Iraq’s Interior Ministry admits death squads

  • Ted Kahl's picture
    Ted Kahl
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April 12, 2006

Don't forget that John Negroponte was Bush's ambassador to Iraq until he was appointed Intelligence Czar. It was Negroponte who covered up the existence of death squads in Honduras while he was Reagan's ambassador to that country.

(Al Jazeera)Iraq’s Interior Minister acknowledged the existence of death squads and other unauthorized armed groups that carry out sectarian killings in Iraq.

In a BBC interview, Bayan Jabr blamed the killings on special security forces that provide protection for ministers and key installations as well as other licensed protection agencies in Iraq. He also implicated the involvement of about 30,000 civilian security guards operating in the country.

But Jabr denied that these armed groups belonged to his ministry.

Asked if there were unofficial death squads operating in Iraq, he replied: “Sometimes, yes, I can tell you... with these security companies it is not right... you do not know what they are doing.”

[...]

“These forces are the FPS to protect the ministries,” he said, referring to non-governmental security companies like the Force Protection for Site (FPS), which was established after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to guard ministry buildings, power stations or oil pipelines.

Sunni Muslims accuse the Shia-led Interior Ministry of backing death squads that have been carrying many of the recent killings in Iraq.

Many bodies, mostly Sunni, have been found in and around Baghdad since the Feb. 22 bombing of a major Shia shrine in the holy city of Samarraa.

Comments

Is the FPS Not Under the Control of the Interior Ministry?

  • Ted Kahl's picture
    Ted Kahl
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04/12/06
7:31pm

Interior Minister Jabr says that the FPS is not under the control of the Ministry of the Interior. But according to the CPA website, the FPS at least follows the guidelines of the ministry.

Currently, FPS guards are trained by Coalition forces or Iraqi trainers who have been trained by Coalition trainers.

· The training is conducted at the Baghdad Police Academy or at sites chosen by the hiring ministry.

o The various Iraqi ministries are free to hire and train their own FPS guards, based on training standards set forth by the Ministry of Interior.

· The Ministry of Interior is currently considering the establishment of a National FPS Training Center in Baghdad and mobile training teams to operate out of each of the 18 governorates.

Who set up the FPS? The US did!

Here is then-Iraq ambassador Negroponte's statement on the UN Security Council about the FPS.

The Facilities Protection Service, charged with protecting Iraq's strategic infrastructure, government buildings and cultural and educational assets, also has increased in number, to approximately 74,000 personnel overall. From March 1 of this year, Iraq�s ministries each have responsibility for the hiring, payment, equipment and training of their individual guards.

So this is the big question, what did Negroponte know about the FPS and its death squad activities? This entry at a Daily Kos diary asks if he played a direct role in all of this.

Speaking of Negroponte, there is this blog entry from last year, "U.S. Troops Who Fired on Freed Italian Journalist Were Security for Negroponte."

Billmon on Negroponte and Iraq Death Squads

  • Ted Kahl's picture
    Ted Kahl
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04/12/06
7:43pm

This is from Billmon on 11/05/2005:

It's apparent -- both from this story and from reports by human rights groups (note the date on that one) -- that the U.S. and U.K. embassies have been aware for some time that Iraq's Ministry of the Interior has been turned into what the old National Guard used to be in El Salvador, or the Presidential Intelligence Unit in Guatemala, or the National Directorate of Investigation in Honduras, which is to say: death squad central.

Most effective way to counter lies

  • alicecbrown's picture
    alicecbrown
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04/13/06
2:45pm

I know we swap our outrage daily, but what can we say, and/or who can we address on the 'outside' in the U.S. to convince that these liars have to be removed, have to be impeached?

Even our Congress won't support Russ Feingold. God, what cowards these Dems are.
Since they're bought, what good does it do to call or email them?

'This delicate experiment called 'democracy' is doomed to failure without an educated electorate.'  deTocqueville