Wikileaks: Latest US Death Squad Operations Manual

Discussion in 'Terrorism' started by Horhey, Feb 22, 2012.

  1. Horhey

    Horhey Well-Known Member

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    The manual entitled, US Special Forces Foreign Internal Defense Tactics Techniques and Procedures for Special Forces, FM 31.20-3, 2003 instructs the "host nation" (US-backed puppet regime) to use "paramilitaries" (right wing death squads) to reppress the "peasents", which is usually over 95% of the country.

    The manual advocates methods such as "pervasive surveillance, censorship, press control and restrictions on labor unions & political parties. It directly advocates warrantless searches, detainment without charge and (under varying circumstances) the suspension of habeas corpus.

    It directly advocates employing terrorists or prosecuting individuals for terrorism who are not terrorists, running false flag operations and concealing human rights abuses from journalists. And it repeatedly advocates the use of subterfuge and "psychological operations" (propaganda) to make these and other "population & resource control" measures more palatable."

    An excerpt..

    To be continued..
     
  2. The Wyrd of Gawd

    The Wyrd of Gawd Well-Known Member

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    In this week's presidential debate some of the repub presidential candidates suggested that we should use such methods in the Middle East, especially to overthrow the Syrian government. Newt want to flood them with arms, resulting in more death and destruction.
     
  3. axialturban

    axialturban Well-Known Member

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    Amazing to see the things people invent and pass on as fact.
     
  4. Jango

    Jango New Member

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    Don't dismiss it so easily, the CIA created a manual for the contras, which posses a lot of people off when it was published. BTW...it was an excellent read.
     
  5. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    I know. Of course, you have to realize that the Horhey posts are little more then propaganda posts almost totally lacking in facts. Most of us do not even bother to respond to his nonsense.

    He has included such nice photos. To bad they have absolutely nothing to do with the article. Of course, the original article was written by Julian Assange, so it should be no wonder.

    I invite everybody to use their critical thinking skills. Mr. Horhey (and Mr. Assange) states quite clearly that the manual was written in 1994 and 2004 for use in the US military.

    Then why, may I ask, are their photos dated 1978 and 1981 from Central America? Is this not a decade or more before this manual came out? And have they apparently actually read the manuals?

    I suggest that before anybody passes along crap like this, they actually read the source material. This is known as "research", and prevents you from looking like either a tool, or a fool. Here, let me give an exact quote from this manual:

    Acts of misconduct by HN [Host Nation] personnel

    All members of training assistance teams must understand their responsibilities concerning acts of misconduct by HN personnel. Team members receive briefings before deployment on what to do if they encounter or observe such acts. Common Article 3 of the four Geneva Conventions lists prohibited acts by parties to the convention. Such acts are-
    •Violence to life and person, in particular, murder, mutilation, cruel treatment, and torture.
    • Taking of hostages.
    • Outrages against personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment.
    •Passing out sentences and carrying out executions without previous judgment by a regularly constituted court that affords all the official guarantees that are recog-nized as indispensable by civilized people.
    •The provisions in the above paragraph represent a level of conduct that the United States expects each foreign country to observe.

    If team members encounter prohibited acts they can not stop, they will disengage from the activity, leave the area if possible, and report the incidents immediately to the proper in-country U.S. authorities. The country team will identify proper U.S. authorities during the team's initial briefing. Team members will not discuss such matters with non-U.S. Government authorities such as journalists and civilian contractors.


    Now does this sound like a bit of instruction from a "Death Squad Manual"? In fact, most of the "death squad" tactics are listed in this manual as the tactics of the insurgents they are intended to fight!

    Civilian Self-Defense Forces [Paramilitaries, or, especially in an El-Salvador or Colombian civil war context, right wing "death squads"]

    When a village accepts the CSDF program, the insurgents cannot choose to ignore it. To let the village go unpunished will encourage other villages to accept the government's CSDF program. The insurgents have no choice; they have to attack the CSDF village to provide a lesson to other villages considering CSDF. In a sense, the psychological effectiveness of the CSDF concept starts by reversing the insurgent strategy of making the government the repressor. It forces the insurgents to cross a critical threshold-that of attacking and killing the very class of people they are supposed to be liberating.

