U.S. commander apologizes for drone strike that killed Afghan child

[enhanced_deficit]

Controversial SWC's foreign policy continues to fall part further, not that he was doing much better in domestic policy ( Majority Of Americans Think Obama is Dishonest and Untrustworthy (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/25/obama-poll_n_4337643.html) ).

U.S. commander apologizes for drone strike that killed Afghan child

Nov. 29, 2013 at 1:08 PM
KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- The U.S. military commander in Afghanistan called President Hamid Karzai to apologize for a drone strike that killed civilians, a coalition spokesman said.Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr.'s call took place late Thursday night, The New York Times reported.
"He talked to President Karzai directly, expressed deep regrets for the incident and any civilian casualties, and promised to convene an immediate joint investigation to determine all the facts of what happened," a coalition spokesman, who spoke anonymously, said.
The conversation came after Karzai criticized the United States for the drone attack.
He said in a statement a U.S. drone fired a missile into a house in the Helmand province, killing a 2-year-old child and wounding two women.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/11/29/US-commander-apologizes-for-drone-strike-that-killed-Afghan-child/UPI-50951385737556/ (http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/11/29/US-commander-apologizes-for-drone-strike-that-killed-Afghan-child/UPI-50951385737556/#ixzz2mG7Sqohd)




Related news stories:

SWC Drone King will not publicly apologise for Afghan civilians deaths (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?434051-Breaking-SWC-%28Goldman-Sachs-funded%29-will-not-publicly-apologise-for-Afghan-civilians-deaths)

SWC Drone King's Victims Diaries I (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?431097-U-S-drone-strikes-killed-Pakistani-grandmother&p=5277619&viewfull=1#post5277619)

SWC Drone King's Victims Diaries II (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?431958-Girl-who-survived-Obama-drone-attack-is-younger-than-his-daughter&p=5288233&viewfull=1#post5288233)

[kcchiefs6465]

William McRaven's Afghan security personnel wanted to sacrifice a sheep in Gardez to apologize for killing three (two of which were pregnant) women, and a new father (who happened to be an Afghani police that despised the Taliban and admired Americans) while killing one more and injuring a few others.


The Khataba raid was an incident in the War in Afghanistan in which five civilians, including two pregnant women and a teenage girl, were killed by U.S. forces on February 12, 2010.[1][2] All were shot when U.S. Special Forces raided a house in Khataba village, outside the city of Gardez, where dozens of people had gathered earlier at the home to celebrate the naming of newborn baby.[3][4] Initially, U.S. Military officials implied the three women were killed prior to the raid by family members, reporting that the women had been found "tied up, gagged and killed."[5] But investigators sent by the Afghan government reported, based on interviews and pictures of the scene, that U.S. Special Forces removed bullets from the victims' bodies and cleaned their wounds as part of an attempted cover-up.[6] NATO denied this allegation and Afghan investigator Merza Mohammed Yarmand stated "We can not confirm it as we had not been able to autopsy the bodies."[5] The US military later admitted that the three women were killed by the special forces team during the raid.[7]

NATO promised a full investigation of the incident but the bodies of the deceased were buried according to religious tradition before NATO could conduct autopsies to confirm the allegations.[7] Insisting that the deaths were a "terrible mistake"[8] Vice Admiral William McRaven, the head of Joint Special Operations Command, the unit which conducted the raid, visited Khataba two months after the raid. He offered an apology and accepted responsibility for the deaths and made a traditional Afghan condolence offering of sheep.[9]

William McRaven, of course, being the one overseeing the infamous raid in Abbottabad. He also oversaw the JSOC kill missions for a while as well as is linked to various other war crimes during his career.

For those who thought I was bullshitting,

http://i.imgur.com/lJu9ONE.jpg?1

And as for the grandfather of the newborn who was orphaned, he said he wanted to put on a vest and blow himself up.

There is a video out there of the father doing the traditional dance during the traditional celebration of naming their six day old child. He had pictures of the soldiers he worked with throughout his house.

http://i.imgur.com/VOyXr9Z.jpg?1


I don't want to make this post too long as I fear no one will read but if anyone is interested, I will provide an additional post with more information. How disturbing this incident was not even scratched with the wiki article and pictures. For the Vice Admiral (who was largely a secret) to personally arrive with intentions of a sacrifice, you can imagine the circumstances behind what he was apologizing for.

