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"The former Soviet Union and Communist Bloc countries used to kill dissidents via extrajudicial killing during the Cold War. Those who were not killed were sent to KGB run 'Gulag' prison camps."
"The use of computers by the American forces to compile lists of 'suspects' as well as the indefinite detention of 'suspects' in 'black' locations as well as their detention, torture, and execution without judicial oversight or protection is typical of American black ops in the Post World War II era." -- 211.10.45.194 ( talk) 12:40, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
Some of the death squads seem to be of a viglante variety, while others seem closer to psycho serial killers with unusually good organization. is their more precis terms that may reflect this difference? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.195.82.157 ( talk) 20:32, 25 May 2008 (UTC)
The most recent edit removed the adjective Provisional in front of IRA. Actually, this was a more accurate statement. Though the term has evaporated in recent years, esp in the U.S. press, the "Provos" are indeed the current iteration of this 90-year-old movement. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/northern_ireland/2001/provisional_ira/2005.stm
As an aside, I am amused by press reports quoting the IRA's edict to "dump arms," as if this meant to destroy them. Of course this is an exact echo of De Valera's 1923 (whatever) order to the "Legion of the Rear Guard." They were to put their weapons into their arms dumps and save them for the "second round."
Actually the RIRA is the current IRA, the one you mentioned was active since 1997. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.41.124.8 ( talk) 02:08, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
Don't forget Israel's roving, global death squads. They announced them in early 2003; [2][http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30513] Australia noticed [3] but apparently thought it was SEP [4] until the spies New Zealand captured leaked that Israel kills cripples for their passports. [5] 142.177.24.141 16:20, 26 Jul 2004 (UTC) (This is just one of the reason I thought Arik Sharon should be a see also under chutzpah)
Stalin's NKVD did not employ death squads, except for a few special clandestine murders (Trotsky, Mikhoels, allegedly Kirov). It's nowhere near the million figure. Almost all arrests and shootings were conducted as official routine by regular operatives.
A disagreement by one person: I consider this phrase to be meaningless. It is typically used by news organizations any time that a person is killed for real or apparent political purposes. It is used to conjure up certain images which may or may not actually apply to a given assassination. [24.177.166.137, 16:06 3 April 2005]
please stop re-editing in BS about Haiti. it makes no sense for the Clinton administration to be supporting FRAPH when a) Aristide was granted asylum in the U.S., b) thanks to the military regime we had to deal with a massive refugee problem, and c) Aristide was only restored to the presidency thanks to U.S. intervention. J. Parker Stone 22:49, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)
This is at best personal research and speculation. When you provide evidence and citations, as per Wikipedia policy, then I'll let the material stay. Mel Etitis ( Μελ Ετητης) 07:39, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)
it's not original research, it's common knowledge. the "U.S.-backing" is just a cheap attempt to give the impression of U.S. support while ignoring the actions taken in favor of Aristide. J. Parker Stone 22:09, 10 May 2005 (UTC)
...? I don't need a source to prove that Clinton restored Aristide to power any more than I need a source to prove that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor or that the Nazis killed Jews. J. Parker Stone 22:29, 10 May 2005 (UTC)
Furthermore, the burden of proof is on you. Constant says that the CIA paid him to provide them with intelligence on Lavalas. That does not mean they paid him to go hack off people's arms or rape women. J. Parker Stone 22:34, 10 May 2005 (UTC)
Trey Stone: I am sorry for deleting a comment of yours [7]; it was an accident. Normally, I never touch other peoples' comments on Talk pages. -- Viajero 00:16, 11 May 2005 (UTC)
Please stop re-editing in supposed U.S. "support" for FRAPH. Being on the CIA payroll at one point does not mean the agency endorses everything you do -- it's an intelligence agency for chrissakes. Chilean DINA chief Contreras was accidentally paid once by the CIA while the U.S. cut off arms shipments to the country in 1976; and Noriega was on the payroll before, and we overthrew him in '90 (or '91, I can't remember.) Your tactic is nothing but a cheap attempt to smear the U.S. by oversimplifying and distorting the situation. J. Parker Stone 07:11, 12 May 2005 (UTC)
well i haven't seen any good info that we really supported Noriega anyhow, aside from having him as an intelligence asset at one time. J. Parker Stone 04:16, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)
No discussion since 14 May, article protected far too long. Unprotecting. -- Tony Sidaway| Talk 22:56, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I think there should be less history and more Latin America. The situation in Latin America isn't really well represented. Sarcelles 02:10, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
The article is at the moment couched in a mixture of British, U.S., and probably other forms of English. I started making it consistent, but then thought that I'd better check the edit history. The first five versions were neutral between forms, but the sixth might have been U.S. English ("traveled") — though other typos, especially missing letters, makes that judgement tentative. Still, assuming that it was U.S., I'm not qualified to bring it into consistent U.S. style; could a U.S.-English user do the honours? Mel Etitis ( Μελ Ετητης) 14:57, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)
"U.S. backing" -- I have\ discussed this on Talk:Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti.
"School of the Americas" -- This comes out of nowhere and strikes me as a subjective slam on the U.S. First off, it is not "often cited." The primary group it is cited by is SOA Watch, which is not a very prominent organization. Second, as with the FRAPH characterization, its citation here is simplistic. The U.S. funds the school -- it does not control the actions of those who leave it. I can cite two examples -- Roberto D'Aubuisson and Juan Velasco Alvarado -- of people that the U.S. did not support in any way shape or form (the former was leading the far-right destabilization campaign against our ally in El Salvador, President Duarte, and the latter was a Socialist who established ties with the USSR) who took some courses or graduated from the SOA. Militaries in Latin America have indeed been involved in several dirty counterinsurgency campaigns, but this has to do with the region, not the SOA. J. Parker Stone 23:39, 11 July 2005 (UTC)
The British have trained many people at Sandhurst who have later fought against the British, or have reached positions or performed actions opposed by the British government. On your reasoning, we have to conclude that Sandhurst isn't supported by the British government... -- Mel Etitis ( Μελ Ετητης) 11:01, 12 July 2005 (UTC)
Viajero: if you think Nairn's suspicions of double-play on the part of the U.S. for the sake of "corporate interests" is conclusive from his investigation, that's fine, you're entitled to your opinion. but considering the fact that the U.S. publicly supported Aristide and went through the trouble of dispatching troops for his restoration, such conclusions are not "established fact" and should not be presented as definitive. and what's with the removal of the SOA denial? it's been made, regardless of what you think of it (don't tell me now that SOA Watch material is "established fact" as well) J. Parker Stone 04:39, 13 July 2005 (UTC)
Yeah, right, the US is not an influent country in all of America, and it doesnt meddle with other countries internal policies, nor does it support dictators as it sees fit, to then support a coup when the dictators are not aligned anymore, and it doenst affect the economy of Latin America (let alone the world) with subsides, taxes, fees, etc and other pratices considered ilegal by the WTF, nor it is a belicose country, bent on securing oil production at whatever cost, nor is it willing to ignore the Kyoto protocol because after all, economy is more important that this planet we live in. It isnt a country that permits, and in which some even support, human rights abuse, torturing, locking people up for no reason and without the right of legal defense. They dont kill civilians (because as you know, people not born in the US are not actually people) in their warmongering, either. Thats for bad, scary and communist nations like China and Russia. Hail to the States! We all love you. If you dont like the idea of having your country "unrightfully slammed", make a plea for a Swiss citizenship or something!
Outrageous the mistake of placing Brazil as part of America Hispaniola. Also, the amount of information avaliable for Brazil is surprisingly small; I shall add some other stuff when I get some research done. LtDoc 13:02, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
The second sentence of this article says:
That sounds like nonsense. The whole point of using extra-judicial death squads, instead of the legal path of gathering evidence, then laying charges, then giving a suspect a fair trial is that -- those behind the death squads don't really care if their suspects are guilty.
They are prepared to kill people merely because their background suggests they might be sympathetic to the regime's opponents. This is terrorism. The regime that uses death squads kills those suspected of opposing the regime, and those they suspect might be sympthathetic to opponents the regime. Killing innocent bystanders for giving the appearance that they might sympathize with the regime's opponent may be more effective than killing an actual opponent, because the terror induced among their neighbouring innocent bystanders by the arbitrariness will more effectively cow them then if they knew the death squads were selective, and only singled out real opponents.
