Scorpions was an
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
i
paramilitary force set up by the
United States Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
prior to the
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...
.
History
The covert members were trained in
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
in target identification, explosives and small arms at two secret bases.
Weapons and equipment (including old
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
Hind A hind is a female deer, especially a red deer.
Places
* Hind (Sasanian province, 262-484)
* Hind and al-Hind, a Persian and Arabic name for the Indian subcontinent
* Hind (crater), a lunar impact crater
* 1897 Hind, an asteroid
Military ...
helicopters) were supplied by the CIA.
Most members were recruited from the Iraqi exile community by
Iraqi Kurds
Iraqi Kurds ( ar, العراقيين الكرد, ku, کوردەکانی عێراق) are people born in or residing in Iraq who are of Kurdish origin. The Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Iraq, comprising between 15% and 20% of the count ...
.
The original mission of the Scorpions was to foment
rebellion in Iraq prior to the US led invasion.
However, due to training delays, little of this mission was ever achieved. Following the war, the CIA began using the Scorpions in anti-insurgency roles, and for interrogations of prisoners.
The Scorpions have been implicated in the events that led to the death of Iraqi Maj. Gen.
Abed Hamed Mowhoush while in US captivity.
These events included the use of physical and psychological
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...
under the auspices of a CIA operative and Special Forces retiree identified only as "Brian".
The Scorpions' original mission to start - or give the appearance of - a rebellion against the regime of
Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party,
makes their involvement in the death of Mowoush significant. It is not clear at what point the Scorpions became involved in the interrogation of US held prisoners, other than Mowhoush's interrogation by the Scorpions on November 24.
See also
*
Use of torture since 1948
*
Human Rights Record of the United States
The ''Human Rights Record of the United States'' (informally referred to as the "China Human Rights Report") is a publication on the annual human rights record in the United States of America, published by the Information Office of the State Coun ...
References
Torture in the Iraq War
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