Cheating Death: Escaping the Grip of the Badr Forces Death Squad

Many Iraqis are complaining that their new government is no more democratic or less tyrannical than Saddam Hussein’s regime ever was, and that the only difference in Iraq today is that there is an active insurgency to contend with as well. Numerous Shiites and Sunnis alike are scared to death to leave their homes or allow their children to play in the streets for fear of being caught in a cross fire between insurgents and U.S. forces or victimized by the secretarian strife that is spreading rampantly across the country. A force behind much of this fear is the infamous Badr Forces, also known as Badr Brigade, which was originally an Iranian militia composed of Shiite Muslims that is now finding support from the new Iraqi government. Until recently, U.S. forces turned a blind eye to the militia because they were helping to combat the insurgency and resistance fighters who are predominantly Sunni Muslims, but lately, Badr forces has grown out of control and become a murderous steam roller targeting innocent Iraqis.

The Badr Forces is controlled by Iraq’s new Interior Ministry and receives significant support from the central government - although this support is officially denied. They have various secret prisons and safe houses scattered throughout the country where they torture, interrogate and imprison Sunni Muslims who have ever held positions in Saddam’s government or currently work for the Iraqi National Intelligence Service (I.N.I.S.) - which is headed by a former Iraqi Army General who is also a Sunni Muslim. The I.N.I.S is unofficially controlled by the CIA and is the sole agency in the new Iraqi government composed predominantly of Sunni Muslims. Numerous employees of the I.N.I.S. have been arrested (kidnapped) and murdered by Badr Forces due to the fact that they are simply Sunni Muslims believed to harbor anti-Iranian sentiments or the suspicion that the I.N.I.S. led U.S. forces to the illegal Interior Ministry prison that was raided by Special Forces in the fall of 2005 exposing Badr Forces and the Interior Ministry for the anti-democratic death squad that they really are.