very rough forms that were being carried out by the salvadoran armed forces under the u.s. military trainers. steele was the chief american country insurgency expert on the ground in el salvador a figure of enormous authority to the door and military of the mill group commander in el salvador nuffin moules with authority. and it was due eradicate the guerrilla movement it's very well written through history that there were major massacres being conducted. we put these allegations to retired colonel steele and have received no reply. by the end of the civil war at least seventy five thousand salvadoran civilians have died and one million refugees have fled the country the salvadoran military

who are to the advance of the guerrillas leading some in washington to believe the u.s. advisory role was a success. so much so that even david petraeus then an ambitious thirty three year old major visited the door to study this country insurgency campaign the young to trace even reportedly stayed in steele's house while their. eighteen years later in baghdad but now general petraeus would use steele's expertise to fight the iraqi insurgency. the architects of the iraq war did not expect a violent uprising so they started training a regular police force for what they thought would be a mostly peaceful transition to a western style democracy they brought in retired police men like douglas brand and jerry back to teach. the basics of good civil policing. we went in may of two

thousand and three with six policemen six american police officers this small group was unequal to the enormous task they were given. to train frost townsend policeman it was a sort of five to seven year project but they wanted it done in one thousand months . the man seen here in the navy bulletproof vest cardroom was installed as the iraqi leader of this new civic police force. hovering in the background is the mysterious figure of james steele observing and evaluating the situation sending his justified reports back to u.s. defense secretary donald rumsfeld. still had arrived in baghdad in two thousand and three just after the invasion

describing himself as an energy consultant. this is the only known video footage of james steele as a civilian he had no place in the military chain of command exercised enormous power in iraq. the man on his left is the special forces colonel james coffman he reported directly to general petraeus. up initially the security situation in iraq was relatively stable and the task of training the police continued but then everything changed. the intensity of the sunni insurgency surprised the americans. u.s. soldiers started being killed in increasing numbers. of flag draped coffins were

being shipped home with a nominal regularity. the war was becoming unpopular in the united states. george bush. two thousand and four reelection was being threatened by the crisis in iraq. american law so jazz were dying at the hands of sunni muslims who had lost the most from the fall of saddam. decided to the old enemies of saddam and his sunni supporters as the shia militias. saddam had killed tens of thousands of shia during his rule and now the shia militias were only too happy to help the americans put down the sunni uprising. it was classic counterinsurgency. paul wolfowitz and not the policy change before a senate committee. approach to those militias is to try over time to integrate

them into new iraqi security forces shia militia from all over the country came in truckloads to baghdad to join the new special police commandos they were enraged by suicide bombings of shia civilians under sas nations and kidnappings by sunni insurgents and militants it was their time and our opportunity to take revenge upon former regime elements that. iraq was on the path towards a sectarian civil war. the u.s. defense secretary donald rumsfeld confirmed the new policing strategy in may two thousand and four reading about how we're trying to make efforts placing iraqi militia to handle insurgents interacting had discussions with general petraeus yesterday i had a briefing today from a man named steele who has been out there working with the security forces and

doing a wonderful job civilian as a matter of fact james steele the counterinsurgency ex-pat was not the man of the moment. his job would be to build a police commando force. the police units would increasingly be made up of members of shia militias like the badr brigades. that job was to hunt down sunni insurgents and their sympathizers like out salvador it would be a bloody and brutal business. there was no place in this new regime for a conventional police chief cardroom. he was offered a new posting at the united nations in new york. james steele was clearing house. garrido each of them for the joe. klock oh well sonny. and why do you work on g c r o o o.

it was also the end of the line for douglas brand rumsfeld decided that police training in the future would be dealt with by military people. that was a direct instruction from rumsfeld. that we had a need for some group on the street to restore order and this is where that third force concept came from this paramilitary special police commando unit. they operate under more under rules of engagement which is a military term. rather than the rule of law. the last time i saw stews when rumsfeld visited and then he was. rumsfeld's choice to take over all command of this new policing strategy was

a military star in the making. general david petraeus was much admired by the american media. the commandos would become the cutting edge of this ambitious generals war against the insurgents you know i've spent a little bit of time at the where you were training the police commandos and i got the strong impression that you're putting a lot of priority on the police force today well that helped them develop these special police units some of them or their own initiative initially and great initiatives like the special police commandos which they now have nine battalions of those forces eight of which are in active operations right now. they were taught by the general but that he was just good to be has been in the. it was the shot or you missed.

