Is this a sign of negroponte work or what?

[madokie]

Another 60 bodies found in Baghdad
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061010/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Authorities found the mutilated bodies of 60 men in Baghdad in the 24 hours ending Tuesday morning, likely the latest victims of the sectarian death squads that roam the capital.

The bullet-riddled bodies all had their hands and feet bound and showed signs of torture — hallmarks of death-squad killings, police 1st Lt. Mohamed Khayon said.

The victims were from 20 to 50 years old, and their bodies had been dumped in several neighborhoods

Sectarian death squads have killed thousands in recent months and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is coming under increased pressure to find an end to the violence.

[Kagemusha]

1. I'm sure Iran's quite capable of teaching torture to death squads too.

No need to give Negroponte a monopoly on the tactic.

[madokie]

2. if I remember correct along with negroponte came the death squads

maybe it is only my recollection of it but I wasn't reading anything much about death squads before he hit the scene.

[EFerrari]

4. Your recollection is correct. n/t

[Jazzgirl]

7. madokie, right after negroponte got there the death squads

showed up. I thought shades of Nicaragua......Interesting how history repeats itself.

[madokie]

15. that is my justification of agreeing that along with negroponte came

the death squads. I understand that some of it was already going on and that the participants have to be willing but he brought it to the front and center. imo :+

[hootinholler]

3. Oh, yeah, that's right I forgot about Iran...

Providing the hit squad know-how in El Salvidor.

-Hoot

[EFerrari]

6. What evidence do you have that Iran is implementing

the Salvador Solution?

[Kagemusha]

11. All the death squad suspicion falls on either the Badr Corps or Mahdi Army

Yeah well, Iran trained the Badr Corps, in Iran itself, while Badr was an enemy of Saddam during and after the Iran-Iraq war. That's why, when the US invaded Iraq in 2003, the Badr Corps and its political umbrella organization, SCIRI, were ready and able to go in and quickly become the prime militia in Iraq representing the interests of well-off Shiites. Negroponte can't make them do anything they don't want to do.

The Mahdi Army, on the other hand, is from the Sadr movement, which is home-grown poor Iraqi Shiite based. Not that Iran doesn't mind spreading weapons and money around for goodwill, especially to the elements that are pulling away from Sadr while Sadr tries to play the political game, but Negroponte doesn't have any control over these guys. They're the ones who killed Cindy Sheehan's son and all. (In an operation his unit was doing on their 'turf'.)

Neither of these cases could be fairly called "Iran implementing the Salvador Solution" but, saying Negroponte is the key architect is ignoring who the hell actually runs these organizations and for what purpose.

Besides, Negroponte's appearance in this coincided broadly with Shiites finally getting firm control of the Interior Ministry etc. The CPA's original US-appointed governing council was carefully designed NOT to allow the Shiites the ability to run death squads. Assuredly, Negroponte had a role in changing that. However, to suggest he is running death squads, any more than Iran might be (because Iran has a lot more street cred), seems to me to be stretching the truth a bit far.

[EFerrari]

12. There is more than one thing happening here, that seems right

to me. But it has been observed by people who watched and covered Central America during those years that the tactics deployed there have migrated to Iraq -- and mostly via the same people.

Imo, the Salvador Solution is now our de facto foreign policy because old felons like Rumsfeld can't learn new tricks.

[madokie]

13. not to me

to suggest he is running death squads, any more than Iran might be (because Iran has a lot more street cred), 'seems to me' to be stretching the truth a bit far.

[rman]

18. Sure, since the CIA taught them

[Kagemusha]

19. So what, Iran's Revolutionary Guards were taught by the Shah's men?

Who were taught by the CIA?

Hey, if that's the case, that's the case. I just don't personally know THAT much about the relationship between all of them. I'm more up to date on the modern stuff like Badr's history as directly relevant to Iraq.

[rman]

20. Knowing the history of these things reveals a pattern

that continues today.

Overthrow, subversion, infiltration, assassination - whatever it takes to remove opposition to Big Money interests (aka "US interests"), and supporting anyone and any group that is supportive of these interests. All under the pretense of freedom and democracy, of course.
A common form of opposition is a democratically elected government that puts its own national interests above US interests.
A common form of support is a military and/or theocratic dictatorship that came to power thanks to CIA covert operations, which is guaranteed to put US interests above the interests of that nation's people.



CIA overthrow of Mossadeq, Iran 1953
A PBS 1987 clip. Excerpt from "The Secret Government". This part is on the CIA overthrow of the popular, democratically elected Prime Minister Mossadeq of Iran in 1953.

