U.S. Is Paying Off Iraq's Worst War Criminals in Attempt to Ward Off Attacks (AlterNet)

[Up2Late]

U.S. Is Paying Off Iraq's Worst War Criminals in Attempt to Ward Off Attacks

By Katie Halper, AlterNet. Posted September 18, 2007.

Title: Director's Cut: New Video shows the truth in Anbar that Petraeus does not want us to see.

When Bush was in Iraq two weeks ago he posed for photographs with Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, the leader of the Anbar Awakening, an alliance of Sunni tribes who vow to back the United States and fight against al Qaeda...

...Rick Rowley, a journalist and independent filmmaker of Big Noise Films, was one of the last people to videotape and interview the Sunni sheikh, and his video report Uncovering the Truth Behind the Anbar Success Story, presents a very different picture of the Anbar Awakening....

(edit)

KH: Bush and Petraeus are hailing our alliance with Sunni tribes in Anbar. Can you tell us about these "freedom fighters" the U.S. is now allied with?

RR: There have been a lot of reports about the fact that the people who the U.S. is working with, the supposed "freedom fighters," the "counter-insurgents" are former insurgents. They were Iraqi al Qaeda before they started working with the Americans. That is troubling because if they were fighting the Americans once, they'll fight Americans again. And more troubling for the future of Iraq is the fact that many of the tribes that the U.S. is working with are war criminals who are directly responsible for ethnic cleansing and who are using American support to prepare for sectarian civil war. The U.S. is funding Sunni militias. They already funded the Shia militias. They're now funding all sides of this sectarian war.

(edit)

KH: How does what Petraeus and Bush are saying contrast with what you saw and filmed on the ground?

RR: The story that Petraeus and Bush are saying is fantastic -- a Lawrence of Arabia figure named Abu Risha rose out of the desert and behind him the noble tribes of Anbar rose up and they kicked out al Qaeda. Well, it's safer for American soldiers there, but it's not safer for the Shia citizens there. The U.S. is funding sectarian militias fighting in a civil war in order to momentarily decrease attacks on Americans.

(edit)

KH: Why would the U.S. want to support these militias?

RR: It's an easy way to produce immediate statistical successes on the ground, a decrease in attacks on American soldiers. And this is a long-term strategy. Petraeus came in with Negroponte with the so-called "Salvador Option" for Iraq...,

(more at link) <http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/62827/>

[Gman]

1. No doubt there's some Saudi money being thrown in too

Remember Uncle Dick's Thanksgiving trip to Saudi Arabia last year? He was read the riot act by the King who also happens to be Sunni. Ever since then, things started changing and the Sunni's in Iraq started lining up with the US.

This is the essence of the situation, but I suspect the details are a lot more corrupt and contrived.

[Supersedeas]

4. the Saudi's have made it clear that they have and will continue to support Sunni insurgents

[izzie]

2. Sounds about right to me we did it with the Northern Tribes.

Bush seems to think all the money we pay in tax is his any how. He is for ever spending it. Churches, private co. so why not there also.

[sampsonblk]

3. Ummm its their country

They should have done this sooner instead of pushing them out of the political system. Maybe it wouldn't have come to this.

Its not our country, its theirs.

[Up2Late]

5. kick n/t

:kick: