"US-led attack killed 90 Afghan civilians, UN alleges; Government seeks more controls on coalition action" by Fisnik Abrashi, Associated Press | August 27, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan - In a stark warning to US forces, the Afghan government said it will try to regulate the presence of US troops and their use of air strikes, while the UN announced yesterday that "convincing evidence" exists that an American-led operation killed 90 civilians.
The UN sent in a team of investigators, who relied solely on villagers' statements in alleging the operation in the western province of Herat on Friday killed 60 children and 30 adults. The US military stood by its account, that 25 militants and five civilians were killed in the operation.
But the U.S. didn't bother to investigate, did it? Did they go talk to the people?
Then fuck the liars!!!!!!!!!!!!
"I don't have any information that would suggest that our military commanders in Afghanistan don't believe, still, that this was a legitimate strike on a Taliban target," Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said in Washington.
And he didn't try to find out, either!
Not even a fucking sorry, huh, Pentagon puke?
The UN allegation came a day after President Hamid Karzai's government said it will try to put more controls on the way US and NATO troops operate as a response to a series of air strikes and other operations this summer that have caused the deaths of scores of civilians.
Afghanistan's Council of Ministers ordered the ministries of defense and foreign affairs to open negotiations with the United States and NATO over the use of air strikes, house searches, and the detentions of Afghan civilians. It also called for a "status of force" agreement to regulate the troops' presence.
Readers, see:
Hell-oween: Afghanistan Torture File/The First Abu Ghraib
Hell-oween: Afghanistan Torture File/Perversion
Hell-oween: Afghanistan Torture File/Dilawar and Habibullah
Hell-oween: Afghanistan Torture File/Chamber of Horrors
Hell-oween: Afghanistan Torture File/American Amnesty
Hell-oween: Afghanistan Torture File/Bagram
Afghanistan Torture Chamber
The Globe's Weekend Movie
The UN's allegation of such a large number of civilian deaths could set the United States, the UN, and the Afghan government on a collision course over the use of military force in Afghan villages, where international troops battle Taliban and Al Qaeda militants daily.
Yup, and I hardly ever get a daily report in my Zionist-controlled, agenda-hiding War Daily!
Vitaly Churkin, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, said the Russians were raising the issue of the civilian casualties in Afghanistan with the UN Security Council.
ALL RIGHT!!!! You DO THAT, Russia!!!!!
Afghan officials also say that scores of civilians - between 76 and 90 - were killed in Herat Province on Friday. According to an Associated Press tally, 705 civilians have been killed this year: 536 by militants, and 158 by international forces; 11 civilians have died in crossfire. The numbers do not include figures from the Herat battle and probably do not account for all civilian deaths this year.
US and NATO officials say they take great care in their targeting but also accuse the militants of hiding in civilian homes and using Afghans as human shields. Another factor, diplomats in Kabul say, is that Karzai is running for reelection next year. Blaming foreigners for the ills afflicting the country is a sure way to win popular support.
Yeah, thank God that NEVER HAPPENS in AmeriKa, huh, jewpress?!
What SHIT BAG SCUM!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, I am fucking angry reading this shit day after day!!!!!!!!
Karzai's spokesman, Humayun Hamidzada, said yesterday that the ministers' decision was made after Afghan officials "lost patience" with foreign forces, and the killings and detentions of civilians during raids in remote villages.
"We do not want international forces to leave Afghanistan until the time our security institutions are able to defend Afghanistan independently," Hamidzada told reporters. But the presence of those forces has to be based "within the framework of Afghan law with respect to international law," he said.
If we respected international law, we wouldn't be there at all!!!!
In a statement yesterday, the UN put its weight behind the Afghan government assertion of civilian deaths in Herat, saying its investigators "found convincing evidence, based on the testimony of eyewitnesses, and others, that some 90 civilians were killed, including 60 children, 15 women, and 15 men.
--more--"
And then there is this.
UNITED NATIONS - Opium production in Afghanistan dropped by 6 percent this year, the sharpest decline since the United States toppled the Taliban rulers there, according to a UN report released yesterday.
Afghan opium production was down about 500 tons, according to the UN 2008 Afghanistan Opium Survey. The amount of land dedicated to opium poppies fell even more dramatically, dropping 19 percent because of severe drought and the efforts of a handful of Afghan governors, tribal, and religious leaders to persuade local farmers to abandon the illicit crop.
The UN report cautioned that Afghanistan remains the world's top source of opium, producing more of the illicit drug than the world consumes. It expressed caution that Afghan growers had stockpiled massive stores of opium that will guarantee large supplies on the international market even if new supplies dwindle.
Still, UN officials characterized the decline as a watershed that showed that internationally backed Afghan efforts to curb the trade were not doomed to failure.
"The opium flood waters in Afghanistan have started to recede," Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the Vienna-based UN Office of Drugs and Crime, wrote in the report. "This year, the historic high-water mark of 193,000 hectares of opium cultivated in 2007 has dropped by 19 percent to 157,000 hectares."
The Bush administration welcomed the findings, saying the report provided vindication for its much-criticized counter-narcotics strategy in Afghanistan. But a State Department spokesman said "the drug threat in Afghanistan remains unacceptably high. We are particularly concerned by the deterioration in security conditions in the south, where the insurgency dominates."
The number of Afghan provinces where opium cultivation has ceased increased last year by 50 percent, from 13 to 18, including Badakshan, Balkh, and Nangarhar. The most significant turnaround occurred in Nangarhar, Afghanistan's second highest opium producing province in 2007. This year, Costa wrote, Nangarhar, "has become poppy free."--more--"
I would just like to remind you, readers, and the world that LAYING BOMBS on their HOMES and FAMILIES, the littering of DU munitions, the secret prisons, the torture, the families displaced, the lives shattered, the chemicals dumped on them, all based on a BUNCH of LIES!!!
Whatever you think of the "Taliban," they NEVER DID ANYTHING TO US!!!!
We ALL KNOW WHO REALLY DID that BLACK-BAG INSIDE JOB of 9/11, and it wasn't the tribals running around the hills avoiding US and NATO air bombs and artillery batteries!!!!!
