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By Robert Parry (about the author)
Become a Fan (30 fans) -- Page 2 of 4 page(s)
A Sordid History
Like torture, assassinations and the use of other lethal force against unarmed suspects and civilians violates a variety of laws and has a notorious history in irregular warfare, both regarding cross-border murders and violent repression of an indigenous resistance in which guerrillas and their political supporters blend in with the local population.
And, at least inside and near the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush's "global war on terror" appears to have recreated what was known during the Vietnam War as Operation Phoenix, a program that assassinated Vietcong cadre, including suspected communist backers.
Through a classified Pentagon training program known as "Project X," the lessons of Operation Phoenix from the 1960s were passed on to Third World armies, especially in Latin America, giving a green light to some of the "dirty wars" that swept the region, causing tens of thousands of political murders, widespread use of torture, and secret detentions.
Bush's alleged plan for global hit teams also has similarities to "Operation Condor" in which South American right-wing military regimes in the 1970s sent assassins on cross-border operations to eliminate "subversives."
Despite quiet support and encouragement for Latin American "death squads" through much of the 1970s and 1980s, the U.S. government presented itself as the standard-bearer for human rights and criticized American adversaries that engaged in extrajudicial killings, torture and arbitrary detentions.
That gap between American rhetoric and reality widened after 9/11 as Bush announced his "global war on terror," while continuing to impress the American news media with pretty words about his commitment to human rights "" as occurred in his address to the United Nations on Sept. 25, 2007.
Under Bush's double standards, he took the position that he could override both international law and the U.S. Constitution in deciding who would get basic human rights and who wouldn't. He saw himself as the final judge of whether people he deemed "bad guys" should live or die, or possibly face indefinite imprisonment and torture.
Yet, whatever Bush and other higher-ups approved as "rules of engagement," the practice of murdering unarmed suspects "" especially after they've been detained "" violated the law of war and could have opened up the offending country's chain of command to war-crimes charges.
However, while such actions by leaders of, say, Serbia or Sudan would provoke demands for war-crimes tribunals, other rules apply when the offending nation is the United States. Given its "superpower" status, the United States and its senior leadership appear to be effectively beyond the reach of international law "" and in the case of Bush, beyond domestic accountability.
Downplaying a Slaughter
By and large, the U.S. military also has failed to impose serious punishments on American troops implicated in extrajudicial killings and massacres, even high-profile ones like the killing of two dozen Iraqis in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005, after one Marine died from an improvised explosive device.
According to published accounts of U.S. military investigations, the dead Marine's comrades retaliated by pulling five men from a cab and shooting them, and clearing two homes where civilians, including women and children, were slaughtered.
The Marines then tried to cover up the killings by claiming that the civilian deaths were caused by the original explosion or a subsequent firefight, according to investigations by the U.S. military and human rights groups.
One of the accused Marines, Sgt. Frank Wuterich, gave his account of the Haditha killings in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes," including an admission that his squad tossed a grenade into one of the residences without knowing who was inside.
"Frank, help me understand," asked interviewer Scott Pelley. "You're in a residence, how do you crack a door open and roll a grenade into a room?"
"At that point, you can't hesitate to make a decision," Wuterich answered. "Hesitation equals being killed, either yourself or your men."
Become a Fan (30 fans) -- Page 2 of 4 page(s)
Like torture, assassinations and the use of other lethal force against unarmed suspects and civilians violates a variety of laws and has a notorious history in irregular warfare, both regarding cross-border murders and violent repression of an indigenous resistance in which guerrillas and their political supporters blend in with the local population.
And, at least inside and near the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush's "global war on terror" appears to have recreated what was known during the Vietnam War as Operation Phoenix, a program that assassinated Vietcong cadre, including suspected communist backers.
Through a classified Pentagon training program known as "Project X," the lessons of Operation Phoenix from the 1960s were passed on to Third World armies, especially in Latin America, giving a green light to some of the "dirty wars" that swept the region, causing tens of thousands of political murders, widespread use of torture, and secret detentions.
Bush's alleged plan for global hit teams also has similarities to "Operation Condor" in which South American right-wing military regimes in the 1970s sent assassins on cross-border operations to eliminate "subversives."
Despite quiet support and encouragement for Latin American "death squads" through much of the 1970s and 1980s, the U.S. government presented itself as the standard-bearer for human rights and criticized American adversaries that engaged in extrajudicial killings, torture and arbitrary detentions.
That gap between American rhetoric and reality widened after 9/11 as Bush announced his "global war on terror," while continuing to impress the American news media with pretty words about his commitment to human rights "" as occurred in his address to the United Nations on Sept. 25, 2007.
Under Bush's double standards, he took the position that he could override both international law and the U.S. Constitution in deciding who would get basic human rights and who wouldn't. He saw himself as the final judge of whether people he deemed "bad guys" should live or die, or possibly face indefinite imprisonment and torture.
Yet, whatever Bush and other higher-ups approved as "rules of engagement," the practice of murdering unarmed suspects "" especially after they've been detained "" violated the law of war and could have opened up the offending country's chain of command to war-crimes charges.
However, while such actions by leaders of, say, Serbia or Sudan would provoke demands for war-crimes tribunals, other rules apply when the offending nation is the United States. Given its "superpower" status, the United States and its senior leadership appear to be effectively beyond the reach of international law "" and in the case of Bush, beyond domestic accountability.
Downplaying a Slaughter
By and large, the U.S. military also has failed to impose serious punishments on American troops implicated in extrajudicial killings and massacres, even high-profile ones like the killing of two dozen Iraqis in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005, after one Marine died from an improvised explosive device.
According to published accounts of U.S. military investigations, the dead Marine's comrades retaliated by pulling five men from a cab and shooting them, and clearing two homes where civilians, including women and children, were slaughtered.
The Marines then tried to cover up the killings by claiming that the civilian deaths were caused by the original explosion or a subsequent firefight, according to investigations by the U.S. military and human rights groups.
One of the accused Marines, Sgt. Frank Wuterich, gave his account of the Haditha killings in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes," including an admission that his squad tossed a grenade into one of the residences without knowing who was inside.
"Frank, help me understand," asked interviewer Scott Pelley. "You're in a residence, how do you crack a door open and roll a grenade into a room?"
"At that point, you can't hesitate to make a decision," Wuterich answered. "Hesitation equals being killed, either yourself or your men."
http://www.consortiumnews.com
Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at more...)
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