March 17, 2009
On the 9th the New York Times reported the the U.S. Halted Some Raids in Afghanistan:
The commander of a secretive branch of America’s Special Operations forces last month ordered a halt to most commando missions in Afghanistan, reflecting a growing concern that civilian deaths caused by American firepower are jeopardizing broader goals there.
The halt, which lasted about two weeks, came after a series of nighttime raids by Special Operations troops in recent months killed women and children, and after months of mounting outrage in Afghanistan about civilians killed in air and ground strikes.
...
Military officials said the halt was ordered in part to allow American commanders time to impose new safeguards intended to reduce the risk of civilian deaths.
If so, the new safeguards do not work. These troops are again out to kill:
A convoy of angry Afghans from Maywand district arrived at the outskirts of Kandahar city yesterday with the bodies of three men in the back of two minibuses and a pickup truck.
They said the men had been shot to death along with two others when U.S. Special Forces swept into the village of China in the eastern part of Maywand early Sunday morning.
The people in the convoy intended to protest the killing to Kandahar Governor Tooryalai Wesa, but were stopped by police before they reached the governor's palace.
The U.S. military says the dead men were anti-government insurgents. The protesters say the men were a local mullah and several farm labourers.
...
The villagers said helicopters swooped into China (which rhymes with Tina) and several homes were raided some time after midnight Saturday.
The five men who were killed, three of whom were elderly, were not related, they said. Two other people are missing, said the Afghans. U.S. Special Forces said they had three people in custody.
...
The group of about 100 protesters who travelled to Kandahar, most of them in Toyotas which are ubiquitous in Afghanistan, got as far as a traffic circle in a suburb on the western edge of the city where they were turned back by police.
They pointed to the gunshot wounds in the dead men's heads.
All three shot in the head. Executed?
The Special Operations troops are sweeping in by helicopter at night without knowledge of the regular Canadian and U.S. troops stationed in the area. They shot three people in the head, kill another two, take other as prisoners maybe never to return and vanish back into the night.
The regular troops on the ground then have to bear the naturally very angry local response.
The Special Operation people are not under the same command as the NATO/ISAF troops or the regular U.S. troops in Afghanistan. They have a separate chain of command.
Seymour Hersh made some waves last week when he remarked on the NYT piece quoted above:
It’s an executive assassination ring essentially, and it’s been going on and on and on.
According to Hersh, during the Bush administration these troops were under direct command of Dick Cheney.
Who commands them now? Biden? Obama?
Who ordered them to kill the local mullah and the two farm workers?
And for what reason? They were "anti-government" the Special Operation forces excuse themselves. So those locals did not like Hamid Karzai? Is that now enough reason to deserve a headshot?
