The United States & the Use of Paramiltaries in Iraq

United States & the Use of Paramiltaries in Iraq

in the Russian Pravada
17 November 2005

"If not Rice, then at whose foot does the ball stop? The fact that US soldiers burst into underground cellars and rescued 175 Sunni who were being tortured by the paramilitaries which are controlled by the puppet regime set up in Baghdad means nothing. After all, the Constitution drawn up by Paul Bremmer gave the USA the overall control over all of Iraq's security forces, and this includes the paramilitaries. These paramilitary units and death squads were working for the US-appointed Iraqi government. Washington cannot worm out of it by saying that the government was elected by the people: it was appointed by the Americans and presented to the people (many of whom still have not a clue as to who or what they are voting for)."

"Yet another sickening, shocking insight into the depths of evil to which the Bush regime can sink. Unfortunately it is not the first time that the Bush regime brings shame onto the good people of the United States of America and its Constitution, this bastion of freedom and democracy which is now relegated to a sad and apologetic synonym of the torture chambers of Abu Ghraib, the concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay (what an example for Washington to give to Havana) and now, 175 people found in central Baghdad who resembled the cowering skeletal figures of Treblinka, Dachau or Belsen.

The hype is on, and this time the Bush regime is quick to claim that the raids were made by Iraqi and US troops, uncovering a shocking act of depravity unseen outside Hitler's concentration camps since 1945. What the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal failed to state was the fact that the torturers have been trained by Washington, that the CIA has set up torture chambers outside US soil in European prisons and that endemic torture is an integral part of the Bush regime.

What this cabal also failed to do was inform Condoleezza Rice, that as Secretary of State, she may be held legally liable for criminal activities of the US regime abroad. Is she the fall girl?

If not Rice, then at whose foot does the ball stop? The fact that US soldiers burst into underground cellars and rescued 175 Sunni who were being tortured by the paramilitaries which are controlled by the puppet regime set up in Baghdad (constituted by Shiite reactionaries who think nothing of spanking women who misbehave and who wish women to go around wearing the veil, along with some Kurdish Peshmerga) means nothing.

After all, the Constitution drawn up by Paul Bremmer gave the USA the overall control over all of Iraq's security forces, and this includes the paramilitaries. These paramilitary units and death squads were working for the US-appointed Iraqi government. Washington cannot worm out of it by saying that the government was elected by the people: it was appointed by the Americans and presented to the people (many of whom still have not a clue as to who or what they are voting for).

Washington gathered together all the reactionary groups on the margins of Iraqi society, huddled them into a London hotel and carved out bits of Iraq for them, like some 19th century colonial map-drawing orgy. It then herded together anyone suspected of being against the illegal and murderous US-led invasion, which slaughtered at least 30,000 civilians and was responsible for over 100,000 deaths, indirectly. Women's freedom groups claim today that they were better off under Saddam Hussein. This is the legacy of the Bush regime.

However, the buck does not stop here. Yesterday, 16th November, 2005, we had the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle which in any state of law around the world would see the government being hounded out of office in disgrace.

The US authorities ordered a special elite Iraqi unit, the 2000-strong Wolf Brigade, to be trained and thrown into action. What they learnt from the likes of the great American heroine Lynndie England, they put into practice against their fellow countrymen. But what marvelous teachers the US forces are! It is like opening every prison and psychiatric hospital in the neighbourhood, arming them with guns and telling them to party...

The Bush regime is an insult to the good people of the United States of America..."