WASHINGTON - March 24 -

ROBERT PARRY
In early 2005, Parry wrote the article "Bush's 'Death Squads,'" which examined the "Salvador Option" in Iraq, referring to the 1980s U.S. government's "supporting El Salvador's right-wing security forces, which operated clandestine 'death squads' to eliminate both leftist guerrillas and their civilian sympathizers."

Parry is editor of ConsortiumNews.com. He broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book is Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq.
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ARUN GUPTA
Gupta has been among the first reporters to write about death squads in Iraq and examine their links to the Interior Ministry. He is an editor with The Indypendent. Gupta said today: "The proliferation of militias in the security forces is tacit U.S. policy. Eager to 'stand up' Iraqi forces, the Bush administration has allowed the police to take over huge swaths of Baghdad and other cities despite knowing that they were more loyal to their warlords than [to] the Iraqi government."
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BETH PYLES
A member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, Pyles has spent four of the last eight months in Iraq. She just returned from her latest trip on Tuesday and was particularly involved in working with Palestinians whom she reports are being targeted by death squads in Iraq.
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DOUG IRELAND
Ireland wrote the piece "Shia Death Squads Target Iraqi Gays," in the current issue of the Gay City News. Ireland wrote: "Following a death-to-gays fatwa issued last October by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, death squads of the Badr Corps have been systematically targeting gay Iraqis for persecution and execution, gay Iraqis say. But when they ask for help and protection from U.S. occupying authorities in the 'Green Zone,' gay Iraqis are met with indifference and derision."
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