Obama admin: No grounds to probe Afghan war crimes

[tekisui]

Source:AP

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.

Asked about the report, Marine Corps Col. David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, said that since U.S. military forces were not involved in the killings, there is nothing the Defense Department could investigate.

"There is no indication that U.S. military forces were there, or involved, or had any knowledge of this," Lapan said. "So there was not a full investigation conducted because there was no evidence that there was anything from a DoD (Department of Defense) perspective to investigate."

A Justice Department official said the FBI had no jurisdiction to investigate. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Separately, Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller declined to comment.

more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090711/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_afghan_war_crimes;_ylt=AnTLZIv6DeZc57W8UA3vsI6s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJsNnVibG0zBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwNzExL3VzX2FmZ2hhbl93YXJfY3JpbWVzBGNwb3MDMgRwb3MDNgRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNvYmFtYWFkbWlubm8-

[tekisui]

1. Cowards vote this down, too.

[aquart]

2. Nothing but our smug belief in our own superiority.

Which, God knows, is abundant.

[chill_wind]

3. Well, well. Surprise, surprise. :-/

and K & R.

[Cant trust em]

4. This should be taken to an international court.

DOD might not have any jurisdiction here, but someone does.

But then we'll look like shitheads who are interested in prosecuting brown people, but not our guys.

[Karmadillo]

5. Ah! More "looking forward and not backwards." A city on a hill, that's us.

nt

[bvar22]

6. Obama....

...looking the other way on War Crimes and Torture.....or "looking forward" as he calls it....same thing.

"No man is above The Law!---Obama during Campaign 2008.

[ConsAreLiars]

7. What a bullshit statement. Utterly revolting.

"The US can't investigate because it happened in a country we invaded and occupied and was done by people we trained, funded and used for our geopolitical objectives led by a guy on our payroll."

I wonder if the dope-damaged Chimp could have come up with anything as stupid, dishonest, and disgusting. Well, yes, I guess, many, many times. But more of the same is shameful.

[chill_wind]

8. Sealed the containers, "suffocating them and then burying them en masse using bulldozers

to move the bodies."

Move on. Move on.

[tekisui]

9. Amazing that we ere involved in mass graves with bulldozing bodies,

and that doesn't make it to the m$m headlines. But, one dead singer is reported for over a week non-stop.

[G_j]

10. I remember this

utterly horrific,
but we're movin' on baby!

[chill_wind]

11. ...

[LWolf]

12. Keep looking forward

so that you never have to acknowledge where you've been, or where you are now.