So, the assertion that regime-backed death squads differ from terrorists seems specious to me. If they use terror then they are terrorist, n'est pas? -- Geo Swan 03:34, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
If terrorists are associated with bombing of civilian targets, we should be calling the US army/air/naval forcers as the largest, most succeful terrorist party in the world.
I would suggest that the phrase "[m]any Journalists have been harrassed by US military in iraq" and the containing paragraph in the introduction to this article be removed unless:
1) It is shown that this statement in any way helps explain or illuminate the meaning of the term "Death squad."
2) Sources are provided proving, or even detailing, this harrassment.
3) The U.S. military personel accused of this are given a chance to defend themselves from this charge.
4) There is provided along with the accusation definition of the word "harrassed" in this context.
5) An explination is given as to why this paragraph belongs in the introduction to the article, when most of it (except for the accusation of harrassment) is included verbatum later, at the end of the article.
I also suggest that the entire purpose of this paragraph, with it's unsourced accusation, being placed so out of context in this article is simply so that the United States can be the first government mentioned this list of horrors and to place the names "United States" and "Iraq" in the back of the minds of readers while they peruse the rest of the article. And the fact that the paragraph is partially repeated word for word at the end leads me to believe that the author wished to leave readers thinking, not of the horrors of death squads, but of the guilt (or implied guilt) of the USA, turning the entire article into a "man's inhumainty to man" pamphlet with a "US in Iraq" front and back cover.
Jsminch 08:24, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
I have to wonder whether it is the deliberate intention of some editors to further contribute to the ill reputation of Wikipedia as a credible and encyclopedic source for information, or whether they actually believe the misinformation that they are posting.
Since when is any "death squad" against the government? If I pulled a rightist source out of the hat which said the Viet Cong was a death squad, would that count? Of course not. They were trying to change the status quo. CJK 23:58, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
References
I have cleaned up the article, organized it, and moved older historical material to it's own page. More current information such as organization, strengths, and weaknesses have also been added. This version includes much of the non-historical text from the previous version. This version also has less national and political material which may help it to be more neutral in tone.
Please revert it if most of you find it to be largely unacceptable. Neutralaccounting 05:00, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
I had intended to do syntax and grammar clean up for this article. Information that is questionable is easier to deal with when the content is clearly expressed. I do not think any amount of style editing will help this article. The article would only benefit with a complete rewrite. The current state of this article is the epitome of fail.
This article is mostly psuedo-intellectual masturbation at the moment. It should really be condensed and turned into a stub even if some credible information other than the speculation of a (bunch of) paramilitary hobbyist(s) can't be injected into it. 129.107.240.1 15:28, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
I agree. Badly written, totally unreferenced, POV rubbish. Phonemonkey 10:29, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
See the following ground breaking report by Deborah Davies for the Channel 4 program ' Dispatches': "Over the last eighteen months these commandos - who are almost exclusively Shia Muslims - have been implicated in rounding up and killing thousands of ordinary Sunni civilians": [12] and: [13] It's also worth reading this: [14] and this from the boston globe on government death squads killing more people than insurgent bombs: [15] Aaliyah Stevens 13:00, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
I merged and redirect Death squad history here since it was nearly identical (I did a diff on the text and copied over blocks that were different). Now I'm copying from the talk page: RJFJR 20:12, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
"The American forces that occupied the country provided both desperately needed protection for the Sunni minority as well as paradoxically occasionally engaging in death squad like behavior through the use of aerial bombing, shooting suspicious commuters 10 , and occasional massacre.
While most of what atrocities they have committed have been passed over, the over-all affect is a accumulation of a litany of abuses committed by the occupation and it's supported government."
This section seems blatantly biased, I doubt even the most vehement of detractors of American occupation would accuse them of Death squad activities. The source seems only mildly related to the statement it's supposed to support, and the second paragraph is poorly written.
See some human rights sites, like Amnesty International before you slam your billy club on to an Iraqi's head next time!-- 86.29.245.189 04:34, 7 July 2007 (UTC)
Why's a Billy club called a 'Billy club'?-- 86.29.251.10 08:05, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
The entry for Iran refers to the Shah's regime as "relatively moderate". This statement lacks NPOV.
The Khomanie was resposible for sending agents in to Iraqi Kurdistan to kill local Sunni leaders in the 1980s.-- 86.29.251.10 08:08, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
To remove unnecessary edits on a major article about death squads, I propose to divide this into number of articles. They are the main article called death squads and another article called List of death squads by country and another series on death squads on each country, that is notable all linked by a Death squad category RaveenS 21:44, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
Merge in the extrajudicial killings page to?-- 86.29.245.189 04:38, 7 July 2007 (UTC)
The page has now been wiped out and blanked by a previouse user. It is no longer up for merging-- 86.29.252.16 10:31, 7 July 2007 (UTC) It may have been a joke page, ridiculing such killings?!-- 86.29.245.48 01:00, 8 July 2007 (UTC)
We nead some more sources!-- 86.29.251.10 08:03, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
This is my first edit since I wrote much of the body of the article and moved much of the historical data to its own section. I've emphasized the the nature of men to want to kill other men ( thanatos?) especially their desire to kill those who can't kill them back (death squad) rather then the abstract political labels that are plastered over accounts of their activity. Neutralaccounting 00:10, 13 July 2007 (UTC)
This article is a long list of acts of political violence, often confused with "death squads". Death squads are, in the strict sense of the term, military or paramilitary groups which attack civilians. To speak about "death squads" in the 16th century is a total anachronism. Tazmaniacs 20:22, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
I never knew that only South Korea ever used death squads, you learn something new every day. 58.107.95.126 12:27, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
The UK section seems very bias on both sides. I don't know much about the topic so can someone else re-write the whole section. Forgot to sig. 64.203.19.96 ( talk) 11:56, 18 November 2007 (UTC)
Whilst the black and tans were a pretty reprehensible group, I don't think they were actually formed as death squads, rather as somewhat brutal paramilitary groups. Separately, although they may have have been fairly liberal with the use of firearms, to describe them as trigger happy drunks is not really meeting the NPOV language criteria. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.43.135.63 ( talk) 22:31, 28 March 2008 (UTC) ¿? And what about gangs? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.1.190.120 ( talk) 01:48, 15 May 2008 (UTC)
The article is in my view extremely POV, and very biased against the UK. The Black and Tans and the Auxiliary Division could not by any stretch of the imagination be called death squads. 124.197.15.138 ( talk) 01:33, 30 May 2012 (UTC)
-the UK section refers to England using "drunk and trigger happy veterns of the first world war" being employed as death squads during the irish war for independence which is uncited and obviously biased. - also in the USA section it talks about the KKK using death squads but would they be considered death squads? they were not sponsored by any form of government or even a political party for that matter. -also shouldnt without a citation be removed? -im new to wiki editing so any contructive criticism is welcome. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.196.78.26 ( talk) 05:20, 21 July 2008 (UTC)
Unlike its predecessor, which had been an exclusively partisan Democratic organization, the second Klan was courted by both Republicans and Democrats in the Midwest, and endorsed candidates from either party that supported its goals; Prohibition in particular helped the Klan and the Republicans to make common cause in the North. In the South, however, the Republican party was powerless; thus, the southern Klan remained Democratic, closely allied with Democratic police, sheriffs, and other functionaries of local government.
