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terpfan1980
terpfan1980
Join Date 08/2004
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Pentagon may put SF-led assassination/kidnap teams in Iraq

January 9, 2005 2:11:54 PM from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
Are we about to really go after the insurgents in Iraq?
From an article in Newsweek (via MSNBC), Link here: ‘The Salvador Option’

The Pentagon may put Special-Forces-led assassination or kidnapping teams in Iraq
WEB EXCLUSIVE (on MSNBC)
By Michael Hirsh and John Barry
Newsweek
Updated: 10:22 a.m. ET Jan. 9, 2005
Jan. 8 - What to do about the deepening quagmire of Iraq? The Pentagon’s latest approach is being called "the Salvador option"—and the fact that it is being discussed at all is a measure of just how worried Donald Rumsfeld really is. "What everyone agrees is that we can’t just go on as we are," one senior military officer told NEWSWEEK. "We have to find a way to take the offensive against the insurgents. Right now, we are playing defense. And we are losing." Last November’s operation in Fallujah, most analysts agree, succeeded less in breaking "the back" of the insurgency—as Marine Gen. John Sattler optimistically declared at the time—than in spreading it out.
Now, NEWSWEEK has learned, the Pentagon is intensively debating an option that dates back to a still-secret strategy in the Reagan administration’s battle against the leftist guerrilla insurgency in El Salvador in the early 1980s. Then, faced with a losing war against Salvadoran rebels, the U.S. government funded or supported "nationalist" forces that allegedly included so-called death squads directed to hunt down and kill rebel leaders and sympathizers. Eventually the insurgency was quelled, and many U.S. conservatives consider the policy to have been a success—despite the deaths of innocent civilians and the subsequent Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scandal. (Among the current administration officials who dealt with Central America back then is John Negroponte, who is today the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Under Reagan, he was ambassador to Honduras.)
Following that model, one Pentagon proposal would send Special Forces teams to advise, support and possibly train Iraqi squads, most likely hand-picked Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shiite militiamen, to target Sunni insurgents and their sympathizers, even across the border into Syria, according to military insiders familiar with the discussions. It remains unclear, however, whether this would be a policy of assassination or so-called "snatch" operations, in which the targets are sent to secret facilities for interrogation. The current thinking is that while U.S. Special Forces would lead operations in, say, Syria, activities inside Iraq itself would be carried out by Iraqi paramilitaries, officials tell NEWSWEEK.
Also being debated is which agency within the U.S. government—the Defense department or CIA—would take responsibility for such an operation. Rumsfeld’s Pentagon has aggressively sought to build up its own intelligence-gathering and clandestine capability with an operation run by Defense Undersecretary Stephen Cambone. But since the Abu Ghraib interrogations scandal, some military officials are ultra-wary of any operations that could run afoul of the ethics codified in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. That, they argue, is the reason why such covert operations have always been run by the CIA and authorized by a special presidential finding. (In "covert" activity, U.S. personnel operate under cover and the U.S. government will not confirm that it instigated or ordered them into action if they are captured or killed.)
Meanwhile, intensive discussions are taking place inside the Senate Intelligence Committee over the Defense department’s efforts to expand the involvement of U.S. Special Forces personnel in intelligence-gathering missions. Historically, Special Forces’ intelligence gathering has been limited to objectives directly related to upcoming military operations—"preparation of the battlefield," in military lingo. But, according to intelligence and defense officials, some Pentagon civilians for years have sought to expand the use of Special Forces for other intelligence missions.
Pentagon civilians and some Special Forces personnel believe CIA civilian managers have traditionally been too conservative in planning and executing the kind of undercover missions that Special Forces soldiers believe they can effectively conduct. CIA traditionalists are believed to be adamantly opposed to ceding any authority to the Pentagon. Until now, Pentagon proposals for a capability to send soldiers out on intelligence missions without direct CIA approval or participation have been shot down. But counter-terrorist strike squads, even operating covertly, could be deemed to fall within the Defense department’s orbit.


