[PEN-L:36240] Plus, they cook and eat them afterwards

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Rumsfeld Calls on Syria to Stop Flow of Military Aid to Iraq
U.S. Forces Consolidate Positions Amid Wide Fighting

By Thomas W. Lippman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 28, 2003; 5:00 PM

(clip)

As U.S. warplanes pounded Iraqi defenders with bombs and missiles, several
Army and Marine units engaged in close combat with Iraqi paramilitary
forces and regular army units. Brooks said they "conducted active security
operations to eliminate identified terrorist death squads," a reference to
Iraqi cadres who U.S. and British officials say are threatening Iraqi
civilians to compel the men in their families to fight.

Rumsfeld said these "death squads" take orders directly from Hussein's
family, and he denounced them in some of the strongest language he has used
since the war began.

"Their ranks are populated with criminals released from Iraqi prisons," he
said. "They dress in civilian clothes and operate from private homes
confiscated from innocent people and try to blend in with the civilian
population. They conduct sadistic executions on sidewalks and public
squares, cutting the tongues out of those accused of disloyalty and
beheading people with swords. They put on American and British uniforms to
try to fool regular Iraqi soldiers into surrendering to them, and then
execute them as an example for others who might contemplate defection or
capitulation."

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41941-2003Mar28.html


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