Taliban commander turns self in for reward money: Mid-level Taliban official Mohammad Ashan saw this poster with his face on it. Then he saw that there was a $100 finder’s fee. So he checked into a police checkpoint last week … demanding the finder’s fee. Officials confirmed it was him via biometric scan. “This guy is the Taliban equivalent of the ‘Home Alone” burglars,” a U.S. official says.
Afghans have harshly criticized night raids carried out by U.S. forces, calling them an affront to Afghans’ culture and way of life. U.S. military leaders, however, have deemed them an extremely effective tactic to root out Taliban insurgents and commanders. The raids were just one source of tension in a difficult U.S.-Afghan partnership that has rapidly deteriorated with the killings of 16 Afghan civilians by a U.S. soldier in Kandahar province last month, and the accidental burning of a Koran at a U.S. air base in Afghanistan in February.
Under the agreement reached Sunday, a special panel made up of members of Afghan security officials will authorize all future night raids. Afghan special operations forces will take the lead in night raid operations, with U.S. troops taking on a supporting role. Only Afghan troops will be allowed to search private homes and compounds, and U.S. forces cannot enter the homes unless their Afghan counterparts request them to do so, according to the pact.
The deal is seen as a stepping stone towards the eventual American withdrawal in Afghanistan, expected to happen at the end of 2014.
He loves children, he’s like a big kid himself. I have no idea what happened, but he would not … he loves children, and he would not do that.Karilyn Bales, wife of Afghan shooting suspect Robert Bales • Speaking on “The Today Show” about the allegations against her husband. Bales, whose husband went into the military in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, says her husband is “very brave, very courageous,” but admits that he did not tell her everything about his work. For example, she did not learn he suffered a traumatic brain injury in Iraq until he returned home. Robert Bales is being held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, from which he and his wife shared a phone call last week.
» Meant as compensation? According to Afghan official Haji Nyamat Khan (a Kandahar provincial council member), he U.S. government offered the money as a way to help the families, not solely as compensation. But a NATO official disputed that, specifically saying it was meant as compensation. Whether or not this is the case could be significant, as “blood money” can be used as a way to replace a trial in Afghanistan. The suspect in the shooting, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, is currently getting tried in the U.S., but many Afghan want him to be tried there.
Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales will be charged with 17 counts of murder, assault and a string of other offenses in the massacre of Afghan villagers as they slept, a U.S. official said.
The charges signed against Bales include 17 counts of murder, six counts of attempted murder and six counts of aggravated assault as well as dereliction of duty and other violations of military law, the official said on condition of anonymity because the charges had not been announced.
Updated with latest info.
The lawyer for US Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, the soldier who stands accused of massacring 16 Afghan citizens on March 11, 2012, claims there is no evidence linking his client to the killings in a new interview with the Guardian. John Henry Browne says his client has “some memories of what occurred that evening, before the supposed incident, and he has some memories of what happened after the alleged incident,” but has no recollection of the time in-between.
No one asked their names | By Qais Azimy AJE
In the days following the rogue US soldier’s shooting spree in Kandahar, most of the media, us included, focused on the “backlash” and how it might further strain the relations with the US.
Many mainstream media outlets channelled a significant amount of energy into uncovering the slightest detail about the accused soldier – now identified as Staff Sergeant Robert Bales. We even know where his wife wanted to go for vacation, or what she said on her personal blog.
But the victims became a footnote, an anonymous footnote. Just the number 16. No one bothered to ask their ages, their hobbies, their aspirations. Worst of all, no one bothered to ask their names.
In honoring their memory, I write their names below, and the little we know about them: that nine of them were children, three were women.
