Obama admin: No grounds to probe Afghan war crimes

[laststeamtrain]

Obama admin: No grounds to probe Afghan war crimes
By LARA JAKES, Associated Press Writer 6 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Obama administration officials said Friday they had no grounds to investigate the 2001 deaths of Taliban prisoners of war who human rights groups allege were killed by U.S.-backed forces.

The mass deaths were brought up anew Friday in a report by The New York Times on its Web site. It quoted government and human rights officials accusing the Bush administration of failing to investigate the executions of hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of prisoners.

U.S. officials said Friday they did not have legal grounds to investigate the deaths because only foreigners were involved and the alleged killings occurred in a foreign country.

The Times cited U.S. military and CIA ties to Afghan Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, whom human rights groups accuse of ordering the killings. The newspaper said the Defense Department and FBI never fully investigated the incident.

<snip>

Reacting to the Times' report, human rights group Physicians for Human Rights called for the Justice Department to begin a criminal investigation into whether the Bush administration blocked inquiries into the Taliban deaths.

"For U.S. government officials to claim that there is no legal basis to investigate this well-documented mass atrocity is absurd," said the groups deputy director, Susannah Sirkin.

<more>

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090711/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_afghan_war_crimes

[Contrary1]

1. No surprise. They won't even investigate our own. n/t

[waiting for hope]

4. Why would they?

Then that would open up Pandora's box into what is happening now.

[Vidar]

2. More Bush talking points.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

3. "No grounds to probe Afghan war crimes". .....What? ...K&R

[katandmoon]

5. Shocker!

:sarcasm: