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The Kill Team: how US troops murdered Afghan civilians
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| Zharen |
http://www.rollingstone.com/politic...20110327?page=1
| quote: | Early last year, after six hard months soldiering in Afghanistan, a group of American infantrymen reached a momentous decision: It was finally time to kill a haji.
Among the men of Bravo Company, the notion of killing an Afghan civilian had been the subject of countless conversations, during lunchtime chats and late-night bull sessions. For weeks, they had weighed the ethics of bagging "savages" and debated the probability of getting caught. Some of them agonized over the idea; others were gung-ho from the start. But not long after the New Year, as winter descended on the arid plains of Kandahar Province, they agreed to stop talking and actually pull the trigger.
Bravo Company had been stationed in the area since summer, struggling, with little success, to root out the Taliban and establish an American presence in one of the most violent and lawless regions of the country. On the morning of January 15th, the company's 3rd Platoon – part of the 5th Stryker Brigade, based out of Tacoma, Washington – left the mini-metropolis of tents and trailers at Forward Operating Base Ramrod in a convoy of armored Stryker troop carriers. The massive, eight-wheeled trucks surged across wide, vacant stretches of desert, until they came to La Mohammad Kalay, an isolated farming village tucked away behind a few poppy fields.
To provide perimeter security, the soldiers parked the Strykers at the outskirts of the settlement, which was nothing more than a warren of mud-and-straw compounds. Then they set out on foot. Local villagers were suspected of supporting the Taliban, providing a safe haven for strikes against U.S. troops. But as the soldiers of 3rd Platoon walked through the alleys of La Mohammad Kalay, they saw no armed fighters, no evidence of enemy positions. Instead, they were greeted by a frustratingly familiar sight: destitute Afghan farmers living without electricity or running water; bearded men with poor teeth in tattered traditional clothes; young kids eager for candy and money. It was impossible to tell which, if any, of the villagers were sympathetic to the Taliban. The insurgents, for their part, preferred to stay hidden from American troops, striking from a distance with IEDs.
While the officers of 3rd Platoon peeled off to talk to a village elder inside a compound, two soldiers walked away from the unit until they reached the far edge of the village. There, in a nearby poppy field, they began looking for someone to kill. "The general consensus was, if we are going to do something that ing crazy, no one wanted anybody around to witness it," one of the men later told Army investigators.
The poppy plants were still low to the ground at that time of year. The two soldiers, Cpl. Jeremy Morlock and Pfc. Andrew Holmes, saw a young farmer who was working by himself among the spiky shoots. Off in the distance, a few other soldiers stood sentry. But the farmer was the only Afghan in sight. With no one around to witness, the timing was right. And just like that, they picked him for execution.
He was a smooth-faced kid, about 15 years old. Not much younger than they were: Morlock was 21, Holmes was 19. His name, they would later learn, was Gul Mudin, a common name in Afghanistan. He was wearing a little cap and a Western-style green jacket. He held nothing in his hand that could be interpreted as a weapon, not even a shovel. The expression on his face was welcoming. "He was not a threat," Morlock later confessed.
Morlock and Holmes called to him in Pashto as he walked toward them, ordering him to stop. The boy did as he was told. He stood still.
The soldiers knelt down behind a mud-brick wall. Then Morlock tossed a grenade toward Mudin, using the wall as cover. As the grenade exploded, he and Holmes opened fire, shooting the boy repeatedly at close range with an M4 carbine and a machine gun.
Mudin buckled, went down face first onto the ground. His cap toppled off. A pool of blood congealed by his head.
The loud retort of the guns echoed all around the sleepy farming village. The sound of such unexpected gunfire typically triggers an emergency response in other soldiers, sending them into full battle mode. Yet when the shots rang out, some soldiers didn't seem especially alarmed, even when the radio began to squawk. It was Morlock, agitated, screaming that he had come under attack. On a nearby hill, Spc. Adam Winfield turned to his friend, Pfc. Ashton Moore, and explained that it probably wasn't a real combat situation. It was more likely a staged killing, he said – a plan the guys had hatched to take out an unarmed Afghan without getting caught... |
It's an 8 page article, so I'm not going to copy/paste everything, but more can be read in that link.