What about the Armenian Genocide Shouldn't the actions of Ottoman Turkey count as a death squad —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.41.124.8 ( talk) 02:23, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
"Death squads may terrorist groups in that..." Death squads may be terrorist groups in that? Death squads may not be terrorist groups in that? I am not entirely sure what this is supposed to be saying, so could someone who is please fix this-- Tangent747 ( talk) 17:10, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
The article was marked as unreferenced as far ago as in May 2008 so per verifiability all unreferenced content must be cleaned up. Perhaps someone will then add sources. Luis Napoles ( talk) 02:00, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
I'm trying to sort it out over the next week or so.-- 86.25.11.99 ( talk) 16:40, 22 July 2009 (UTC)
It's all done!-- 86.25.11.99 ( talk) 18:41, 22 July 2009 (UTC)
CIA is a prime example of a death squad. they are worse than nazi's —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.215.220.164 ( talk) 03:04, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
Citation would be lovely if you had any. Otherwise, comment is completely unfounded and unnecessary.-- 75.77.12.152 ( talk) 22:11, 4 March 2010 (UTC)
The CIA is an intelligence organization, and hardly fits the criteria presented in the article for inclusion as an example of a death squad. The inclusion of the U.S. under "Recent Use" of the term Death Squad is supported by an article that does not at all support such a conclusion. 99.231.128.155 ( talk) 21:06, 19 March 2010 (UTC)
Since this same quote exists on Dennis_C._Blair, please see the discussion there: Talk:Dennis_C._Blair#Accuracy_of_quote_.22Being_a_U.S._citizen_will_not_spare_an_American_from_getting_assassinated_by_military_or_intelligence_operatives.22
Surlyhacker ( talk) 22:04, 12 April 2010 (UTC)
I would not say that 100%, one user replied: CNN is not reference,because it is tool in american policy and CIA, it could be now and then but whnever that idiot christine shows some cnn special it does not get more stupid, like special on genocides, one sided no doubt cia/usa gove involvement to look innocent lol, showing same archived crap all the time! Like that bosnian skeleton prisoner, as if other sides did not have em!
Let's be fair here. To say that Death Squads are "active" in Ivory Coast and then give links to articles that invariably condemn the same person without proofs is irresponsible. For example, this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Squads#cite_note-washingtonpost.com-19 leads to an article talking about "allegations", no proofs. I am not saying that people were not killed during the civil war. I am saying, let's have proofs before pointing fingers. Most of the links lewad to articles accusing the Leader of the FPI group at the Ivory Coast National Assembly, Simone Ehivet Gbagbo, to organise killing squads. Where are the proofs? Most articles present Simone Gbagbo as influencing the politics of her husband President Laurent Gbagbo. True. She is leader of his political party group at the National Assembly. She was not appointed by him. She was actually elected before the FPI, won the 2000 elections against a military dictator, General Guei Robert. That guy had killing squads! What are we talking about here... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gbanani77 ( talk • contribs) 19:16, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
u.s sponsoring death squads in syria now — Preceding unsigned comment added by 987987987D ( talk • contribs) 17:25, 9 September 2011 (UTC)
This fact has been reported on different networks and gives a better example of who directs, funds, trains, etc. death squads in our modern world and why. It is critical info and its omission jeopardizes the overall value of this article.
Cheryl Hugle ( talk) 09:47, 2 November 2012 (UTC) Cheryl Hugle
The report linked below gives many details of death squad operations particularly in Syria but also elsewhere. It needs to be watched by anyone editing here because this article has a very definite bias...
and fails to note the HUGE role of NATO operations in the funding, training, and directing of death squads operating from Latin America to the Middle East. Though this piece is focused primarily on Syria, the commentator gives a good historical introduction to the operations of death squads elsewhere.
http://tarpley.net/2011/11/27/the-anatomy-of-the-nato-cia-destabilization-of-syria/
I hope after watching, editors of this article will undertake some much needed corrections to the biases promoted in this article. Cheryl Hugle ( talk) 05:00, 12 December 2012 (UTC) Cheryl Hugle
This is not a death squad; this execution was made by a member of the police working in that condition and in an open way.
This does not seem to have anything to do with the concept of "death squad"
The Khmer Rouge massacres were made in a open way, not by semi-secret groups working outside the law
I never heard of "warlords" in south Vietnam; but, even if this is true, i am unsuer if this count as "death squad" (unless we adopt a definition of death squad so broad that any repressive government forces counts as "death squad")
Again, I think that this is not a "death squad" in action - it is a massacre by an organized military force-- 81.84.51.200 ( talk) 16:30, 25 April 2012 (UTC)
There is alot of details regarding death squads in Iraq and Latin America. However there really needs to be much more information in places where Death Sqaads or general mass murder was more prominent but highly under reported compared to the previous examples. Countries where there need to be expansion would be regarding:
Mengistu during red terror (500,000 dead)
MPLA in Angola (70,000+ dead)
Mao, Lenin and Stalin's regimes (Millions dead)
Vietcong, North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao terror (1,000,000+)
FLN in Algeria (100,000+)
Other African countries such as both Congos, Rwanda, Burundi, Rwanda, Sudan, Somalia, Chad and Mozambique — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.168.119.251 ( talk) 14:23, 4 July 2012 (UTC)
I removed the section on the Red Guards, as they're not commonly - if ever - described as "death squads", even by sources that condemn their actions (of which there are many). The citation was to a general work that is not specifically about China, let alone the Cultural Revolution. Moreover, I couldn't find the term "death squad" in the book cited (although I may have missed it). Unless the Red Guards are generally thought to be death squads in the scholarly literature, then I don't think it is right to include them here. Despite their uniforms, they weren't a paramilitary outfit and they didn't have orders. Describing them as death squads I think borders on original research ( WP:NOR). I know edits regarding the PRC are always controversial, so I've tried to explain myself in as neutral terms as possible here. Retinalsummer ( talk) 01:25, 6 September 2012 (UTC)
I am amazed reading this article. So much has been published regarding US and NATO funding of death squads. Recently, death squads tied to the US and its allies including Saudi Arabia created crisis in Syria pretty much single handedly. This fact has been reported by numbers of news outlets
This article comes nowhere close to helping anyone grasp why death squads come into being and why their majority stakeholders fund, arm, train and direct them.
Prose and supporting source selections are highly biased. This article needs balance.
Cheryl Hugle ( talk) 09:39, 2 November 2012 (UTC) Cheryl Hugle
The headings with the country flags look very professional, and impressed me actually, it should be used on more pages when possible. 99.58.9.214 ( talk) 02:15, 11 February 2013 (UTC)
Following the Bolshevik Revolution, the former Russian Empire spent 73 years as a one party state ruled by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Especially between 1917 and 1953, the CPSU routinely ordered the abduction, torture, and execution of massive numbers of real and suspected anti-communists. Those with upper class origins were routinely targeted in this way during the early years of the Soviet Union.
During the Red Terror, Soviet Premier Vladimir Lenin ordered the CHEKA and the Red Guards to execute without trial members of the House of Romanov, the Russian nobility, captured White Army officers and men, and supporters of the Russian Provisional Government. As part of war communism, Left-wing insurgencies like the Kronstadt Uprising, the Tambov Rebellion were also answered by mass executions, as were striking workers.
Following Lenin's strokes in 1922, the new Party leadership began a mass purge of clergy and religiously active Soviet citizens, including Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists. Show trials were conducted, after which the victims were shot once, in the back of the head. Prominent victims of this were Monsignor Konstantin Budkevich and Metropolitan Benjamin of Petrograd.
This was followed by arrests and executions of kulaks—a derogatory term for prosperous peasants and those who did not wish to surrender their private farms plots. After the Party's new Premier, Joseph Stalin, decreed the cancellation of Lenin's state-capitalist New Economic Policy in 1927, began executing and imprisoning NEPmen, private business owners who had grown wealthy with the Party's permission.
During the Great Purge (1936–39), the CPSU under Joseph Stalin used the secret police, the NKVD, to abduct, torture, and execute large numbers of suspected political opponents. This involved a large-scale purge of senior Communist Party officials like Nikolai Bukharin, Lev Kamenev, and scores of other Old Bolsheviks. The Red Army leadership was also purged of tens of thousands of officers and men, which severely weakened the Soviet defense infrastructure. Mikhail Tukhachevsky, a Marshal of the Soviet Union and military genius has traditionally been regarded as an irreplaceable loss. This was accompanied by the mass execution of intellectuals like Isaak Babel. The Great Purge was chacterized by widespread police surveillance, widespread suspicion of "saboteurs", imprisonment, and arbitrary executions.[122] In Russian historiography the period of the most intense purge, 1937–1938, is called Yezhovshchina (ежовщина; literally, the Yezhov regime), after NKVD head Nikolai Yezhov.
