The Death Squads

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Ratings: 7.93/10 from 28 users.

Dispatches: The Death SquadsThe torture and slaughter of Iraqi civilians is reaching unprecedented heights with estimates of up to 655,000 dead. Night after night death squads rampage through Iraq's main cities. In Baghdad, up to a hundred bodies a day are dumped on the streets. Often they've been tortured with electric drills. Yet those doing the killing have little to do with al Qaeda or Sunni insurgents. The majority of the killings are carried out by Shia death squads who want to turn Iraq into a Shia state aligned to Iran.

This shocking film investigates the links between the death squads and high-ranking Shia politicians. It reveals how the Shia militia that these politicians control have systematically infiltrated and taken over police units and even entire government ministeries. It investigates how these units are closely linked to the death squads, indeed they often are the death squads. And the killers act with impunity - there's little investigation into their activities.

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34 Comments / User Reviews

  1. Jason e

    The American powers are THE most incompetent & untrustworthy people on the planet. Their legacy of failure is consistent & extraordinary. This Iraq invasion was an utter disaster that THEY created due to a lack of clear direction & communication. Bunch of Murderers & Ignoramus's.

  2. Andrew Bowdley

    We were all lied to if ask me We believe we are a civilized race full of civilized people. We are far from that. We are animals plain and simple. Torturing and killing people because you are a different . That is savagery madness At least a animal kill for food not for sport or religion.
    But to be honest this is what the Americans want its the best way to destroy a enemy is from within

  3. Marcyr

    by Jonathan Azaziah

    Prior to the fascist, destructive, genocidal US-UK-Israeli occupation of Iraq, Sunni and Shia, Muslims and Christians, Arabs and Kurds lived together in a harmonious atmosphere of brotherhood and unity that paralleled that of occupied Palestine before the Zionist occupation in 1948. It is egregious. Disgusting. Despicable. Ignorant. Absurd. And erroneous on every factual basis to assert that the aforementioned ethnic and religious groups are now massacring each other, when in reality, they are being massacred by the murderous occupation armies.

    Dividing Iraq via partition and driving it into a hell of ethnic cleansing was a Zionist plot that was originally designed in 1982 by Israeli foreign policy advisor Oded Yinon (1). The policies for destabilizing Iraq were reestablished in the ‘Clean Break’ papers written for mass murderer Benjamin Netanyahu by Zionist spy Richard Perle and several Zionist war criminals including Douglas Feith, David Wurmser, Meyrav Wurmser and Robert Loewenberg (2). Agents of the international terrorist group known as Mossad have been operating in Iraq as early as the 1950s, when the Zionist entity engaged in a false flag campaign of terror against the Iraqi-Jewish community (3). It has always been the absolute goal of the illegitimate usurping entity to destroy Iraq as a nation, so it can bring its ‘Greater Israel’ dream to fruition, settling its colonial extremists on the banks of the ancient Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

  4. fuvbhdfdh

    its not first time that shia r involved in such act ,in history of iraq they helped halako khan in mascare of innocent civilien in bagadad.

  5. ForeverDove

    Normal behavior for humans.... sad but true.

  6. staszekgobi

    Many reasons why these things and events happen over and over, I could compile a list of atrocities that took place since WW2 but I won't what I want to focus on is why these events happen.
    All these atrocities have one thing in common: political vacuum left by the britts or americans, in the case of Vietnam it was the french, in Angola the portugese and so on.
    Why are the people directly responsible not being held accountable?
    Why rumsfeld, bush, cheney and blair are still here? shouldn't they be on the plane to Hague by now so they could answer few simple questions?
    The real problem are the people who choose not to discuss or confront the reality of the world in which we now live.
    I like to think that one of the reasons why Obama was chosen for the office is because there was a shift in human consciousness a deeper understanding. Perhaps it was driven by necessity but if its true than it made a difference.
    I am forced to wonder, what would it require to take that extra step?

    1. batvette

      If by "Obama was chosen" you mean by David Rockefeller's Trilateral Commission, well that's right he was. Just like Jimmy Carter, and their common puppeteer was none other than Zbigniew Brezninski. You know, the guy who armed the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan to draw the Soviets into a full scale war which helped to bankrupt them? Isn't it funny how it came full circle and Obama is CinC directing US troops to kick in Bin Laden's door and gun him down?
      For fun look up "top 25 censored news stories of 1977" and "top 25 censored news stories of 2009"... "Jimmy Carter's Trilateral Commission White House" and "Barrack Obama's Trilateral Commission White House". Hope and Change, huh? Or is it "We won't get fooled again..."
      You wouldn't be the only one who thinks he can sleep with a better conscience knowing their vote put an Obama or a Clinton in the White House over a Bush or a Reagan- but then that's why this saying is all too true:
      "If you want to anger a conservative, tell him a lie. If you want to anger a liberal, tell him the truth."
      (for the record, I am neither)

  7. Grant

    We believe we are a civilized planet full of civilized people. We are not. We are savages plain and simple. Torturing and killing people with Electric Drills simply because you are a different religious sect. Savagery. At least animals kill for food not for sport or religion. Savages.

