From: Mermaid . (britannica@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Aug 19 2002 - 09:17:08 MDT
http://www.msnbc.com/news/795153.asp
<snip>
The killings illustrate the problems America will face if it opts to fight
wars by proxy, as the United States did in Afghanistan, using small numbers
of U.S. Special Forces calling in air power to support local fighters on the
ground. It also raises questions about the responsibility Americans have for
the conduct of allies who may have no —interest in applying protections of
the Geneva Conventions. The benefit in fighting a proxy-style war in
Afghanistan was victory on the cheap—cheap, at any rate, in American blood.
The cost, NEWSWEEK’s investigation has established, is that American forces
were working intimately with “allies” who committed what could well qualify
as war crimes.
</snip>
And later...
<snip>
Nothing that NEWSWEEK learned suggests that American forces had advance
knowledge of the killings, witnessed the prisoners being stuffed into the
unventilated trucks or were in a position to prevent that. They were in the
area of the prison at the time the containers were delivered, although
probably not when they were opened. The small group of Special Forces
soldiers were more focused at the time on prison security, and preventing an
uprising such as the bloody outbreak that had happened days earlier in the
prison fort at Qala Jangi. The soldiers surely heard stories of deaths in
the containers, but may have thought them exaggerated. They also may have
believed that the dead were war casualties, or wounded prisoners who, among
thousands of their comrades, simply didn’t survive the rugged journey from
the surrender point to the prison. But it’s also true that Pentagon
spokesmen have obfuscated when faced with questions on the subject.
Officials across the administration did not respond to repeated requests by
NEWSWEEK for a detailed accounting of U.S. activities in the Konduz, Mazar-e
Sharif and Sheberghan areas at the time in question, and Defense Department
spokespersons have made statements that are false.
</snip>
[Mermaid]I hope Casey's puter is happy now. Casey, I am not particularly
thrilled about this because webpages and newspaper articles have a funny way
of disappearing sometimes. But I give here. I like to look at my posts from
an archival point of view.
[Mermaid]I reserve the right to post the full article without snipping in
the future IF I feel that a particular article will have the potential to be
yanked off by 'interested' parties in the media.
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