Also during the interwar period, the NKVD routinely targeted anti-Stalinists in the West for abduction or murder. Among them were the CPSU's former Commissar of War, Leon Trotsky, who was assassinated by NKVD officer Ramon Mercador in Mexico City. Furthermore, former White Army Generals Alexander Kutepov and Evgeny Miller were abducted in Paris by the NKVD. Kutepov is alleged to have had a heart attack before he could be smuggled back to Moscow, and shot. General Miller was not so fortunate and died in Moscow's Lubianka Prison. Yevhen Konovalets, the founder of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, was blown to bits by NKVD officer Pavel Sudoplatov in Rotterdam on 23 May 1938.
In the post-war period, the Russian Orthodox Church collaborated with the Soviet State in a campaign to eliminate Eastern Rite Catholicism in the newly annexed regions of Soviet-ruled Ukraine.[123] Priests and laity who refused to convert to Orthodoxy were either assassinated or deported to the GULAGs at Karaganda.[124] On 27 October 1947, the KGB staged a car accident in order to assassinate the Greek-Catholic Bishop Theodore Romzha of Mukachevo.[125] When the "accident" failed to kill the Bishop, the KGB poisoned him in his hospital bed on 1 November 1947.[126]
Even in post-Stalin era, the Soviet secret police continued to assassinate anti-communists in the West. Two of the most notable victims were Lev Rebet and Stepan Bandera, Ukrainian nationalists who were assassinated by the KGB in Munich, West Germany. Both deaths were believed accidental until 1961, when their murderer, Bohdan Stashynsky, defected to the West with his wife and voluntarily surrendered to West German prosecution.
During the Soviet-Afghan War, Soviet security forces engaged in mass slaughter of Afghan Islamist rebels and many civilians. The war, however, ended with the withdrawal of all Soviet forces from Afghanistan followed soon after by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.[citation needed]
Almost nothing of the above count as "death squad"; remember, a "death squad" is not simply a government killing people from the opposition, is doing that in an covert way, and using "irregular" forces; most of the above is open repression - the only exemplas of death squad action that I see are:
"Also during the interwar period, the NKVD routinely targeted anti-Stalinists in the West for abduction or murder. Among them were the CPSU's former Commissar of War, Leon Trotsky, who was assassinated by NKVD officer Ramon Mercador in Mexico City. Furthermore, former White Army Generals Alexander Kutepov and Evgeny Miller were abducted in Paris by the NKVD. Kutepov is alleged to have had a heart attack before he could be smuggled back to Moscow, and shot. General Miller was not so fortunate and died in Moscow's Lubianka Prison. Yevhen Konovalets, the founder of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, was blown to bits by NKVD officer Pavel Sudoplatov in Rotterdam on 23 May 1938.
In the post-war period, the Russian Orthodox Church collaborated with the Soviet State in a campaign to eliminate Eastern Rite Catholicism in the newly annexed regions of Soviet-ruled Ukraine.[123] Priests and laity who refused to convert to Orthodoxy were either assassinated or deported to the GULAGs at Karaganda.[124] On 27 October 1947, the KGB staged a car accident in order to assassinate the Greek-Catholic Bishop Theodore Romzha of Mukachevo.[125] When the "accident" failed to kill the Bishop, the KGB poisoned him in his hospital bed on 1 November 1947.[126]
Even in post-Stalin era, the Soviet secret police continued to assassinate anti-communists in the West. Two of the most notable victims were Lev Rebet and Stepan Bandera, Ukrainian nationalists who were assassinated by the KGB in Munich, West Germany. Both deaths were believed accidental until 1961, when their murderer, Bohdan Stashynsky, defected to the West with his wife and voluntarily surrendered to West German prosecution." -- MiguelMadeira ( talk) 21:20, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
Cuba had/(has?) death squads. [1] — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.187.216.93 ( talk) 04:56, 1 August 2015 (UTC)
I think that UNAMIR commander Romeo Dallaire refers to the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi militias that were active during the genocide in Rwanda as death squads. Should they be included in the article? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.126.135.229 ( talk) 22:18, 27 November 2015 (UTC)
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Just a thought. Is it just me, or do neither the uniforms nor the weapons visible in the picture look very "German"? -- 77.5.218.189 ( talk) 20:19, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
If you want to remove it, please discuss. Xx236 ( talk) 10:03, 13 April 2017 (UTC)
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A new contributor, Originalgandalf, added this paragraph, with what look like some good references.
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Another new contributor, Bigcheze45, removed that paragraph, with the edit summary "This recently added paragraph does not fit the definition as provided in the first paragraph of the wiki entry."
While it IS a controversial paragraph, I do not agree with the conclusion in the edit summary. I think cops who kill suspects, when they should reasonably have apprehended them without injury, do meet the definition of extrajudicial killing.
I think something like this paragraph does merit inclusion, provided the connection between post-911 militarization is explicitly backed up by RS. Geo Swan ( talk) 19:35, 5 June 2020 (UTC)
Original editor here. I dispute Bigcheze45's assertion that the inclusion "does not fit the definition as provided in the first paragraph of the wiki entry".
The first paragraph of the article defines a death as "an armed group that conducts extrajudicial killings" with the support of domestic governments. Controversial or not, given the well-documented history of killings by post-911 militarized police, with insignificant conviction rates, at least some portions of American police security forces clearly fit the given definition. Originalgandalf ( talk) 07:48, 6 June 2020 (UTC)
Original editor again. After waiting some time for a rebuttal/response here, I have reinstated my previous edits. Originalgandalf ( talk) 18:48, 7 June 2020 (UTC)
Dear RaiderAspect, can you explicitly point to aspects of the sources I've cited that don't meet the criterion for inclusion that you're suggesting? It seems like my edit is being summarily removed simply because of controversy. Originalgandalf ( talk) 17:28, 8 June 2020 (UTC)
Given that the prior three paragraphs in the section of the article have been allowed to stay published without any source citations, I am re-publishing my edit. I am happy to debate the merits of the inclusion here but to remove a cited addition to the article that has received support from the Wikipedia community seems like simple censorship in the face of controversy. Thanks for your consideration. Originalgandalf ( talk) 18:20, 8 June 2020 (UTC)
As I noted above, this article defines a Death Squad as "an armed group that conducts extrajudicial killings". I have cited sources documenting multiple extrajudicial killings by American police and included a sourced context for these killings (the militarization of police departments in the US since 2002). These are the only two claims I am making in the article and both have been cited from credible sources. Originalgandalf ( talk) 18:42, 8 June 2020 (UTC)
To address the concern raised by RaiderAspect, the assertion I am making in this article is that police in the USA conduct extrajudicial killings. That conclusion is what is being referenced in the citations given and is supported explicitly. No implications are being made or are required. Originalgandalf ( talk) 19:37, 9 June 2020 (UTC)
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Right-wing paramilitarism in El Salvador which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. — RMCD bot 21:38, 23 September 2020 (UTC)
Possibly misleading and appears to be just a press rumor based on the account of one whistleblower
"In June 2020, Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Austreberto “Art” Gonzalez filed a claim against the county, claiming that approximately twenty percent of the deputies operating in the county's Compton Station belonged to a secret death squad. Gonzales alleges that the group, named "The Executioners", carried out multiple extrajudicial killings over the years and that members followed initiation rituals, including being tattooed with skulls and nazi imagery."
The original article suggests that a deputy tried to join a gang called "The Executioners" which I believe is most likely a setup by the FBI or another law enforcement office. There is no future information, or any other conclusions including statements by the FBI who claimed to be investigating. The paragraph should be updated until more is known.
--
Regarding the notion of this being a "press rumor", the paragraph is sourced from three major publications, including the LA Times and Washington Post — not some random rumor mill. Furthermore, with respect to the existence of the "Executioners" gang within the LASD, I have linked to the wikipedia article for that gang itself. I suggest debating the veracity of its existence there. Originalgandalf ( talk)
It is surprising to me that there seem to be absolutely no pictures of death squads from the Cambodian genocide or newer. A lot of the pictures on this article are many decades old and are black and white. Death squads are not just a thing of the past, and some newer, up to date, color images would be welcome in this article. I could not find nearly anything from the Cambodian genocide, Rwandan genocide, or any number of the more recent conflicts. If anyone finds any, it would be great to add those images to this article in their most relevant locations. Iljhgtn ( talk) 15:29, 8 November 2023 (UTC)
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"The former Soviet Union and Communist Bloc countries used to kill dissidents via extrajudicial killing during the Cold War. Those who were not killed were sent to KGB run 'Gulag' prison camps."
