U.S./Iraq: Reject Use of "Death Squads"

[leftchick]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/5c9b462b106483d5ae95d814f7505706.htm

New York, January 10, 2005) – Washington's creation of "death squads" to fight the insurgency in Iraq would represent a shocking new low in a campaign that has already flouted the Geneva Conventions too many times, Human Rights Watch said today. Newsweek reported Saturday (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6802629/site/newsweek/) that the U.S. Department of Defense is debating the establishment of Iraqi squads to assassinate Sunni insurgents and their sympathizers, or bring them to secret facilities for interrogation.

<snip>

"If this plan is real, the Pentagon will rue the day it dreamed it up," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "They are creating a monster that could someday kill the very Iraqi democracy they say they want to build."

Human Rights Watch noted that U.S. and Iraqi forces already have the legal authority to arrest insurgent leaders and, if they resist, to kill them in combat. But deliberately targeting civilians or executing combatants in custody would be a war crime.

According to Newsweek, the Pentagon is referring to the plan as the "Salvador option," a reference to the death squads supported by the United States during the civil wars in El Salvador and Guatemala in the 1980s which became notorious for killing unarmed supporters of the opposition. It also harkens back to Operation Phoenix, a 1969 CIA program of targeted assassinations against the civilian infrastructure that supported the insurgency in South Vietnam, which resulted in widespread atrocities as well.

"The clandestine nature of 'death squads' makes it difficult to establish their chain of command, but no one will be fooled should the Pentagon choose to use this subterfuge to commit war crimes," said Roth.

<snip>

"The further degradation of the Geneva Conventions would also have dangerous long-term consequences for captured US military personnel and even US civilians," said Roth. "This is the opposite signal that the United States should be sending when it's trying to convince people to abandon terrorism as a military or political tool."

[AlCzervik]

1. Well Negroponte is there, thats his specialty

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

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[Taxloss]

2. "They are creating a monster " - too right!

But then democracy wasn't necessarily the aim, was it? A friendly strongman would do.

[Tempest]

3. Ex-CIA Allawi likes the option

Also, according to Newsweek, “The interim government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is said to be among the most forthright proponents of the Salvador option.”
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=6992


I wonder how the administration is going to react to the Islamic government in Iraq created after the elections.


We should start the Putz supporter's list of excuses when it happens.

[AlCzervik]

5. Allawi will be a dead man if the troops are ever pulled out

[NYC]

8. Don't you think Allawi would leave WITH the troops

if they ever left?

[AlCzervik]

9. No, i think that he'll like being a US installed dictator too much

to step down from the throne.

[NYC]

12. Then I guess he'll be dead.

On the other hand, will the troops ever leave?

[leftchick]

10. US Troops aren't protecting him....

He has these highly (US tax dollar!) paid mercenaries protecting him.

[Tempest]

11. He'll move back to London

Where he spent the last 30 years.

[Just Me]

6. The neoCONimperialists are just puckin' mad!!!

Murderous mo-fos!!!

Can you believe this shit?

They should be criminally charged for even suggesting the establishment of death squads!!!!

WTF is wrong with these people?

[Cocoa]

7. Geraldo Rivera is ok with it

and his neckless military analyst agreed, death squads are a fabulous idea.

[MindPilot]

13. "Death Squad" will just get a newspeak name.

They will be called "Liberty Groups" or "Freedom Facilitators"

[CanonRay]

14. Now there's a shining example of Democracy...

El Salvador? This government is insane.