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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

imminent counter-insurgency crackdown, which they said was likely to unleash well-trainedcommandos in Baghdad and other trouble spots(http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8725.htm ).Wider Evidence of MassacresWith such accusations being made specifically against US-trained counter-insurgency forces it isworth briefly mentioning some of the other massacres that have occurred in Iraq over recentmonths. In October 2004 some 49 bodies were discovered on a remote road about 50km south ofBaquba. The victims, who wore civilian clothes, had all been shot in the head. The InteriorMinistry announced that they were off-duty soldiers. Some accounts by police said the rebelswere dressed in Iraqi military uniforms, although details were far from clear(http://sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/10/24/international0921EDT0440.DTL;http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,136419,00.html ).Similarly, in March of this year 26 bodies were discovered at Rumana, near Qaim, close to theSyrian border. According to the Interior Ministry, most of the victims were members of a rapidresponse team. The victims had been blindfolded, handcuffed and shot in the head. The bodies,which once again were dressed in civilian clothes, were found in an area where the US army hadbeen conducting Operation River Blitz, a marine-led assault on insurgents in the Euphrates Rivervalley (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,136419,00.html ;http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/03/09/iraq.main/ ).To further muddy the waters, the bodies of eight men from Sadr City were found in Yussufiah,40km south of Baghdad, on 9 May this year. The victims, who had been tortured, then executedwith a bullet to the back of the neck, were found wearing army uniforms, but relatives identifiedthem as civilians. Army captain Ahmed Hussein suggested that the killers wanted people tobelieve they had executed soldiers (http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1701988,00.html ).There are other similar cases of mass killings, as well as many more involving smaller numbersof bodies far too numerous to mention. Nonetheless, it is worth emphasising the many bodies(more than 100) gradually being dredged up from the River Tigris, especially around Suwayra,south of Baghdad. The bodies began to be noticed in late February of this year, surfacing at therate of one or two a day, but began to increase in frequency in April; some of the victims, whowere mostly men but included some women and children, were bound, others shot or beheaded.In April, president Talabani claimed the victims had been kidnapped by insurgents in the villageof Madain, but, in fact, those identified to date hailed from a wide radius and could not beaccounted for by a single episode of kidnapping. Police in Suwayra have stated that many of thevictims are likely to have been stopped at impromptu checkpoints by masked men, while someSunnis say that the victims may include people detained by the police(http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-86
in/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/04/22/MNG45CDDBQ1.DTL ).In light of these bodies in the Tigris, it may be significant to note a strange report on the websiteJihad Unspun of US soldiers dumping body bags from helicopters in the Diali River in easternIraq during the early hours of the morning. The writer argues that the bags held the corpses ofAmerican soldiers or foreign mercenaries that the army wished to conceal from publicknowledge(http://www.jihadunspun.com/intheatre_internal.php?article=100552&list=/home.php& ). Thisimplausible theory leaves a very large question mark over the identity of bodies that the US armywishes to conceal and recalls the report submitted to the Brussels Tribunal, ‘Tarmiya: the SilentAgony’. This account contains first hand testimony from an agricultural worker who survived anattempted execution by a team of US special forces. He and a colleague were abducted from thefarm where they worked, then taken to a secluded grove where their throats were cut. They wereleft for dead, but miraculously, one of them survived (http://www.brusselstribunal.org /). Whilstthis account lacks corroboration and has remained anonymous to protect the identities of thoseinvolved, it remains a convincing description of the kind of long-range ‘reconnaissance’missions that people like James Steele were conducting in Vietnam.Modelling the Iraq WarWhilst much of the violence across Iraq appears chaotic, some lines are starting to emerge thatfollow the pattern and the logic of other counter-insurgency wars. In El Salvador, when the warfinally came to an end, it became clear that the majority of its victims had been participants inprogressive social movements as well as peasants who had been perceived as sympathising withor supporting the guerrillas. The object of the war was not to defeat an ideologically motivatedrebellion, it was to prevent the possibility of progressive social change and to maintain thecountry within the US economic orbit in its traditional tributary role.The same can be said of Colombia at present, where the long current phase of the internalconflict in which thousands of social activists have been murdered has butted seamlessly with thecountry’s exposure to economic liberalisation. In short, legitimate social demands are violentlysuppressed in favour of allowing foreign capital to extract super profits from Colombia’s richnatural resources and selling off its public assets for the same purpose. Much of the conflict takesplace within the realm of so-called ‘civil society’, where progressive leaders are excluded oreliminated, whilst those who are prepared to throw in their lot with predatory foreign capital arerewarded and extolled.In Iraq the war comes in two phases. The first phase is complete: the destruction of the existingstate, which did not comply with the interests of British and American capital. The second phaseconsists of building a new state tied to those interests and smashing every dissenting sector ofsociety. Openly, this involves applying the same sort of economic shock therapy that has done somuch damage in swathes of the Third World and Eastern Europe. Covertly, it meansintimidating, kidnapping and murdering opposition voices.87