"The use of computers by the American forces to compile lists of 'suspects' as well as the indefinite detention of 'suspects' in 'black' locations as well as their detention, torture, and execution without judicial oversight or protection is typical of American black ops in the Post World War II era." -- 211.10.45.194 ( talk) 12:40, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
Some of the death squads seem to be of a viglante variety, while others seem closer to psycho serial killers with unusually good organization. is their more precis terms that may reflect this difference? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.195.82.157 ( talk) 20:32, 25 May 2008 (UTC)
The most recent edit removed the adjective Provisional in front of IRA. Actually, this was a more accurate statement. Though the term has evaporated in recent years, esp in the U.S. press, the "Provos" are indeed the current iteration of this 90-year-old movement. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/northern_ireland/2001/provisional_ira/2005.stm
As an aside, I am amused by press reports quoting the IRA's edict to "dump arms," as if this meant to destroy them. Of course this is an exact echo of De Valera's 1923 (whatever) order to the "Legion of the Rear Guard." They were to put their weapons into their arms dumps and save them for the "second round."
Actually the RIRA is the current IRA, the one you mentioned was active since 1997. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.41.124.8 ( talk) 02:08, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
Don't forget Israel's roving, global death squads. They announced them in early 2003; [2][http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30513] Australia noticed [3] but apparently thought it was SEP [4] until the spies New Zealand captured leaked that Israel kills cripples for their passports. [5] 142.177.24.141 16:20, 26 Jul 2004 (UTC) (This is just one of the reason I thought Arik Sharon should be a see also under chutzpah)
Stalin's NKVD did not employ death squads, except for a few special clandestine murders (Trotsky, Mikhoels, allegedly Kirov). It's nowhere near the million figure. Almost all arrests and shootings were conducted as official routine by regular operatives.
A disagreement by one person: I consider this phrase to be meaningless. It is typically used by news organizations any time that a person is killed for real or apparent political purposes. It is used to conjure up certain images which may or may not actually apply to a given assassination. [24.177.166.137, 16:06 3 April 2005]
please stop re-editing in BS about Haiti. it makes no sense for the Clinton administration to be supporting FRAPH when a) Aristide was granted asylum in the U.S., b) thanks to the military regime we had to deal with a massive refugee problem, and c) Aristide was only restored to the presidency thanks to U.S. intervention. J. Parker Stone 22:49, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)
This is at best personal research and speculation. When you provide evidence and citations, as per Wikipedia policy, then I'll let the material stay. Mel Etitis ( Μελ Ετητης) 07:39, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)
it's not original research, it's common knowledge. the "U.S.-backing" is just a cheap attempt to give the impression of U.S. support while ignoring the actions taken in favor of Aristide. J. Parker Stone 22:09, 10 May 2005 (UTC)
...? I don't need a source to prove that Clinton restored Aristide to power any more than I need a source to prove that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor or that the Nazis killed Jews. J. Parker Stone 22:29, 10 May 2005 (UTC)
Furthermore, the burden of proof is on you. Constant says that the CIA paid him to provide them with intelligence on Lavalas. That does not mean they paid him to go hack off people's arms or rape women. J. Parker Stone 22:34, 10 May 2005 (UTC)
Trey Stone: I am sorry for deleting a comment of yours [7]; it was an accident. Normally, I never touch other peoples' comments on Talk pages. -- Viajero 00:16, 11 May 2005 (UTC)
Please stop re-editing in supposed U.S. "support" for FRAPH. Being on the CIA payroll at one point does not mean the agency endorses everything you do -- it's an intelligence agency for chrissakes. Chilean DINA chief Contreras was accidentally paid once by the CIA while the U.S. cut off arms shipments to the country in 1976; and Noriega was on the payroll before, and we overthrew him in '90 (or '91, I can't remember.) Your tactic is nothing but a cheap attempt to smear the U.S. by oversimplifying and distorting the situation. J. Parker Stone 07:11, 12 May 2005 (UTC)
well i haven't seen any good info that we really supported Noriega anyhow, aside from having him as an intelligence asset at one time. J. Parker Stone 04:16, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)
No discussion since 14 May, article protected far too long. Unprotecting. -- Tony Sidaway| Talk 22:56, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I think there should be less history and more Latin America. The situation in Latin America isn't really well represented. Sarcelles 02:10, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
The article is at the moment couched in a mixture of British, U.S., and probably other forms of English. I started making it consistent, but then thought that I'd better check the edit history. The first five versions were neutral between forms, but the sixth might have been U.S. English ("traveled") — though other typos, especially missing letters, makes that judgement tentative. Still, assuming that it was U.S., I'm not qualified to bring it into consistent U.S. style; could a U.S.-English user do the honours? Mel Etitis ( Μελ Ετητης) 14:57, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)
"U.S. backing" -- I have\ discussed this on Talk:Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti.
"School of the Americas" -- This comes out of nowhere and strikes me as a subjective slam on the U.S. First off, it is not "often cited." The primary group it is cited by is SOA Watch, which is not a very prominent organization. Second, as with the FRAPH characterization, its citation here is simplistic. The U.S. funds the school -- it does not control the actions of those who leave it. I can cite two examples -- Roberto D'Aubuisson and Juan Velasco Alvarado -- of people that the U.S. did not support in any way shape or form (the former was leading the far-right destabilization campaign against our ally in El Salvador, President Duarte, and the latter was a Socialist who established ties with the USSR) who took some courses or graduated from the SOA. Militaries in Latin America have indeed been involved in several dirty counterinsurgency campaigns, but this has to do with the region, not the SOA. J. Parker Stone 23:39, 11 July 2005 (UTC)
The British have trained many people at Sandhurst who have later fought against the British, or have reached positions or performed actions opposed by the British government. On your reasoning, we have to conclude that Sandhurst isn't supported by the British government... -- Mel Etitis ( Μελ Ετητης) 11:01, 12 July 2005 (UTC)
Viajero: if you think Nairn's suspicions of double-play on the part of the U.S. for the sake of "corporate interests" is conclusive from his investigation, that's fine, you're entitled to your opinion. but considering the fact that the U.S. publicly supported Aristide and went through the trouble of dispatching troops for his restoration, such conclusions are not "established fact" and should not be presented as definitive. and what's with the removal of the SOA denial? it's been made, regardless of what you think of it (don't tell me now that SOA Watch material is "established fact" as well) J. Parker Stone 04:39, 13 July 2005 (UTC)
Yeah, right, the US is not an influent country in all of America, and it doesnt meddle with other countries internal policies, nor does it support dictators as it sees fit, to then support a coup when the dictators are not aligned anymore, and it doenst affect the economy of Latin America (let alone the world) with subsides, taxes, fees, etc and other pratices considered ilegal by the WTF, nor it is a belicose country, bent on securing oil production at whatever cost, nor is it willing to ignore the Kyoto protocol because after all, economy is more important that this planet we live in. It isnt a country that permits, and in which some even support, human rights abuse, torturing, locking people up for no reason and without the right of legal defense. They dont kill civilians (because as you know, people not born in the US are not actually people) in their warmongering, either. Thats for bad, scary and communist nations like China and Russia. Hail to the States! We all love you. If you dont like the idea of having your country "unrightfully slammed", make a plea for a Swiss citizenship or something!
Outrageous the mistake of placing Brazil as part of America Hispaniola. Also, the amount of information avaliable for Brazil is surprisingly small; I shall add some other stuff when I get some research done. LtDoc 13:02, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
The second sentence of this article says:
That sounds like nonsense. The whole point of using extra-judicial death squads, instead of the legal path of gathering evidence, then laying charges, then giving a suspect a fair trial is that -- those behind the death squads don't really care if their suspects are guilty.
They are prepared to kill people merely because their background suggests they might be sympathetic to the regime's opponents. This is terrorism. The regime that uses death squads kills those suspected of opposing the regime, and those they suspect might be sympthathetic to opponents the regime. Killing innocent bystanders for giving the appearance that they might sympathize with the regime's opponent may be more effective than killing an actual opponent, because the terror induced among their neighbouring innocent bystanders by the arbitrariness will more effectively cow them then if they knew the death squads were selective, and only singled out real opponents.
