BRussells Tribunal Dossier Introduction to the "Salvador option" and Iraq's "Death squads" - PART 5 - ___________________________________________________________________________ Content: • Ensuring salaried 'sovereignty' (Imad Khadduri, 12 Nov 2008) • Iraqis have a clear idea who they believe funds their secret police (11 Nov 2008) • A tidal wave of misery is engulfing Iraq (02 Nov 2008) • State-Sanctioned Paramilitary Terror in Basra Under British Occupation (Max Fuller, 08 Aug 2008) • State-Sponsored Terror: British and American Black Ops in Iraq (25 June 2008) • US Special Forces counterinsurgency manual FM 31-20-3 (18 June 2008) • How to train death squads and quash revolutions from San Salvador to Iraq (15 June 2008) • The Myth Of Sectarianism (09 Jan 2008) • Death Squads, Disappearances, and Torture (18 Dec 2007) • Loaded Language and Loaded Guns (03 Oct 2007) • The Bombing of the Golden Dome Mosque; one year later (12 Feb 2007) • Top secret army cell breaks terrorists (05 Feb 2007) • Rights group says Gov't protecting death squad members (30 Oct 2006) • Great Moments in the History of Imperialism (William Blum, 23 June 2006) • Impunity, 09 June 2006 • Seen through a Syrian lens, 'unknown Americans' are provoking civil war in Iraq (Robert Fisk, 28 April 2006) February 23, 2006 ,ىأر نم ﺳُـﺮّ ال .... Samara's black day • • British 'aid' to CIA covert operations in Iraq? September 22, 2005 • Victims of the death squads, 16 Sept 2007 • "We learned quickly" .... Rumsfeld had already, many times, claimed that non-distinction. Keep fooling yourself. August 24, 2005 • CIA terrorism in Iraq ..... Who? US?, June 1, 2005 • "Combat terrorism" by causing it, May 16, 2005 • Is the CIA Behind the Iraqi "Insurgents"—and Global Terrorism? (10 May 2005) • Getting to Know the General, May 2, 2005 • The “Salvador option”, with dressings, is being served in Iraq, April 22, 2005 • Bush Nominates Terrorist for National Intelligence Director (10 April 2005) • American Terror ( 21 Jan 2005) • I Am Become Death - The Destroyer Of The Worlds: (30 Nov 2004) 1 BRussells Tribunal Dossier Introduction to the "Salvador option" and Iraq's "Death squads" - PART 5 - ___________________________________________________________________________ • Ensuring salaried 'sovereignty' (Imad Khadduri, 12 Nov 2008) ""It is somewhat curious," says Mr Chalabi, "that the intelligence service of a country which is sovereign – that no one really knows who is funding it." In fact there are very few Iraqis who do not believe they have a very clear idea of who funds Iraq's secret police. Its director is General Mohammed Abdullah Shahwani, who once led a failed coup against Saddam Hussein, and was handpicked by the CIA to run the new security organisation soon after the invasion of 2003. He is believed to have been answering to them ever since. For all Mr Bush's pious declarations about respecting Iraqi sovereignty, General Shahwani is reported to work primarily for American intelligence. The intelligence service is "not working for the Iraqi government – it's working for the CIA," Hadi al-Ameri, a powerful Shia lawmaker, was quoted as saying three years ago. "I prefer to call it the American Intelligence of Iraq, not the Iraqi Intelligence Service." The US can quit Iraq, or it can stay. But it can't do both: Iraqis have a clear idea who they believe funds their secret police November 11, 2008 It may be surprisingly "curious" for Al-Chalabi who knows all about the cosy relationship between some of the Iraqi security forces and the US. He himself brought the 'startup team' to Iraq, posing as his own militia. These were several hundred Iraqis trained by the US in Hungary before the war. Many incidents are attributed to Chalabi's 'own militia' acting outside the law and with impunity. But then again, Hadi al-Ameri is one of Iraq’s most notorious armed-militia leaders who is working in close connection with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. He is the Iraqi Interior Ministry who is widely believed to be under the control of the Badr Organisation and its political face SCIRI. See this two years old posting: "Will the US have to reinvade Iraq to depose him?" November 21, 2006 For the record, and to avoid Al-Chalabi any more embarrassing curiousities, there are other Bremer appointed high government officials that have been receiving their salaries, for more than five and a half years now, directly from the Americans and the CIA and not from the Iraqi government. They are: • The above mentioned head of the "Iraqi" National Intelligene Service - Al-Shawani (see previous posting: The Genocide Option February 05, 2007 • The head of the "Iraqi" Central Bank - Sinan Al-Shibibi • The presidential advisor - Mowafaq Al-Rubaie • The head of the High Judicial Council • The head of the Elections Committee 2 BRussells Tribunal Dossier Introduction to the "Salvador option" and Iraq's "Death squads" - PART 5 - ___________________________________________________________________________ Which other "sovereign" state can boast such paid loyalties, but a SOFA one? (Well, maybe Obama'a Rahm Israel Emanuel) Al-Shahwani................................Al-Shibibi (on the right) ...................... Al-Rubaei (second from left) posted by Imad Khadduri • Iraqis have a clear idea who they believe funds their secret police (11 Nov 2008) Patrick Cockburn: The US can quit Iraq, or it can stay. But it can't do both If it ever comes to court it should be one of the more interesting libel cases of the decade. The Iraqi National Intelligence Service is threatening to sue Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi politician, for asking who pays for it. "It is somewhat curious," says Mr Chalabi, "that the intelligence service of a country which is sovereign – that no one really knows who is funding it." 3 BRussells Tribunal Dossier Introduction to the "Salvador option" and Iraq's "Death squads" - PART 5 - ___________________________________________________________________________ In fact there are very few Iraqis who do not believe they have a very clear idea of who funds Iraq's secret police. Its director is General Mohammed Abdullah Shahwani, who once led a failed coup against Saddam Hussein, and was handpicked by the CIA to run the new security organisation soon after the invasion of 2003. He is believed to have been answering to them ever since. The history of the Iraqi intelligence service is important because it shows the real distribution of power in Iraq rather than the spurious picture presented by President Bush. It explains why so many Iraqis are suspicious of the security accord, or Status of Forces Agreement, that the White House has been pushing the Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Malki to sign. It reveals the real political landscape where President-elect Barack Obama will soon have to find his bearings. For all Mr Bush's pious declarations about respecting Iraqi sovereignty, General Shahwani is reported to work primarily for American intelligence. The intelligence service is "not working for the Iraqi government – it's working for the CIA," Hadi al-Ameri, a powerful Shia lawmaker, was quoted as saying three years ago. "I prefer to call it the American Intelligence of Iraq, not the Iraqi Intelligence Service." It seems that not much has changed since then. The intelligence service does now appear in the Iraqi budget as being in receipt of $150 million, though this seems somewhat measly given the extent of its operations, which includes running paramilitary units. One of its main missions is to spy on Iranians on behalf of the US, employing much the same cadre of intelligence officers who carried out this task for Saddam Hussein. Fear of covert US control is one of the reasons why the Iraqi government has been so intent on insisting that all US forces be out of Iraq by the end of 2011. The latest draft of the security accord has dropped mention of US troops staying behind for training, or making the US withdrawal conditional on improved security in Iraq being maintained. The American position in Iraq has always been undermined by the fear that, whatever they claimed to be doing in Iraq, their long-term objective was to rule the country. The overthrow of Saddam Hussein, one of the world's more disastrous leaders, was generally popular in Iraq. But the occupation was disliked by the majority of Iraqis from the beginning. The result of this is that over the last five and a half years America has always been politically weak in Iraq. Put simply, it has very few friends among Iraqis outside Kurdistan. The Shia and Sunni communities have, for their own ends, made tactical alliances with the occupier, but never wanted a permanent presence. Once Iraqis and their neighbours no longer fear that the US intends to rule Iraq directly or indirectly through local nominees then America's position becomes much stronger. 4 BRussells Tribunal Dossier Introduction to the "Salvador option" and Iraq's "Death squads" - PART 5 - ___________________________________________________________________________ This should be good news for Barack Obama. He wants US combat troops out in 16 months. The Iraqi government largely agrees. But if the presidential election proved anything it was that neither candidate knew much about what was happening Iraq. John McCain claimed absurdly that the US was on the verge of victory, and during his visits to the Green Zone his staffers annoyed US embassy officials by requesting them not to wear helmets and body armour when standing next the candidate. McCain's people feared this might undermine in the eyes of American television viewers their candidate's claim that US prospects in Iraq were rosier than had been reported. The key to the US conducting an orderly retreat from Iraq is that this retreat should be real and the US should not try to control essential Iraqi state institutions like the intelligence service.