James Steele (United States Army officer)
James Steele | |
|---|---|
| Occupation(s) | United States Army officer, consultant, motivational speaker, CEO |
| Years active | Cold War–present |
| Known for | Military service in Vietnam War, Salvadoran Civil War, Iraq War; counterinsurgency advisor; controversy over allegations of abuse and war crimes |
James Steele is a retired United States Army officer and consultant whose military service and subsequent contracting roles from the Vietnam War through the Iraq War have been surrounded by controversy due to allegations involving abuse and war crimes.
Steele's professional journey commenced during the Cold War, with assignments across Central and South America. He participated in the "dirty wars," where he trained counter-insurgency commandos implicated in human rights abuses.[1] Steele served in the Vietnam War and, between 1984 and 1986 during the Salvadoran Civil War, acted as a counterinsurgency expert within a team of United States special forces advisers embedded with the Salvadoran Army.[2] In 1986, Steele was linked to the Iran contra scandal. Early in the Iraq War in 2004, he was dispatched by Donald Rumsfeld as a civilian advisor to Iraqi paramilitary forces known as the Wolf Brigade, part of the Special Police Commandos.
Iraq war counter-insurgency activities
During the 2004 US occupation of Iraq, Steele was assigned as a civilian advisor responsible for training the Special Police Commandos, a paramilitary group identified as the Wolf Brigade. This unit later faced accusations from a United Nations official regarding torture, murder, and participation in death squads. The Wolf Brigade was established and supported by the US to repurpose Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard for counterinsurgency operations against Iraqi insurgents. Angelina Snodgrass Godoy notes this approach reflected a US counterinsurgency strategy of "fighting terror with terror," previously implemented in Vietnam and El Salvador.
Steele collaborated extensively with Colonel James Coffman, an American Army officer who also advised Iraqi Special Police Commandos and has been associated with human rights violations. Coffman reported directly to General David Petraeus, working alongside Steele within US-funded detention facilities.
Steele’s involvement was acknowledged by figures such as US Ambassador Paul Wolfowitz and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who referenced his discreet participation in sensitive meetings. In 2013, investigative reports by The Guardian and BBC uncovered Steele’s ties to torture centers that emerged following the integration of US-backed Shia groups into security forces. Steele’s background includes combat experience in Vietnam, leadership of US special forces advisers in El Salvador during 1984–1986—where affiliated units became notorious for death squad actions—and participation in the Iran-Contra affair. Following the 2003 Iraq invasion, Steele served as a principal envoy overseeing intelligence activities for Iraq’s Special Police Commandos.
General Muntadher al-Samari, who led Iraq’s interior ministry from 2003 to 2005, revealed US involvement in torture conducted by Special Commandos’ interrogation teams, stating that both Steele and Coffman were aware of severe abuses such as beatings, suspension by hanging, and forcible extraction of fingernails. Reporting by The Guardian connected US support for sectarian paramilitary groups to conditions that precipitated Iraq’s sectarian civil war between 2006 and 2007.
The Guardian’s documentary titled "James Steele: America's mystery man in Iraq" presents a memorandum from Steele to Rumsfeld found within "The Rumsfeld Papers," where Steele observed that SCIRI and its Badr Brigade shielded "thugs like the commander of the Wolf Brigade engaged in death squad activities."
Business activities
Colonel James Steele is listed with Premiere Motivational Speakers, commanding a fee of $15,000 for presentations on Security and Counterterrorism Policy. Additionally, he serves as the chief executive officer of Buchanan Renewables, an energy firm specializing in biomass production based in Liberia. The Liberian legislative body has leveled accusations of corporate misconduct against the company. Moreover, a 2011 investigation conducted by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations revealed adverse effects on small-scale farmers, insufficient support toward Liberia's energy demands, and a corporate framework that enables tax avoidance within the country.
See also
External links
- James Steele: America's mystery man in Iraq – video The Guardian, 6 March 2013
- BBC-Guardian Exposé Uses WikiLeaks to Link Iraq Torture Centers to U.S. Col. Steele & Gen. Petraeus Democracy Now!, 22 March 2013
- Documentary: James Steele: America’s mystery man in Iraq, March 2013
- Biography of Jim Steele, Counselor to US Ambassador for Iraqi Security Forces
- Searching for Steele – documentary by Maggie O'Kane, broadcast by Al Jazeera English in 2013 (video, 47 mins)
- ↑ Mass, Peter (May 1, 2005). "The Way of the Commandos". New York Times. Retrieved March 22, 2013.
- ↑ As documented in Dan Kovalik's The Plot to Attack Iran. Skyhorse Publishing. New York. 2018.