Kucinich reveals Army Col. Steele, Linked to death squads in Iraq

[SavetheUSA]

Kucinich reveals American Accomplice of Terrorist, Army Col. Steele, Linked to Death Squads in Iraq
1 comment(s).
Havana, June 6 (ACN) US Army Colonel James Steele, who was involved in the Iran-Contras scandal along with international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles at his command, is now an advisor to death squads in Iraq.

The presence of the US army officer in Iraq has just been revealed by US Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich, Granma daily reports.

Luis Posada Carriles, currently under arrest in the US charged with illegal entry into that country, was the first to report to Colonel Steele about the downing of a DC-3 aircraft in Nicaragua and the arrest of Eugene Hassenfus, the incident that led to the Iran-Contras scandal.

In a letter addressed to the US State Department, Kucinich notes that Colonel Steele, a current advisor to the US ambassador in Iraq, implemented a plan in El Salvador under which tens of thousands Salvadorans “disappeared” or were murdered, including Archbishop Oscar Romero and four American nuns.

Colonel Steele has been assigned to the new counter-insurgence unit known as the Special Police Commando, which operates under the Iraqi Interior Ministry, said Kucinich.
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=12205

more from Mike Whitney
Terrorism in Iraq? Don't blame Zarqawi
http://uruknet.info/?p=m23869&hd=0&size=1&l=x

[mike_c]

1. that's the Salvadoran option-- Negroponte's specialty....

Death squads. American foreign policy never changes.

[Hubert Flottz]

6. GOP foreign policy never changes.

[mike_c]

8. interventionist foreign policy has been SOP in America...

...since the Spanish American war, through administrations from both parties. Negroponte and his Salvadoran and Honduran paramilitaries were a Reagan creation, sure, but the milieu that produced them is not a GOP institution. It is a broadly American institution. Democrat administrations are just as culpable.

[eviltwin2525]

15. no coincidence

It can't be coincidence that shortly after Negroponte floats to the top of the Bush Admin toilet bowl, his favorite hatchet-man makes a similar ascent in Iraq.

[mike_c]

16. nope, none at all....

The pigs are back in charge of the trough again.

[5X]

2. k & r for exposure. n/t

[Acadia Blue]

3. This is just desgusting....just disgusting and horrible

[mikelgb]

4. kick for kooch

[jody]

5. Is Steele on active duty? n/t

[BrotherBuzz]

11. Retired

[eleny]

7. K&R

[Selatius]

9. Col. James Steele, a real American hero!

You sleep comfortable at night knowing brutal men with blood on their hands are what stand between you and a world that hates you.

:sarcasm:

[formercia]

14. art imitating life

http://www.whysanity.net/monos/fewgood.html

A Few Good Men
written by Aaron Sorkin

Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee (Tom Cruise): I think I'm entitled to them.
Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee: I want the truth!
Jessep: You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives...You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall.
We use words like honor, code, loyalty...we use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something. You use 'em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!
Kaffee: Did you order the code red?
Jessep: (quietly) I did the job you sent me to do.
Kaffee: Did you order the code red?
Jessep: You're goddamn right I did!!

[rman]

22. "many a truth is spoken in jest...

(and in fiction) - just not so much so that one can get sued for it"

Slogan of AAR Majority Report (excluding the bit about fiction).

:hi:

[nealmhughes]

10. Remember that Eliot Abrams got a top SD

job -- after his pardon, that is. That MF is in charge of Mideast policy.

[SavetheUSA]

12. more from Kucinich's letter...

Mr. Secretary, at a news conference on January 11, 2005, you publicly stated that the idea of a Salvador option was "nonsense." Yet mounting evidence suggests that the U.S. has in fact funded and trained Iraqi assassination and kidnapping teams and these teams are now operating with horrific success across Iraq.

We know that the Pentagon received funding for training Iraqi paramilitaries.