I'm just hoping that at this point, this war becomes so unpopular back at home that we finally just get the out. I'm seriously sickened by this . Get out of Afghanistan now OBUMMER!
EDIT: Link to video of Afghans on motorcycle being shot and killed
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/photos/motorcyle-kill-20110327/0692075 |
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| D-res |
Good read, thanks for sharing. I think the last page of the article sums up an unfortunate attitude that pervades many aspects of our armed forces. A good friend of mine recently left for Marine bootcamp, and despite my urges for reconsideration, my warnings that they'll change him, desensitize him, make him a robot, he jokingly remarked that he had no independent thoughts and looked forward to being desensitized.
I'm not sure what kind of attitude one should have when they're being trained to become an unquestioning killing machine, but ruthlessness and carelessness, and this sense of being able to go behind the back of an already morally-questionable entity to act out your psycotic fantasies free from reprecussions is undoubtedly going to hurt our relationship with the rest of the world and ourselves.
I'm sadened to think that this is hardly an isolated incident. I'm glad to see these guys were investigated and prosecuted, even if it took a year and many innocents died as a result of the apathy of their COs. It's kind of ed up that this is considered murder, when civilians dying in droves by means of "collateral damage" is simply the justified result of war.
America yeah? |
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| Comrade Stalin |
| This is democracy in Afghanistan. Nothing but a joke. Can't believe Obama doesn't/didn't see this. It's a completely failed mission with absolutely no reason for us to be there, other than, to save face, and not be seen as defeated by nomads in tennis shoes. |
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| colin traveller |
Sorry but the the taleban whom were on a motorbike drove straight into a patrol .. on that road .
there is a video of it on liveleak ..and further more the entire incident was filmed by a german tv speigel.tv
Are the German media going to fabricate what happend nope
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cc8_1301070611 |
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| Zharen |
| So what? That still doesn't excuse the civilians who were killed in that article. I also did not see the people in that motorcycle fire shots at the soldiers, so I have a hard time believing that they were a threat. And as that article already states, it is against US military protocol for soldiers to personally video tape or take pictures of their operations for their own personal use. I can clearly see soldiers snapping shots on digital cameras, and they don't look like they're for any official military business. |
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| colin traveller |
| quote: | Originally posted by Zharen
So what? That still doesn't excuse the civilians who were killed in that article. I also did not see the people in that motorcycle fire shots at the soldiers, so I have a hard time believing that they were a threat. And as that article already states, it is against US military protocol for soldiers to personally video tape or take pictures of their operations for their own personal use. I can clearly see soldiers snapping shots on digital cameras, and they don't look like they're for any official military business. |
Do yourself a huge favour do some research it's easy enough to find enough info to prove and disprove ..
Guess what Michael yon is calling for a boycott of rolling stone for blatently distoring the facts ..
http://minx.cc/?post=314045 |
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| Zharen |
Hey guess what, the Army is apologizing AGAIN for the graphic photos that have been released in Rolling Stone. Why would the Army apologize if the magazine got it wrong, can you explain that to me? Maybe it's you who needs to get their facts straight.
http://blackchristiannews.com/news/...ead-afghan.html
| quote: | The U.S. Army on Monday apologized for any distress caused by recently published photos of American soldiers posing with dead Afghans, calling their content "disturbing" and "in striking contrast" to the Army's standards and values.
The Army issued a statement in response to graphic images that Rolling Stone magazine posted on its website on Monday - about a week after the German news magazine Der Spiegel published three of the photos.
Rolling Stone says the photos are linked to an ongoing war crimes probe involving members of the 5th Stryker Brigade, based south of Seattle. Five soldiers from the platoon have been charged with murder and conspiracy in the deaths of three unarmed Afghan men last year.
Rolling Stone obtained about 150 photos in all, said Eric Bates, the magazine's executive editor. It posted 17 of them on its website, along with two videos it says show U.S. attacks on Afghans.
Bates would not say how the magazine obtained the pictures.
