Reason
07-23-2009, 02:39 PM
The Dasht-e-Leili Massacre of Taliban prisoners of war, US FOIA, part I, 2002-2008
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/The_Dasht-e-Leili_Massacre_of_Taliban_prisoners_of_war%2C_US_F OIA%2C_part_I%2C_2002-2008
July 21, 2009
Summary
These files include formally highly classified US government communications about the Dasht-e-Leili massacre in Afghanistan. The massacre killed thousands of Taliban prisoners of war who were locked in shipping containers. The files were released earlier on two websites maintained by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) but are of significant historical importance.
PHR has asked that WikiLeaks house the documents to assure the widest journalistic and public access to the documents. WikiLeaks reaches an audience different than PHR's and having the documents on WikiLeaks' servers helps to ensure that the documents' availability does not depend solely on PHR's web infrastructure.
On July 10 there was a front page New York Times story detailing new allegations that the Bush Administration impeded at least three federal investigations into the Dasht-e-Leili massacre. President Obama has responded to the news on a nationally aired CNN interview with Anderson Cooper. There continue to be new developments in the story to which the FOIA documents continue to add relevant context and information.
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.
On June 21, 2006, PHR made an extensive Freedom of Information Act request for all information relating to occurrences on and around November 2001 in the region of Dasht-e-Leili. PHR submitted the FOIA request simultaneously with the Department of Defense (including the Department of the Air Force, the Department of the Navy, and US Central Command), the Department of State (including the War Crimes Office) and the Central Intelligence Agency.
After the failure of the US government to reply, PHR filed suit on February 19, 2008. The following documents are from the Department of Defense, the Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency.
in 2008, Stefan Schmitt, Director of PHR's International Forensic Program, was in Afghanistan under contract with United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) to conduct forensic assessments on several different grave sites in the country. In an effort to re-visit sites which had been originally documented in 2002, Schmitt visited Dasht-e-Leili. In contrast to 2002, Schmitt, came upon two sizeable pits which had disturbed the area originally documented in 2002--indicative of apparent evidence tampering. Schmitt raised concerns about the state of the alleged massacre site in meetings with UN and Afghan officials in Kabul.
Part II of these files can be found at The Dasht-e-Leili Massacre of Taliban prisoners of war, US FOIA, part II, 2002-2008.
The likely audience for these documents is journalists, bloggers and human rights advocates. Journalists may call PHR's Chief Communication Officer, Jonathan Hutson for comment at +1-857-919-5130.
See http://AfghanMassGrave.org and http://physiciansforhumanrights.org for additional information.
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The Dasht-e-Leili Massacre of Taliban prisoners of war, US FOIA, part II, 2002-2008
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/The_Dasht-e-Leili_Massacre_of_Taliban_prisoners_of_war%2C_US_F OIA%2C_part_II%2C_2002-2008
July 21, 2009
Summary
These files include formally highly classified US government communications about the Dasht-e-Leili massacre in Afghanistan. The massacre killed thousands of Taliban prisoners of war. The files were released earlier on two websites maintained by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) but are of significant historical importance.
PHR has asked that WikiLeaks house the documents to assure the widest journalistic and public access to the documents. WikiLeaks reaches an audience different than PHR's and having the documents on WikiLeaks' servers helps to ensure that the documents' availability does not depend solely on PHR's web infrastructure.
On July 10 there was a front page New York Times story detailing new allegations that the Bush Administration impeded at least three federal investigations into the Dasht-e-Leili massacre. President Obama has responded to the news on a nationally aired CNN interview with Anderson Cooper. There continue to be new developments in the story to which the FOIA documents continue to add relevant context and information.
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.
On June 21, 2006, PHR made an extensive Freedom of Information Act request for all information relating to occurrences on and around November 2001 in the region of Dasht-e-Leili. PHR submitted the FOIA request simultaneously with the Department of Defense (including the Department of the Air Force, the Department of the Navy, and US Central Command), the Department of State (including the War Crimes Office) and the Central Intelligence Agency.
After the failure of the US government to reply, PHR filed suit on February 19, 2008. The following documents are from the Department of Defense, the Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency.
in 2008, Stefan Schmitt, Director of PHR's International Forensic Program, was in Afghanistan under contract with United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) to conduct forensic assessments on several different grave sites in the country. In an effort to re-visit sites which had been originally documented in 2002, Schmitt visited Dasht-e-Leili. In contrast to 2002, Schmitt, came upon two sizeable pits which had disturbed the area originally documented in 2002--indicative of apparent evidence tampering. Schmitt raised concerns about the state of the alleged massacre site in meetings with UN and Afghan officials in Kabul.
Part I of these files can be found at The Dasht-e-Leili Massacre of Taliban prisoners of war, US FOIA, part I, 2002-2008.
The likely audience for these documents is journalists, bloggers and human rights advocates. Journalists may call PHR's Chief Communication Officer, Jonathan Hutson for comment at +1-857-919-5130.
