DIRTY WAR EVIDENCE MOUNTS : OPERATION IRAQI BLOODBATH

ITEM : (Seymour Hersh) quoted one former high level intelligence officer explaining : " Do you remember the right-wing execution squads in El Salvador ? ... We formed them and financed them. The object now is to recruit locals in any area we choose . And we aren’t going to tell Congress..." (1)...... ITEM : " one Pentagon plan would send Special Forces to advise, support, and possibly train Iraqi squads , likely hand-picked Kurdish Peshmerga and Shiite militiamen..... (2)......ITEM : Shiite and Kurdish militias ,often operating as part of Iraq government security forces , have carried out a wave of abductions, assassinations, and other acts of intimidation ......deepening the countries divide along ethnic and sectarian lines. (3) ..... ITEM : Sec. Rumsfeld : " I forgot when the Department of Defence assumed responsibilty for the police. ".... Gen (Peter) Pace : " About six months ago. " Sec. Rumsfeld : "The Ministry of Interior forces , which the police are under, have been reporting up through the State Dept. previously. " ... Sec. Rumsfeld : ... "I’ve not seen reports that hundreds are being killed by roving death squads at all . " Date of Press Briefing : 11/29/05. Projected assumption of "responsibility" handover from State to Defence : Late May or early June 2005 (4) ....... ....... ... Sources ... ( 1 ) Quote obtained from " Untited Iraqis Protests US Divide and Rule , Dahr Jamail , Socialist Worker , 3/02/06..... (2 ) "The Salvador Option" , Newsweek , 1/08/05..... (3) "Militias Wrestling Control Across Iraq’s North and South " , Washington Post , 8/30/05..... (4) News briefing with Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld and General Peter Pace ,11/29/05.....