UPI January 10, 2005
U.S. denies creating Iraqi 'death squads'
By Pamela Hess
A Pentagon spokesman Monday denied reports the U.S. military is training "death squads" to target insurgents in Iraq.
Newsweek magazine reported Saturday on the effort in its latest issue.
"The U.S. military does not take part in or train other forces to undertake illegal actions, assassinations or torture. All training and advising our Special Operations forces conduct with Iraqi security forces is done in full compliance with the laws of war," said a Pentagon spokesman.
"The leadership of the insurgency in Iraq is a legitimate military target. U.S., Coalition and Iraqi security forces will continue to capture or kill the command-and-control elements of the insurgency as a legitimate military tactic. Since 9-11, the U.S. government has made clear a goal to capture or kill those guilty of terrorist acts and we will continue to do so, governed by the laws of war."
The U.S. military's plan for Iraqi security from the start has been to create an Iraqi security force to police the country. The experience of the last 18 months has shown it to be imperative: The very presence of occupation forces inflames the insurgency and public opinion. The only viable way of stopping the insurgent forces is to have Iraqi-trained forces target them, a senior U.S. military official said.
Human rights organizations were quick to denounce such plans. "Experience from countries such as Colombia, Sudan and Russia in Chechnya shows that 'death squads' and paramilitary groups created to combat insurgencies take on a life of their own and are often difficult to rein in," Human Rights Watch said in the statement Monday. "Once established, it is difficult to prevent them from killing whomever they want for whatever reasons they want, opening up the possibility that civilians will be targeted because of personal or political vendettas in violation of the Geneva Conventions."
The statement quoted Kenneth Roth, executive director, as saying, "If this plan is real, the Pentagon will rue the day it dreamed it up. They are creating a monster that could someday kill the very Iraqi democracy they say they want to build."
The organization said U.S. and Iraqi forces have been legally arresting insurgent leaders or killing them when they fight back. However, they noted, "deliberately targeting civilians or executing combatants in custody would be a war crime."
One of the primary lessons U.S. forces have learned in Iraq, particularly over the last six months, is that non-local Iraqi forces are often best able to target insurgents embedded in certain areas, because they are not compromised by tribal alliances or by fear for their families' safety. Bringing Iraqi forces from one area to operate in another has paid dividends, particularly along the Syrian border where some of the worst violence is seen, and where smugglers and fighters -- Iraqi and foreign -- cross the border.
One unit of Iraq's former Special Forces, organized under an Iraqi general who offered his services to the 1st Marine Division, has been especially effective in lawless Husayba, according to a senior military official.
The Newsweek report says trained Shiite and Kurdish soldiers would be used against the rebels. A senior military official said Sunni soldiers, including those in the 600-man Special Forces unit, would also be used.
The officials bristled at the term "death squads," which suggests the Iraqi forces will be sent against innocent targets in a scorched-earth policy to rout the rebels, the senior official complained. That is not the intention, he said.
Another official said the new forces would be akin to the United States' secret Delta Force, a team of Special Forces soldiers especially trained for counter-terror operations.
Delta Force was created in October 1977 in direct response to worldwide terrorist incidents. It specializes in hostage rescue, barricade operations and reconnaissance, according to GlobalSecurity.org.
Newsweek noted the presence of now Iraqi Ambassador John Negroponte who served in Honduras in the 1980s. Death squads with connections to the United States government operating in Nicaragua and El Salvador sometimes used Honduras as a home base.
Copyright © U.P.I.
