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TechnoratiWar Crimes and the White House: The Bush Administration’s Cover-Up of the Dasht-e-Leili Massacre
In November 2001, as many as 2,000 Taliban prisoners are believed to have been killed in container trucks by US-allied Afghan troops and buried in a mass grave in Dasht-e-Leili, Afghanistan. These Afghan troops were operating jointly with American forces, who were allegedly present at the scene of the crime. PHR investigators discovered the mass grave in 2002.
Under the auspices of the UN, PHR’s International Forensic Program conducted an initial examination of part of the site, exhumed fifteen remains, and conducted autopsies on three individual remains, and found that the likely cause of death was consistent with suffocation.
Since 2002, PHR has been calling for the site to be secured, protection of the witnesses and a full investigation of the alleged massacre. Despite these appeals, Afghan eyewitnesses were tortured, murdered and disappeared, and sections of the mass grave site have been dug up and removed.
46 Comments so far
Show AllRegarding previous comments.
Terrorists may not be soldiers by your definition but they are human beings and the world has all ready decided that they are entitled to humane treatment as prisoners and judicial process. One man's terrorist is another mans nationlist.
None of what happened in the US or beyond justifies the kind of barbarism that the finding of these graves reveals. If this is allowed to stand, it will roll back a thousand years of political and human progress. The British looked upon our founding fathers as terrorists. Many of the Israelis who are shouting about Palestinian terrorists were members of an Israeli terrorist group.
The US provided aid to the Taliban government right up until August 2001. BUT the Taliban, as unpleasant as they are, did NOT attack the US. A number pf sources report that the Taliban had offered to turn over Bin Ladin to the US didn't follow through.
There are reports of the Cheney threatening the Taliban with bombing if they did not allow a pipeline to go through on his terms. The Afghani government (the Taliban) wanted Afghans to have access to the oil moving through the pipeline. Cheney said no.
Sioux Rose
CADAWA: Important post. I especially applaud your first paragraph. So true.
A thousand-year setback? If Islam prevails then we will see a thousand-year setback!
Terrorists are humans - and they act and live sub-humanly. For each terrorist removed from existence, the world is that much better of a place.
"Terrorist" is not a relative concept. The rest of the world thinks so of something does not make it true. American minutemen and soldiers did not terrorize the Brits and I could not care if England's insane king thought otherwise.
What aid was the Taliban given by us? Goat-farming subsidies? I'm being sarcastic, but my point is: there is nothing in Afghanistan and militarily, Taliban were rag-tag Kalishnikov-toters with a few old choppers held together with spit and chewing gum. I'm inclined to think if there was any aid - and I wouldn't put such an absurdity past the wizards of 'Foggy Bottom' - it sure could not have been much!
Recheck your history of the US Revolution - among other things. Not only Brits but American tories were killed and tormented, not only during the revolution but before it and for a while after. Very many left the country to avoid persecution.
USA is a nation which commonly employs state sponsored terrorism as foriegn policy.
The Contras, are a good example.
Hahahahaha! Your "good example" is a smear against the Contras and is from 20 years ago. Any more good examples?
Google "US Invasions."
Briefly, the US has invaded another country on the average of about once every two years since its inception. You can pick an example from as near or long ago as you wish.
kafirTom: Frankly, it doesn't matter what scourge of the earth we are up against, if we drop to their level by killing mass amounts of soldiers without any trials, then we fail to uphold the values on which this nation was founded. All that talk of human rights, democracy and fairness goes out the window when this kind of shit happens. I think Bush was good for opening up our eyes to the kinds of abuses that can and have happened, it's too bad we aren't waking up to Obama's abuses of power also.
Terrorists are not soldiers. Rights do not apply to terrorists who deliberately wage warfare on civilians. American law is not for their protection. Terrorists by their nature reject civilization's laws, recognitions of rights, and all its protections and niceties. Find the terrorists and utterly destroy them and be done with it.
You do understand that your description fits many US soldiers and covert operators, right? No, you don't understand.
"Terrorists by their nature reject civilization's laws".Then by your own fingers you are saying that the US of A are terrorists.By their deeds you shall know them and that does not even count the drones which are obscene and I just love it when someone says forget about history."What have you done for me today".Tony
mustbe free, the whole paragraph reflects USA politics. Good point.
glen ford;Yeah,thanks but it is depressing to know that he/she's attitude is the one that is wining the war for any kind of peace because of the outright lies,deceptions and greed that permeates this whole subject,situation.Our hopes and dreams are trumped by his version of reality but there will be no give or quarter to the poison.We do not ever have to lie to make our point for peace.Tony
Like I didn't expect someone to say this nonsense. Especially here.
