PEJ News - C. L. Cook - The Observer newspaper of Britain has discovered aid money from the U.S. and U.K. is funding the "dirty" counter-insurgency effort in Iraq; an effort emulating the methods made notorious in Central American during the worst days of Latin America's "Dirty Wars" of the 1980's.
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Aiding Iraq: Funds Diverted to Death Squads
C. L. Cook
July 3, 2005
Moneys meant to bolster Iraq fledgling police services has been found to be funding para-military death squads currently waging a bloody counter-insurgency reminiscent of Latin America's darkest days. Last year, talk of employing the so-called Salvadore Option in Iraq was met with revulsion, and hopes were America would not revisit one of the ugliest chapters of its history.
The arrival in Iraq of John Negroponte as ambassador was further received as ominous. Negroponte was a central figure in the ruthless suppression of democratic aspirations in Central America, that saw extrajudicial killings, disappearings, torture, and imprisonment without trial. All features apparent in Iraq today.
According to the Observer, Iraqi Police Service officers have said, ammunititon, and vehicles were expropriated by members of the Wolf Brigade, the shock troops of the counter-insurgency. The Brigade, recently loosed in various troublesome cities and towns across Iraq, have left a path of destruction and bodies whereever they've deployed.
Stories of arbitrary arrest, torture, and murder at the hands of these brigades prompted Human Rights Watch to release a statement saying, "What is happening in official places in Iraq is simply horrific and must be stopped."
The Observer report goes on to cite the discovery of a network of "Ghost" prisons inaccessible to human rights organizations, where torture and murder of suspected insurgents is increasingly common. They also claim to have seen photographic evidence of bodies bearing the evidence of extreme torture taken in morgues around the country. Survivors claim torture is too common within the offices of the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior. Senior Iraqi officials have broached the issue of increased human rights violations with the American and British Embassies and the United Nations.
The British government admits to having gifted the IPS with almost 50 million pounds sterling, but remain silent on the deteriorating human rights situation. Opposition politicians in Britain have called for the government to make a statement on the issue in the House of Parlaiment. Liberal Democrat, Michael Moore says, "These are serious reports that go to the heart of the question of the coalition's oversight of the security situation in Iraq."
The British Ministry of Defense has said it is aware of abuse allegations, claiming they are "deeply concerned by reports of detainee abuse."
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