[ghengis86]

William McRaven's Afghan security personnel wanted to sacrifice a sheep in Gardez to apologize for killing three (two of which were pregnant) women, and a new father (who happened to be an Afghani police that despised the Taliban and admired Americans) while killing one more and injuring a few others.



William McRaven, of course, being the one overseeing the infamous raid in Abbottabad. He also oversaw the JSOC kill missions for a while as well as is linked to various other war crimes during his career.

For those who thought I was bullshitting,

http://i.imgur.com/lJu9ONE.jpg?1

And as for the grandfather of the newborn who was orphaned, he said he wanted to put on a vest and blow himself up.

There is a video out there of the father doing the traditional dance during the traditional celebration of naming their six day old child. He had pictures of the soldiers he worked with throughout his house.

http://i.imgur.com/VOyXr9Z.jpg?1


I don't want to make this post too long as I fear no one will read but if anyone is interested, I will provide an additional post with more information. How disturbing this incident was is not even scratched with the wiki article and pictures. For the Vice Admiral (who was largely a secret) to personally arrive with intentions of a sacrifice, you can imagine the circumstances behind what he was apologizing for.

Feel free to post away. You've got me curious

[kcchiefs6465]

The White House was well aware by that point of how serious the damage was in Afghanistan. In September 2009, a senior US diplomat in Afghanistan submitted a letter of resignation, in which he delivered a stinging indictment of the US war. Matthew Hoh, a decorated combat marine who had done multiple tours in Iraq and went on to serve as the top US civilian official in Zabul Province in Afghanistan, asserted that the “U.S. and NATO presence and operations in Pashtun valleys and villages” amounted to “an occupation force against which the insurgency is justified.” In a letter to the State Department, Hoh stated bluntly, “The United States military presence in Afghanistan greatly contributes to the legitimacy and strategic message of the Pashtun insurgency.” He wrote:


I find specious the reasons we ask for bloodshed and sacrifice from our young men and women in Afghanistan. If honest, our stated strategy of securing Afghanistan to prevent al-Qaeda resurgence or regrouping would require us to additionally invade and occupy western Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, etc. Our presence in Afghanistan has only increased destabilization and insurgency in Pakistan where we rightly fear a toppled or weakened Pakistani government may lose control of its nuclear weapons.

The Washington Post reported that Hoh’s letter “sent ripples all the way to the White House.” Senior US officials, including the US ambassador and Obama’s Af/Pak envoy, Richard Holbrooke, tried to offer Hoh other jobs to keep him from resigning. Holbrooke told the Post that he asked Hoh, “If he really wanted to affect policy and help reduce the cost of the war on lives and treasure,” shouldn’t he be “inside the building, rather than outside, where you can get a lot of attention but you won’t have the same political impact?” Hoh ultimately declined the job offers and went public with his opposition to the war.

When I met Hoh soon after his resignation, we discussed the night raids and the role JSOC was playing in Afghanistan. Hoh made clear that he had tremendous respect for Special Ops teams and that he believed there are dangerous people who “need to be killed.” But Hoh questioned the use of such an elite force to fight against what had effectively become a popular insurgency against a foreign occupation. JSOC, he said, is “the best strike force the world’s ever known,” yet “we’ve got them in Afghanistan chasing after mid-level Taliban leaders who are not threatening the United States, who are only fighting us really because we’re in their valley.” Hoh told me, “We found ourselves in this Special Operations form of attrition warfare.” He estimated that there were “fifty to a hundred” al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan at the time. Under McChrystal, the pace of night raids accelerated as JSOC mowed its way down a kill list that seemed bottomless. McChrystal knew how to promote his agenda with the White House, and when he fought for his vision to be embraced, he did so “with the same fearlessness he used to track down terrorists in Iraq: Figure out how your enemy operates, be faster and more ruthless than everybody else, then take the fuckers out,” noted journalist Michael Hastings, who traveled with McChrystal and spent time in Afghanistan. McChrystal and McRaven’s Special Ops task forces began expanding the target list, going after Taliban “facilitators” and “suspected militants.” The intelligence feeding the operations relied heavily on Afghan sources. Hoh told me it was common for Afghans to accuse their enemies of being Taliban operatives to settle grudges over land disputes or tribal conflicts. The feeding of such false intel to the American forces, in turn, created an environment in which a tremendous number of innocent Afghans found themselves facing US commandos bursting into their homes in the middle of the night, snatching or killing people. “A lot of times, yeah, the right guys would get targeted and the right guys would get killed,” Hoh recalled. “And then, plenty of other times, the wrong people would get killed. Sometimes it’d be innocent families. Other times it would be people and their families who had been turned in because of grudges or because of rivalries that existed well before we showed up.

