Republicans Anonymous

Juan Cole's site Informed Comment links to this report of possible Iraqi death squads:

BAGHDAD -- Among the varied armed security men on Baghdad's streets these days, you can't miss the police commandos. In combat uniforms, bulletproof vests and wrap-around sunglasses or ski masks, they muscle through Baghdad's traffic jams in police cars or camouflage-painted pickup trucks, clearing nervous drivers from their path with shouted commands and the occasional gunshot in the air.

One such group, the Volcano Brigade, is operating as a death squad, under the influence or control of Iraq's most potent Shia factional militia, the Iranian-backed Badr Organization, said several Iraqi government officials and western Baghdad residents.
(Source: Newsday Iraqi guards seen as death squads, Nov. 16, 2005.)

I'm sure former US Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte's prior involvement with Central American death squads is completely unrelated:

Negroponte supervised the construction of the El Aguacate air base where Nicaraguan Contras were trained by the U.S., and which some critics say was used as a secret detention and torture center during the 1980s. In August 2001, excavations at the base discovered 185 corpses, including two Americans, who are thought to have been killed and buried at the site.

Records also show that a special intelligence unit (commonly referred to as a "death squad") of the Honduran armed forces, Battalion 3-16, trained by the CIA and the Argentine military, kidnapped, tortured and killed hundreds of people, including U.S. missionaries. Critics charge that Negroponte knew about these human rights violations and yet continued to collaborate with the Honduran military while lying to Congress.
(Source: Wikipedia, John Negroponte)

It seems obvious that Dick Cheney's crowd attended therapy over the years. They're no longer ashamed about who they are, they're now openly advocating the need for illegally kidnapping, torturing and disposing of communists oops, I mean "terrorists." They probably credit South American death squads as a major factor in making the world "safe for democracy." I suppose in a sick, twisted way they're right: once you kill everyone that doesn't vote the way you want them too, (a.k.a. the Salvador Option) the dictatorship can safely conduct "democratic" votes, reassured that nobody valuing their lives would dare oppose their demands.