a bit seen here with james steele was a sunni iraqi general who had been imprisoned by saddam. he now headed the special police commandos which were financed from a two billion dollars fund controlled by general petraeus. at the very most american. are doing or. should. you. call one. it was the first time the americans could work with a significant iraqi force that knew the lay of the land and where to find the insurgents senior advisers studio and kaufman directed the sects for the insurgents

. with james keown actually side adnan targets commandos grew into a five thousand strong force with a fearful reputation on the streets of iraq. still made a strong impression with the high level even battle hardened iraqis who worked with . us and also to learn the whole. and the mashad and so on. that the whole belief. that we believed the. wrong kind of a. multiple. was just so the many are what i like. general moon. is a former general in the iraqi army after the invasion he worked with the americans to rebuild the police force but muntadhar was very disturbed by the abuse and torture he witnessed being committed by the police commandos he tried on

a number of occasions to stop each. he has never spoken before about the part the u.s. played in running the special police commandos. is more than was out of the. government was possible. a lot of them were to be. done here. but a shot. that i missed. by sadr is that i would but it would start the general muntadhar alleges that jane steele had access to all of these prisoners and that he visited one in baghdad with him. all the dentists you. are all found in the car and one of the components in the more room. for the. injured to come

into the. in the in the. doctor most fact i was iraq's national security adviser through the west years of the war. he met james taylor's high level security meetings. jim steele for me was a mysterious guy. who sucked in the meeting and he came. and saw that. he did not introduce himself to me and you don't get anywhere in these meetings there were only only silences. grama. myself minister of defense and mr little. and him full stop. who was very respected by them and they listened to what he has to say.

one of the main bases of operation for the commandos was the ancient city of samarra the area was a center for the iraqi insurgency. it was also adnan talbot's hometown and he was determined to inflict a major defeat on the insurgents and their sympathizes. with jane steele advise him but none talbot's commandos fled to the city going door to door taking hundreds of men from their homes to the interrogation center. u.s. army medic neil smith was in somalia during the months long struggle to control the city. we're like in the government. and where the police station was was actually right across from where the commandos were headquartered so there are always special commandos there hanging out in the war in the like pretty much every. military unit in the world. there are well equipped.

and more commandos all had these brand new dodge ram pick that were painted in camouflage and they all look like they had new weapons. the new uniforms. some are i was the first place that the connection between james steel and the activities of the police commanders was made known to the outside where. new york times journalist peter maass convinced general petraeus to allow him and photographer to paraphrase to visit the commanders in. their host was james steele . what i heard. screaming all lifelong. parries stark black and white photographs capture had the commandos were acting tamara. james still crops up in these photographs repeatedly.

only staying on the base and some are an american base and i overheard soldiers american soldiers of the space talking about having watched prisoners be kind of strong up like animals after all hunched over a bar having watched prisoners be actually tortured. non-target and the american military made the joint decision she set up the commander headquarters and interrogation center in the city's main library. we spoke to two men from somalia who were imprisoned in the library still fearful they asked us to conceal their identities. so the one you could go to the water was a watch on the ocean or someone or the organ all you go back just in the.

wall from which they all smoke and that is the. card that you will. the interrogation center was the only place in the kind of mini green zone in somalia that i was not allowed to visit however one day jim steele said to me hey they just captured a saudi jihadi. would you like to interview him. and paraphrase we're about to get an unprecedented glimpse into this. when diplomacy fields and fear sweep then our borders are wide open wide open to drugs terrorists we've proven the barriers are built to impose division and its will to sixty's instead of being an obstacle or tornado wastes into became another

obstacle to peace in a four part series al-jazeera revisits the reasons for divisions in different parts of the world and the impact they have on both sides walls of shame on al-jazeera. al-jazeera for me is different because there's a maturity about it's used in the newsgroup generally over also this channel but it will lead to the risk of a story like you'll. go over the top of the north going out of cultures or is setting out to good faith to the reality on the ground other reality will grow but only because of the magic of the people and that's what we do i think that's what we do. the world's primary could change producing nation. is at the forefront of the war on drugs that we're talking about serious organized crime as a country where reaching a critical point while some have made fortunes many others have suffered at the

