El Salvador-style 'death squads' to be deployed by US against Iraq militants

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1433353,00.html

http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,170994,00.jpg

John Negroponte was in Honduras when American money was used to train Contras to fight Nicaragua's Sandinista regime. (AL-RAYA/AP)

January 10, 2005

THE Pentagon is considering forming hit squads of Kurdish and Shia fighters to target leaders of the Iraqi insurgency in a strategic shift borrowed from the American struggle against left-wing guerrillas in Central America 20 years ago.

Under the so-called “El Salvador option”, Iraqi and American forces would be sent to kill or kidnap insurgency leaders, even in Syria, where some are thought to shelter.

The plans are reported in this week’s Newsweek magazine as part of Pentagon efforts to get US forces in Iraq on to the front foot against an enemy that is apparently getting the better of them.

Iyad Allawi, the interim Iraqi Prime Minister, was said to be one of the most vigorous supporters of the plan.

The Pentagon declined to comment, but one insider told Newsweek: “What everyone agrees is that we can’t just go on as we are. We have to find a way to take the offensive against the insurgents. Right now, we are playing defence. And we are losing.”

[aquart]

1. Oh, like our death squads can beat their death squads?

Good luck with that.

[mom cat]

6. More like we trained "their" death squads,

just like we trained the Taleban.

Some folks never learn.

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. Gee, whiz

what a great idea. :sarcasm:

[Ms. Clio]

3. JANUARY 2005

Thanks for posting this -- I posted something similar recently, as you know.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2746149&mesg_id=2750001

And then reposted it several times a couple of days ago.

God knows it bears repeating.

[Kagemusha]

4. Note the date is Jan 10, 2005

It's just yet another attempt to stuff this story down our collective throat.

Yeah, yeah, we've heard already. So what? At this point death squads have more important agendas than Negroponte's. Like their own.

[Ms. Clio]

5. The point is that the "sectarian violence" is a U.S. creation

for all those people who want to blame those "savages" who just can't seem to stop killing each other.

[Kagemusha]

7. I'm sorry, the US is not the sole source of evil in this existence.

But believe that if it makes you sleep better at night.

[Ms. Clio]

8. Yes, reply to a strawman instead of what was actually stated

whatever gets you through.

[Kagemusha]

9. Narrower version: the US is not solely to blame for sectarian violence.

The sects are, too. But your statement seems to not appreciate that fact. Not my problem.

[EFerrari]

10. I found out something I didn't know about the fake "Contra War"

the other day reading "Blood on the Border."

One way we recruited guys for our little parties was to kidnap whole villages and put them in guarded camps. Then, their men were made to go kill people. Nice.

In addition, when there was no room at those camps, we just told people "You better pick up this gun because the Sandinistas are going to bomb your village to bits!" And of course, our gov had the full co-operation of certain Christian missionaries that shall remain nameless -- the Moravians.

Now, *that's* planning.

[Ms. Clio]

12. I haven't read that book, but I would not doubt that at all

Missionaries are frequently crucial to imperial projects, too.

Checking out the book on the Google and Amazon; it looks excellent and very relevant to this discussion.

[Jcrowley]

13. Exactly right

COULD (SOME OF) THE PENTAGON’S HIRED MERCENARIES BE REMOTELY DETONATING CAR BOMBS AND ASSASSINATING SUNNIS AND SHIAS - TO PROVOKE A U.S. PLANNED CIVIL WAR THAT WILL DISMEMBER IRAQ?

According to Robert Young Pelton’s upcoming book Licensed To Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror, there are now over 70,000 armed men working as security contractors in Iraq.



That being said, a little background is in order. For years now the media have increasingly publicized what is usually described in sensationalistic purple prose as the murky world of corporate mercenaries. While such firms started gaining attention back in the early 1990s with the exploits of, for example, the now-defunct South African-based Executive Outcomes, which did actual combat operations in Angola and Sierra Leone, and gained more publicity with the training contracts of MPRI in the Balkan wars of the mid-1990s, the war in Iraq propelled the industry to the top of the media and pop-culture food chain. Such firms as Blackwater Security, Triple Canopy, and DynCorp are now conversational staples.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/AQF3JA5OEV4XR

‘UNKNOWN AMERICANS’ ARE PROVOKING CIVIL WAR IN IRAQ - By Robert Fisk
The Independent UK 04/29/06

The Americans, my interlocutor suspected, are trying to provoke an Iraqi civil war so that Sunni Muslim insurgents spend their energies killing their Shia co-religionists rather than soldiers of the Western occupation forces… “One young Iraqi man told us that he was trained by the Americans as a policeman in Baghdad and he spent 70 per cent of his time learning to drive and 30 per cent in weapons training. They said to him: ‘Come back in a week.’ When he went back, they gave him a mobile phone and told him to drive into a crowded area near a mosque and phone them. He waited in the car but couldn’t get the right mobile signal. So he got out of the car to where he received a better signal. Then his car blew up.”

Impossible, I think to myself. But then I remember how many times Iraqis in Baghdad have told me similar stories.

“There was another man, trained by the Americans for the police. He too was given a mobile and told to drive to an area where there was a crowd - maybe a protest - and to call them and tell them what was happening. Again, his new mobile was not working. So he went to a landline phone and called the Americans and told them: ‘Here I am, in the place you sent me and I can tell you what’s happening here.’ And at that moment there was a big explosion in his car.”

http://www.countercurrents.org/iraq-fisk090506.htm

[Ms. Clio]

14. Yes, I read that Fisk piece, too, thanks for the repost, & the cite to another book I should read

And Riverbend has also said about Baghdad: "The Americans have absolutely no control in these areas. Or maybe they simply don’t want to control the areas because when there’s a clash between Sadr’s militia and another militia in a residential neighborhood, they surround the area and watch things happen." (emphasis mine)

edited to add link: http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2006_08_01_riverbendblog_archive.html#115472425289075262

[Critters2]

11. My asshole congressman can help with this!

His father is the former dictator of Guatemala. He knows all about death squads and suppressing opposition.

Someone get Jerry Weller on the phone!!

edited because the moran who wrote this can't spell "with".