The rise of Iraqi death squads

The New York Times has confirmed that Iraqi security forces have executed hundreds of Sunni men. They have been taken from their homes by men in Iraqi uniforms and either "found dead in ditches or fields, with bullet holes to their temples, acid burns to their skin, and holes in their bodies apparently made by electrical drills. Many have simply vanished".

In January Pentagon officials told Seymour Hersh that the Pentagon was going to trigger "The Salvador Option"; a strategy involving the training of "death squads" to execute a bloody secret war against "alleged" insurgents. One official told Hersh;

Do you remember the right-wing execution squads in El Salvador? We founded them and we financed them. The objective now is to recruit locals in any area we want. We’re going to be riding with the bad boys.

Ghali Hassan writes that the U.S. continues to indiscriminately attack Sunni cities blanketing the towns, from the ground and from the air, with artillery shells, cluster bombs and napalm bombs with the full knowledge that civilians, particularly women and children, would be killed. After the shelling, the Marines entered the city to fight those who were still alive. Humanitarian aides and medical supplies were prevented from entering the town, in gross violations of international law and the Geneva Conventions.


Qaim last 29 August, a thriving town of 150,000 people in western Iraq, they cordoned it off, cut electricity, water and food supplies. Then they indiscriminately and disproportionately blanketed the town, from the ground and from the air, with artillery shells, cluster bombs and napalm bombs with the full knowledge that civilians, particularly women and children, would be killed.

The cities of Qaim and Tel Afar have been decimated and hundreds of innocent people killed. Iraqi news reports revealed, "'scores of casualties' due to indiscriminate bombing" by U.S. forces. Paralleling the atrocities committed in other towns and cities, all of which savagely attacked and destroyed the entire population of Tel Afar are now 'ethnically cleansed' refugees.

Virtually everything we see and hear about the war is mere rhetoric and spin. The White House strategy can come to no good end. Congressman Murtha has stood up and told the truth, but he is mighty lonely in that position.