So, the assertion that regime-backed death squads differ from terrorists seems specious to me. If they use terror then they are terrorist, n'est pas? -- Geo Swan 03:34, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
If terrorists are associated with bombing of civilian targets, we should be calling the US army/air/naval forcers as the largest, most succeful terrorist party in the world.
I would suggest that the phrase "[m]any Journalists have been harrassed by US military in iraq" and the containing paragraph in the introduction to this article be removed unless:
1) It is shown that this statement in any way helps explain or illuminate the meaning of the term "Death squad."
2) Sources are provided proving, or even detailing, this harrassment.
3) The U.S. military personel accused of this are given a chance to defend themselves from this charge.
4) There is provided along with the accusation definition of the word "harrassed" in this context.
5) An explination is given as to why this paragraph belongs in the introduction to the article, when most of it (except for the accusation of harrassment) is included verbatum later, at the end of the article.
I also suggest that the entire purpose of this paragraph, with it's unsourced accusation, being placed so out of context in this article is simply so that the United States can be the first government mentioned this list of horrors and to place the names "United States" and "Iraq" in the back of the minds of readers while they peruse the rest of the article. And the fact that the paragraph is partially repeated word for word at the end leads me to believe that the author wished to leave readers thinking, not of the horrors of death squads, but of the guilt (or implied guilt) of the USA, turning the entire article into a "man's inhumainty to man" pamphlet with a "US in Iraq" front and back cover.
Jsminch 08:24, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
I have to wonder whether it is the deliberate intention of some editors to further contribute to the ill reputation of Wikipedia as a credible and encyclopedic source for information, or whether they actually believe the misinformation that they are posting.
Since when is any "death squad" against the government? If I pulled a rightist source out of the hat which said the Viet Cong was a death squad, would that count? Of course not. They were trying to change the status quo. CJK 23:58, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
References
I have cleaned up the article, organized it, and moved older historical material to it's own page. More current information such as organization, strengths, and weaknesses have also been added. This version includes much of the non-historical text from the previous version. This version also has less national and political material which may help it to be more neutral in tone.
Please revert it if most of you find it to be largely unacceptable. Neutralaccounting 05:00, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
I had intended to do syntax and grammar clean up for this article. Information that is questionable is easier to deal with when the content is clearly expressed. I do not think any amount of style editing will help this article. The article would only benefit with a complete rewrite. The current state of this article is the epitome of fail.
This article is mostly psuedo-intellectual masturbation at the moment. It should really be condensed and turned into a stub even if some credible information other than the speculation of a (bunch of) paramilitary hobbyist(s) can't be injected into it. 129.107.240.1 15:28, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
I agree. Badly written, totally unreferenced, POV rubbish. Phonemonkey 10:29, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
See the following ground breaking report by Deborah Davies for the Channel 4 program ' Dispatches': "Over the last eighteen months these commandos - who are almost exclusively Shia Muslims - have been implicated in rounding up and killing thousands of ordinary Sunni civilians": [12] and: [13] It's also worth reading this: [14] and this from the boston globe on government death squads killing more people than insurgent bombs: [15] Aaliyah Stevens 13:00, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
I merged and redirect Death squad history here since it was nearly identical (I did a diff on the text and copied over blocks that were different). Now I'm copying from the talk page: RJFJR 20:12, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
"The American forces that occupied the country provided both desperately needed protection for the Sunni minority as well as paradoxically occasionally engaging in death squad like behavior through the use of aerial bombing, shooting suspicious commuters 10 , and occasional massacre.
While most of what atrocities they have committed have been passed over, the over-all affect is a accumulation of a litany of abuses committed by the occupation and it's supported government."
This section seems blatantly biased, I doubt even the most vehement of detractors of American occupation would accuse them of Death squad activities. The source seems only mildly related to the statement it's supposed to support, and the second paragraph is poorly written.
See some human rights sites, like Amnesty International before you slam your billy club on to an Iraqi's head next time!-- 86.29.245.189 04:34, 7 July 2007 (UTC)
Why's a Billy club called a 'Billy club'?-- 86.29.251.10 08:05, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
The entry for Iran refers to the Shah's regime as "relatively moderate". This statement lacks NPOV.
The Khomanie was resposible for sending agents in to Iraqi Kurdistan to kill local Sunni leaders in the 1980s.-- 86.29.251.10 08:08, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
To remove unnecessary edits on a major article about death squads, I propose to divide this into number of articles. They are the main article called death squads and another article called List of death squads by country and another series on death squads on each country, that is notable all linked by a Death squad category RaveenS 21:44, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
Merge in the extrajudicial killings page to?-- 86.29.245.189 04:38, 7 July 2007 (UTC)
The page has now been wiped out and blanked by a previouse user. It is no longer up for merging-- 86.29.252.16 10:31, 7 July 2007 (UTC) It may have been a joke page, ridiculing such killings?!-- 86.29.245.48 01:00, 8 July 2007 (UTC)
We nead some more sources!-- 86.29.251.10 08:03, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
This is my first edit since I wrote much of the body of the article and moved much of the historical data to its own section. I've emphasized the the nature of men to want to kill other men ( thanatos?) especially their desire to kill those who can't kill them back (death squad) rather then the abstract political labels that are plastered over accounts of their activity. Neutralaccounting 00:10, 13 July 2007 (UTC)
This article is a long list of acts of political violence, often confused with "death squads". Death squads are, in the strict sense of the term, military or paramilitary groups which attack civilians. To speak about "death squads" in the 16th century is a total anachronism. Tazmaniacs 20:22, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
I never knew that only South Korea ever used death squads, you learn something new every day. 58.107.95.126 12:27, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
The UK section seems very bias on both sides. I don't know much about the topic so can someone else re-write the whole section. Forgot to sig. 64.203.19.96 ( talk) 11:56, 18 November 2007 (UTC)
Whilst the black and tans were a pretty reprehensible group, I don't think they were actually formed as death squads, rather as somewhat brutal paramilitary groups. Separately, although they may have have been fairly liberal with the use of firearms, to describe them as trigger happy drunks is not really meeting the NPOV language criteria. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.43.135.63 ( talk) 22:31, 28 March 2008 (UTC) ¿? And what about gangs? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.1.190.120 ( talk) 01:48, 15 May 2008 (UTC)
The article is in my view extremely POV, and very biased against the UK. The Black and Tans and the Auxiliary Division could not by any stretch of the imagination be called death squads. 124.197.15.138 ( talk) 01:33, 30 May 2012 (UTC)
-the UK section refers to England using "drunk and trigger happy veterns of the first world war" being employed as death squads during the irish war for independence which is uncited and obviously biased. - also in the USA section it talks about the KKK using death squads but would they be considered death squads? they were not sponsored by any form of government or even a political party for that matter. -also shouldnt without a citation be removed? -im new to wiki editing so any contructive criticism is welcome. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.196.78.26 ( talk) 05:20, 21 July 2008 (UTC)
Unlike its predecessor, which had been an exclusively partisan Democratic organization, the second Klan was courted by both Republicans and Democrats in the Midwest, and endorsed candidates from either party that supported its goals; Prohibition in particular helped the Klan and the Republicans to make common cause in the North. In the South, however, the Republican party was powerless; thus, the southern Klan remained Democratic, closely allied with Democratic police, sheriffs, and other functionaries of local government.
