[Peace-discuss] [Fwd: ICH: U.S. Death Squads Roam The Globe]

[LAURIE SOLOMON]

It is the way we have been since WWII and maybe even before.

 

From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net
[mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of David Green
Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2009 3:21 PM
To: Peace Discuss
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] [Fwd: ICH: U.S. Death Squads Roam The Globe]

 

Nor does this doctrine of presidential murder make any distinction between
American citizens and foreigner. Indeed, one of the first people known to
have been killed in this way
<http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/nov2002/yem-n12.shtml> was an American
citizen living in Yemen. So let us put the reality in its plainest terms: if
the president of the United States decides to call you a terrorist and kill
you, he can. He doesn't have to arrest you, he doesn't have to charge you,
he doesn't have to put you on trial, he doesn't have to convict you, he
doesn't have to sentence you, he doesn't have to allow you any appeals: he
can just kill you. And no one in the American power structure will speak up
for you or denounce your murder; they won't even see that it's wrong, they
won't even consider it remarkable. It's just business as usual. It's just
the way things are done. It's just the way we are now. 

http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1841-bloo
d-on-the-tracks-the-continuing-lessons-of-terror-and-tyranny.html

 

  _____  

From: C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>
To: Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2009 2:48:21 PM
Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Fwd: ICH: U.S. Death Squads Roam The Globe]

[From the Kennedy administration (who innovated death squads in Latin
America) to the Obama administration (who put McChrystal, a death squad
assassin, in charge of 'protecting civilians' in AfPak), this has been the
favored American mode of politics around the world. --CGE]

    Commando Raid in Somalia is Latest in
    Covert Operations Across the Globe
    By Bill Roggio

September 17, 2009 "Long War Journal' -- Yesterday's daring raid in southern
Somalia that targeted and killed a senior al Qaeda leader wanted for several
deadly attacks is the latest in a series of covert operations carried out by
US and allied special operations. At least four other high-profile raids by
ground forces took place in Pakistan, Madagascar, and Syria over the past
several years, while others have gone unreported, according to US officials.

The successful Somali raid targeted Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a senior al
Qaeda leader in East Africa as well as a senior leader in Shabaab, al
Qaeda's surrogate in Somalia. Nabhan is thought to train terrorists in
Somalia and has been at the forefront in cementing ties between Shabaab and
al Qaeda. He has been wanted for his involvement in the 1998 suicide attacks
against US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, as well as leading the cell
behind the 2002 terror attacks in Mombasa, Kenya, against a hotel and an
airliner.

Reports of the operation are still unclear as the US military has refused to
comment. But various press accounts from eyewitnesses and unnamed
intelligence sources provide a glimpse of the operation.

The operation, dubbed Celestial Balance, was approved 11 days ago after US
intelligence determined that Nabhan was shuttling back and forth between the
Shabaab-controlled port cities of Merka and Kismayo. A car transporting
Nabhan and five other foreign fighters was escorted by another car carrying
three Shabaab escorts; the vehicles were hit as they stopped for breakfast
as they traveled to Kismayo.

According to one witness, upwards of six helicopters were involved in the
raid. At least two AH-6 Little Bird special operations attack helicopters
strafed the two-car convoy. Other helicopters dismounted Navy SEALs, who
seized the body of Nabhan and another, and purportedly took two other
wounded fighters captive. An unconfirmed report indicated that Sheikh
Hussein Ali Fidow, a senior Shabaab leader, was among those killed. All nine
al Qaeda and Shabaab leaders and fighters were killed during the operation.

Somali raid similar to covert raids in Pakistan, Madagascar, and Syria

While yesterday's raid in Somalia is being hailed as a shift in the US war
to target al Qaeda's leadership, as opposed to the unmanned airstrikes
against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Pakistan's tribal areas as well as
attacks in Somalia and Yemen, in fact the US has previously pulled the
trigger on other direct action missions - operations involving troops
entering enemy territory.

Four such direct action missions against wanted al Qaeda leaders have been
carried out in the Middle East and in Africa over the past several years.

The largest such raid took place in March 2006 against a training camp in
Danda Saidgai in the Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan,
Pakistan. US special operation teams raided an al Qaeda camp run by the
Black Guard, the elite Praetorian Guard for Osama bin Laden, Ayman al
Zawahiri, and other senior al Qaeda leaders.

The air assault resulted in the death of Imam Asad and several dozen members
of the Black Guard. In addition to being the camp commander, Asad was a
senior Chechen al Qaeda commander and an associate of Shamil Basayev, the
Chechen al Qaeda leader killed by Russian security forces in July 2006. US
intelligence believed either Zawahiri or bin Laden were at the camp at the
time of the raid.

The next high-profile raid took place in the least likely of places, on the
island nation of Madagascar. In January 2007, US commandos struck at
Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, one of Osama bin Laden's brother-in-laws with deep
roots in al Qaeda as a financier and facilitator, as he visited his home
there.

US intelligence had waited for Khalifa to leave the safety of Saudi Arabia
and targeted him when he was most vulnerable, US intelligence officials have
told The Long War Journal. The raid was made to look like a robbery;
Khalifa's computer and other documents were stolen.

The next US commando raid again took place in Pakistan in September 2008,
when US special operations forces assaulted the village of Musa Nikow in
Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan. The raid
was controversial; Pakistani authorities claimed that civilians were killed
during the raid. The target of the raid is unclear, and no senior al Qaeda
or Taliban leader was reported killed or captured.

The last known direct action mission targeted and killed a senior al Qaeda
leader based in eastern Syria. In October 2008, US commandos assaulted a
compound in the town of Sukkariya near Abu Kamal, across the border from Al
Qaeda in Iraq, and killed Abu Ghadiya and several members of his staff.

Ghadiya was the leader of al Qaeda's extensive network that funnels suicide
bombers, foreign fighters, weapons, and cash from Syria into Iraq along the
entire length of the Syrian border.

Other such direct action missions have taken place but have avoided the
scrutiny of the media, US intelligence officials told The Long War Journal.

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/09/commando_raid_in_som.php
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