WAR: Pentagon Mulls Forming Death Squads To Target Insurgency Leaders

Originally posted by xpert11
That would happen if you didnt give the squads enough training and rushed them into action for political reasons.

Thats the problem. Do you think that they will train these groups to the extent neccesary? I doubt it. They will round up as many cutthroats as they can and turn them loose. That sems to be Wolfowitz's style

In July, 2000. it was made near impossible to touch death squads running all over the globe. The law........

effectively shield the activities of foreign death squads, torturers and kidnappers from public scrutiny and would greatly undermine the efforts of official truth commissions – many of which have been aided by the declassification of such records – to clarify responsibility for human rights violations.

www2.gwu.edu...

It amazes me how our American gov dances around sanctioned exicutions, but allows these death squads to do what they wont. I guess our government wants someone else to do the dirty work for them.

[edit on 1/10/05 by Kidfinger]

Thats the problem. Do you think that they will train these groups to the extent neccesary? I doubt it. They will round up as many cutthroats as they can and turn them loose. That sems to be Wolfowitz's style
The sad thing is that people in power never learn. As usual they will see the short term gain and blame the long term failuare on the Iraqis for " not fighting for there freedom."

Thinking about it, huh. Seems kind of too late when it has been in place for a day or two.

As controversial as this may seem to some, the fact is that these type "death squads" do work and would be effective, if implemented in Iraq. The insurgents and terrorist (inside Iraq and moving into Iraq) only understand death: theirs in the fashion of suicide targeting and ours.
The Israelis do not necessarily have "death squads" but what they do do is target the terrorist groups leadership. The practice (the strategy and practice) seems to have been quite effective in reducing the number of suicide attacks. Personally, if these type squads are used to target the insurgetn and terrorist leadership's in Iraq, the message is being sent. One way or the other, stabilization of and in Iraq will have to be at the forefront, and one possible, yet controversial way, would be the implementation of such type squads to hit insurgent and terrorist cells and their respective leadership. In this applied application, in effect, they are overdue in implimentation.

IMHO though, they should be put on hold and allow current policies to take hold. Once the Iraqis have voted in their new 'temporary' government, since another election will be held in a year after, they will undoubtedly seek to impliment their own versions of such squads, and target the remaining insurgents and terrorists within country.



seekerof

In relation to the primary article given initially in this topic thread and a subsequent story issued by Newsweek, the below article may be of interest to many that responded to this topic thread?
The Iraqi "Death Squads" Myth




seekerof

Seekerof,

Your article does not refute that this administration is going to sanction death squads. You better read it agian. Also take into consideration that it is a partisan article. Very slanted.

For those that havent read the article, it goes on to talk about how the United States was 'so appalled' at the El Salvadorian government for using death squads. THen it gives a brief description of then Vice President Bush's secret flight to El Salvador to talk to thier government and demand them to stop


The death squads being formed in Iraq are being dubbed the Salvador option because El Salvador used them to great success, NOT because America supported it.

[edit on 1/12/05 by Kidfinger]

[edit on 1/12/05 by Kidfinger]

Originally posted by Seekerof
In relation to the primary article given initially in this topic thread and a subsequent story issued by Newsweek, the below article may be of interest to many that responded to this topic thread?
The Iraqi "Death Squads" Myth




seekerof

Sounds like they're really trying to spin this to look like the US support was entirely peaceful but other documents out there seem to dipute that.

Many of the people in El Salvador who committed atrocities were trained at the School of the Americas and the recieved torture manuals from the US.

pbs.org: SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS
REP. JOE MOAKLEY: No, I'm not convinced at all. When I was assigned to chair the commission investigating the killing of the six Jesuits and the housekeeper and the daughter in El Salvador I was shocked to find out that 19 of the 26 soldiers indicted were graduates of the School of the Americas. Then I find that people that suspected of killing the Bishop while saying mass -- were graduates of school of the America. Four church women raped, sodomized, killed, connected to graduates of School of the Americas. The graduates, some graduates of the School of Americas have committed the most heinous crimes, the worst atrocities in Central and South America and I just think it's gone too far and it should be closed.

Irregardless
Its apparent that 'messages' are open to interpretation, kind of like scripture, huh, Kidfinger and AceofBase?

I also think that both of you, as others, have failed to understand and comprehend the word: "mulls" as in "mulling"?

There is no proof of such taking place in Iraq, etc. Just as there is no proof that this plan will become reality.

The article asserts:

Take an anonymous Pentagon leak from a “high level military officer,” add an appalling lack of knowledge of history, and compound it with ignorance of special warfare tactics. This process describes the article published by Newsweek breathlessly revealing that a “desperate” Defense Secretary Rumsfeld is “considering” employing the “Salvadoran option” to thwart the “growing quagmire” of the Iraq War. This terrible option, reports Newsweek, was used effectively in the counter-guerrilla wars in El Salvador in the early 1980s. It involves U.S. special operations forces leading indigenous “death squads” to root out and kill or capture enemy military and political leaders. In a backs-against-the-wall-with-all-guns-blazing reporting style, the article suggests that, once exercised, this method might win the war but implies that the cost in innocent life could be horrific.
This is utter nonsense.

Link given in my post prior to this one.

The plan is a non-factualized, non-verified proposal, an idea, and is definately worthy of consideration and "mulling".
As to its actuality, that remains to be seen, huh?





seekerof

[edit on 12-1-2005 by Seekerof]

I never said it was happenning right now. I think there is a possibility it could be going on and we just dont know about it though.

If we are so agianst not doing this, then why did we pass laws that makes it acceptable? Go back to post #1078339 and read the link provided.

In my opinion, this is a very bad idea!

Although in the short term this will prove beneficial, it will allow these people to be trained to protect themselves without any loss to our own forces, we are in fact training these people our own methods and therefore how they can fight the people who taught them.

This method had been adopted back during the first Gulf War where special forces supplied weapons to Iraq to fight Iran only to have them use our training and weapons against us.

Also, US forces have apparently been accused of training Haitian Rebels in Dominican Republic
www.iacenter.org...

Also, read this as these are most likeley the poeple that will be involved in this.. (part of which states that they are training the people they had previously been fighting (12th paragraph)
An unconventional soldier


What this shows is that the political stance of a country can change for the better, but also for the worse and if this occurs, then not only will we be fighting against people in there own country as were are now, but also with the same skills, weapons and training...

"The United States became the sole representative of the West after 1972, when Great Britain, poor and humbled, could no longer afford to maintain a full military force in the region. Anxious to protect oil supplies from the Soviet Union, Washington propped up the Shah of Iran and the Saudi Arabian government in the ill-fated "Twin Pillars" strategy. This ended with the Iranian revolution, leaving America with a messy patchwork of military and political detritus. When Iran went to war with Iraq, the U.S. supported Saddam Hussein to prevent Iran from winning. Anxious about Soviet incursions into Afghanistan, it propped up the Taliban. These two monstrous forces--Saddam and the Taliban--are very much an American creation."
Why Middle Eastern Terrorists hate the United States - William O. Beeman

For instance, the Iraqi Regular Army Soldiers have now graduated from Basic Training, many of these people had friends and family who were killed by the people who have now trained them... this in my opinion is a little disturbing..

Iraqi Regular Army Soldiers Graduate From Basic Training

The proof is in the punch and this is why we are always taught that history is a valuable lesson as to how we tackle the future...