Who is Faik Bakir and why has he fled Iraq?

He is the director of the Baghdad morgue. According to this article, he has fled Iraq because he is

in fear of his life after reporting that more than 7,000 people have been killed by death squads in recent months, the outgoing head of the UN human rights office in Iraq has disclosed.

Most of the dead have their hands tied and are shot in the head, execution-style, although some have been executed with an electric drill. Messy, but it must save on bullets, although you have to have a cordless. You couldn't run a mains power drill in Baghdad - the electricity just isn't reliable enough, unless you live in the Green Zone.

And who are these death squads? They seem to be linked to the Ministry of the Interior. And the link gives evidence that they're backed by the US.

This is almost certainly the guy who talked to Robert Fisk, who reported on this some time ago. The story keeps building and it won't go away. Has anyone in the US heard anything about it on the mainstream news?

And according to this article by John Pilger,

Although the Reagan administration spawned the current Bu#es, or "neo-cons", the pattern was set earlier. In Vietnam, death squads trained, armed and directed by the CIA murdered up to 50,000 people in Operation Phoenix. In the mid-1960s in Indonesia CIA officers compiled "death lists" for General Suharto's killing spree during his seizure of power. After the 2003 invasion, it was only a matter of time before this venerable "policy" was applied in Iraq.

According to the investigative writer Max Fuller (National Review Online), the key CIA manager of the interior ministry death squads "cut his teeth in Vietnam before moving on to direct the US military mission in El Salvador". Professor Grandin names another central America veteran whose job now is to "train a ruthless counter-insurgent force made up of ex-Ba'athist thugs". Another, says Fuller, is well-known for his "production of death lists". A secret militia run by the Americans is the Facilities Protection Service, which has been responsible for bombings. "The British and US Special Forces," concludes Fuller, "in conjunction with the [US-created] intelligence services at the Iraqi defence ministry, are fabricating insurgent bombings of Shias."

Which links, for those who didn't see it, to an earlier thread that goes into a little more detail.

Oh, and nice Orwellian detail - the Facilities Protection Service being responsible for bombings. Good one, quite my favourite since "operation Restore Democracy" - richly ironic for those who know the history of that little adventure.

Originally posted by rich23
They seem to be linked to the Ministry of the Interior. And the link gives evidence that they're backed by the US.

Really, supported and sanctioned by the US? "THEY" implies what, rich23? Would this imply ALL the death squads operating in Iraq or just a few that the U.S. does back? I mean geez, rich23, your mention above, as with some other non-mainstream and mainstream news sources, make these 'absolute' decrees, assertions, and blanket statements of blame, but is the U.S. backing ALL like death squads in Iraq or could it be that there are some simply operated by sectarian leaders that are not backed by the U.S.? Btw, you have a list of ALL the death squads operating in Iraq? If not, then how do you know which and if ALL are backed by the U.S.? Cause apparently, not ALL those death squads operating in Iraq are backed by the U.S., as indicated below:

Iraq has launched an investigation into claims by the US military that an Iraqi interior ministry "death squad" has been targeting Sunni Arab Iraqis.

The probe comes after a US general revealed the arrest of 22 policemen allegedly on a mission to kill a Sunni.

"We have found one of the death squads. They are part of the police force," US Maj Gen Joseph Peterson said.
Iraq 'death squad caught in act'

The follow-up story by the BBC:
Iraqi death squads 'not police'

Washington Posts article on this matter, which stipulates:

Many of the death squads are run by the Badr Organization, which is the military wing of the leading party in Iraq's Shiite-led government, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Its leader, Abdul Aziz Hakim, not only refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing in an interview last month with the Post's Ellen Knickmeyer, but asserted that U.S. forces were tying Iraqi hands and should get out of the way so that even tougher tactics could be adopted.
Iraq's Death Squads

An alleged U.S. backed 'death squad':
Profile: Iraq's Wolf Brigade
Wolf Brigade
Iraq's Wolf Brigade Said to Be Effective, at Times Brutal

Could some of those roving Iraqi death squads be associated with or be remnants of Saddam's Fedayeen's or "Saddam's Martyrs" and in doing their selective 'targeting', they are framing or blaming the U.S.?
DoD Details Iraqi Death Squads - War Progress
Rumsfeld: Saddam's 'Death Squads' Preventing More Iraqi Surrenders
Saddam denounces Shia' Death Squads
Saddams death squad
2003: IRAQI DEATH SQUADS

Further, lets not forget that the Sunni and Shia' have long had their own operating death squads, as well.

So, in short, it appears that "THEY," those 'Death Squads,' are not ALL U.S. creations nor are they ALL supported by the U.S.






seekerof

[edit on 4-5-2006 by Seekerof]

Although some of the US troop commanders may not know it, this Newsday article makes clear that these brigades are trained by James Steele, a CIA operative who was responsible for atrocities in El Salvador:

In the past year, the U.S. military has helped build up the commandos under guidance from James Steele, a former Army Special Forces officer who led U.S. counterinsurgency efforts in El Salvador in the 1980s. Salvadoran army units trained by Steele's team were accused of a pattern of atrocities.

And yes, we knew Saddam had death squads. Big deal. One of the reasons that the US gave for 'liberating' Iraq was to remove Saddam and get rid of the death squads and torturers. But now it seems that James Steele is recruiting them and sending them out to remove problem people (SOP in counter-insurgency work: remember that Operation Phoenix was responsible for over 1/4m deaths) and sow dissension between Sunnis and Shias who had hitherto been living in harmony according to an actual Iraqi blogger:

I read constantly analyses mostly written by foreigners or Iraqis who’ve been abroad for decades talking about how there was always a divide between Sunnis and Shia in Iraq (which, ironically, only becomes apparent when you're not actually living amongst Iraqis they claim)… but how under a dictator, nobody saw it or nobody wanted to see it. That is simply not true- if there was a divide, it was between the fanatics on both ends. The extreme Shia and extreme Sunnis. Most people simply didn’t go around making friends or socializing with neighbors based on their sect. People didn't care- you could ask that question, but everyone would look at you like you were silly and rude.
It was years later before I learned that half the family were [Sunni], and the other half were [Shiite], but nobody cared. We didn’t sit around during family reunions or family dinners and argue Sunni Islam or Shia Islam. The family didn’t care about how this cousin prayed with his hands at his side and that one prayed with her hands folded across her stomach. Many Iraqis of my generation have that attitude. We were brought up to believe that people who discriminated in any way- positively or negatively- based on sect or ethnicity were backward, uneducated and uncivilized.

So, in short, it appears that "THEY," those 'Death Squads,' are not ALL U.S. creations nor are they ALL supported by the U.S.

Well, even you admit in that quotation that at least some are supported by the US. Iran has its hooks into Iraq, of course: but the man who's sitting in the Interior Ministry training and equipping death squads is James Steele, who is connected to previous atrocities. And the purpose is simple: the game plan is now to partition Iraq, the better to secure the extraction of the oil. This is why Iraqi policemen volunteers are being used by the US as unwitting suicide bombers to provoke civil war.

"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."

If Iraq is intact in two years' time I shall be very surprised. My guess is the oil-rich part will form some sort of Kurdish enclave.