Page 7 and 8:
guard was called upon. Now people l
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
Page 23 and 24:
The Police Commandos’ penchant fo
Page 25 and 26:
effective at responding to the atta
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
Page 39 and 40: November 6, 2003, was designated fo
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 “
Page 49 and 50: The majority of the Bush Administra
Page 51 and 52: Part Three:200451
Page 53 and 54: military base on Honduran territory
Page 55 and 56: Not everyone in Chile is opposed to
Page 57 and 58: Secret US Gulfstream jets and Swedi
Page 59 and 60: If ever possible…FOOTNOTES:Seymou
Page 61 and 62: Part Four:200561
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
Page 71 and 72: these people worked as night clerks
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
Page 83 and 84: might have been imagined.According
Page 85: put out by the Interior Ministry, t
Page 89 and 90: However, the analogy is misleading
Page 91 and 92: http://nytimes.com/cfr/internationa
Page 93 and 94: which have raised sectarian tension
Page 95 and 96: http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstr
Page 97 and 98: A grocer in west Baghdad told Salih
Page 99 and 100: use of their experience in mass rep
Page 101 and 102: Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Iraqi
Page 103 and 104: http://www.informationclearinghouse
Page 105 and 106: The slaughter and destruction in we
Page 107 and 108: SEC. RUMSFELD: I'm not going to com
Page 109 and 110: insurgency. The Iraqi forces, the m
Page 111 and 112: Part Five:2006111
Page 113 and 114: They told soldiers they were taking
Page 115 and 116: http://www.countercurrents.org/iraq
Page 117 and 118: One photo showed what appeared to b
Page 119 and 120: Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, who announ
Page 121 and 122: Baghdad, the 14 Sunnis seized from
Page 123 and 124: "You've got the facilities protecti
Page 125 and 126: Peterson, the U.S. officer in charg
Page 127 and 128: homes or mosques by men in uniform
Page 129 and 130: moniker that sounds about as unauth
Page 131 and 132: there is a general consensus that t
Page 133 and 134: the government officials, media lac
Page 135 and 136: experience with Saddam's government
Page 137 and 138:
http://www.globalecho.org/view_arti
Page 139 and 140:
working within the country's interi
Page 141 and 142:
Mr. Karim was originally sentenced
Page 143 and 144:
Close to one million Iraqis, most o
Page 145 and 146:
Neither Republicans nor Democrats s
Page 147 and 148:
Democratic position and that of the
Page 149 and 150:
This year's Democratic primaries an
Page 151 and 152:
http://www.informationclearinghouse
Page 153 and 154:
Of Hariri's assassination, Syrian o
Page 155 and 156:
Sourcewatch information on Aegis:
Page 157 and 158:
RAMOPS RISK MANAGEMENT GROUP (compr
Page 159 and 160:
Section 2: Organization of the FPS1
Page 161 and 162:
The UK was criticized for starting
Page 163 and 164:
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/
Page 165 and 166:
FPS, proposing to give its members
Page 167 and 168:
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2006/68
Page 169 and 170:
personnel and CIA operators and con
Page 171 and 172:
Although Bush hasn't specifically s
Page 173 and 174:
massive military aid to the Salvado
Page 175 and 176:
The convoy was traveling in the Cam
Page 177 and 178:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/articl
Page 179 and 180:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world
Page 181 and 182:
The Mehdi Army does not always have
Page 183 and 184:
clarification of what happened in S
Page 185 and 186:
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Bri
Page 187 and 188:
"What our police found in their car
Page 189 and 190:
3. the international cadre of war f
Page 191 and 192:
If you thought the U.S. wouldn't bl
Page 193 and 194:
Regrettably, that is prospect that
Page 195 and 196:
The initial demand from the puppet
Page 197 and 198:
www.prisonplanet.com/articles/septe
Page 199 and 200:
FLASHBACK: Sick strategies for sens
Page 201 and 202:
into the river. That thought alone
Page 203 and 204:
Zarqawi is actually a real person o
Page 205 and 206:
Examples “were found during the M
Page 207 and 208:
Witnesses said about 150 Iraqi pris
Page 209 and 210:
A British military source has said
Page 211 and 212:
Meanwhile, frantic negotiations con
Page 213 and 214:
The British troops believed the two
Page 215 and 216:
Naturally, the sleazy Laurence-emul
Page 217 and 218:
eing arrested by the Iraqi police o
Page 219 and 220:
When viewed in the context of all t
Page 221 and 222:
throw rose petals at the invaders,
Page 223 and 224:
enders’ in the Sunni Community. S
Page 225 and 226:
thus making people believe that cas
show all

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

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?