Oh, the poor women-beating, acid-throwing-in-girls-faces, murdering, barbaric, religious-zealot terrorists were executed! Let's cry a river for these 'victims' of the U.S.
Hopefully there are a lot more mass graves of Taliban.
Jeevee
Hatred, which you have vividly expressed, NEVER has solved ANYTHING!!! From what mental hospital are you writing?
That is none of your business!
:) :) :) :) :) :)
Ah,yea!The good guys and the bad guys and,of course the good guys are always americans.Is this what it always come down to that we can do no wrong because we are americans?Is this put into the genes when you are born here?What bullshit!All you have to do is pay attention to know it is a huge load of shit.Washington authorizing giving blankets to Indians laced with smallpox,cowboys and indians,Vietnam,Iraq and Afghanistan and we are calling the kettle black?It boggles the mind that we can defend our actions at all because there is no honor,integrity or,most of all,humanity in any of it and it is illegal!Tony
It is very simple: the Taliban collaborated with and harbored the 9/11 terrorists, therefore we go get 'em. What ever happened to Indians, the Vietnam War, or the price of sneakers in Timbuktu is irrelevant to this matter. Whatever our government did in the past, rightly or wrongly, has no bearing on what it has to do after 9/11 to defeat our enemy.
The alleged 911 perpetrators were all Saudis.
Every imperial nation, or every nation for that matter demonizes it's enemies, this justifies demonic actions.
Sioux Rose
Well-said, GLENN.
Would anyone like to remind keefer-smoking-whatever that the U.S. WAGED a WAR OF AGGRESSION, as in THE Supreme Crime as per the universally accepted Geneva Conventions against the citizens of Iraq. And just because our bombastic leaders say they didn't mean to kill all those women and children, allegedly over a million persons died, and about 80% of them were just plain civilians. Not terrorists, not people with guns, not persons who were armed and dangerous and aiming at anyone in the U.S. Just PEOPLE in the way of U.S. bombs and, that oh, so gentle spray of depleted uranium, the gift that is to Iraqi future generations what Agent Orange is to the Vietnamese. And of course after all the carnage was done, only then did a few "heros" come forward to expand upon the criminal truth, that the case was MADE, that is to say FIXED for war all along. Evidence was planted or constructed. Get that, jerk? A million DIED because of false evidence, and you want to say that a primitive band of sexist thugs who reside in an impoverished land that's been plundered by nation after nation rival for the title of "who's the biggest, baddest terrorist?" Like the display at the Ape House at the Bronx Zoo, YOU can just look in the mirror.
And while you're at it, you can take your jingoistic cowboy imbecilic mentality and share it with others with your same 2-digit IQ over beer at some sports bar. No one here thinks your arguments stacks up to a hill of beans.
Oh, the Taliban are good guys! I didn't know. I guess I bought into all that imperialist demonization you refer to. Thanks, I stand corrected.
I guess you did, your welcome.
My point is they are no worse than the USA and alot less imperialistic.
The number innocents killed by the Taliban is miniscule compared to the wholesale slaughter and destruction of the USA.
You are morally disgusting - or just an ignoramus.
Projection
I don't think anybody here thinks the Taliban are the good guys!
The US and its coalition are wrong to be in Afghanistan. They are like the powerful anywhere all through history. They pretend to have the high moral ground and fools like kafirTom believe they do.
They (the kafirTom's of the world) believe that they have the moral high ground. It is a malady that afflicts all sides. Some Taliban are indeed good guys.
Sioux Rose
NMBILL: Don't fall into the trap! This is typical right wing Rush/Rove radio rant in that those ostensibly on the side of naked aggression try to demonize those they feel righteous (and I do mean righteous, since lots of religious rhetoric is behind half the mis-directed passion) in "taking out." Anyone who launches a war of aggression or enters another nation to determine who should live or die, while arming generally BOTH sides of any domestic disturbances, is in NO position to assume the moral high ground and cast aspersions upon others. WE do NOT need to be on the defensive here. Let jingoistic do-do bird keep making noises in his padded cell, or excuse for a brain. Eventually his inner demons will respond and he'll be content with the illusion of dialog.