... more at linked article

Does this signal that we are really ready to start a more aggressive campaign against these insurgents? I hope so, and I hope it's an effective campaign.
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terpfan1980
kingbee
Join Date 04/2004
+42
Reply #1 January 9, 2005 3:49:13 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums

i KNEW elliot abrams--our illustrious special assistant to the president and senior director for democracy, human rights and international operations (the perfect title for a guy who has no grasp of what democracy or human rights are about...but plenty of knowledge regarding international operations involving trading arms to iran and then lying to congress about it when not bloodying his hands and america's reputation directing death squads)--would be poppin up sooner or later.


how many death squads--assuming theyre not using tactical nukes or something--are gonna be required to shut down 20,000 insurgents (a very conservative number from what ive been hearing this week)? 

at what point are yall gonna finally break down and admit that bush and the neo-cons (wolfowitz, perle, cheney, abrams and rice--to name the most obvious; and yes, i do know the difference between a neo-con and a conservative) who egged him on and advised him not to listen to the generals--really screwed the pooch? 

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terpfan1980
Sir Peter
Join Date 01/2005
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Reply #2 January 9, 2005 3:56:51 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
A nuclear bomb in Iraq would solve the problem of all those Arabs rebelling against the UK occupation.
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terpfan1980
drmiler
Join Date 09/2004
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Reply #3 January 9, 2005 4:13:17 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
Reply #1 By: kingbee - 1/9/2005 3:49:13 PM
how many death squads--assuming theyre not using tactical nukes or something--are gonna be required to shut down 20,000 insurgents (a very conservative number from what ive been hearing this week)?


Probably no where near as many as you think.
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terpfan1980
drmiler
Join Date 09/2004
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Reply #4 January 9, 2005 4:14:00 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums

Reply #2 By: Sir Peter - 1/9/2005 3:56:51 PM
A nuclear bomb in Iraq would solve the problem


Just for once I have to agree.
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terpfan1980
sandy2
Join Date 08/2004
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Reply #5 January 9, 2005 4:29:54 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
Just for once I have to agree.


As well as kill millions upon millions of innocent people. And what does your god tell you about that? I don't believe there is a commandment like "Thou shalt not kill, unless its those damn Iraqi's".

And Sir Peter, once again the Iraqi's frankly don't give a damn about England. England does what we do. England can't think for itself as a government, so what they really care about is us.
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terpfan1980
drmiler
Join Date 09/2004
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Reply #6 January 9, 2005 4:44:12 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums

Reply #5 By: sandy2 - 1/9/2005 4:29:54 PM
Just for once I have to agree.


As well as kill millions upon millions of innocent people. And what does your god tell you about that? I don't believe there is a commandment like "Thou shalt not kill, unless its those damn Iraqi's".


Sorry sandy2 this time your barking up the wrong tree. Tough pooh! Pull out the women and children and level it.
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terpfan1980
kingbee
Join Date 04/2004
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Reply #7 January 9, 2005 4:49:36 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums

Pull out the women and children and level it.


yeah you wont be around when those kids grow up and wanna revenge their fathers.  (on the other hand, you may be around when the shia of iran decide to revenge their fellows shiites.)   kill for peace!

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terpfan1980
whoman69
Join Date 10/2004
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Reply #8 January 9, 2005 5:45:48 PM
from PoliticalMachine ForumsPoliticalMachine Forums
A nuclear bomb in Iraq would solve the problem of all those Arabs rebelling against the UK occupation.


Wow, that is out there. Just kill everyone, what a concept. If that was the answer, we would have done that from the start. If we kill millions just to call ourself safe, we could never call anyone evil again.
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terpfan1980
whoman69
Join Date 10/2004
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Reply #9 January 9, 2005 5:50:16 PM
from PoliticalMachine ForumsPoliticalMachine Forums
Just for once I have to agree.


Why doesn't this surprise me.
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terpfan1980
Moderateman
Join Date 11/2004
+37
Reply #10 January 9, 2005 7:16:32 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
kill for peace!


old country joe and the fish song there.
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terpfan1980
Moderateman
Join Date 11/2004
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Reply #11 January 9, 2005 7:17:38 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
Reply By: whoman69Posted: Sunday, January 09, 2005A nuclear bomb in Iraq would solve the problem of all those Arabs rebelling against the UK occupation.Wow, that is out there. Just kill everyone, what a concept. If that was the answer, we would have done that from the start. If we kill millions just to call ourself safe, we could never call anyone evil again.


how about if we only kill 1 million 999 thousand 999 people will that calm yer mind some?
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terpfan1980
kingbee
Join Date 04/2004
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Reply #12 January 10, 2005 4:17:04 AM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums

old country joe and the fish song there.


electric music for mind & body is still one of my favorite albums.


(hey partner, wont you pass that reefer round?
my head is spinning...i have to slow it down.
just one more hit now and i know
ill never come down....never come down  )

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