See http://AfghanMassGrave.org and http://physiciansforhumanrights.org for additional information.
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/The_Dasht-e-Leili_Massacre_of_Taliban_prisoners_of_war%2C_US_F OIA%2C_part_I%2C_2002-2008
July 21, 2009
Summary
These files include formally highly classified US government communications about the Dasht-e-Leili massacre in Afghanistan. The massacre killed thousands of Taliban prisoners of war who were locked in shipping containers. The files were released earlier on two websites maintained by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) but are of significant historical importance.
PHR has asked that WikiLeaks house the documents to assure the widest journalistic and public access to the documents. WikiLeaks reaches an audience different than PHR's and having the documents on WikiLeaks' servers helps to ensure that the documents' availability does not depend solely on PHR's web infrastructure.
On July 10 there was a front page New York Times story detailing new allegations that the Bush Administration impeded at least three federal investigations into the Dasht-e-Leili massacre. President Obama has responded to the news on a nationally aired CNN interview with Anderson Cooper. There continue to be new developments in the story to which the FOIA documents continue to add relevant context and information.
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.
On June 21, 2006, PHR made an extensive Freedom of Information Act request for all information relating to occurrences on and around November 2001 in the region of Dasht-e-Leili. PHR submitted the FOIA request simultaneously with the Department of Defense (including the Department of the Air Force, the Department of the Navy, and US Central Command), the Department of State (including the War Crimes Office) and the Central Intelligence Agency.
After the failure of the US government to reply, PHR filed suit on February 19, 2008. The following documents are from the Department of Defense, the Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency.
in 2008, Stefan Schmitt, Director of PHR's International Forensic Program, was in Afghanistan under contract with United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) to conduct forensic assessments on several different grave sites in the country. In an effort to re-visit sites which had been originally documented in 2002, Schmitt visited Dasht-e-Leili. In contrast to 2002, Schmitt, came upon two sizeable pits which had disturbed the area originally documented in 2002--indicative of apparent evidence tampering. Schmitt raised concerns about the state of the alleged massacre site in meetings with UN and Afghan officials in Kabul.
Part II of these files can be found at The Dasht-e-Leili Massacre of Taliban prisoners of war, US FOIA, part II, 2002-2008.
The likely audience for these documents is journalists, bloggers and human rights advocates. Journalists may call PHR's Chief Communication Officer, Jonathan Hutson for comment at +1-857-919-5130.
See http://AfghanMassGrave.org and http://physiciansforhumanrights.org for additional information.
-----------------
The Dasht-e-Leili Massacre of Taliban prisoners of war, US FOIA, part II, 2002-2008
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/The_Dasht-e-Leili_Massacre_of_Taliban_prisoners_of_war%2C_US_F OIA%2C_part_II%2C_2002-2008
July 21, 2009
Summary
These files include formally highly classified US government communications about the Dasht-e-Leili massacre in Afghanistan. The massacre killed thousands of Taliban prisoners of war. The files were released earlier on two websites maintained by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) but are of significant historical importance.
PHR has asked that WikiLeaks house the documents to assure the widest journalistic and public access to the documents. WikiLeaks reaches an audience different than PHR's and having the documents on WikiLeaks' servers helps to ensure that the documents' availability does not depend solely on PHR's web infrastructure.
On July 10 there was a front page New York Times story detailing new allegations that the Bush Administration impeded at least three federal investigations into the Dasht-e-Leili massacre. President Obama has responded to the news on a nationally aired CNN interview with Anderson Cooper. There continue to be new developments in the story to which the FOIA documents continue to add relevant context and information.
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.
On June 21, 2006, PHR made an extensive Freedom of Information Act request for all information relating to occurrences on and around November 2001 in the region of Dasht-e-Leili. PHR submitted the FOIA request simultaneously with the Department of Defense (including the Department of the Air Force, the Department of the Navy, and US Central Command), the Department of State (including the War Crimes Office) and the Central Intelligence Agency.
After the failure of the US government to reply, PHR filed suit on February 19, 2008. The following documents are from the Department of Defense, the Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency.
in 2008, Stefan Schmitt, Director of PHR's International Forensic Program, was in Afghanistan under contract with United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) to conduct forensic assessments on several different grave sites in the country. In an effort to re-visit sites which had been originally documented in 2002, Schmitt visited Dasht-e-Leili. In contrast to 2002, Schmitt, came upon two sizeable pits which had disturbed the area originally documented in 2002--indicative of apparent evidence tampering. Schmitt raised concerns about the state of the alleged massacre site in meetings with UN and Afghan officials in Kabul.
Part I of these files can be found at The Dasht-e-Leili Massacre of Taliban prisoners of war, US FOIA, part I, 2002-2008.
The likely audience for these documents is journalists, bloggers and human rights advocates. Journalists may call PHR's Chief Communication Officer, Jonathan Hutson for comment at +1-857-919-5130.
See http://AfghanMassGrave.org and http://physiciansforhumanrights.org for additional information.