hands of this multi-billion dollar industry the author of this business will go on for ever get from a change almost global policies do who are the winners and losers of this illicit trade snow of the andes on al-jazeera. rob madison in doha the top stories on al-jazeera donald trump has been forced into a very public and embarrassing climbdown the u.s. president now says he accepts the intelligence community's assessment that russia did meddle in the twenty sixteen election trump says he misspoke at the news conference with the blood to be a putin in finland i have full faith and support for america's great intelligence agencies always had and i have felt very strongly that well russia's actions had

no wind at all on the outcome of the election let me be totally clear in saying that and i've said this many times i accept our intelligence communities conclusion that russia is meddling in the two thousand and sixteen election took place the u.k. based investigative agency has obtained documents revealing an expensive lobbying effort by the united arab emirates and britain and the us the spin watch report says secret meetings were held between alba dobby's crown prince and britain's former prime minister david cameron security has been stepped up at oil fields across southern iraq as anti-government unrest spreads deadly protests have continued for more than a week amid growing resentment to government corruption and a lack of basic services dozens of displaced syrians have been warned off by israeli soldiers as they sought sanctuary in the israeli occupied golan heights the

group including women and children eventually retreated from the border fence to refugee camps they've been displaced by a russian backed syrian government offensive in the southwest donald trump will host the head of the european commission next week for talks on strained trade ties john cloud younger has been in tokyo where the e.u. and japan have agreed to a free trade deal covering six hundred million people and nearly a third of the global economy agreements a rejection of the u.s. president's threats of a trade war. police in hong kong have proposed banning a political party on national security grounds for the first time the government's given the hong kong national party twenty one days to explain why it shouldn't follow the recommendation that campaigns for hong kong to become independent from china the party describes this right as political suppression those are the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after searching for steal from the . well.

the interrogation center was the only place in the kind of mini green zone in somalia that i was not allowed to visit however one day jim steele said to me hey they just captured a saudi jihadi would you like to interview him and we kind of walk into the entrance area and the first thing that i see is one of the iraqi guards beating up one of the iraqi prisoners and then i'm taken not into the main area kind of the main hall although out of the corner of my eye could see there were a lot of prisoners in there with their hands tied behind their backs i was taken to a side office where the saudi was brought in and there was actually blood dripping down the side of a desk in this office away in a room in the library into ewing studio and i. you know. and while this interview was going on me in the saudi with jim steele also in the room there were these terrible screams there was somebody shouting allah but it wasn't you know

kind of religious ecstasy or something like that these were these were screams of pain and terror. we asked general why he thought the prisoners were screaming. go on and. on and. they were so loud and they were so disturbing that steele left the room to go find out you know what was going on because it was breaking up our interview and while he was gone the screaming stopped and then he came back into the room and the interview continued. with the radio. for. me and.

i do. front and the other kind of i thought of it when just. to the left ever. thought i. like it but really what it lacks a little of my view a list of all the most of. the so i limit the platoon is already on. general ad man had his own explanation for the bloody desk witnessed during mass and perry's interview with james steele in the library. what is either going to be ensued and he got a new home. i don't malard god. oh but that is not enough that you can have so little what good happens and i'll quit you know and out what am i thought of and they were fatter we had a monopoly at our. mine and might have it i do i still mess with i like about. when are the have you for. although james steele did not respond to our requests

for an interview about his activities in somalia he did tell the new york times that he opposes human rights abuses. one american soldier in somalia was deeply affected by what he saw. at the time i just felt like everybody knew and nobody cared that there is torture going on. medic neil smith remembers just have frightened iraqi civilians in somalia of the special police commandos what was pretty widely known in our but talian definitely in our pool tune was that they were pretty violent with their interrogations that they would beat people shock them with you know electrical shock stab them. i don't know what you know sounds like pretty awful things if you sent a guy there who is going to get tortured and perhaps raped. or whatever

humiliated and brutalized by the special commandos in order to get whatever information they wanted to what i don't know about boston to. do with. the let me look to the. city to the very for doing. just that i. thought to give all of them a little bit of a clear priority at that time in iraq was to not have this incredibly shaky provisional government defeated by the insurgency that was priority number one to which every other priority democracy human rights. cetera was aboard. the trails defended his record with the police

