Agony of a nation

It's become a nightmarish vision of the ultimate failed state. In Iraq, death squads wage sectarian war protected by their police uniforms. Government ministries use private militias to abduct each other's supporters. And while the state descends into anarchy, a terrorised population is left to fend for itself. To what extent was this chaos fomented by US military strategists? This powerful investigation reveals the real story behind the endless stream of bloody statistics.

"If you're a Sunni, they'll catch you", states one prisoner. "There are roundups every day". In the crowded cells of Mosul's police station, prisoners huddle together on the floor. They're all Sunni Arabs. Many of these men have been here for months. But these prisoners are lucky. Had they been arrested in 2005, they would have fallen into the hands of the notorious Wolf Brigade, an American-trained police unit which morphed into a death squad. Today, the Wolf Brigade has been disbanded but the police remains riddled with private militias. No one would think of turning to the police for protection. "If you call them, they may kill you too", states one man. Even General Flyen admits; "The militias infiltrated the police, using uniforms and military vehicles to carry out strikes".

When 80 gunmen, dressed in police uniforms and driving police cars, strolled into a government ministry and abducted 150 people, the scale of police infiltration became apparent. "If the gangs have that many official cars, they must be infiltrating the Iraqi state", admits Selim Abdallah from the Ministry of Higher Education. According to Hussein Ali Kamal from Iraq's Secret Service; "everyone knows that a militia very active in Baghdad did the kidnapping. These militias are linked to parties in the government". The Ministry attacked was headed by a prominent Sunni and located in an area controlled by a Shi'ite militia, the Badr Brigade. As the Badr Brigade also allegedly control the Ministry of Interior, which appoints police, many saw the abductions as a sectarian attack.

How did the police force become so compromised? Why did so many US-trained units turn into death squads? "Iraqis are running around saying this must be planned. The Americans can't be this incompetent", claims journalist David Corn. In the 1980s, America trained and funded death squads in El Salvador, using them to crush a popular insurgency which was threatening to overthrow the government. Struggling to crush the Sunni backed insurgency in Iraq, the Pentagon openly discussed using the 'Salvador Option'. "There was a sense the Sunnis were not feeling the cost of supporting the insurgency", states Newsnight journalist Michael Hirsh. When Col James Steele - the man who developed the 'Salvador Option' - was photographed in Iraq, it seemed this plan was being put into action. "The people who helped us most to train our units and fight were Col James Steele and Col Covman", claims Adnam Thabit from the Ministry of Interior. If the 'Salvador Option' was the plan, the unintended consequences have been disastrous. "We opened up a Pandora's box", states Michael Hirsh. "Now we have a situation where the death squads are out of control". David Corn agrees. "We have created such a problem, there may not be a solution".