The Reagan Era Death Squads Surface Again, This Time In Iraq. Which Ones are on "Our Side"?

[Demeter]

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/editorblog/013


Mark Karlin, Editor and Publisher, BuzzFlash.com

November 28, 2007

... we don’t necessarily follow the conventional wisdom that a recent slaughter of 11 family members (including 7 children) of a "troublesome" Iraqi journalist in Jordan was the work of the Muqtada al Sadr Mahdi army.

Curiously, McClatchy news service (providing the most reliable mainstream news out of Iraq), notes: "Iraqi police and U.S. military officials said they had no record of the killings. But family members confirmed that the killings took place on Sunday." The news report also notes, "It was the third mass killing reported in Baghdad since Friday, underscoring the fragility of recent declines in violence."

We have to remember that many key members of the Bush Administration past and present – including Elliot Abrams, John Negroponte, and Otto Reich (now a "consultant") – were key advocates and enablers of the Central and South American "death squad" strategy during the Reagan years.

It is more than likely that their views – and the outlook of the Cheney wing -- on such tactics have not changed, and that many of the masked men running around killing targeted Iraqis and family members – as well as pesky journalists -- are being financed and supplied by the United States. The trick is figuring out which ones are "ours," and which ones are home grown insurgents (who are still managing to come up with U.S. weaponry, some speculate supplied by sympathetic members of the Iraqi Police and army.) Giving the shifting alliances of the ever-shifting Bush non-strategy, the death squads that they support today may be the ones that they have our soldiers battling tomorrow – or just killing each other...

[Jim__]

1. If the US military has no record of the killings, are they included in the death toll reports we're

getting from our media? I've been wondering how accurate those reports are. And, if the total death toll is down due to death squad terror, is that a evidence that democracy is taking hold in Iraq?

[TwilightGardener]

2. We're arming and funding all those "concerned citizen" volunteers--

their job is to "take out" anyone who causes trouble for us. I'm willing to bet they're taking out rivals and families who are causing trouble for THEM as well--with our money and blessing. The whole situation there is sick. We're bribing those who would kill us.