  8. oddsrhuge

    So? Can we in the West watch this, and not think about that "Shoe on the other foot" thingie?

    I can't even imagine that this could happen...I am not naive enough, not to see these things happen...But for the fact that I was born in the "right" place, it could be MY family.

    1. Mike

      @oddsrhuge....Good, you should keep that in mind next time you pay your taxes or vote.

  9. harry nutzack

    this is far from historically unique, it's what usually happens when a "power vaccum" is caused in a multicultural society where one culture has been abusively dominant in the political and business world... vendetta for past "crimes" is VERY common world wide under such circumstances(and, very often, completely uninvolved "ethnic brethren" of the abusers, the common schmuck in the street, is the one who pays most dearly)

  10. John J

    Religion= hate= contempt= lie's= war= murder! "What sins are created in the name of religion"

    Most American citizens want peace in this world. We are not our government, nor for it's policies in the middle east. We have been manipulated far tolong. The people in this country are lied to, misinformed and are more interested in reality TV, than what's going on out there. It's terribly sad.

    1. Xbow

      Yeah? Let gasoline spike to $7.00/gallon and just you see how warlike those nice liberal soccer moms and nutless liberal men get.

    2. staszekgobi

      Government= We the people...
      What on Earth do you mean that you are not the government? So who is it? Them nasty Canadians are here again?
      Assuming that you are an American (no disrespect intended) how can you spread the gospel of democracy around the world if you don't know your own civil rights and don't have a basic understanding of what democracy stands for?
      By the way I accidently pressed the like button and again no disrespect.

    3. batvette

      you know I keep hearing this BS about "Bush lied to us about the war" as if I'm supposed to take that seriously. I'm sorry but my knowledge about the middle east and what drives US foreign policy there did not begin and end with the media's filtration of White House blurbs on Saddam Hussein. More importantly, neither did that of Congress whose mandate was required before any soldiers were sent there.
      Anybody who believes they were lied to about this war, well they needed to be lied to. The rest of us, and it seems to be an ever decreasing minority, understood what the phrase "national security" meant in context with "peace and stability in the Persian Gulf" the multiple times it was spelled out in the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of Military Force on Iraq.
      Interestingly enough I can't recall a single war critic I've discussed this issue with (hundreds by now) who'd ever even seen that piece of legislation (which is the only official document stating the reasons for war) before I mention it, yet they claim they were lied to.

    4. Jack E. Jett

      you are wrong sir...there is never a reason the american people should be lied to when american blood in involved.

      that is only acceptable under a Repuke administrations.

    5. batvette

      Read this slowly as many times as you have to until it sinks in: If you think you were lied to, then you needed to be lied to.
      It means if you are so ignorant and uninformed you think that war was started on lies I don't care what the government tells YOU.
      If you think:
      1. The legitimacy of the war was dependent on us showing for anyone's approval, large stockpiles of WMD after the invasion.
      2. Saddam Hussein was contained and the situation in the middle east was fine until Bush made a mess with his stupid war.
      3. When Americans take to the streets and march in protest, that's the wheels of democracy turning and Bush should have listened and brought the troops home.
      4. Inspections were "working" and if only Bush would have given Hans Blix a little more time war could have been avoided.
      5. Congress voted for the war because Bush was their only source of intelligence on WMD and he led them by the nose to do his bidding....

      If any of those remotely matches your or anyone else's feelings on this I hope the government lies to you as much as possible-because you can't handle the truth.

      Have you read the Joint Resolution?

    6. Jack E. Jett

      If what you are saying sir/mam is that America can't handle the truth, the I agree with you fully and stand corrected.

    7. batvette

      that is precisely what I was saying, thank you!

    8. Joshua Edwards

      So you are saying Americans need to be lied to? Are you a communist?

  11. Betabot

    It's amazing. A documentary about iranian supported fascist-religious violence and people pretty much just use the space here for pathological hatred of americans.
    Go visit the US for more than 2 weeks and don't believe all the hatespeeches, be it on the internet, on libertarian forums, or fox-news.

  12. Betabot

    "If the middle east had no oil, the western world wouldn’t even know it existed."

    Exactly. Cause, sadly, that is the only interesting thing that region had to offer since people there kinda slept through the age of enlightenment.

