Shia killers rake in £500,000 a day from crime, says US

[ECH1969]

Shia militias behind widespread sectarian killings in Baghdad are earning at least £500,000 a day through criminal enterprises, the US military believes.

The groups, which are accused of operating death squads to terrorise the city's Sunni population, are therefore able to spend freely on weapons, pay salaries to the militiamen who carry out the murders and buy the loyalty of the Shia population by funding social welfare programmes.

Lt Col William Brown, an intelligence officer whose job is to monitor the militias in east Baghdad, estimated that Shia groups raised at least $1 million (£530,000) a day through organised crime. The money came "especially from kidnappings, extortion, black marketeering and blackmail".

Thousands of Iraqis have been kidnapped since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Payments of $50,000 are routinely demanded and paid. Many people are killed even after the ransom is paid. Sadr's control over his militiamen seems to be weakening, with reports of a number of his followers operating independently.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/22/wiraq22.xml

[FloridaPat]

1. How much is Halliburton making a day? I think the Shias are making

more. Does * know this? He can give the Shias gov't contracts. How is there so much money in Iraq not in the hands of the defense contractors?

[saigon68]

11. Halliburton Killers make $10,000,000.00 a day

LOL

[marmar]

2. Halliburton gets that for one round of TV dinners it serves the troops...

Pot, meet kettle.

[nealmhughes]

3. Two Points: A. Telegraph. B. One LtCol who estimates...

To me that means "Ooh, the Iranians/Shiite militias not only do not love Jesus, their feet stink and they are in the Mafia!" without having to say it...

[HuffleClaw]

4. nice propaganda

a million bucks a day is nothing compared to what BushCo. is making.

[leesa]

5. So who's paying them that much? Who has that much money over there?

It would seem the bilk of their income would be coming from the US and their affiliates since they are the ones with the money.

[oncall247]

6. So, while we hate Iran using Shia, it's ok for the US to use them as

hit squads. In his message to the UN Ahmadinejad spoke about overt and covert use of the Iraq militas. Are those operating independently really operating on behalf of the US?

[T_i_B]

7. Shia killers rake in £500,000 a day from crime, says US

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/22/wiraq22.xml

Shia militias behind widespread sectarian killings in Baghdad are earning at least £500,000 a day through criminal enterprises, the US military believes.

The groups, which are accused of operating death squads to terrorise the city's Sunni population, are therefore able to spend freely on weapons, pay salaries to the militiamen who carry out the murders and buy the loyalty of the Shia population by funding social welfare programmes.

Although it was known that the Shia militias were closely linked with crime, this is the first time that the scale of the their financial resources has been detailed. Both the Iraqi and American governments have said that the disbandment of the militias is a prerequisite for restoring law and order.

Lt Col William Brown, an intelligence officer whose job is to monitor the militias in east Baghdad, estimated that Shia groups raised at least $1 million (£530,000) a day through organised crime. The money came "especially from kidnappings, extortion, black marketeering and blackmail".

[sabra]

8. I just read this article, it's quite disturbing.

[saigon68]

9. Lt Col William Brown smokes lots of crack and is looking for incubators

That these guys are kicking around.

THIS IS MILITARY PROPAGANDA FOLKS.

[AlamoDemoc]

10. We are the occupiers, hence we are complicit in all of this

The United Nation's special investigator on torture said Thursday that torture may now be worse in Iraq that it was during the regime of deposed leader Saddam Hussein. The Associated Press reports that Manfred Nowak, who was making a brief to the United Nations Human Rights Council about the treatment of detainees at the US prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, said the torture situation in Iraq was "totally out of hand."

"The situation is so bad many people say it is worse than it has been in the times of Saddam Hussein." Nowak added, "That means something, because the torture methods applied under Saddam Hussein were the worst you could imagine."

[barb162]

12. Isn't that like saying if cops can't stop gangland killings

they are complicit in the killings?

The logic is incorrect there.

[AlamoDemoc]

13. did you read the article?

when majority of Iraqis feel they were tortured less under Saddam, is rather profound statement, don't you agree?

[barb162]

14. Did you read the article? You're avoiding the point

The US isn't killing and torturing (and neither are the cops in the analogy in my previous post)

The US is NOT complicit in this. The killers are.

[AlamoDemoc]

16. "The US isn't killing and torturing"

you are not serous, are you? I better recommend a reading material here....how about...hmmmm...Madame De Sevinge..selected letters? hmmmm, that should satisfy your knowledge on the subject.

[BlueJackal]

15. I don't think al-Sadr's losing control of his militia so much as......

some of his thugs are doing a little deal here and there on the side. But when al-Sadr says jump, his little bitches say how far. This may be another pro-war campaign by elements of the Pentagon who want to make it look like al-Sadr, and enemy of ours, is weakening and only us, the great America, can save Iraq. I'm actually quite shocked Bush and company can just sit there quietly and not say anything and get away with it with all those Americans dying over there daily. It's fucking sick.