Jeremy Scahill. Dirty Wars (Kindle Locations 6624-6654). Nation Books.

[........]

Hoh said there were also times when a JSOC task force “would kill someone who was important to us. They would kill a tribal leader or some type of government administrator who was working with us or we were making inroads with. In the middle of the night, you end up shooting the guy.” He added: “There’s nothing like going into a village in the middle of the night, knocking a door down and killing a woman or child to just undo” any progress civilian or conventional military officials had made in areas around Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, I investigated several botched night raids, in which it was clear that innocent people had been targeted. None of them was more gruesome than what happened just outside of Gardez in Paktia Province, in February 2010.

Jeremy Scahill. Dirty Wars (Kindle Locations 6655-6660). Nation Books.




Mohammed Daoud was well respected police officer of in the Paktia Province of Aghanistan. He worked side by side American soldiers throughout his career as such. He had taken pictures, smiling with soldiers, and by all accounts despised the Taliban and what they stood for. He organized a celebration, in adherence to tradition that the grandfather names the child on the sixth day after birth. It was a large celebration that had a private band come to perform music. (which is against the Taliban's edicts) He was well known to be sympathetic to the Americans. It is not unreasonable to recognize that if captured, he would have been tried on the spot and subsequently beheaded. It is also not unreasonable to recognize that he was a hated man by many in the region.

At the celebration they had food, and danced their traditional dance called the Attan. The video is out there but not being able speak or write the language, I can't find it, though probably now on a list somewhere for even searching the terms. In any case, it's out there. The documentary "Dirty Wars" by Jeremy Scahill shows it. Through the testimony of surviving witnesses and the video, not to mention just considering the reputation of the police commander killed, it is easy to see how botched of a raid this was. To be clear, something of 900 night raids were happening every month at the height of this conflict. Mohammed Daoud is unlike the others because of who he was, and the circumstances becoming known. Many other men, women, and children were killed that no one will ever hear about. Their tragedy is the same.

Early in the morning as the celebration is coming to a head, they realize that their outside light had been shut off. (by someone not at the party) They feared a Taliban attack. Daoud and his son went to investigate and upon opening the door, were hit by sniper rounds. Daoud's brother Zahir was a local DA and knew a few words and phrases in English. He figured he could walk out with his hand raised, tell them of their mistake and get medical help for the wounded. "We work for the government" is what he reportedly shouted. Three women grabbed onto him to tell him to come back inside. Sniper rounds hit and killed all four of them. The women had sixteen children collectively and two were pregnant. The soldiers raid the home.

Daoud and his son were still alive at this point. They were promised medical attention soon. The uninjured party guests begged and pleaded that they had cars, to let them take the wounded to the hospital that wasn't far away. They were denied.

After some time guests began to prepare the burial shrouds for the dead as per Afghani custom. They tie a scarf around the feet and a scarf around the head to prevent the mouth from hanging open. Three bodies were prepared for burial before they were all handcuffed. At this point soldiers began digging the bullets out of the women killed. The captives were marched outside on a frozen winter day, barefoot, mostly. The soldier beat them for any reason and fired shots around one male. He pleaded that they were pro-government, and to not kill any more women. They were taken on different helicopters to various regions of Afghanistan.

