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

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/21/1418219U.S. Funding Iraqi Militias Led by Baathists As Part of Counter-InsurgencyOperationDemocracy Now!Thursday, April 21st, 2005We talk to Arun Gupta of The Indypendent on the proliferation of illegal militias in Iraq. TheU.S. government is not only aware of these militias but is arming, training and funding them foruse in their counter-insurgency operations. [includes rush transcript]We are joined in our studio by Arun Gupta who has been reporting on the proliferation ofmilitias in Iraq. Arun is an editor with the New York City Independent Media Center'snewspaper, The Indypendent.He writes in his article, "Let A Thousand Militias Bloom" that the U.S. government is not onlyaware of these illegal militias but is arming, training and funding them for use in their counterinsurgencyoperations. His article will be in the May issue of Z magazine.The article begins:In devising a strategy to defeat Iraq’s insurgents, the Pentagon may be gaining the upper handbut at the cost of pushing Iraq toward civil war. A report by the Wall Street Journal from Feb. 16revealed that “pop-up militias” are proliferating in Iraq. Not only is the U.S. aware of theseillegal militias, but the Pentagon is arming, training and funding them for use them in counterinsurgencyoperations.Most disturbing, one militia in particular – the “special police commandos” – is being usedthroughout Iraq and has been singled out by a U.S. general as conducting death squad strikesknown as the “Salvador option.”Greg Jaffe, the Journal reporter, identified at least six such militias. Yet these militias owe theirallegiance not to the Iraqi people or state, but to their self-appointed leaders and associatedpoliticians such as interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. Even the commander of U.S. forces inthe Middle East, Gen. John P. Abizaid, admitted to Congress on March 1 that such militias are“destabilizing.”Of these militias, at least three are linked to Allawi. Jaffe writes, “First came the MuthanaBrigade, a unit formed by the order of… Allawi.” The second is the Defenders of Khadamiya,referring to a Shiite shrine on the outskirts of Baghdad, which appears to be “closely alignedwith prominent Shiite cleric Hussein al Sadr,” who ran on Allawi’s ticket in the Januaryelections.76