Americans can MURDER with IMPUNITY!!
It's what Bush refers to as "liberation."
"Marine Corps special unit cleared in Afghan shoot-out; Civilians killed, spurring dispute"
DURHAM, N.C. - A Marine Corps general has found that a special operations unit acted properly during a controversial shoot-out in eastern Afghanistan in March 2007 in which Marines opened fire along a busy highway after their convoy was hit by a car bomb.
Except the car bomb referenced was in dispute. Read the memory holes.
And does that justify shooting into fields and killing people?
The number of civilians killed has been in dispute, with Afghans citing up to 19 civilian deaths and convoy members claiming they were shooting at armed insurgents.
It's always the same shit excuses, and I'm tired of them.
This is MAS-MURDER, pure and simple.
Sorry, but it is the unvarnished truth!
Marine Lieutenant General Samuel Helland determined that members of the 30-man convoy "acted appropriately and in accordance with the rules of engagement and tactics, techniques and procedures in place at the time in response to a complex attack," according to a statement released yesterday.
The unit - the first Marine special operations company deployed in combat - had been in Afghanistan just three weeks at the time of the March 4, 2007, incident.
Following the shooting near Jalalabad, an Afghan human rights commission - quoting local civilians and officials - said the Marines killed at least 12 civilians and wounded 35.
When a US Army colonel told local Afghans that he was "deeply ashamed" and said the killing and wounding of "innocent Afghans at the hands of Americans is a stain on our honor," it triggered an international uproar.
Colonel John W. Nicholson, the Army commander in the area, also made cash payments to survivors of 17 shooting victims and to 25 Afghan civilians who the local Afghan governor said had been wounded.
In January 2008, a Marine special court of inquiry looked into the incident, hearing from more than 50 witnesses over 17 days at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Among the witnesses were Afghans who testified by closed-circuit video from Afghanistan.
According to testimony before the fact-finding panel, the Marines opened fire after their convoy was struck by a car bomb that slightly injured one Marine. Afghan civilians and local politicians accused the Marines of firing indiscriminately along several miles of highway. Marines testified that they responded to what they believed was enemy gunfire linked to the car bomb.
Lawyers for two officers who appeared at the inquiry - Major Fred C. Galvin, the company commander, and Captain Vincent J. Noble, the convoy commander - contended that the Marines responded properly to a "complex attack," or coordinated ambush.
In many instances, the inquiry heard vague and contradictory accounts. An Afghan elder who said Marines shot up his car, killing his father and nephew, testified that the car was hit by "thousands and thousands" of bullets. Several Marines said that they couldn't see much from inside their cramped Humvees, yet insisted gunmen fired at the convoy and that Humvee gunners obeyed the rules of engagement.
The Marines with the best view of events - four men who fired their weapons - did not testify because they were not granted immunity from prosecution. Testimony indicated that a number of civilians had been killed, but a firm death toll was not established. Helland's statement yesterday referred only to "the deaths of Afghan civilians."
The general also said administrative actions related to another incident will be initiated against three officers in the unit.
Galvin will face a board of inquiry, an administrative proceeding that will examine his actions in a separate incident on March 9, 2007, in eastern Afghanistan in which two Afghan civilians were injured and two Marine vehicles were damaged. Court of inquiry testimony about the March 9 occurrence was classified and closed to the press and public.
Noble faces possible nonjudicial punishment for his actions during the March 9 incident. The company's executive officer, Captain Robert Olsen, will face a board of inquiry for allegedly mishandling classified information, according to a Marine Corps spokesman."I'm sure that will make the Afghani families happy after the murder of their loved ones.
We don't belong there, and never did!!!
"Many Afghans outraged at US decision on Marines"
"KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan officials expressed outrage Saturday at a decision by the U.S. military not to charge U.S. Marines involved in a shooting spree that left 19 Afghan civilians dead in 2007.
Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, the commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Central Command, made the decision Friday not to bring charges after reviewing the findings of a special tribunal that heard more than three weeks of testimony in January at Camp Lejuene.
"I am very angry," said Kubra Aman, a senator from Nangarhar. "This is too much. They are killing people. First, they say it is a mistake, and after that they let them go without charges."
Afghan witnesses and a report by Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission concluded that a unit of Marine special operations troops opened fire along a 10-mile stretch of road, killing up to 19 civilians and wounding 50 other people.
Helland, commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Central Command, decided not to bring charges against Maj. Fred C. Galvin, commander of the 120-person special operations company, and Capt. Vincent J. Noble, a platoon leader, the Marines said.
Helland determined the Marines in the convoy "acted appropriately and in accordance with the rules of engagement and tactics, techniques and procedures in place at the time in response to a complex attack," the Marines said.
The United Nations mission in Afghanistan condemned the decision.
"It is disappointing that no one has been held accountable for these deaths," said Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the mission. The U.N. "has always made clear that there must be increased transparency and accountability of all parties to this conflict if we are to retain the trust and confidence of the Afghan people."
The ruling was made after reviewing the findings of a special tribunal that heard more than three weeks of testimony in January.
Haji Lawania, who was wounded in the shooting that killed his father and cousin, called the decision a "grave injustice."
"It is true that there was a suicide attack against their convoy," Lawania said. "But I disagree that there was an ambush after the suicide attack."
Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Sean Gibson said Friday that the finding of the Court of Inquiry — some 12,000 pages — will not be released to the public."
Add a few more to George W. Bush's mass-murder toll:
"US coalition: Insurgents killed in Afghanistan"
"KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The U.S.-led coalition says several insurgents have been killed and six others detained during an operation in southern Afghanistan.
A coalition statement says its troops clashed and called in airstrikes on insurgents during an operation in Garmser district of Helmand province on Friday.
It says troops were targeting weapons traffickers and those assisting foreign fighters in the area.
The U.S. Marines pushed into Garmser late last month aiming to open a route to move troops to the southern reaches of Helmand, a center of the Taliban-led insurgency.
According to an Associated Press tally, insurgency related violence has killed more than 1,200 people — mostly militants — so far this year."
Pffffffttt!
Also see: Memory Hole: The Real War
Memory Hole: Losing Hearts and Minds
Afghanistan is the New Auschwitz