commandos to p.b.s. frontlines martin smith he says he was aware of individual militia members in the commanders but not militia groups. i did not see militia groups in the special police during the time that i was there did you feel. different. to have prevented the development of these militias that were developed by your lie again don't i have not seen you know we heard we kept hearing this all the time martin that this or that to find the absolute evidence of this has actually been quite difficult but jerry buck who is a senior advisor in police affairs to the iraqi interior ministry says that the trace must have known that organized shia militia were dominant in the police commanders he had to have known these things were discussed openly whether it was

staff meetings or you know before or after various staff meetings and general conversation. pretty much the whole world in iraq knew that the police commandos were about a brigade and he must have known about the death squad activities and yet it was common knowledge and across baghdad even betrays his own special adviser in the military chain of command colonel james coffman was according to many witnesses working side by side with james steele in the detention centers where torture was taking place. kaufman declined to be interviewed by us. about general petraeus his relationship with james steele the official speaking for the general said steele was one of thousands of advisors to iraqi units working in the area of the iraqi police. journalist peter mass who interviewed patris at the time remember. the relationship being a lot closer than the patrol statement would indicate. it was very clear.

that they were very close to each other in terms of their command relationship and also in terms of their ideas and ideology about what needed to be done to try to explicitly told me that he believed very very strongly in the commandos thought the commandos were successful and wanted them to become bigger stronger and even more prevalent in the fight against insurgency. international humanitarian law imposes obligations on those engaged in armed conflict regarding the treatment of prisoners not only must prisoners not be abused but those detaining prisoners also have an obligation to ensure respect as well it is not acceptable to turn a blind eye. because absolutely responsibility of every u.s. service member if they see in your main treatment. to intervene to stop or

i don't think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it's to report. if you're a physically present when in your main treatment is taking place or they have an obligation to tours. but the masses of secret iraq war communiques released by wiki leaks showed that u.s. soldiers were routinely handing prisoners over to the iraqi police force even before the police commandos were officially launched. the top u.s. military knew from the soldiers' daily logs that torture was going on inside detention centers they even issued a new official military order in june two thousand and four it was called frog zero two four two it directed u.s. troops to note but not investigate torture of iraqis by iraqis unless ordered to take action by. headquarters. but later that month members of the oregon national

guard was so disturbed by the abuse they witnessed at a police detention center that they intervened to try and stop it. from our effect things. saw one room that had. seventy five prisoners are crammed into one one small space and they asked for food they asked for help and they asked for medical way we gave them every bit of scrap of food that we had every bit of water and you could see evidence of a torture chamber where they had a broken lamp where they used a logical shot and it was quite evident what they had been doing to these fellows. said the commander approached the man who appeared to be in charge of this. according to south though the man immediately got on the telephone to us military headquarters right after he made that phone call the order came that we were to

stand down we were ordered to pull away right now. i know that that order came from someplace very high. we went directly back to our compound and the commander called us all in there together and told us that what we saw didn't happen to forget about it but the oregonians didn't forget they went to the american press and blew the whistle a high level u.s. military investigation followed and the top just stopped that. there is no evidence that steel was involved in this incident but a year later the special commandos took over the facility and used it for interrogation and torture. there's great continuity. and really if you go back to the. to the nature of the regular warfare in the. dark side it's

not called dirty war for nothing so it's no surprise to see individuals who are associated in a sort of know the ins and outs of the kind of war reappear at different points in these conflicts. and after a few months in the studio and all salvador i didn't have any contact with them whatsoever until i saw their peter maass article and saw that all he's in iraq it was not surprising there's a warrior like james steele would appear again he had been sidelined by the u.s. military after a congressional committee decided that he had lied about his role in all of the north's illegal gun running operation against the leftwing government in nicaragua . however his work in el salvador had not been forgotten by powerful washington insiders like vice president dick cheney who knew steele cheney was the first

senior american politician to draw parallels between el salvador and iraq. because we don't free elections of palmer the concept is and will apply in afghanistan and iraq. dick cheney as a congressman made any number of visits to central america as did members of the reagan administration who were in the for runners of the neoconservatives then come into office and really take the whole approach to its next level in iraq. they opened the cover story in the new york times magazine that and saw that it described the creation of this new police commando unit within the iraqi interior ministry and mentioned that the the u.s. military adviser in charge of this was jim steele. as probably more alarmed when i started to hear.