They were held and assaulted by men who wore no uniform with "big muscles." (JSOC - Joint Special Operations Command) They accused the family that there were dozens of Taliban hiding there, that there were suicide bombers being recruited or given commands there, and other baseless accusations. After a few days they were released with an apology of a misunderstanding. The father missed their burials.

That is all I will type about the case tonight. It is disturbing, depressing, and affecting my mood. I will say that this isn't even the most disturbing part. The aftermath is even worse.

Much respect to Jeremy Scahill and his reporting. Michael Hastings as well. All rights to the author.

[Mani]

This is horrifying.


AND americans will remain ignorant. :'(

[enhanced_deficit]

Much respect to Jeremy Scahill and his reporting. Michael Hastings as well.

Hastings unfortunately is no longer alive. No evidence though that drone king's puppet masters had anything to do with it.

[Christian Liberty]

I won't believe his apology until he turns himself in.

[jllundqu]

Amazing stuff. Bump. +rep to OP.

The amount of blood one our government's hands is unwashable. What Hoh said should be written on every billboard and every webpage in 'Murica'

Is it time yet?

[enhanced_deficit]

US halts military shipments out of Afghanistan Truckers ordered not to enter neighbouring Pakistan, says Pentagon, after anti-drone demonstrations cause fears for safety


Tuesday 3 December 2013 18.45 EST
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/12/3/1386114265935/Karachi-drone-protests-008.jpg A rally in Karachi held in November to condemn US drone strikes in Pakistan. Photograph: Xinhua/Landov/Barcroft Media

The US has stopped shipping military equipment out of Afghanistan (http://www.theguardian.com/world/afghanistan), citing the risk to truckers from protests along part of the route in neighbouring Pakistan (http://www.theguardian.com/world/pakistan).
The anti-US demonstrations in Pakistan are calling for an end to drone strikes aimed at militants. US officials have responded by ordering truckers under US contract to park at holding areas inside Afghanistan.
Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright said the order affects shipments of equipment and other goods being sent home from military units as their numbers are reduced in Afghanistan.
"We are aware protests have affected one of the primary commercial transit routes between Pakistan and Afghanistan," he said. "We have voluntarily halted US shipments of retrograde cargo … from Torkham Gate [on the Afghan-Pakistan border] through Karachi to ensure the safety of the drivers contracted to move our equipment."
Many supplies coming into Afghanistan for use by remaining troops were redirected via alternate routes long ago, going through other countries, because of previous problems with Pakistan.
"While we favor shipping cargo via Pakistan because of (lower) cost, we have built flexibility and redundancy into our overall system of air, sea and ground routes to transport cargo into and out of Afghanistan," Wright said.
CIA drone strikes in Pakistan have long been a sensitive subject, with officials regularly criticising them in public as a violation of the country's sovereignty. The issue is more complicated, however, since the government is known to have supported some of the attacks in the past.
Routes through Pakistan have been closed before. The Pakistani government blocked the routes for seven months following US airstrikes that killed two dozen soldiers on the Afghan border in November 2011. Pakistan finally reopened the routes after the US apologised.


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/03/us-halts-military-shipments-afghanistan

[enhanced_deficit]

To be fair to brown Afghan children, there could be other side of the coin with Canadian perspective:

Canada has improved the lives of Afghan children, general says (http://o.canada.com/news/canada-has-improved-the-lives-of-millions-of-afghan-children-general-says/)
Canada.com-4 hours ago
Maj.-Gen. Dean Milner, (third from left) at a medal presentation for Canadian military trainers last month, has rebutted suggestions that Afghans ...

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRUXBrETq3DnJy9CTZZ9QOQ-goUyvSlySX9Bt169eYgLRAVToJcO287VAv4b1r7aXT5yejfKZU
(http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/michael-mcneil-s-family-says-goodbye-to-afghan-war-vet-1.2451775?cmp=rss)
Michael McNeil's family says goodbye to Afghan war vet (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/michael-mcneil-s-family-says-goodbye-to-afghan-war-vet-1.2451775?cmp=rss)
CBC.ca-11 hours ago
Michael McNeil's family says goodbye to Afghan war vet ... on Thursday to say goodbye to the Afghanistan war veteran after his body was found ...