Two of the photos show soldiers charged in the case - Spc. Jeremy Morlock of Wasilla, Alaska, and Pvt. 1st Class Andrew Holmes, of Boise, Idaho - crouching alongside an Afghan youth and lifting the victim's head by its hair. Two other photos show the body of the same Afghan youth, identified by Rolling Stone as Gul Mudin, one of the victims in the case.
Morlock, the first of the five to be court-martialed, was sentenced last week to 24 years in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of murder, as well as conspiracy and other charges. He said the killings were part of a deliberate plan to murder Afghan civilians.
Morlock's attorney did not respond to requests for comment Monday from The Associated Press.
Daniel Conway, Holmes' attorney, said he doesn't think the latest publication will affect his client's upcoming court martial. He said Holmes was ordered by his superiors to pose with the body.
"That photo wasn't his idea," Conway said Monday. "He was a 19-year-old private, and they told him to come over, get in the picture and he got in the picture."
Rolling Stone says the photos are from a cache of images the Army has kept secret, even from defense attorneys in the case, because it fears another scandal like the one that erupted over photos showing prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Among the photos are pictures of the accused soldiers holding captured weapons as well as gruesome pictures of dismembered bodies that the magazine said are unrelated to the war crimes probe.
Photographs held by the military in the case are under a protective order that remained in place Monday, said Army spokeswoman Maj. Kathy Turner.
The Associated Press has written about the photos' existence and how soldiers passed them around in emails and thumb drives.
In its statement, the Army expressed its commitment to accountability.
"We must allow the judicial process to continue to unfold and be mindful that the government has distinct obligations to the victims and to the accused, which include compliance with the Court's protective order to ensure a fair trial," the statement said. |
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| Zharen |
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110330...nphaWJsYXN0cw--
| quote: | KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghanistan's president says U.S. soldiers charged with murder in the deaths last year of three unarmed Afghans had killed them for entertainment, after taking drugs.
Hamid Karzai condemned the actions of five soldiers from the 5th Stryker Brigade. The troops have been charged in the United States with murder and conspiracy in the slaying of three men in southern Afghanistan.
The remarks on Wednesday were Karzai's first public comments on the issue that came to light after a series of graphic photos showing the soldiers from an Olympia, Washington-based platoon, posing next to the dead Afghan bodies.
Some of the photos have appeared in Rolling Stone magazine and the German news magazine Der Spiegel. |
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| colin traveller |
Your original posted was wrong and misleading .. because the article went out to blame those and made references to the 2 taleban on the Motorbike and claimed they were civvies when they were not .
that was the point i was making yet due to your blatent ignorance of the fact's
And i already knew of the other unit that posed for pics with dead afghani's big deal .. how many times have we seen footage etc of those scum and the scum in Iraq make video's of those and execute them ..parade there bodies for all to see .. and the numerous footage of IED attacks ..filmed and uploaded to the net .
The media doesn't get slated for taking footage/pics of dead people do they every image they upload or show they state a graphic image warning so why should those in the Military be treated differently
there is numerous images/pics on the net, books , dvd's etc that do this
people thrive on it and will watch it and buy it
[ I GUESS YOU FORGET ABOUT THAT ]
Iraq
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-TyEaDCp7w
afgahnistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdrUtANU_vE
iwo jima
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2xooyTfIi8
I suggest you watch all 3 .. u might learn something
It's easy for the anti war brigade to make assumptions of those in combat zone and paint all those under thew same banner as murders etc ..still people like you clearly know little of the psychological effect's and visions of War can do to to the human mind .
You have the cheek to slate your nations a soldiers actions when there is civvies in your country have commiited much worse crimes.
Get real would you . |
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| Zharen |
You know, it's hard for me to take you seriously
When you make unnecessary breaks
in your responses
it makes it
kinda hard to follow
typing like this
wouldn't you think?
If you want to excuse the motorcycle vid
as Taliban forces riding to kill soldiers
Fine, whatever makes
you feel better
Doesn't change the validity of
the rest of the article.
And just because I don't know
the psychological
effects of war firsthand
Doesn't mean I can't denounce a disgusting action
When I read it.
