Death Squads in El Salvador: A Pattern of U.S. Complicity

[formercia]

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/deathsquads_ElSal.html

Death Squads in El Salvador:
A Pattern of U.S. Complicity
by David Kirsch
Covert Action Quarterly, Summer 1990

The term "death squad" while appropriately vivid, can be misleading because it obscures their fundamental identity. Evidence shows that "death squads" are primarily military or paramilitary units carrying out political assassinations and intimidation as part of the Salvadoran government's counterinsurgency strategy. Civilian death squads do exist but have often been comprised of off-duty soldiers financed by wealthy Salvadoran businessmen.

--snip--

Even though the U.S. government's police training program had been thoroughly discredited, the Reagan administration found other channels through which to reinstate police assistance for El Salvador and Honduras. Attached to this assistance is the requirement that the president certify that aid recipients do not engage in torture, political persecution, or assassination. Even so, certain members of Congress showed concern over the reinstatement of police aid to repressive regimes. In a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Senator Claiborne Pell (Dem.-Rhode Island) asked, "I was talking about cattle prods specifically. Would they be included or not?"
Undersecretary of State for Latin American Affair Elliott Abrams replied, "Well, I would say that in my view if the police of Costa Rica, with their democratic tradition, say that for crowd control purposes they would like to have 50 shot batons, as they are called in a nonagricultural context, I would personally want to give it to them. I think that government has earned enough trust, as I think we have earned enough trust, not to be questioned, frankly, about exporting torture equipment. But I would certainly be in favor of giving it to them if they want it."
--snip--

[formercia]

1. U.S. Army and CIA interrogation manuals

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KUBARK#CIA_manuals

U.S. Army and CIA interrogation manuals

These manuals were prepared by the U.S. military and used between 1987 and 1991 for intelligence training courses at the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA). Some of the material was similar to the older CIA manuals described below. The manuals were also distributed by Special Forces Mobile Training Teams to military personnel and intelligence schools in Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Peru.<5><6><7><8><5><9>

The Pentagon press release accompanying the release stated that a 1991-92 investigation into the manuals concluded that "two dozen short passages in six of the manuals, which total 1169 pages, contained material that either was not or could be interpreted not to be consistent with U.S. policy."<5>

The Latin America Working Group criticized this: "The unstated aim of the manuals is to train Latin American militaries to identify and suppress anti-government movements. Throughout the eleven hundred pages of the manuals, there are few mentions of democracy, human rights, or the rule of law. Instead, the manuals provide detailed techniques for infiltrating social movements, interrogating suspects, surveillance, maintaining military secrecy, recruiting and retaining spies, and controlling the population. While the excerpts released by the Pentagon are a useful and not misleading selection of the most egregious passages, the ones most clearly advocating torture, execution and blackmail, they do not provide adequate insight into the manuals' highly objectionable framework. In the name of defending democracy, the manuals advocate profoundly undemocratic methods."<5>

--snip--

[Judi Lynn]

2. Unbelievable quote from Abrams. Will bookmark your link to read later tonight. Thanks. n/t

[bertman]

3. Not even twenty short years ago. Our hated Senator Jesse Helms just LOVED these

death squads and their most infamous poster boy and alleged leader, Roberto D'Aubuisson. They were killing commies and that was all it took to get Jesse foaming at the mouth.

Recommend.

Thanks for keeping us informed, formercia.

[formercia]

4. Helms was part of the problem.

The 'Death Squads' were killing innocent civilians who happened to witness their misdeeds.
It was mostly to force people off their land, much like what is happening in Colombia today.