[enhanced_deficit]

Six US soldiers killed in Afghan helicopter crash

There were two U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopters flying in tandem over southern Afghanistan on Tuesday when -- without warning -- one dropped from the sky. Six Americans died in what became the single deadliest incident for American forces in Afghanistan in more than a year. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.


By Jim Miklaszewski, Courtney Kube and Fazul Rahim, NBC News
KABUL - Six U.S. soldiers serving with the NATO International Security Assistance Force were killed when their Sikorsky UH-60 “Blackhawk” helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan Tuesday, officials said.
According to U.S. military officials, two U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopters were flying in tandem over southern Afghanistan when one suddenly dropped from the sky and crashed.
The situation became desperate when the helicopter’s seven-man crew came under heavy enemy gunfire.
By the time a rescue team was deployed, six of the crew members had been killed, with only one surviving with serious injuries.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/17/21938528-six-us-soldiers-killed-in-afghan-helicopter-crash




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWKG6ZmgAX4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWKG6ZmgAX4


The 12-Year War: 73% of U.S. Casualties in Afghanistan Occured on Obama's Watch (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?427493-The-12-Year-War-73-of-U-S-Casualties-in-Afghanistan-on-Obama-s-Watch&p=5221296#post5221296)


Why "Nobel Paece Prizer" drone king is not held accountable for his escalation of war in Afghanistan in media?

Granted he has had a lot on his plate in international arena, when was the last time anyone saw a photo or news of drone king attending funeral of a soldier killed as a result of his escalation?


http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1543379.1386700910%21/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/south-africa-mandela-memorial.jpg (http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=4HsUeOKH4In3DM&tbnid=_IlqjVhXlI9b3M:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nydailynews.com%2Fnews%2Fpoli tics%2Fpresident-obama-poses-funeral-selfie-article-1.1543188&ei=6vCoUvWpFIrLkAenlYHAAw&bvm=bv.57799294,d.eW0&psig=AFQjCNH4JS61BAi2ySf8De8-k4QbOgsEJQ&ust=1386889785787533)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2013/12/2013-12-10T113028Z_01_KAI33_RTRIDSP_3_MANDELA-1024x588.jpg (http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=XC6Sd3KUpckYBM&tbnid=XkTCEQQaaerwpM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fblogs%2F worldviews%2Fwp%2F2013%2F12%2F10%2Fpresident-obama-snaps-a-selfie-at-mandelas-memorial-service%2F&ei=bPCoUpqrG8KgkAeZ_IGoBQ&bvm=bv.57799294,d.eW0&psig=AFQjCNGQj4OaHD2MD72x7qrvwcC1d_aM5g&ust=1386888877076575)

[enhanced_deficit]

Obama: U.S. Troops in Afghanistan Must Do More Than Kill Civilians

Published August 14, 2007
Associated Press

HANOVER, N.H. – Presidential hopeful Barack Obama was warned by a friendly voter Monday to avoid public spats with his Democratic rivals — but remarks he made later could add fuel to the criticism against him.
Maggie North of Claremont told Obama he risks becoming part of the usual political scene if he keeps being drawn into well-publicized disputes with rivals. He and chief rival Hillary Rodham Clinton have jabbed at each other over foreign policy, the war on terrorism and the use of nuclear weapons.
"You can be it," North said at a small gathering at a Hanover restaurant Monday morning that drew eight people. "But you've got to stop — excuse me for being blunt — you've got to stop getting involved in the way people are fighting each other, chewing you up a little more."
"That's what you do when you run for president," Obama responded, getting a laugh.
But during a later appearance before about 800 people in Nashua, Obama made a comment likely to further the spats he was warned about.
Asked whether he would move U.S. troops out of Iraq to better fight terrorism elsewhere, he brought up Afghanistan and said, "We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/08/14/obama-us-troops-in-afghanistan-must-do-more-than-kill-civilians.html

[Ronin Truth]

How about an apology and a billion FRNs?

[Slave Mentality]

"Sorry doesn't mean shit if you keep on doing it" - Mom