LB Lex
11-25-03, 01:06 AM
VENGEANCE HAS ITS DAY
These exerpts come from the latest Times Magazine.
An investigation by TIME found that at least a dozen former intelligence officials have been killed in shootings in Baghdad since Oct. 1; several others have been wounded. In Basra, some 25 to 30 Baath Party members have been shot at point-blank range since mid-October. A U.S. intelligence official in Iraq says many of his colleagues are wary of revealing the true scale of the violence, in part because they have little ability to stop it and in part because they don't want to be put in the position of protecting unsavory characters. "The body count on these killings," the official says, "is a lot higher than anyone wants to admit."
Jasim is a killer. In the past six months he claims to have helped assassinate 10 former members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime, most of them officials in the disbanded Mukhabarat, Iraq's ruthless intelligence service. A construction worker who declines to give his full name for fear of retribution, Jasim, 31, has scores to settle.
Jasim says he belongs to a cell with five other Shi'ite Iraqis dedicated to executing in cold blood all former officials who tortured or murdered for the regime. He and the cell's intelligence chief, Aws, 25, an Arabic teacher who also does not wish to be fully identified, agreed to meet TIME in a Baghdad restaurant to explain how they select their victims. They claim that each of their targets was a murderer for the old regime and that they require witnesses and documents as proof of guilt before they deliver the reckoning.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101031201-548790,00.html
These exerpts come from the latest Times Magazine.
An investigation by TIME found that at least a dozen former intelligence officials have been killed in shootings in Baghdad since Oct. 1; several others have been wounded. In Basra, some 25 to 30 Baath Party members have been shot at point-blank range since mid-October. A U.S. intelligence official in Iraq says many of his colleagues are wary of revealing the true scale of the violence, in part because they have little ability to stop it and in part because they don't want to be put in the position of protecting unsavory characters. "The body count on these killings," the official says, "is a lot higher than anyone wants to admit."
Jasim is a killer. In the past six months he claims to have helped assassinate 10 former members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime, most of them officials in the disbanded Mukhabarat, Iraq's ruthless intelligence service. A construction worker who declines to give his full name for fear of retribution, Jasim, 31, has scores to settle.
Jasim says he belongs to a cell with five other Shi'ite Iraqis dedicated to executing in cold blood all former officials who tortured or murdered for the regime. He and the cell's intelligence chief, Aws, 25, an Arabic teacher who also does not wish to be fully identified, agreed to meet TIME in a Baghdad restaurant to explain how they select their victims. They claim that each of their targets was a murderer for the old regime and that they require witnesses and documents as proof of guilt before they deliver the reckoning.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101031201-548790,00.html