Rumsfeld denies consideration of "Salvador option"

[Cocoa]

Ok, we can stop talking about this, it's official, Rummy says it's not happening.

http://www.wric.com/Global/story.asp?S=2795964

PENTAGON "Somebody has been reading too many spy novels."
That reaction came today from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to reports, published on Newsweek's Web site, that suggest military planners are mulling a so-called "Salvador option" for use against Iraqi insurgents.

It draws its name from the Reagan administration policy of training nationalist hit squads during the guerrilla war in the early 1980's.

Newsweek reports the plan is for American Special Forces units to train Iraqi soldiers to serve as "death squads" to hunt down insurgents. The Newsweek report also suggests the units might even go into places like Syria to hunt down insurgent leaders.

Rumsfeld says "the Pentagon doesn't do things like that." He also says the type of training that Iraqi soldiers are receiving "doesn't involve the kinds of things that are characterized in that story."

[Demeter]

1. Don't Take Anything The Bushites Say As Gospel

including anything from the gospel that they've managed to mangle to their own purposes!

[annabanana]

2. I LOVE that he has to disavow it.....

I love that the "Salvador Option" got a name and mention in the press. I don't think we would have gotten than a couple of years ago, press-wise.

[Cocoa]

6. RWers have been openly calling for an "El Salvador model"

I recall one David Brooks column lauding the great success of U.S. policy in El Salvador, and calling for Iraq policy to follow that course. He mentioned the elections, but didn't mention the death squads.

[annabanana]

7. Maybe he thinks no one noticed the squads............n/t

[damntexdem]

28. "the Pentagon doesn't do things like that."

Uh, Rummy, in fact it did -- in El Salvador -- that's where the name 'the Salvador Option' comes from.

[Just Me]

22. BWAHAHAHA revealing the "true colors" of the RW!!!

It's biting them in the "A"!!!! *LOL*

Interesting how FAUX is suddenly anti-torture (in support of neoCONimperialists' newly selected HS head) when they were previously advocating the WH/Pentagon/DoD/Gonzales breach of laws against torture (calling them merely induction tests akin to frat crap).

[livinginphotographs]

3. Whew, that's a relief!

Thanks for making me feel better, Rummy!

:eyes:

[Inland]

4. Dismissing as "spy novel" something THE US ACTUALLY DID ONCE

How could anyone believe the US would do something that it actually did? You probably believe that US soldiers could commit torture, that people are being held without trial, that our troops carriers have armor, and that we didn't find WMD in Iraq.

You really should stop being so suspicious and get on the Bush team.

[Soopercali]

11. Actually, twice.

Don't forget Operation Phoenix in Vietnam.

[Supersedeas]

13. the Pentagon doesn't do things like---and MSM inserts spoon & contents

ah, satisfying.

[xray s]

5. he's right

The Pentagon doesn't do things like that. It's more of a CIA / White House black op thing. Plausible denial and all that jazz.

Rumsfeld's denial means squat.

[sellitman]

8. Lies!

And more lies to cover up the first set of lies. That's all these Fascist Neo-Cons can do is lie. I believe NOTHING they say. Only look at what they do.

My .02

[Swamp Rat]

9. If NOT, why the HELL is Negroponte there?

[Pachamama]

18. You mean Ambassador Death?

Why is it that wherever the man goes that death is everywhere, people are tortured, people go missing? :eyes:

[Swamp Rat]

21. Hi Pachamama

I'm disgusted... with the R's, the D's, the Cons, the Libs, the left the Right, the The's...most Americans... the inhumanity throughout the world...

:hug:

[Pachamama]

29. I'm disgusted too...I feel like I'm living in a nightmare or some kind of

parallel universe because the disgusting, evil, sick behaviour from this administration in the form of a premptive unjust war based on lies, evidence of abuse and torture, hearings where a fucking nominee for Attorney General has actually used his knowledge of the law to figure out how to circumvent laws prohibiting torture & justify it ( who is subsequentely then told by "so-called" Dems asking questions in hearings that "he's loved" and we are all supposed to go "AWWW, look at his nice wife and kids-so what about the torture-thingy"

What the F? Is this America? How can any decent human not be outraged or revolted by this? And then that there is talk about having Death Squads and talking about it in terms like its a decision about whether or not to buy an HDTV plasma monitor?

Things are spiralling downward real fast...I heard a quote on the radio of Shit for Brains W saying something like "Wow, the next 4 years haven't even started yet"....

We haven't even seen the worst of things....

[da_chimperor]

10. Yeah, and the US wasn't actually using napalm in fallujah

It was super-napalm, so saying napalm was used in fallujah is technically not true even though the effective was the same. Same thing goes in this case, but instead of calling it the 'Salvador Option', they're calling it 'Operation Massive Collateral Damage' instead. :eyes:

[Jacobin]

12. His denial confirms that they are in fact about to do it

Always believe the opposite of what these warmongers say and you'll never be tricked.

[NYC]

14. This means Rumsfeld will change the name.

That's what he did with other things the public didn't like.

[Just Me]

25. YOU GOT IT!!!! Our own personal U.S. psy-ops machine!!!! eom

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

15. Hell, I have a friend who did assainations in Nam.

Worked alone. Used an Icepick. SEAL.

I think that the brass likes this kind of stuff. Gives them teenie, weenie little boners and whatnot.

[LizW]

16. Oh, shit

The carefully misleading denial: "the Pentagon doesn't do things like that." Read: We get someone else to actually do the killing.

Remember when Bush was asked about the torture (way back, when it first came up) he said, "We don't torture people in America." Read: we do it elsewhere or get someone else to do it.

[DemonFighterLives]

17. This has been going on the whole while

Of course when Negraponte got on board, it really picked up steam. Look at the interrogations that led to death in Abu Gharib.
I can't wait for the war crimes tribunal. Rummy can go first for his duties as chief apologist.

[deacon2]

19. I believe Rummy. There is no policy of torture either...

the earth is flat, conservatives really are compassionate, we don't invade countries for oil, the contras were the moral equivalent of the founding fathers, if we just cut taxes the future will be bright, government isn't the solution - government is the problem (at least this one!), God is always on our side and Santa Claus plays pinochle with Jesus on Friday nights. Next?

[Solly Mack]

20. It's official then. We have the denial...

Once they deny, you know it's true

[Canuckistanian]

23. Didn't they get their Iraq invasion idea from spy novels?

No, wait it was a PNAC white paper, more like a neocon nursery tale.

[hangloose]

24. What about the CIA and mercenaries I'm sure they do!

[Just Me]

26. Yup. The Pentagon's WELL-FINANCED PRIVATE MERCS!!!

There ya' go!!!:bounce:

Our soldiers will take the hit via Military Code.

These neoCONimperialist-supported, American treasure-funded mercs will get off FREE AND CLEAR,...and prolly have a bright future in the neoCONimperialist political world!!!

Wanna' bet?

[damntexdem]

27. Rummy denies it? Then it must be true.

Hey, maybe they won't try Saddam Hussein -- they'll hire him as a consultant on their tactics in Iraq.

[ScrewyRabbit]

30. Yeah, sure, that's why Cheney brought up El Salvador in the debate

with Edwards. He specifically pointed to El Salvador as a model for Iraq. I remember when he said it I almost flipped my car I was so angry.