U.S. Said to Have Averted Inquiry Into ’01 Afghan Killings

[laststeamtrain]

Source: NYT

U.S. Said to Have Averted Inquiry Into ’01 Afghan Killings
By JAMES RISEN

WASHINGTON — After a mass killing of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Taliban prisoners of war by the forces of an American-backed warlord during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, Bush administration officials repeatedly discouraged efforts to investigate the episode, according to government officials and human rights organizations.

American officials had been reluctant to pursue an investigation — sought by officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the State Department, the Red Cross and other human rights groups — because the warlord, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, was on the payroll of the Central Intelligence Agency and his militia worked closely with United States Special Forces in 2001, several officials said. They said the United States also worried about undermining the American-supported Karzai government, in which General Dostum has served as a defense official.

“At the White House, nobody said ‘no’ to an investigation, but nobody ever said ‘yes,’ either,” said Pierre Prosper, the former war crimes ambassador for the United States. “The first reaction of everybody there was ‘Oh, this is a sensitive issue. This is a touchy issue politically.’ ”

It is not clear how — or if — the Obama administration will address the issue. But in recent weeks, State Department officials have quietly tried to thwart General Dostum’s reappointment as military chief of staff to the president, according to several senior officials, and suggested that the administration may not be hostile to an inquiry.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/11/world/asia/11afghan.html

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[Flaneur]

2. Will this be another instance of not concentrating on the past?

This was a massive war crime by an employee of the US government, Gen. Dostum.

That's blood on your hands, American taxpayer.

[bushmeister0]

3. Wolfowitz knew and did nothing. Is covering up a war crime a war crime?

"'Somebody mentioned Dostum and the story about the containers and the possibility that this was a war crime,' the official said. 'And Wolfowitz said we are not going to be going after him for that.'

In an interview, Mr. Wolfowitz said he did not recall the conversation. However, Pentagon documents obtained by Physicians for Human Rights through a Freedom of Information Act request confirm that the issue was debated by Mr. Wolfowitz and other officials."

Looks like Wolfowitz has developed Gonzitise. Who cares, we're looking towards the future, right?

[TheCoxwain]

4. Why do we care ....We have more important things like Britney Spears and Hannah Montana...

If there was money to be made by Navel-Gazing - Americans will be Ultra-Rich

[Jackpine Radical]

7. I assume you're referring to the hebephiliac gazing at the navels of

adolescent females? Yeah, Americans do a lot of that.

[htuttle]

5. There was a documentary made about this in 2006 or so

Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8763367484184611493

[ConcernedCanuk]

9. SOMEBODY in the Bush/PNAC gang has been paying attention to history - Hitler did this in WW2

.
.
.

But - they forgot or ignored something;

we also found out

decades later . . .

(sigh)

[ro1942]

6. forward

nobody is above the law but we ought to look forward not backward

[Mnemosyne]

8. KnR for greater visibility. n/t