Karzai orders US special forces out of Afghan province
Source: BBC News
The Afghan president has ordered US special forces to leave Wardak province within two weeks over allegations of disappearances and torture.
The measures were being taken due to the actions of Afghans considered to be part of US special forces, said a spokesman for Hamid Karzai.
The strategically significant, central province of Wardak has been the recent focus of counter-insurgency operations.
A US spokesman said it took all allegations of misconduct seriously.
Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21566295
hack89
(39,171 posts)Lasher
(27,605 posts)Get all US forces and all US money out of Afghanistan within two weeks.
xtraxritical
(3,576 posts)chuckstevens
(1,201 posts)You beat me to it! Also, To Mr. Karzai: you're on your own, dude. We need to start giving Americans, jobs, health care, and a decent education and can no longer afford to prop up a corrupt Ex-Unical Oil Executive.
RKP5637
(67,111 posts)Ash_F
(5,861 posts)Source: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1016&pid=54370
What kind of insanity is going on over there?
KoKo
(84,711 posts)Comment is free
On US democracy
Series: On US democracy
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Amy Goodman: On US democracy
Dirty Wars: Jeremy Scahill's antidote to Zero Dark Thirty's heroic narrative
In this new documentary, the Nation's investigative reporter lifts the lid on the ugly reality of US counter-terror operations
--------------
A US marine and his translator meet Afghan villagers
The film Dirty Wars details the stories of Afghans who have experienced attacks by drones or special forces. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images
As President Barack Obama prepared to be sworn in for his second term as the 44th president of the United States, two courageous journalists premiered a documentary at the annual Sundance Film Festival. Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield reaffirms the critical role played by independent journalists like the film's director, Rick Rowley, and its narrator and central figure, Jeremy Scahill.
The increasing pace of US drone strikes, and the Obama administration's reliance on shadowy special forces to conduct military raids beyond the reach of oversight and accountability, were summarily missed over the inaugural weekend by a US press corps obsessed with first lady Michelle Obama's new bangs. Dirty Wars, along with Scahill's forthcoming book of the same title, is on target to break that silence
with a bang that matters.
Scahill and Rowley, no strangers to war zones, ventured beyond Kabul, Afghanistan, south to Gardez, in Paktia province, a region dense with armed Taliban and their allies in the Haqqani network, to investigate one of the thousands of night raids that typically go unreported. Scahill told me:
"In Gardez, US special operations forces had intelligence that a Taliban cell was having some sort of a meeting to prepare a suicide bomber. And they raid the house in the middle of the night, and they end up killing five people, including three women, two of whom were pregnant, and
Mohammed Daoud, a senior Afghan police commander who had been trained by the US."
Scahill and Rowley went to the heart of the story, to hear from people who live at the target end of US foreign policy. In Gardez, they interviewed survivors of that violent raid on the night of 12 February 2010. After watching his brother and his wife, his sister and his niece killed by US special forces, Mohammed Sabir was handcuffed on the ground. He watched, helpless, as the US soldiers dug the bullets out of his wife's corpse with a knife. He and the other surviving men were then flown off by helicopter to another province.
Scahill and Rowley went to the heart of the story, to hear from people who live at the target end of US foreign policy. In Gardez, they interviewed survivors of that violent raid on the night of 12 February 2010. After watching his brother and his wife, his sister and his niece killed by US special forces, Mohammed Sabir was handcuffed on the ground. He watched, helpless, as the US soldiers dug the bullets out of his wife's corpse with a knife. He and the other surviving men were then flown off by helicopter to another province.
Sabir recounted his ordeal for Rowley's camera:
"My hands and clothes were caked with blood. They didn't give us water to wash the blood away. The American interrogators had beards and didn't wear uniforms. They had big muscles and would fly into sudden rages.
"By the time I got home, all our dead had already been buried. Only my father and my brother were left at home. I didn't want to live anymore. I wanted to wear a suicide jacket and blow myself up among the Americans. But my brother and my father wouldn't let me. I wanted a jihad against the Americans."
Before leaving, Scahill and Rowley made copies of videos from the cellphones of survivors. One demonstrated that it was not a Taliban meeting, but a lively celebration of the birth of a child that the raid interrupted. Rowley described another video:
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)timdog44
(1,388 posts)in his country.
IDemo
(16,926 posts)Right behind ceasing drone strikes....
AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)government is prosecuting war criminals instead of retaliating against whistleblowers.
lib2DaBone
(8,124 posts)Anyone who doesn't agree with the dictators can be assured that the U.S. Military will swoop down and drop some "Democracy" on their ass.
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)US Spokesman says, "We take this shit seriously". Kill anything that moves. Official US Military policy since Vietnam.
triplepoint
(431 posts)ancianita
(36,110 posts)It will be explained to Karzai that it's either the children of Taliban, who are the legacy of Zia ul-Haq, or Karzai and Kabul. They'll be more careful and the stability will continue of keeping nuclear materials rogue transport contained. Just my theory. I'm not so clear about how the poppies fit in.