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Pastimes : Where the GIT's are going -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neeka who wrote (90459)	1/10/2005 10:39:33 PM
From: sandintoes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 225578

Goldie Hahn? (sp?)

To: Neeka who wrote (90459)	1/10/2005 11:04:22 PM
From: sandintoes	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 225578

> 1) NBC's Today on Monday morning devoted a 7am half hour segment to a Newsweek Web story about how the U.S. is supposedly considering a "Salvador Option" for Iraq, what Newsweek and NBC's Katie Couric dubbed "death squads" to hunt down terrorists. Couric proposed to retired Army General Wayne Downing: "Is this a clear sign though that U.S. forces are losing the war with these insurgents?" Couric tried to impugn the policy idea by tarring it with what supposedly occurred in El Salvador in the 1980s: "In El Salvador many innocent civilians were killed when these kind of tactics were employed. Are you concerned about that or the possibility this will increase anti-American sentiment in the general Iraqi population?" Downing rejected her premise: "This has nothing to do with El Salvador." Couric set up the January 10 Today segment, as taken down by the MRC's Geoff Dickens: "On Close Up this morning, a possible new approach in Iraq. Newsweek magazine is reporting this week that the Pentagon is considering using a controversial secret strategy to battle insurgents there, the same one the Reagan administration used to fight leftist guerillas in El Salvador in the early eighties. Retired General Wayne Downing is an NBC News military analyst. General Downing good morning." With "Iraqi Death Squads?" as the on-screen heading throughout the session, Couric posed these questions: -- "So officials at the Pentagon are now discussing a possible option calling it, 'The Salvador Option,' according to Newsweek magazine. What does this mean and General Downing how significant is this in your view?" Downing: "Well Katie I think this term is very unfortunate because this El Salvador thing brings up the connotation of death squads of illegal activity that took place in, by some of the El Salvadorian military 20 years ago. But I think what they're considering is to use a special or more special Iraqi units trained and equipped and perhaps even led by U.S. Special Forces to conduct strike operations against this, this insurgency, against the leaders of it which of course is a very valid strategy, a very valid tactic and it's actually something we've been doing since we started the war back in March of 2003." -- Couric: "But is this going to be used more or in greater numbers? According to Newsweek they're going to, the, the U.S. Special Forces will train specially chosen Kurdish forces and Shiite militia men. So does this signal a, I guess, an escalation of this technique at least?" -- "But is this a, I'm sorry General Downing is this a clear sign though that U.S. forces are losing the war with these insurgents? That they are even more difficult to, to deal with than once imagined?" -- "One last question, we don't have much time General Downing, but in El Salvador many innocent civilians were killed when these kind of tactics were employed. Are you concerned about that or the possibility this will increase anti-American sentiment in the general Iraqi population?" Downing: "Katie, this has nothing to do with El Salvador. Those operations that were conducted down there were conducted by, by renegade military leaders. This is under the control of the U.S. forces, of the current interim Iraqi government. There's, there's no need to think that we're going to have any kind of a, a killing campaign that's gonna maim innocent civilians-" Couric: "Alright." Downing: "Katie it's a nasty situation in Iraq right now and this may help it get better." For the Saturday-posted Newsweek Web site article, "'The Salvador Option': The Pentagon may put Special-Forces-led assassination or kidnapping teams in Iraq Nuns pray over the bodies of four American sisters killed by the military in El Salvador in 1980," by Michael Hirsh and John Barry, go to: msnbc.msn.com Newsweek illustrated its story with one of the most incendiary incidents used by the left to discredit the Reagan administration's subsequent support for the government of El Salvador. The caption for the photo featured by Newsweek: "Nuns pray over the bodies of four American sisters killed by the military in El Salvador in 1980."