A "kill team" for random executions of Afghan civilians

Soldiers from the Stryker infantry brigade also allegedly covered up those executions - in one case planting an AK-47 beside the body - and threatened anyone who dared to report them.

No, not WikiLeaks this time.
It's an internal US military investigation as reported in The Seattle Times :
Stryker soldiers allegedly plotted to kill Afghan civilians.
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Randomly. War crimes. And not really very surprising.
But what struck me in the account was this detail about one of those charged who was already suffering from "traumatic brain injury sustained in four separate explosions" :

"To help him remain in Afghanistan, he was prescribed a cornucopia of legal prescription drugs that included anti-depressants, muscle relaxers and a sleep drug frequently used by soldiers diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder."

Good god.
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Blood on their hands

CNN : WikiLeaks founder may have 'blood' on his hands
Reuters : WikiLeaks may have blood on its hands, U.S. says

Both sources quote Admiral Mike Mullen :

"Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing," Mullen said. "But the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family."

Guardian : The War Logs :

"...the marines opening fire with automatic weapons as they tore down a six-mile stretch of highway, hitting almost anyone in their way – teenage girls in fields, motorists in their cars, old men as they walked along the road. Nineteen unarmed civilians were killed and 50 wounded."

Two hours later they returned to confiscate camera evidence.
A news photographer said they told him : "Delete them, or we will delete you."
A US army colonel paid $2,000 to the families of each victim and Major General Francis Kearney ordered the marines to pull the entire 120-man company out of the country.

Washington Post reader question to Assange :

"Did you take steps to delete the names and other identifying information of informants before you released the 90,000+ documents? If not, how do you answer the charge that your actions may get these informants killed?

Assange :

"We released 36,000 out of the 92,000 or so documents in the Afghan War Diaries. 15,000 have been held for further review because they may contain information about innocents or informants. We also asked the White House to provide resources to help us vet the materials; the White House did not respond."

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Yesterday Obama signed the new Afganistan troop surge bill, passed by both Democrats and Republicans.
Last month, after accusing Stephen Harper of making a decision to “cut and run” from Afghanistan, Michael Ignatieff called for Canadians to stay in Afghanistan after 2011 as police and army trainers.

Harper and Iggy both supported the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and both voted to extend the Afghanistan occupation from 2009 to 2011.
Former human rights advocate Ignatieff is providing Harper and Obama with the cover necessary to support and extend that occupation.

It's down to all of us now to blow that cover : Rethink Afghanistan
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Update : Voice of America Aug. 3

"Documents containing the names of sources were marked "Secret," a mid-level security classification. They then were widely distributed across a classified Pentagon computer network called "SIPRnet," a kind of classified Internet, as one analyst put it, which was set up to foster greater information-sharing within the defense and intelligence communities.
Officials believe this is how the leaker got his hands on them.

Former CIA director Michael Hayden tells VOA that means the real identities of sources were available to thousands of people."

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"We have shot an amazing number of people ...

...but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat," said Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who became the senior American and NATO commander in Afghanistan last year. His comments came during a recent videoconference to answer questions from troops in the field about civilian casualties."

~ New York Times, Friday, March 26, 2010


Here is how the NATO ISAF webpage continues to report one such incident :

Joint Force Operating in Gardez Makes Gruesome Discovery

KABUL, Afghanistan (Feb. 12) - An Afghan-international security force found the bound and gagged bodies of three women during an operation in the Gardez district, Paktiya Province last night.
The joint force went to a compound near the village of Khatabeh, after intelligence confirmed militant activity. Several insurgents engaged the joint force in a fire fight and were killed. Subsequently, a large number of men, women, and children exited the compound, and were detained by the joint force. When the joint force entered the compound they conducted a thorough search of the area, and found the bodies of three women who had been tied up, gagged and killed. The bodies had been hidden in an adjacent room."

Here is the same incident as reported in the New York Times, March 15, 2010 :

U.S. Is Reining In Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan

"A large number of people had gathered for a party in honor of the birth of a grandson of the owner of the house, Hajji Sharaf Udin. After most had gone to sleep, the police commander, Mr. Udin’s son, Mohammed Daoud, went out to investigate the arrival of armed men and was shot fatally.

When a second son, Mohammed Zahir, a district prosecutor, went out to talk to the Americans because he spoke some English, he too was shot and killed. The three women — Mr. Udin’s 19-year-old granddaughter, Gulalai; his 37-year-old daughter, Saleha, the mother of 10 children; and his daughter-in-law, Shirin, the mother of six — were all gunned down when they tried to help the victims, witnesses claimed.

All the survivors interviewed insisted that Americans, who they said were not in uniform, conducted the raid and the killings, and entered the compound before Afghan forces. Among the witnesses was Sayid Mohammed Mal, vice chancellor of Gardez University, whose son’s fiancée, Gulalai, was killed.

"They were killed by the Americans," he said.

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Another NATO airstrike; another 33 dead civilians

AP : "NATO forces confirmed in a statement that its planes fired Sunday on a group of vehicles that it believed contained insurgents who were about to attack its forces, only to discover later that women and children were in the cars.

