Saddam general, son found dead after arrest by Iraq commandos

[Barrett808]

BAGHDAD - A former general in Saddam Hussein’s army and his son were found shot dead in Baghdad after being detained by police commandos, an interior ministry official told AFP Saturday, raising new question marks over the discipline of the elite force.

Akram Ahmed Rasul Al Bayati, a major general in the old regime’s disbanded military, was arrested at his east Baghdad home last Sunday along with two of his sons — Ali, a policeman, and Omar, the official said.

Omar was later released and one of his uncle’s offered to pay 7,000 dollars for the release of the other two. The money was handed over Friday afternoon, said the official, asking not to be identified.

Later in the evening, the uncle went to the Talaba district where his brother and nephew were to be released.

The general and his son, along with a third unidentified man, arrived in a civilian car, were taken out onto the street and shot dead, the official said.

(more)

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2005/July/focusoniraq_July84.xml§ion=focusoniraq

[xultar]

1. Same shit different government.

[joemurphy]

2. So much for bringing democracy to the Middle East n/t

[saigon68]

11. "BRING EM ON" shouted the AWOL CHIMPANZEE

[IndianaGreen]

3. Looks like Pontenegro's death squads are earning their pay!

It also shows how the US media continues to remain silent to the horrors we have unleashed in Iraq.

The London bombings are a direct consequence of the terrorism we are carrying out in Iraq!

[gulfcoastliberal]

4. Negroponte got the death squads up & running in no time...

I heard something on NPR about these death squads (not that NPR called them that) and I believe it is the "Wolf Brigade". They torture and kill with impunity.

[Cocoa]

5. Salvador Option n/t

[IndianaGreen]

6. CIA death squads operating in Iraq

There are several articles on the web about how then Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi and US Ambassador John Negroponte decided to implement the Salvadoran Option in Iraq. It began with CIA hit squads, but then it continued with the US hiring former members of Saddam's secret police to form the new commandos. Here is but one of those articles, which I believe it is the earliest article WSWS published about death squads in Iraq, notice the date, a month after the fall of Baghdad.

CIA death squads operating in Iraq
By Henry Michaels
8 April 2003

The longer the Iraq war continues, the more Orwellian the language and the more sinister the methods adopted by the Bush administration and its allies. While President Bush and his officials depict Iraqis resisting the US-led invasion as “terrorists” and “death squads,” CIA and Special Forces assassination squads are at work in Iraq, seeking to eliminate Iraqi leaders and other opponents of the US occupation of the country.

In the language of the White House and Pentagon, the thousands of Iraqi citizens in plainclothes—whether ordinary people, militia members or soldiers—who are resisting the invading forces in any way they can, are “war criminals.” But the undercover US hit squads and other military-intelligence operatives roaming throughout Iraq in civilian clothes, terrorizing the population, are “heroes” in the cause of democracy and liberation.

While the Western media has largely blacked coverage of the US killers, one report in the Canadian National Post last week briefly mentioned the presence of special operations troops in civilian clothes as US Marines reached southern Baghdad. “Special forces were also out in large numbers in their distinctive fighting gear, which includes baseball caps, jeans, expensive sunglasses and specially adapted rifles,” it noted.

There is a fundamental difference between the Iraqis who are defending their country and the US, British and Australian special operations units that are operating secretly, often in civilian disguise. Whereas the Iraqis are legitimately targeting Allied military personnel for ambushes, sniper fire and surprise bombings, the US-led squads are illegally hunting down civilians and government figures, sabotaging civilian facilities and arming selected local thugs to execute reprisals, flouting the international laws of war.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/apr2003/cia-a08.shtml

[madrchsod]

7. democracy squads

spreading joy and piece one murder at a time...

[pfitz59]

10. "Democracy Squads"...yep.....!

"We're bringing Freedom and Democracy to the Middle East, whether they want it or not!" Negroponte is an evil, dirty man. His is the face of the ugliest American, the one the rest of the world sees. US citizens are treated to the laughing hyena and his "Rove"-ing band of jackals, but the world sees Negroponte and the evil dead! Our nation may never recover from the ongoing debacle. (Could the "American experiment" be over?)

[Xipe Totec]

8. Spreading Democracy With a Jackboot

like a ripe dog turd on a hot summer day.

And we wonder why they hate us.

[JNelson6563]

9. There's two more who won't tell any tales

;-)