Khamenei says U.S. is destabilizing Iraq

[leftchick]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061128/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_iraq

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday accused the United States of destabilizing Iraq through hired "terrorists" and former members of Saddam Hussein's regime.

In a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Khamenei pledged that Iran would do all it can to use its influence among Iraq's Shiite Muslims to quell the violence, according to a state television report.

"The main reason for the current situation in Iraq is America's policies," the television quoted Khamenei as telling Talabani, who is on the final day of a two-day visit.

"Those (the Americans) who plotted against Iraq, and whose plans have not materialized, are intent on destabilizing the situation. Their agents on the ground are terrorists, the excommunicated and former Baathists," the television quoted Khamenei as saying.

[oblivious]

1. Jan 10, 2005: El Salvador-style 'death squads' to be deployed by US against Iraq militants

El Salvador-style 'death squads' to be deployed by US against Iraq militants
THE Pentagon is considering forming hit squads of Kurdish and Shia fighters to target leaders of the Iraqi insurgency in a strategic shift borrowed from the American struggle against left-wing guerrillas in Central America 20 years ago.

Under the so-called “El Salvador option”, Iraqi and American forces would be sent to kill or kidnap insurgency leaders, even in Syria, where some are thought to shelter.

The plans are reported in this week’s Newsweek magazine as part of Pentagon efforts to get US forces in Iraq on to the front foot against an enemy that is apparently getting the better of them.

Iyad Allawi, the interim Iraqi Prime Minister, was said to be one of the most vigorous supporters of the plan.

...John Negroponte, the US Ambassador in Baghdad, had a front-row seat at the time as Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-85.

...The thrust of the Pentagon proposal in Iraq, according to Newsweek, is to follow that model and direct US special forces teams to advise, support and train Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shia militiamen to target leaders of the Sunni insurgency.

It is unclear whether the main aim of the missions would be to assassinate the rebels or kidnap them and take them away for interrogation. Any mission in Syria would probably be undertaken by US Special Forces.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1433353,00.html

[MasonJar]

2. Well, duh! You just now noticing, Mr K.?

[oblivious]

3. ‘The Salvador Option’

‘The Salvador Option’
...one Pentagon proposal would send Special Forces teams to advise, support and possibly train Iraqi squads, most likely hand-picked Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shiite militiamen, to target Sunni insurgents and their sympathizers, even across the border into Syria, according to military insiders familiar with the discussions. It remains unclear, however, whether this would be a policy of assassination or so-called "snatch" operations, in which the targets are sent to secret facilities for interrogation. The current thinking is that while U.S. Special Forces would lead operations in, say, Syria, activities inside Iraq itself would be carried out by Iraqi paramilitaries, officials tell NEWSWEEK.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6802629/site/newsweek/
http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/010905V.shtml

Bush's 'Death Squads'

By Robert Parry
January 11, 2005

Other current officials who played key roles in Central America include Elliott Abrams, who oversaw Central American policies at the State Department and who is now a Middle East adviser on Bush’s National Security Council staff, and Vice President Dick Cheney, who was a powerful defender of the Central American policies while a member of the House of Representatives.

The insurgencies in El Salvador and Guatemala were crushed through the slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians. In Guatemala, about 200,000 people perished, including what a truth commission later termed a genocide against Mayan Indians in the Guatemalan highlands. In El Salvador, about 70,000 died including massacres of whole villages, such as the slaughter carried out by a U.S.-trained battalion against hundreds of men, women and children in and around the town of El Mozote in 1981.

The Reagan-Bush strategy also had a domestic component, the so-called “perception management” operation that employed sophisticated propaganda to manipulate the fears of the American people while hiding the ugly reality of the wars. The Reagan-Bush administration justified its actions in Central America by portraying the popular uprisings as an attempt by the Soviet Union to establish a beachhead in the Americas to threaten the U.S. southern border.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/011105.html

[Coventina]

4. Wow! He should change his name to "Captain Obvious"

:eyes:

[Double T]

5. bushco took a bad situation in Iraq and actually made IT a lot worse........

'WE' have ALL known that for SEVERAL YEARS.