RE: "I don't think anybody here thinks the Taliban are the good guys!"
Could've fooled me!
P.S. - by looking elsewhere on this site, it seems that Hamas and al-Qeada are the good guys as well.
The US supported the Taliban with arms and money for years and years. Was our tax money mis-spent?
The U.S. supported the Taliban?!! What arms? that's why when we invaded they had old Soviet military hardware including a whole 8 (or so) Mi-8 helicopters! God, are you misinformed! They were the created puppets of Pakistani intel, the ISI. That's it. The Paks created them, not us.
I have an ex army friend who flew russian arms from the USA to Africa way back in the sixties.
I am sure the Talibans captured lots of russian weapons but it is rock solid history that the USA, Saudi's and Pakistan created funded and directed the Taliban.
It was the USA supplied stinger missiles that drove the soviets out. Was the movie "Harry's War?"
Your the first person I ever heard of that denies that.
The Taliban were threatened with bombing by the USA before 9/11.
It's all about the pipeline.
The muj who fought the Soviets were not the Taliban as an organization. The Taliban wasn't organized until the mid-90's. We were uninvolved in Afghanistan then and let the muj factions fight it out. Maybe some who became Taliban fought the Soviets, but that is not the same thing. It sounds like you are failing to make the distinction between the two, just like others fail to distinguish al-Qaeda from the anti-Soviet muj groups. It's like saying apples are the same as oranges because they are fruit. (Wish I could think of a better example.)
The Taliban, a sub group of muj, fought with the muj together against the Soviets and they are the same Talibs that came from the Pakistan Madrasses that won the Afghan civil war before the USA went in and destabilized Afghanistan again..
And the USA is not fighting only the Talibs but every militant Afghan Pastun nationalist
A sub-group that didn't exist until years after the Sovs were thrown out.
I would equate the Talibs with the Afghan students in the Pakistani Madrasses funded by the Saudi's who were recruited for the war against the Soviets,they are Talibs because of their adherence to a Wahabi like doctine.
What they believe and how they were educated doesn't make them the Taliban the Pak ISI set-up in the '90's that took over Kabul! Good grief!
Not much difference between Hitler's Third Reich and Washington, is there.
A big part of this atrocity is the u.s. decision to ally itself with the northern alliance, and in particular with that swine Dostum. this guy has a well earned rep as a serious monster. although after all it is not really unusual for our guys to use such scumbags if they think it will serve their interests. The women of Afghanistan (see RAWA) have said from before the beginning that while the Taliban were indeed hardline fundamentalists, and hard to live with, but the northern alliance were all that only worse, plus multiple, repeat rapists.
This story was certainly reported at the time it happened. It's not like nobody knew.The news media maybe moved on to other stories, and lost interest in this one.
So nice going PHR. and also i will have to give grudging credit to the times for printing the story. Does anyone else wonder where Amnesty and HRW are?
But Dostum is still very much around, a great favorite of Karzai and the cia
Dostum may be a monster, but he's "our" monster.
This is not the government that represents the people of the US.
You promised us change Obama. This is too much. There is no way you could not hear about this. Say something. Do something.
Great site below, a definite must read (takes all of 10 min. if you don't gasp and fall off your chair in disbelief).
In light of this information, if Obama does not fully investigate this situation he will be no better in my mind than his predecessor.
So, that's just a snippet of Bush's term. It will be interesting to note if this pattern continues in Obama's tenure. I'm willing to bet it will because I don't see outrage for our government's cover ups in enough Americans.
When most people seem focused on ridding our nation of "illegal aliens" (a redundant term in itself) because they use public services paid for by "hard working American's" taxes, one must ask why they are not equally focused on the rich and corporations who no longer pay their fair share in taxes.
Ah, they've forgotten all about that now haven't they.
Not all of us. We are acutely aware of and speak out about the injustice of both.
Thanks for the link above, I'll have to bookmark it.
This atrocity will be added to my list of all the other heinous crimes by past administrations in a pattern of, well, I don't quite have the words to describe my feelings of disgust with all the secrets our government harbors.
Frankly, I've had enough. I'm waiting for others who've also had enough to outnumber those who are still willing to take it.
If one continues to vote for the lesser of two evils, which is what I used to do, one still gets evil. Vote your conscience instead of dem or repub. A third party could win if we all voted for them.
here you go:
government cover up stories?
http://www.wanttoknow.info/corruptiongovernmentmilitary