The strike hit three minibuses that were driving down a major road in the mountainous province. There were 42 people in the vehicles, all civilians, Bashary said.

"We are extremely saddened by the tragic loss of innocent lives," NATO commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal said.

McChrystal also sent along his regrets six days ago when 12 civilians including 6 children were killed by two NATO-fired rockets which missed their intended target by 300 meters, and still more regrets the following day for five more civilians killed in another NATO airstrike.


McClatchy's reports that Operation Mushtarak (translation : Operation Together) is all just "a trial run" for "the next big combat mission" in Kandahar this summer, described by ISAF officials as "the big prize for both the Taliban and the coalition":

"Coalition officers describe the Marjah operation, now into its second week, as a "confidence builder" for Kandahar now that extra troops for Afghanistan have been committed."

And what is the point of this "confidence builder" for "the big prize" again?

Journalist and historian Gareth Porter at The Real News Network :

"In my view this offensive has to be viewed as more of an effort to shape public opinion in the United States than to shape the politics of the future of Afghanistan."

It's propaganda, explains Porter, to sell the American people on the idea that when the inevitable negotiations with the Taliban for US withdrawal are held in 16 to 18 months, it will look at home as if the US is negotiating from a position of strength.

Saving face - that's what all these civilians and soldiers are dying for now.
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A stick

On Tuesday NATO troops fired into a crowd of anti-NATO Afghan demonstrators in the Garmsir district of Helmand, killing either 7 or 13, and wounding others.

On Wednesday between 200 and 400 villagers came out to protest the previous day's killings and NATO fired on the demonstrators again, wounding another 5, after one civilian struck at NATO forces with a stick.

Reuters :

"A number of civilians in the crowd disregarded instructions, resulting in forces firing warning shots. Deliberative escalation of force procedures were followed, but one individual continued to ignore instructions, striking members of the combined force with a stick," the statement said.

Lieutenant-Colonel Todd Breasseale said both Afghan troops and the U.S. Marines subsequently fired on the crowd.

"People started behaving dangerously and unfortunately things like this happen."

A stick.
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Eight years after 9/11

"General Stanley McChrystal tried to contact his subordinates after a Nato strike killed 125/100/70 civilians, but too many had been “partying it up” and could not be raised.
General McChrystal, head of International Forces in Afghanistan (Isaf), has since put a stop to drinking, admonishing staff for not having “their heads in the right place” on Friday morning a few hours after the attack, the Times reports.
One insider said: "Thursday nights are the big party nights, because Friday’s a 'low-ops’ day"

Mercenaries in Kabul : From Animal House to Apocalypse Now

"The charity group Swedish Committee for Afghanistan expressed outrage today in reporting a US attack on a remote hospital being operated by the group. The troops burst in to the hospital without explanation and conducted a full and rather violent search of the facility.
The troops reportedly tied up several employees and the family of some of the patients, ordered the bed-ridden patients out of their rooms and smashed down several doors."

ICC prosecutor eyes possible Afghanistan war crimes
"The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court said on Wednesday that he was gathering information about possible war crimes committed by NATO soldiers and insurgents in Afghanistan.
"What we are trying to assess is ... different types of allegations, including massive attacks, collateral damage exceeding what is considered proper, and torture," he said"

US Increasing Force Size in Iraq by Adding Contractors
"A report by Raw Story’s John Byrne notes that despite President Obama’s pledge with withdraw troops from Iraq, the overall force size is actually increasing in recent months, as thousands of new private contractors are being brought in.
This is adding to concern that while the US is pretending to “stand down” in Iraq, it is actually still as active as ever and is just using contractors to do the jobs that were previously done by the American troops. This puts the whole pullout in a different light."

Haroon Siddiqui : Eight years after 9/11, we know that:

"The war on terror spawned infinitely more terrorism worldwide than there was before this war.

The war on Iraq was launched even though the U.S. – contrary to its public assertions – knew that Saddam Hussein had no WMDs and no links to Al Qaeda.

The war on Afghanistan has been going downhill ever since the mission of toppling the Taliban, hosts to the plotters of the Sept. 11 massacre, was swiftly accomplished in November 2001.

The two wars cost the U.S. 5,000 lives and $1 trillion. The Afghan war, which has lasted 50 per cent longer than the American involvement in the two world wars combined, has cost Canada 130 lives and about $15 billion.

NATO does not care enough about Iraqis and Afghans to count their dead. It is estimated that perhaps 1 million Iraqi civilians have been killed, and 4 million displaced. As for the Afghan dead, injured and displaced, there aren't even credible estimates."
Continued ...

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Canada to stage Afghan war porn attack in Washington

G&M : Canada to stage mock Afghan attack in Washington

"The Canadian embassy in Washington plans to build a faux Afghan village in the embassy courtyard, populated by Afghan actors, and set of fake IEDs, in an effort to show American opinion makers they're doing all they can to win the war in Afghanistan.
The Taliban will attack an Afghan village set up in the heart of Washington courtesy of the Canadian Forces, who will send in a medic in a dramatic effort to save a civilian crippled by the explosion.
At least four times over two days this month, simulated IED blasts will bring the Afghan war – and Canada's combat role in Kandahar – home to Americans if an elaborate scheme based on modern training realism attracts widespread attention, as is hoped."

Meanwhile, in the real world, same paper, same day :

Afghan officials say 90 dead in NATO air strike

"An American war jet blasted two fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban in northern Afghanistan on Friday, killing up to 90 people, including insurgents and dozens of civilians who had rushed to the scene to collect fuel, Afghan officials said.

NATO officials initially insisted that there were no civilians in the area when the attack occurred about 2:30 a.m., but alliance chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen later acknowledged some civilians may have died."

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Update : After reading in the Globe and Mail about the Canadian embassy's plan to stage mock explosions in downtown Washington DC, DefMin Peter MacKay put the kibosh on it, perhaps due to two other recent ill-advised WTF? warporn exercises:

On 9/11 this year, a US Coast exercise involving mock firing on an intruding speedboat on the Potomac coincided with President Barack Obama heading across the river to mark the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks:

"The Coast Guard exercise so rattled other security agencies that nearby Ronald Reagan National Airport was briefly closed and high-level officials spent much of the day apologizing and explaining to a rattled public.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was said to be incensed that the Coast Guard planned a mock attack, including reports of shots being fired, on 9/11.

That brouhaha echoed another military embarrassment earlier this summer when Air Force One – the Boeing 747 the carries the president – flew low over Manhattan pursued by a pair of U.S. airplanes, all for a photo opportunity.
Nervous New Yorkers fearing another attack were enraged, and the White House
apologized."

Seriously, WTF?
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A new info war - yeah, that's the ticket in Afghanistan

US plans push for 'information war' in Afghanistan

"The United States plans to devote more money and manpower to the "information war" in Afghanistan as NATO-led forces battle an aggressive media campaign by Taliban insurgents, officials said on Friday.

US and NATO officials increasingly see public relations as crucial to turning the tide against the militants who have successfully spread their message through radio, the Internet and mobile phones.
The emphasis on public relations comes amid concern among US and NATO officials about the effect of civilian casualties from US-led air strikes."

2,118 innocents died last year - an increase of 40%, according to the U.N. Mission in Afghanistan

"This makes the 2008 civilian death toll the highest of any year since… the fall of the Taliban regime at the end of 2001" : annual report for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

"Air-strikes were responsible" for nearly two-thirds of those deaths, and "remain by far the most deadly tactic used by pro-Government forces."

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US response? 45 new communications officers and "securing mobile phone towers" :

"US naval officer, Admiral Gregory Smith has been assigned to oversee stepped up communications efforts under the new commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal.
The goal of such efforts was to promote a lively debate among Afghans and not to force feed American ideas, he told the Council on Foreign Relations.
Apart from carrying out more ambitious media campaigns, US military and intelligence agencies are reportedly working to jam Taliban radio broadcasts in Pakistan and Afghanistan ... "
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UPDATE : Back here at home, The Star is running the tragic story of Warrant Officer Perreault, a Canadian vet of that war with PTSD :

"a new system of compensating injured soldiers means Perreault gets not a cent for having post-traumatic stress disorder. His numerous other injuries maxed out allowable payout, leaving several injuries uncompensated"

This shit makes me absolutely fucking livid. What a fucking disgrace.

Perrault has a supportive wife who understands why he blackens her eyes and strangles her in his sleep.

Maybe some of you "Support the War" folks out there would like to shift some of that "support" to the actual people we send to Afghanistan to prop up US imperialism and Steve's pretensions to a "role on the world stage".

Enough.... enough...

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And now - your late night mid-holiday spectacularly unpopular Afghanistan news dump

Defence Minister Peter MacKay announced today in Afghanistan that "Canada may well stay in Afghanistan beyond its 2011 military mandate" blah blah blah "subject to the will of the people" blah blah.
By "people" I presume he is referring to Steve, Iggy, and Obama.
You're shocked, I'm sure.

The G&M reports that "Defence Construction Canada wants to buy 400 more beds at the Kandahar Air Field by next year, at a cost of $5-million, with an option to build 400 more."

I guess we're intending to open the world's largest B&B over there after 2011.

MacKay also announced that we're giving up that whole taking and holding territory thing in favour of closing down outposts and redeploying inside Kandahar City. Likewise in Kabul, foreign embassies are being relocated to a diplomatic quarter to be built next to Kabul airport. With Afghan authorities claiming that 140 civilians were killed by U.S fighter planes this month in southwest Afghanistan, bunkering down inside Baghdad-style Green Zones is probably a good idea.
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Say, I'll bet now that Obama has put Cheney's torturer in charge of Afghanistan, things will brighten right up over there.

Btw, if you've ever wanted a job that entails driving around drunk with your buddies and some loaded weapons, crashing your vehicle, and then firing on oncoming cars and killing people allegedly, you could do no better than to forward your resumé to Blackwater/Xe/Paravant/Whatever in Afghanistan.
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