What about the Armenian Genocide Shouldn't the actions of Ottoman Turkey count as a death squad —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.41.124.8 ( talk) 02:23, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
"Death squads may terrorist groups in that..." Death squads may be terrorist groups in that? Death squads may not be terrorist groups in that? I am not entirely sure what this is supposed to be saying, so could someone who is please fix this-- Tangent747 ( talk) 17:10, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
The article was marked as unreferenced as far ago as in May 2008 so per verifiability all unreferenced content must be cleaned up. Perhaps someone will then add sources. Luis Napoles ( talk) 02:00, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
I'm trying to sort it out over the next week or so.-- 86.25.11.99 ( talk) 16:40, 22 July 2009 (UTC)
It's all done!-- 86.25.11.99 ( talk) 18:41, 22 July 2009 (UTC)
CIA is a prime example of a death squad. they are worse than nazi's —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.215.220.164 ( talk) 03:04, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
Citation would be lovely if you had any. Otherwise, comment is completely unfounded and unnecessary.-- 75.77.12.152 ( talk) 22:11, 4 March 2010 (UTC)
The CIA is an intelligence organization, and hardly fits the criteria presented in the article for inclusion as an example of a death squad. The inclusion of the U.S. under "Recent Use" of the term Death Squad is supported by an article that does not at all support such a conclusion. 99.231.128.155 ( talk) 21:06, 19 March 2010 (UTC)
Since this same quote exists on Dennis_C._Blair, please see the discussion there: Talk:Dennis_C._Blair#Accuracy_of_quote_.22Being_a_U.S._citizen_will_not_spare_an_American_from_getting_assassinated_by_military_or_intelligence_operatives.22
Surlyhacker ( talk) 22:04, 12 April 2010 (UTC)
I would not say that 100%, one user replied: CNN is not reference,because it is tool in american policy and CIA, it could be now and then but whnever that idiot christine shows some cnn special it does not get more stupid, like special on genocides, one sided no doubt cia/usa gove involvement to look innocent lol, showing same archived crap all the time! Like that bosnian skeleton prisoner, as if other sides did not have em!
Let's be fair here. To say that Death Squads are "active" in Ivory Coast and then give links to articles that invariably condemn the same person without proofs is irresponsible. For example, this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Squads#cite_note-washingtonpost.com-19 leads to an article talking about "allegations", no proofs. I am not saying that people were not killed during the civil war. I am saying, let's have proofs before pointing fingers. Most of the links lewad to articles accusing the Leader of the FPI group at the Ivory Coast National Assembly, Simone Ehivet Gbagbo, to organise killing squads. Where are the proofs? Most articles present Simone Gbagbo as influencing the politics of her husband President Laurent Gbagbo. True. She is leader of his political party group at the National Assembly. She was not appointed by him. She was actually elected before the FPI, won the 2000 elections against a military dictator, General Guei Robert. That guy had killing squads! What are we talking about here... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gbanani77 ( talk • contribs) 19:16, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
u.s sponsoring death squads in syria now — Preceding unsigned comment added by 987987987D ( talk • contribs) 17:25, 9 September 2011 (UTC)
This fact has been reported on different networks and gives a better example of who directs, funds, trains, etc. death squads in our modern world and why. It is critical info and its omission jeopardizes the overall value of this article.
Cheryl Hugle ( talk) 09:47, 2 November 2012 (UTC) Cheryl Hugle
The report linked below gives many details of death squad operations particularly in Syria but also elsewhere. It needs to be watched by anyone editing here because this article has a very definite bias...
and fails to note the HUGE role of NATO operations in the funding, training, and directing of death squads operating from Latin America to the Middle East. Though this piece is focused primarily on Syria, the commentator gives a good historical introduction to the operations of death squads elsewhere.
http://tarpley.net/2011/11/27/the-anatomy-of-the-nato-cia-destabilization-of-syria/
I hope after watching, editors of this article will undertake some much needed corrections to the biases promoted in this article. Cheryl Hugle ( talk) 05:00, 12 December 2012 (UTC) Cheryl Hugle
This is not a death squad; this execution was made by a member of the police working in that condition and in an open way.
This does not seem to have anything to do with the concept of "death squad"
The Khmer Rouge massacres were made in a open way, not by semi-secret groups working outside the law
I never heard of "warlords" in south Vietnam; but, even if this is true, i am unsuer if this count as "death squad" (unless we adopt a definition of death squad so broad that any repressive government forces counts as "death squad")
Again, I think that this is not a "death squad" in action - it is a massacre by an organized military force-- 81.84.51.200 ( talk) 16:30, 25 April 2012 (UTC)
There is alot of details regarding death squads in Iraq and Latin America. However there really needs to be much more information in places where Death Sqaads or general mass murder was more prominent but highly under reported compared to the previous examples. Countries where there need to be expansion would be regarding:
Mengistu during red terror (500,000 dead)
MPLA in Angola (70,000+ dead)
Mao, Lenin and Stalin's regimes (Millions dead)
Vietcong, North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao terror (1,000,000+)
FLN in Algeria (100,000+)
Other African countries such as both Congos, Rwanda, Burundi, Rwanda, Sudan, Somalia, Chad and Mozambique — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.168.119.251 ( talk) 14:23, 4 July 2012 (UTC)
I removed the section on the Red Guards, as they're not commonly - if ever - described as "death squads", even by sources that condemn their actions (of which there are many). The citation was to a general work that is not specifically about China, let alone the Cultural Revolution. Moreover, I couldn't find the term "death squad" in the book cited (although I may have missed it). Unless the Red Guards are generally thought to be death squads in the scholarly literature, then I don't think it is right to include them here. Despite their uniforms, they weren't a paramilitary outfit and they didn't have orders. Describing them as death squads I think borders on original research ( WP:NOR). I know edits regarding the PRC are always controversial, so I've tried to explain myself in as neutral terms as possible here. Retinalsummer ( talk) 01:25, 6 September 2012 (UTC)
I am amazed reading this article. So much has been published regarding US and NATO funding of death squads. Recently, death squads tied to the US and its allies including Saudi Arabia created crisis in Syria pretty much single handedly. This fact has been reported by numbers of news outlets
This article comes nowhere close to helping anyone grasp why death squads come into being and why their majority stakeholders fund, arm, train and direct them.
Prose and supporting source selections are highly biased. This article needs balance.
Cheryl Hugle ( talk) 09:39, 2 November 2012 (UTC) Cheryl Hugle
The headings with the country flags look very professional, and impressed me actually, it should be used on more pages when possible. 99.58.9.214 ( talk) 02:15, 11 February 2013 (UTC)
Following the Bolshevik Revolution, the former Russian Empire spent 73 years as a one party state ruled by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Especially between 1917 and 1953, the CPSU routinely ordered the abduction, torture, and execution of massive numbers of real and suspected anti-communists. Those with upper class origins were routinely targeted in this way during the early years of the Soviet Union.
During the Red Terror, Soviet Premier Vladimir Lenin ordered the CHEKA and the Red Guards to execute without trial members of the House of Romanov, the Russian nobility, captured White Army officers and men, and supporters of the Russian Provisional Government. As part of war communism, Left-wing insurgencies like the Kronstadt Uprising, the Tambov Rebellion were also answered by mass executions, as were striking workers.
Following Lenin's strokes in 1922, the new Party leadership began a mass purge of clergy and religiously active Soviet citizens, including Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists. Show trials were conducted, after which the victims were shot once, in the back of the head. Prominent victims of this were Monsignor Konstantin Budkevich and Metropolitan Benjamin of Petrograd.
This was followed by arrests and executions of kulaks—a derogatory term for prosperous peasants and those who did not wish to surrender their private farms plots. After the Party's new Premier, Joseph Stalin, decreed the cancellation of Lenin's state-capitalist New Economic Policy in 1927, began executing and imprisoning NEPmen, private business owners who had grown wealthy with the Party's permission.
During the Great Purge (1936–39), the CPSU under Joseph Stalin used the secret police, the NKVD, to abduct, torture, and execute large numbers of suspected political opponents. This involved a large-scale purge of senior Communist Party officials like Nikolai Bukharin, Lev Kamenev, and scores of other Old Bolsheviks. The Red Army leadership was also purged of tens of thousands of officers and men, which severely weakened the Soviet defense infrastructure. Mikhail Tukhachevsky, a Marshal of the Soviet Union and military genius has traditionally been regarded as an irreplaceable loss. This was accompanied by the mass execution of intellectuals like Isaak Babel. The Great Purge was chacterized by widespread police surveillance, widespread suspicion of "saboteurs", imprisonment, and arbitrary executions.[122] In Russian historiography the period of the most intense purge, 1937–1938, is called Yezhovshchina (ежовщина; literally, the Yezhov regime), after NKVD head Nikolai Yezhov.