    To be successful, the CSDF program must have popular support from those directly involved or affected by it. The average peasant is not normally willing to fight to his death for his national government. His national government may have been a succession of corrupt dictators and inefficient bureaucrats. These governments are not the types of institutions that inspire fight-to-the-death emotions in the peasant. The village or town, however, is a different matter. The average peasant will fight much harder for his home and for his village than he ever would for his national government. The CSDF concept directly involves the peasant in the war and makes it a fight for the family and village instead of a fight for some faraway irrelevant government.


    Notice how it is putting this listing into a context, not endorsing it's activities. And if the revolutionaries are fighting a corrupt government, is it not surprising that some parts of the military will also become corrupt? Or will end up putting themsleves into a survival mode that allows anything as long as the government survives?

    Mr. Horhey loves to try and put things into a start black and white, either everything is good, or everything is bad. And to him (and Mr. Assange), everything that the US does is bad and evil.

    I encourage people to go out and find the actual information he talks about. Not what other people says it means, but in this case the actual manual. It is out there, and not hard to find at all.
     
  6. Horhey

    Horhey Well-Known Member

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    ^^
    Omg. Fixed.. Ill post the rest of it after work. Yes, death squad activities are encouraged by the manual. You left that stuff out and your analysis is extremely flawed. Pick and choose all you want.
     
  7. Albert Di Salvo

    Albert Di Salvo New Member

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    This Is The Work Of Barack Obama...no One Else.
     
  8. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    If you say I am wrong, then please show us why. Do not just accuse me of "picking and choosing" my friend. You know where to find the manual. Go thorugh it yourself and tell us where in there you find instructions for "death squads".
     
  9. Horhey

    Horhey Well-Known Member

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    Here we go. The entire manual..


    Continued..
     
  10. Horhey

    Horhey Well-Known Member

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    3 more to go..

     
  11. Horhey

    Horhey Well-Known Member

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    The "democracy enhancement" manual continued..

     
  12. Horhey

    Horhey Well-Known Member

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    And finnally...

     
  13. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    Very nice. And nowhere in that does it say anything like "death squads".
     
  14. Horhey

    Horhey Well-Known Member

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    Oh I see. So they actually have to call them "death squads" for them to be death squads? The term "paramilitary" isnt good enough? They do call them death squads though, right here:

    They are describing their own paramilitaries as "death squads." Interesting how they acknowledge their Salvadoran and Colombian paramilitaries as death squads internally. Publicly, they were "democratic forces" and the media parroted it.
     
  15. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    No, paramilitaries are not "Death Squads". For goodness sakes, learn what the word means.

    Law enforcement is "Paramilitary". And so are the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Security companies (like those that guard the banks) are also "Paramilitary Organizations". As are border patrols and just about any other organization that follows a chain of command.

    I suggest you reread the manual, and try to understand what it is saying, not what you want it to say. It did talk about the posssability that a paramilitary organization can become a "death squad". And it also clearly and unequivically stated what to do if that is the case.

    And it was not to give them more training and assist them.
     
  16. Horhey

    Horhey Well-Known Member

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    You obviously have absolutely no historical perspective on these issues and you either didnt read the entire manual or you convinced yourself you didnt see anything.

    The Salvadoran and Colombian death squads they mention were organized, trained, financed, armed, and advised by the CIA and US Special Forces. That is not controversial and it's not a secret.
     
  17. The Third Man

    The Third Man Banned

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    The Americans train death squads,have done it for years and years just because they want to call them something else does not mean they are not death squads,they butcher people,that is their job.Like your articles,well researched.Shame that some people need to deny actual facts.
     
