hecommands respect.’’Things quieted in the office once the episode of ‘‘Terrorism in the Grip of Justice’’ began. First,a detainee admitted to having homosexual relations in a mosque. Then several other suspectedinsurgents made their confessions; two of them had been captured by Adnan’s commandos inSamarra, and their confessions were taped, just hours before, in this very office. Adnan satsmoking Royals and watching the show like a proud producer.‘‘It has a good effect on civilians,’’ he had told me, through an interpreter. ‘‘Most civilians don’tknow who conducts the terrorist activities. Now they can see the quality of the insurgents.’’Earlier he said: ‘‘Civilians must know that these people who call themselves resisters are thievesand looters. They are dirty. In every person there is good and bad, but in these people there isonly bad.’’The episodes of the program I have seen depict an insurgency composed almost entirely ofcriminals and religious fanatics. The insurgency as understood by American intelligence officersis a more complex web of interests and fighters. Most of the insurgency is composed of Sunnis,7