"Khomeini is a direct consequence, and the hostage crisis is a direct consequence, and the resurgence of the Shia is a direct consequence of the CIA's overthrow of Mossadeq in 1953."
- Kennett Love, former NYT reporter

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3831662707484145675&q=overthrow

===

CIA overthrow of Guzmán, Guatemala 1954
Operation PBSUCCESS was a CIA-organized covert operation that overthrew the democratically-elected President of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán in 1954.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PBSUCCESS



etcetera (see "subversive documentaries" in my sig)

[Kagemusha]

21. ...Well, I still say Iran has more pull than Negroponte ever will in Iraq

That's not to say Negroponte hasn't encouraged getting dirty with the insurgency. Just I doubt the death squads are doing anything that's inconsistent with their own, Iran-backed agenda.

[rman]

22. What is the agenda of the death squads?

Have they made any statements about what they stand for politically?
For all i know, all they're doing is kill people - they could be anyone.

[Kagemusha]

23. The victims are pretty uniformly Sunni so..

Retaliation, revenge, ethnic cleansing of Bagdhad neighborhoods, these are what people see as the agenda. As that is the definite physical result of the death squad activity, I have a hard time arguing.

The thing is, this activity is pretty automated right now. It's a lot easier to throw the switch on than to turn it off (esp. while a hot Sunni insurgency is ongoing, which forces the victimized civilian Sunni population into the arms of the insurgents, which suits them just FINE).

[Hubert Flottz]

5. Taskforce 121

MOVING TARGETS

Will the counter-insurgency plan in Iraq repeat the mistakes of Vietnam?

by SEYMOUR M. HERSH

The Bush Administration has authorized a major escalation of the Special Forces covert war in Iraq. In interviews over the past month, American officials and former officials said that the main target was a hard-core group of Baathists who are believed to be behind much of the underground insurgency against the soldiers of the United States and its allies. A new Special Forces group, designated Task Force 121, has been assembled from Army Delta Force members, Navy seals, and C.I.A. paramilitary operatives, with many additional personnel ordered to report by January. Its highest priority is the neutralization of the Baathist insurgents, by capture or assassination.

The revitalized Special Forces mission is a policy victory for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who has struggled for two years to get the military leadership to accept the strategy of what he calls “Manhunts”—a phrase that he has used both publicly and in internal Pentagon communications. Rumsfeld has had to change much of the Pentagon’s leadership to get his way. “Knocking off two regimes allows us to do extraordinary things,” a Pentagon adviser told me, referring to Afghanistan and Iraq.

One step the Pentagon took was to seek active and secret help in the war against the Iraqi insurgency from Israel, America’s closest ally in the Middle East. According to American and Israeli military and intelligence officials, Israeli commandos and intelligence units have been working closely with their American counterparts at the Special Forces training base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and in Israel to help them prepare for operations in Iraq. Israeli commandos are expected to serve as ad-hoc advisers—again, in secret—when full-field operations begin. (Neither the Pentagon nor Israeli diplomats would comment. “No one wants to talk about this,” an Israeli official told me. “It’s incendiary. Both governments have decided at the highest level that it is in their interests to keep a low profile on U.S.-Israeli coöperation” on Iraq.) The critical issue, American and Israeli officials agree, is intelligence. There is much debate about whether targeting a large number of individuals is a practical—or politically effective—way to bring about stability in Iraq, especially given the frequent failure of American forces to obtain consistent and reliable information there.

Americans in the field are trying to solve that problem by developing a new source of information: they plan to assemble teams drawn from the upper ranks of the old Iraqi intelligence services and train them to penetrate the insurgency. The idea is for the infiltrators to provide information about individual insurgents for the Americans to act on. A former C.I.A. station chief described the strategy in simple terms: “U.S. shooters and Iraqi intelligence.” He added, “There are Iraqis in the intelligence business who have a better idea, and we’re tapping into them. We have to resuscitate Iraqi intelligence, holding our nose, and have Delta and agency shooters break down doors and take them”—the insurgents—“out.” MORE...

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/031215fa_fact

These guys have been at their bloody work for a long time now...

[acmejack]

8. Yikes!

Good catch, Hubert. Negroponte is a such a disgusting blot on the US. One of the bioggest things W did that piussed me off was bringing all these criminals back into the Government.

[annabanana]

9. The article is devoid of information.

Without knowing if the victims were Sunni or Shi'a or Kurd..or from which Shi'a army.. or whatever, we really can't tell anything from this article except that there are more people dead. We can also make a pretty good case for the supposition that they might be alive except for our invasion.

[PhilYerHead]

10. Negroponte is a criminal! IRAN/CONTRA, and "we" let them get

away with this?

[madokie]

14. he should be in jail still, not our intelligence czar

[Bandit]

16. Seems like everywhere Negroponte goes Death Squads follow

Just can't figure it out..:shrug:

[oc2002]

17. An entire police brigade was dissmised because they WHERE DEATH SQUADS.

This has already been reported as fact.