  18. Horhey

    Horhey Well-Known Member

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    Look here man. The manual contradicts itself just like their Operation "Phoenix" death squad manual for the Vietnam war did..

    It's the same thing. "If you see a paramilitary murdering people, you dont have to try to stop it. Just come report it to us and dont tell anyone else, especially the media."

    While at the same time they encourage the repression of labor unions, certain political groups and the overall "underground" sector, which is usually over 95% of the country. These are people who have strange and unnacceptable ideas about using and developing "our resources" in their own lands.
     
  19. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    No, it does not.

    And in case you did not know this, even in the US it is not to unusual for "Rights on the legality of detention or imprisonment of personnel (for example, habeas corpus) may be temporarily suspended". It has happened many times in the past, and still happens at need. It is called Martial Law, and pretty much any time there is a huricane you have that happen.

    Nice try, but once again, you have no idea what you are talking about.

    And that nice list of restrictions on activities. Funny, it says nothing there about random executions of enemies. That must have vanished somehow.
     
  20. IgnoranceisBliss

    IgnoranceisBliss Well-Known Member

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    Nothing Horhey cited is in violation of any of the laws of war. It's all pretty standard procedure for military/police all over the place.

    In the past certain military/paramilitary units that have been "trained" by U.S. forces did end up committing atrocities. The key distinction here being that the U.S. forces didn't train them to commit atrocities or be death squads. U.S. forces are often sent in as "advisers" to improve a local country's security forces (often already trained). For drug operations they may go in and teach the Colombian Army how to move and operate in the jungle so they can raid drug camps. If the Colombian government then decides to use this same unit to clear out an opposition village two years later, there's nothing that the U.S. can do. When something like this happens though, the sensationalist media and people like Horhey will say said unit was "trained" by U.S. forces, which is technically correct, but completely out of context and disingenuous. They will try to imply that U.S. Forces taught them how to kill civilians, when in fact they taught them how to carry out jungle warfare. Of course Horhey and the media intentionally blur this line.

    Of course the U.S. should and does generally try and consider who it trains and any potential future issues. But its difficult to predict the future and in many conflicts both sides commit atrocities. When the U.S. supports a given side it cannot be expected to control every action that side takes. The media loves to distort this by tying everything back to the U.S. The U.S. could teach a country's military how to purify water......and 10 years later be accused of "aiding/training/supporting" said military when it commits a war crime. This is the media and people like Horhey being disingenuous and deceitful. They love the conspiracy theories.

    Finally, Horhey is crazy to expect small ODA detachments (10-20) guys fighting miles behind enemy lines to try and intercede in large scale atrocities. The manual encourages U.S. forces to attempt to stop them, but realizes it would be suicidal to try and intercede in the middle of such violence.

    When your 10 man squad sees a company of local fighters murder an entire village in front of your eyes you quickly realize that "sanity" has gone out the window.
     
  21. RoccoR

    RoccoR Well-Known Member Donor

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    Horhey,

    Just out of curiosity, what year was this manual published? AND, can you send me a copy? Maybe can give me the title and date?

    (COMMENT)

    Maybe back in the 1960's, but something doesn't sound right here (a half century later). We don't conduct unsanctioned targeting.

    Most Respectfully,
    R
     
  22. The Third Man

    The Third Man Banned

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  23. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    There is a link right from WikiLeaks. And it is dated 5 December 2003 (modified from the original dated 20 September 1994).

    And I invite you to look through it as well. I have, extensively. There is nothing in there about "Death Squads". In fact, I quoted the passage already in this debate that basically said if the forces you are attached to operate outside the limits of the laws of land warfare, to remove yourself from them and report the incident to higher authority.

    I seriously doubt that the OP has ever actually read this manual. He only repeats the same quotes over and over again, highlighting the same passages that have nothing to do with "death squads".