Also during the interwar period, the NKVD routinely targeted anti-Stalinists in the West for abduction or murder. Among them were the CPSU's former Commissar of War, Leon Trotsky, who was assassinated by NKVD officer Ramon Mercador in Mexico City. Furthermore, former White Army Generals Alexander Kutepov and Evgeny Miller were abducted in Paris by the NKVD. Kutepov is alleged to have had a heart attack before he could be smuggled back to Moscow, and shot. General Miller was not so fortunate and died in Moscow's Lubianka Prison. Yevhen Konovalets, the founder of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, was blown to bits by NKVD officer Pavel Sudoplatov in Rotterdam on 23 May 1938.
In the post-war period, the Russian Orthodox Church collaborated with the Soviet State in a campaign to eliminate Eastern Rite Catholicism in the newly annexed regions of Soviet-ruled Ukraine.[123] Priests and laity who refused to convert to Orthodoxy were either assassinated or deported to the GULAGs at Karaganda.[124] On 27 October 1947, the KGB staged a car accident in order to assassinate the Greek-Catholic Bishop Theodore Romzha of Mukachevo.[125] When the "accident" failed to kill the Bishop, the KGB poisoned him in his hospital bed on 1 November 1947.[126]
Even in post-Stalin era, the Soviet secret police continued to assassinate anti-communists in the West. Two of the most notable victims were Lev Rebet and Stepan Bandera, Ukrainian nationalists who were assassinated by the KGB in Munich, West Germany. Both deaths were believed accidental until 1961, when their murderer, Bohdan Stashynsky, defected to the West with his wife and voluntarily surrendered to West German prosecution.
During the Soviet-Afghan War, Soviet security forces engaged in mass slaughter of Afghan Islamist rebels and many civilians. The war, however, ended with the withdrawal of all Soviet forces from Afghanistan followed soon after by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.[citation needed]
Almost nothing of the above count as "death squad"; remember, a "death squad" is not simply a government killing people from the opposition, is doing that in an covert way, and using "irregular" forces; most of the above is open repression - the only exemplas of death squad action that I see are:
"Also during the interwar period, the NKVD routinely targeted anti-Stalinists in the West for abduction or murder. Among them were the CPSU's former Commissar of War, Leon Trotsky, who was assassinated by NKVD officer Ramon Mercador in Mexico City. Furthermore, former White Army Generals Alexander Kutepov and Evgeny Miller were abducted in Paris by the NKVD. Kutepov is alleged to have had a heart attack before he could be smuggled back to Moscow, and shot. General Miller was not so fortunate and died in Moscow's Lubianka Prison. Yevhen Konovalets, the founder of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, was blown to bits by NKVD officer Pavel Sudoplatov in Rotterdam on 23 May 1938.
In the post-war period, the Russian Orthodox Church collaborated with the Soviet State in a campaign to eliminate Eastern Rite Catholicism in the newly annexed regions of Soviet-ruled Ukraine.[123] Priests and laity who refused to convert to Orthodoxy were either assassinated or deported to the GULAGs at Karaganda.[124] On 27 October 1947, the KGB staged a car accident in order to assassinate the Greek-Catholic Bishop Theodore Romzha of Mukachevo.[125] When the "accident" failed to kill the Bishop, the KGB poisoned him in his hospital bed on 1 November 1947.[126]
Even in post-Stalin era, the Soviet secret police continued to assassinate anti-communists in the West. Two of the most notable victims were Lev Rebet and Stepan Bandera, Ukrainian nationalists who were assassinated by the KGB in Munich, West Germany. Both deaths were believed accidental until 1961, when their murderer, Bohdan Stashynsky, defected to the West with his wife and voluntarily surrendered to West German prosecution." -- MiguelMadeira ( talk) 21:20, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
Cuba had/(has?) death squads. [1] — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.187.216.93 ( talk) 04:56, 1 August 2015 (UTC)
I think that UNAMIR commander Romeo Dallaire refers to the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi militias that were active during the genocide in Rwanda as death squads. Should they be included in the article? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.126.135.229 ( talk) 22:18, 27 November 2015 (UTC)
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Just a thought. Is it just me, or do neither the uniforms nor the weapons visible in the picture look very "German"? -- 77.5.218.189 ( talk) 20:19, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
If you want to remove it, please discuss. Xx236 ( talk) 10:03, 13 April 2017 (UTC)
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A new contributor, Originalgandalf, added this paragraph, with what look like some good references.
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Another new contributor, Bigcheze45, removed that paragraph, with the edit summary "This recently added paragraph does not fit the definition as provided in the first paragraph of the wiki entry."
While it IS a controversial paragraph, I do not agree with the conclusion in the edit summary. I think cops who kill suspects, when they should reasonably have apprehended them without injury, do meet the definition of extrajudicial killing.
I think something like this paragraph does merit inclusion, provided the connection between post-911 militarization is explicitly backed up by RS. Geo Swan ( talk) 19:35, 5 June 2020 (UTC)
Original editor here. I dispute Bigcheze45's assertion that the inclusion "does not fit the definition as provided in the first paragraph of the wiki entry".
The first paragraph of the article defines a death as "an armed group that conducts extrajudicial killings" with the support of domestic governments. Controversial or not, given the well-documented history of killings by post-911 militarized police, with insignificant conviction rates, at least some portions of American police security forces clearly fit the given definition. Originalgandalf ( talk) 07:48, 6 June 2020 (UTC)
Original editor again. After waiting some time for a rebuttal/response here, I have reinstated my previous edits. Originalgandalf ( talk) 18:48, 7 June 2020 (UTC)
Dear RaiderAspect, can you explicitly point to aspects of the sources I've cited that don't meet the criterion for inclusion that you're suggesting? It seems like my edit is being summarily removed simply because of controversy. Originalgandalf ( talk) 17:28, 8 June 2020 (UTC)
Given that the prior three paragraphs in the section of the article have been allowed to stay published without any source citations, I am re-publishing my edit. I am happy to debate the merits of the inclusion here but to remove a cited addition to the article that has received support from the Wikipedia community seems like simple censorship in the face of controversy. Thanks for your consideration. Originalgandalf ( talk) 18:20, 8 June 2020 (UTC)
As I noted above, this article defines a Death Squad as "an armed group that conducts extrajudicial killings". I have cited sources documenting multiple extrajudicial killings by American police and included a sourced context for these killings (the militarization of police departments in the US since 2002). These are the only two claims I am making in the article and both have been cited from credible sources. Originalgandalf ( talk) 18:42, 8 June 2020 (UTC)
To address the concern raised by RaiderAspect, the assertion I am making in this article is that police in the USA conduct extrajudicial killings. That conclusion is what is being referenced in the citations given and is supported explicitly. No implications are being made or are required. Originalgandalf ( talk) 19:37, 9 June 2020 (UTC)
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Right-wing paramilitarism in El Salvador which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. — RMCD bot 21:38, 23 September 2020 (UTC)
Possibly misleading and appears to be just a press rumor based on the account of one whistleblower
"In June 2020, Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Austreberto “Art” Gonzalez filed a claim against the county, claiming that approximately twenty percent of the deputies operating in the county's Compton Station belonged to a secret death squad. Gonzales alleges that the group, named "The Executioners", carried out multiple extrajudicial killings over the years and that members followed initiation rituals, including being tattooed with skulls and nazi imagery."
The original article suggests that a deputy tried to join a gang called "The Executioners" which I believe is most likely a setup by the FBI or another law enforcement office. There is no future information, or any other conclusions including statements by the FBI who claimed to be investigating. The paragraph should be updated until more is known.
--
Regarding the notion of this being a "press rumor", the paragraph is sourced from three major publications, including the LA Times and Washington Post — not some random rumor mill. Furthermore, with respect to the existence of the "Executioners" gang within the LASD, I have linked to the wikipedia article for that gang itself. I suggest debating the veracity of its existence there. Originalgandalf ( talk)
It is surprising to me that there seem to be absolutely no pictures of death squads from the Cambodian genocide or newer. A lot of the pictures on this article are many decades old and are black and white. Death squads are not just a thing of the past, and some newer, up to date, color images would be welcome in this article. I could not find nearly anything from the Cambodian genocide, Rwandan genocide, or any number of the more recent conflicts. If anyone finds any, it would be great to add those images to this article in their most relevant locations. Iljhgtn ( talk) 15:29, 8 November 2023 (UTC)