About one year before the Newsweek report on the "Salvador Option," it was reported in the American Prospect magazine on January 1, 2004 that part of $3 billion of the $87 billion Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill to fund operations in Iraq, signed into law on November 6, 2003, was designated for the creation of a paramilitary unit manned by militiamen associated with former Iraqi exile groups. According to the Prospect article, experts predicted that creation of this paramilitary unit would "lead to a wave of extrajudicial killings, not only of armed rebels but of nationalists, other opponents of the U.S. occupation and thousands of civilian Baathists." The article further described how the bulk of the $3 billion program, disguised as an Air Force classified program, would be used to "support U.S. efforts to create a lethal, and revenge-minded Iraqi security force." According to one of the article's sources, John Pike, an expert of classified military budgets at www.globalsecurity.org. "the big money would be for standing up an Iraqi secret police to liquidate the resistance."

Mike Whitney's article has the whole letter
http://uruknet.info/?p=m23869&hd=0&size=1&l=x

[Eric J in MN]

13. Newsweek article from January 2005 when Salvador Option

was being considered, before it was implemented:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6802629/site/newsweek/

[me b zola]

17. I wasn't aware that they were actually talking about this last year

It's mind-numbing to think about the things that they say outloud, as if it were perfectly acceptable.

This story ran before there was wide spread talk of an Iraqi civil war. I've heard recently on cable news shows "military analysts" say on a number of different occasions that when it comes to 'ethnic violence' the US doesn't want to give the appearence of favoring one side or the other. Well that is now, this was then:

~a "military source involved in the Pentagon debate" from your link~

""The Sunni population is paying no price for the support it is giving to the terrorists," he said. "From their point of view, it is cost-free. We have to change that equation.""


Now we know, as if we didn't already suspect, where all of those piles of bodies and fruit baskets with severed heads are coming from---straight from the West Wing of the WH. :grr:

[druidity33]

18. if you consider...

All the accounts of "shot-in-the-head, left-in-a-ditch" Iraqi's, i'd say the option is not only on the table... it's being implemented. Widespread SOP... Haiti, East Timor, Sudan, you name the place... the US is fomenting it, brewing it up right now. Anything to continue CONFLICTS and continue to elevate the super-rich that make money off it. I wouldn't be surprised to see this type of behavior in OUR country if things don't start turning in the next year or so...
:scared:

[BREMPRO]

19. Luis Posada Carriles... I just read about him in "Failed State"!...

Chomsky's new book- he outlines a case that by our own definition of "failed state" the US is a classic failed state. One example.. That we harbor terrorists and routinely refuse extradition... Posada is wanted for extradition to Venezuela for a bombing of an airplane that killed 73 people, problem is, according to Chomsky, he works for the CIA!

From "Failed State" Pp5-6
"After Posada escaped from a Venezuelan prison, he was hired by US covert operative to direct the resupply operation for the Nicaraguan contras from El Salvador that is, to play a prominent role in Washington's terrorist war against Nicaragua. hence the dilemma "extraditing him for trial could send a worrisome signal to covert foreign agents that they cannot count on unconditional protection from the US government, and it could expose the CIA to embarrassing public disclosures from a former operative".....

....At the same time that Venezuela was pressing its appeal, overwhelming majorities in the Senate and House passed a bill barring US aid to countries that refuse requests for extradition- US requests, that is....

...Bush I pardoned Orlando Bosch, a notorious international terrorist and associate of Posada, despite objection by the Justice Department, which urged that he be deported as a threat to national security. Bosch resides safely in the United States, perhaps to be joined by Posada, in communities that continue to serve as a base for international terrorism."


Bush II doctrine would dictate that we need to bomb and invade our own country. I wonder if Posada's detention here is just a ruse for cover of his CIA activity... And if Chavez could get his hands on him, he'd have a field day with American foreign policy hypocrisy.

Anyone have more details? This is an interesting connect the dots....

[BREMPRO]

20. Kick n R

[Nothing Without Hope]

21. K & R

[The Sushi Bandit]

23. Dennis is my Hero!

[bigtree]

24. Negroponte's boy

[BREMPRO]

25. HEY! why with 31 votes is it not on the Greatest page??!!

is it just me or has this thread disappeared prematurely?
censorship at DU?