    In fact, let me list a few more quotes. I invite anybody to tell me if this endorses or even suggests that the US endorses "Death Squads":

    The IDAD strategy is founded on the assumption that the host nation (HN) is responsible for the development and execution of programs to prevent or defeat an insurgency. The fundamental thrust of the IDAD strategy is toward preventing the escalation of internal conflict.

    If insurgency occurs, emphasis is placed on holding down the level of violence. The population must be mobilized to participate in IDAD efforts. Thus, IDAD is an overall strategy for the prevention of insurgency and, if an insurgency should develop, for counterinsurgency (COIN) activities.

    Those governments that lack the will to address their social, economic, or political problems are unlikely to benefit from outside assistance. On the other hand, governments that do mobilize their human and material resources may find that outside help, including U.S. security assistance, makes a critical difference.

    And that is found on pages 1-1 and 1-2. The entire manual reads essentially that way. And the only mention of "Death Squads" is the following:

    The major disadvantage of a CSDF program is its potential for abuse. Careful controls must be enforced to prevent the operation or even the perception of death squads or armed bandits. The SFOD, with HN officials, must constantly monitor the behavior of CSDF personnel and halt abuses early in the program. Regular, unannounced inspections are a good tool to control CSDF elements. CSDF leaders conduct personnel inspections the advisors, with HN security forces, conduct more technical inspections on weapons, defensive plans, communications equipment, and records. They must establish a system of checks and balances to keep the CSDF leadership honest.

    Human rights training and close supervision are extremely important for the CSDF since the negative psychological effects of misbehavior can be devastating. If the populace perceives CSDFs as death squads or bullies, all government legitimacy can be lost, and the CSDF program, as well as the overall FID and/or IDAD campaign, could be badly damaged.

    For some reason, the OP never brings up these parts. He only brings in vague phrases that at ethe most evil interpretation might removely be considered be taken as endoresment of "Death Squads". If the person reasing it had a derranged mind and totally ignored the rest of the manual.

    Yet if you notice, he never discusses any of the parts I bring up, which specifically prohibit such operations, and even demand the reporting of such incidents. He and a few other individuals still insist it is something it is not.

    And I doubt they have ever actually read the manual themselves. And it is actually rather interesting reading, being smaller and more interesting then my old FM 22-5 (or the newer FM 3-21.5), or my old MCO P5060.20.

    :nana:
     
  24. RoccoR

    RoccoR Well-Known Member Donor

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    Mushroom, The Third Man, et al,

    Thanks for the help. I was getting concerned. I haven't heard the likes of this since the Phoenix Program (alla Vietnam)!

    (COMMENT)


    I concur with Mushroom, there is no military doctrine that supports the concept of "Death Squads," or anything remotely similar. I assure you that the US Military does not act like a Third World Banana Republic military force.

    I do not quite understand the justification for the WikiLeaks Summary that they use for the lead-in.

    This is one of the problems with trying to use WikiLeaks as a source.

    Most Respectfully,
    R
     
  25. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    Oh I am aware of the differences in the various manuals. All of my responses have come directly from the "leaked" manual that was attached to the original WikiLeaks release that was in question. This was to try and keep this entirely on track to the original post.

    And yea, I could use my CAC and get other manuals, but that is one thing I never do. Because of my clearance, I must be very careful, and only use other third party sources as my references. This way I can never be accused of "leaking" classified or confidential material.

    And yes, WikiLeaks is an absolutely horrible source. They are so biased it is beyond belief. And this is a perfect example. They pick and choose a few vague quotes that really mean nothing sinister, and then flip them and claim it is something it is not.

    And at the same time, totally ignore repeated instructions that the units must operate within the guidelines, and not become "death squads".

    These are the type of people I would invite to spend a few days actually interacting with soldiers. They seem to have this impression that we are mindless killers, and that we will do anything we want or are told.

    It is often funny how people who scream things like this over and over have often never actually interacted with members of the military. They really have no idea what our lives are like, or what we are like.
     

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