I don't support this war. And I will continue to voice that out. I couldn't care less what you think of me personally. But then again, I'm not the one out there gunning innocent Afghanis for sport and pleasure now am I? Nor am I the one spending billions of dollars away to a conflict with no end in sight, when there's millions of people back home who could see that money be used for their benefit. |
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| Comrade Stalin |
| quote: | Originally posted by Zharen
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Stop supporting the terrorists. |
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| Zharen |
And the situation gets worse
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/129...arack-obama.htm
| quote: |
The anti-Islam stunts of Terry Jones, the Pastor who shot to popularity last September for proposing to burn Qurans in the memory of the 9/11 attacks, has now put foreigners in Afghanistan at a risk of facing violence from a newer and larger quarter besides the terror elements of Taliban - the civilians.
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Sample
Twelve days after Jones burned a copy of the Islam holy book, an angry mob of close to thousand people gathered Friday after prayers to retaliate against the insult.
The mob, seemingly instigated by preachers during the Friday prayers, attacked United Nations guards in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, a relatively peaceful region of the war-torn country, killing at least 20 personnel.
The Koran was set on fire at the Dove World Outreach Center, a small church in Florida, after a mock trial on March 20. Jones presided over the 'International Judge the Koran Day' event, after which one copy of the Muslim holy book was 'executed'.
Although the web video of the Quran burning barely made news in the United States, the news got large scale coverage in Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to a New York Times blog citing Britain's Channel 4 News.
Last week in Pakistan, State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, issued a condemnation of the Koran burning. It was also reported
that Pakistan's interior minister, Rehman Malik, "said Pakistan has taken up the recent desecration of the Holy Koran by lunatic priest Terry Jones with Interpol."
While Afghan authorities have also reportedly sought the arrest of Terry Jones, the Friday violence targeted at U.N. staff signifies the beginning of a distressing phenomenon for foreigners in Afghanistan.
"Foreigners committed to assisting in the rebuilding of Afghanistan have long accepted the possibility that they might die at the hands of warring parties, but this degree of violence from ordinary citizens is not something most of us factored into our decision to work here," Una Moore writes for UN Dispatch.
"Tonight, the governor of Balkh province, of which Mazar-i-Sharif is the capital, is telling the international media that the men who sacked the UN compound were Taliban infiltrators. That's rubbish."
"Local clerics drove around the city with megaphones yesterday, calling residents to protest the actions of a small group of attention-seeking, bigoted Americans. Then, during today's protest, someone announced that not just one, but hundreds of Korans had been burned in America. A throng of enraged men rushed the gates of the UN compound, determined to draw blood. Had the attackers been gunmen, they would likely have been killed before they could breach the compound," Moore added.
Taliban and pro-Taliban militants often target foreign workers and organizations in Afghanistan. Despite tightened security, the militants strike at will across the country even as foreign troops try to eradicate terror elements in military operations. As recent as Friday, US Department of Defense said in a statement, "Afghan and coalition forces killed two armed insurgents and detained at least 10 others yesterday during clearing operations in the Imam Sahib district of Afghanistan's Kunduz province."
Meanwhile, condemning in "the strongest possible terms the attack on the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan,"
President Barack Obama said, "The brave men and women of the United Nations, including the Afghan staff, undertake their work in support of the Afghan people. Their work is essential to building a stronger Afghanistan for the benefit of all its citizens. We stress the importance of calm and urge all parties to reject violence and resolve differences through dialogue."
In his response to the Mazar-i-Sharif violence, Terry Jones has taken his signature tone by stating that Islam should be held accountable.
"In regard to the riots that have just taken place in Afghanistan at the UN headquarters, the actions of breaking in, setting on fire, and killing of at least 10 individuals so far is highly unacceptable for the government of the United States.
"We, at Stand Up America Now, find this a very tragic and criminal action. The United States government and the United Nations itself, must take immediate action. We must hold these countries and people accountable for what they have done as well as for any excuses they may use to promote their terrorist activities. The time has come to hold Islam accountable," the Pastor wrote on the Dove World Outreach Center's website.
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This President really doesn't get it... |
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