    It's a shame how incredibly f--ked up the war on saddam turned out, destabilizing the region, strengthening the iranian regime, the worst antisemite religious fanatic institution next to mel gibson.

  13. Simon

    I think that the main problem with the entire situation is not that the religion is the problem, it is that the people are not well educated. If you look at the majority of people who are religious to extremes, most of them aren't that smart. So when you have a mass of people who are taught that what they're doing is for the good of their god. Iraq isn't going to work because as we know America is in Iraq for their own goals, not to help the people.

    If you go through all of the docs on this site, you'll see plenty of docs about Iraq, showing every harsh side of the entire situation, and the sad fact is, once you've watched a few of these docs you suddenly find yourself no longer being upset by it. Sady most people don't watch shows like this, they would rather watch any poor dross about some Z-list celeb trying to learn to sing or dance, and when they do want to learn they watch the news, and sadly the news had been dumbed down to the point that they think they have to explain to you that if there are wars then people may get hurt.

    We should stop allowing ourself to be rulled by idiotic TV. Docs like this one are missed by most people because they would rather watch something else at 8 in the evening. So to those of you who are watching this doc along with the other docs on this site, teach the idiots you see around you, because you are now a minority in the world. Teach your friends who would rather watch Celeb Dancing School or getting smashed every night.

  14. jj

    This is such propagandist b@##$%^&. People can do whatever they want with their own country. Imagine America being told by Iraq not to align with the UK.

    Imagine the response. People forget that we invaded Iraq and Afghanistan illegally. These places are sovereign countries and we're in there for no other reason than to annex their natural resources. If the middle east had no oil, the western world wouldn't even know it existed.

  15. USjob

    this is what's called a well done US job,the sunnit and the sheeit have been leaving together for a hundred years , in iraq and elswher, the only real fact is that every where there is a US hand there is a terorism , they call it al QUAIDA arabic word wich mean the platform, the plat form of the new world order, spread the desorder and the death , the terore travel the world, I notice that even this doc doesn't talk about the role of USA in all this torturs,while it's the source of all problems, all this is programed and done in favor US presence in Iraq, to stop all this kills and terror in IRAQ, the only think to do is to leave iraq in the hands of iraqis,
    I have never seen a stupid people like american, they eat every think they feed them in the media,

  16. English

    This proves that it's not just Sadamn that needed to be removed from power. The evil lies within the religion. They will not stop. It's obvious that some Sunni and Shia Muslims can live peacefully together but the majority just wont(Its not even can not - they WONT). Total shame what people do to each other because of daft scriptures, beliefs and methods of control - bring on the day every religious person in the world wakes the f@#$ up. Total disgrace to humanity - remove the educated. Control the weak through religion. Sick.

  17. Hugh

    Absolutely disgusting and infuriating.

    As much as the US may have provoked this to happen, it should not be put on their shoulders entirely. This was an obvious underlying tension between the Shi'a and Sunnis in Iraq (as there has been since Muhammad's death).

    To think that all of this has been happening for the last 1500 years over a difference in opinion on who was Muhammad's rightful successor. It's enough to make anyone with a heart (and head) an atheist. Can we PLEASE, once and for all, end the intolerance, the death and the suffering.

  18. Canadian

    Good job america ( i also mean it like pete ), you stupid capitalistic sheep will burn in hell for this. ignorance is not bliss.

    saddam may have been a open dictator ( i say open because its always the ruling class and working class, democracy or not ) but iraq was a hell of alot safer and not so disturbingly violent while he was in power.

  19. Pete

    PS: When I say the Americans are the problem- I mean the US defence force and US govt and controllers and the arms industry, and their supporters, not the general people.

  20. Pete

    Thanks webmaster for your site. Be good to have the dates of these documentaries somewhere, as they don't always have them on the film itself. .
    Saddam had the lid on all this before, and there was a happier country despite his excesses but it is now worse than ever. The Americans are the problem, as the university guy said on the phone. They started it, what a mess.

  21. BeepBeepImaJeep

    "Mission Accomplished!"

  22. milton

    Very good; shows the stages of taking over a country. First topple the current one; then kill all its supporters; then kill all scholars cause theyre the only ones with the opportunity to stand up for human rights

  23. Franck

    So no Religions in Politics & no Corporations in Politics.
    Wow what mess we're in.
    There you have it, another proof that the US government is not there for Democracy or the Iraqi people. Obama as get the boys out of there, now, or make a 180 and help for real. Aren't those Extremists, Fundamentalists, the "Terrorist" the US is suppose to get ???

  24. Psilly Willy

    Astounding program!! Our indifference is also astounding!