Death Squad Shuffle?

[gottaB]

Yesterday the Honorable John Negroponte was confirmed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to be Ambassador to Iraq.

Negroponte has been accused of promoting, condoning, or minimally papering over the activities of death squads during his tenure as Ambassador to Honduras. All old news. Said Negroponte to the Senate FRC, "I do not believe that death squads were operating in Honduras." Good answer, apparently.

Anyway, some have asked whether the reason why Negroponte was chosen for the Iraq mission has to do with his unique skills in abetting or hushing-up reports of death squad activities (e.g., Negroponte, a Torturer's Friend).

But wait. There's no evidence of death squads being active in Iraq, is there?

Bwahahaha.

People, let me tell you.

1. US contractor recruits guards for Iraq in Chile
   
2. US military in torture scandal
   
3. Iraq Victim Was Top-Secret Apartheid Killer
   

Let me ask you all this. When you hear that one civilian was killed by insurgents, and that another civilian was freed by insurgent captors, do you suspect that the insurgency has a pretty good handle on who's really a civilian, and who's a paramilitary thug? Are they better informed than we, the US citezenry? Wow. How could that be? We have a free press, transparency in government, a system of checks and balances....Don't we?

[gottaB]

1. Death Squads: Policy or Paranoia?

Which is it?

[gottaB]

2. Last time before slinking off to Jerry Fletcher land

anybody?

[gottaB]

3. abberations or modus operandi?

Abuse of Iraqis may have been ordered by US intelligence:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x523093

[whatelseisnew]

4. A mysterious group was killing al sadr's militia men in Najaf last week

I don't have a link

[gottaB]

5. Thulfiqar Army?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1477503

There was another story about possibly Sistani's militia assassinating young Mahdis in Najaf? And Sadr's spokesman last week accused the US of using peshmurga to do its dirty work. But I haven't seen much beyond rumor and speculation.

Juan Cole tracks this pretty well.

http://www.juancole.com

[gottaB]

6. Good morning Conspiracy Nuts, Vigilant Citizens alike

Several recent news items bolster my argument.

1. The captors of non-uniformed foreigners in Iraq appear to distinguish between paramilitary combatants and true civilians.

1a. The "no longer being a captive" of Thomas Hamill. Perhaps he is just a truck driver. The sad truth is that corporate media cannot be trusted to make that determination.

2b. The disclosure that the four Italian captives had been heavily armed hours prior to their capture, until they were disarmed by US forces. Why were they disarmed? Details are sketchy. Know this: Fabrizio Quattrocchi, the captive who was executed, was packing a lot of heat for a baker. No, he wasn't even a baker. At minimum, to describe his use of deadly weapons, one could say he was a "security guard," although the actual situation of his employment remains unclear. (See my earlier post on Quattrocchi's captors, the Green Battalion).


2. The Assassination of intellectuals (See this post from lbn, Death to those who dare to speak out). Well, that's exactly the kind of thing paramilitary death squads do. Sometimes you will see people defend the activities of security guards, mercenaries and even assassins becuase, it will be said, they perform a useful military function. Killing people who express their thoughts also meets military objectives. That doesn't make it valid, decent, or acceptable s.o.p. It's a specious argument. It leads away from the truth, which is that intellectuals in Iraq are being terrorized by as yet unidentified paramilitary forces.

As the facade on the occupation crumbles, it becomes clear that the US is using paramilitary death squads to meet some of its objectives in Iraq, and that the decision to deploy these resources is not emerging organically from the anarchic unrest and "untidyness" of a free people, but is being visited upon the people of Iraq with great violence and malice aforethought.

In all probablity you will not read in the Paper of Record that Paramilitary Death Squads Murder Another Shiite Cleric, Negroponte Lies. That, however, will accurately describe what will happen, should everything unfold according to plan.

On Edit: Typo

[Karenina]

7. It's tough

being ahead of the curve. :kick: