Is the U.S. Training Iraqi Death Squads to Fight the Insurgency?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/01/1526201


Bush has repeatedly linked a U.S. withdrawal to improvements in the capability of Iraqi forces. But the mainstream media has recently detailed the existence of death squads within the largely Shiite police and special commandos.

Operating through or with the Iraqi security forces, these militias have abducted, tortured and executed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Sunnis. The New York Times reported Tuesday "Some Sunni males have been found dead in ditches and fields, with bullet holes in their temples, acid burns on their skin, and holes in their bodies apparently made by electric drills. Many have simply vanished."

At a Pentagon press conference on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was questioned about the death squads.


Pentagon press conference, November 29

Q: Mr. Secretary, are you concerned over -- and in fact, is the United States looking into growing reports of uniformed death squads in Iraq perhaps assassinating and torturing hundreds of Sunnis? And if that's true, what would that say about stability in Iraq?

SEC. RUMSFELD: I'm not going to comment on hypothetical questions. I've not seen reports that hundreds are being killed by roving death squads at all. We know for a fact that it's a violent country. We know for a fact that there have been various militias. We know that there have been some militias that have been Iran-oriented. We also know there's been some militias in the north that have been very helpful. The Peshmerga have been very constructive in what they've done. But I'm not going to get into speculation like that.

Q: But, sir, that's not a hypothetical, I don't believe. The Sunnis themselves are charging that hundreds have been assassinated, people shot in the head, found in alleys.

SEC. RUMSFELD: What you're talking about are unverified -- to my knowledge, at least -- unverified comments. I just don't have any data from the field that I could comment on in a specific way.

[hobbit709]

1. I think it's to perpetuate it

thereby giving the neocons the excuse to stay there and cause more death and destruction.

[Mojambo]

2. Negroponte finally getting down to business over there, eh? n/t

[Disturbed]

3. It had to be asked but does anyone expect Rumsfailed,

a War Criminal, to reply honestly?

[madokie]

4. yea he is, when he came aboard so did the mention of death squads

he should still be in jail from his shit in south america