The dead:
- Mohamed Dawood son of Abdullah
- Khudaydad son of Mohamed Juma
- Nazar Mohamed
- Payendo
- Robeena
- Shatarina daughter of Sultan Mohamed
- Zahra daughter of Abdul Hamid
- Nazia daughter of Dost Mohamed
- Masooma daughter of Mohamed Wazir
- Farida daughter of Mohamed Wazir
- Palwasha daughter of Mohamed Wazir
- Nabia daughter of Mohamed Wazir
- Esmatullah daughter of Mohamed Wazir
- Faizullah son of Mohamed Wazir
- Essa Mohamed son of Mohamed Hussain
- Akhtar Mohamed son of Murrad Ali
The wounded:
- Haji Mohamed Naim son of Haji Sakhawat
- Mohamed Sediq son of Mohamed Naim
- Parween
- Rafiullah
- Zardana
- Zulheja
This post makes a good point. The priorities of the U.S. media are so out of whack in cases like these that these things don’t get reported. They become meaningless statistics, blips on a radar that don’t register. There’s a campaign to be had here. The next time Afghan civilians die at the hands of the U.S. military, the NY Times, WaPo and other mainstream media outlets should put as much work into finding out about the people who died as they do the suspect. This is a war full of “forgotten” deaths. The media should be doing more to prevent them from being forgotten.
There will be efforts to paint him as a rogue soldier rather than focusing on how we treat GIs in general or whether we should be over there to begin with.Attorney John Henry Browne • Discussing his client, the soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians last week. Browne, who spoke on The Today Show this morning, said the case against his client was “more political than legal” and that the defense would likely focus on the client having post-traumatic stress disorder.
Afghan security forces have the ability to keep the security in rural areas and in villages on their own.Afghan leader Hamid Karzai • Saying in a statement that he wants international troops out of Afghan villages for good, in the wake of a deadly shooting of Afghan civilians by a U.S. soldier. In related news, peace talks between the Afghan Taliban and U.S. broke down Thursday.
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US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is safe after a stolen pickup truck exploded near the runway where his plane was scheduled to land during a trip to Afghanistan. Although all of the pieces of the story are still being put together, no evidence of explosive material was found in/near the truck, and the driver may have simply lost control of the vehicle. Navy Capt. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, confirmed that truck’s driver is currently being treated for burn injuries, and that no one else was injured in the incident. (Photo via the Office of the Secretary of Defense) source
Taliban fighters opened fire at a memorial service honoring the 16 Afghans killed by an American soldier on Sunday, in an attempt to take the lives of Qayum Karzai, Shah Wali Karzai, and other government officials. Both men, brothers of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, escaped the 20-minute battle unharmed; however, one Afghan soldier was killed and two others wounded during the fighting. source
This is not the first of those events, and it probably won’t be the last. But we cannot allow these events to undermine our strategy or the mission that we’re involved in.Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta • While discussing the recent shooting of 16 Afghan citizens, by a member of the U.S. military, with reporters on flight to Kyrgyzstan. During his remarks, the Secretary of Defense also mentioned that the government’s goal was to see the suspect tried in the U.S. military justice system. Panetta’s comments come amid increasingly loud calls for the soldier in question to face trial in Afghanistan, and for the United States to re-evaluate its long-term plans for operating inside the country. The calls have grown louder in recent weeks after a series of incidents including Sunday’s shooting, and the mass-burning of Korans at Bagram Air Base last month. source (via • follow)
Four Lewis-McChord soldiers have been convicted in connection with the deliberate thrill killings in 2010 of three Afghan civilians, according to the Associated Press. The “kill team,” as the soldiers were called in the media, was charged with randomly targeting and killing unarmed Afghan civilians for sport. The base has also had a spate of suicides among soldiers who have returned from war.
A request for comment from Lewis-McChord was not immediately returned, but officials told the AP that any community the size of the base — a sprawling complex home to about 100,000 military and civilian personnel — is likely to have problems. Its reputation has been tainted by “a small number of highly visible but isolated episodes,” the officials said.
Clearly, while the large size of the joint base is a fair point, there’s something to be said about this as a major problem — and considering there’s already a history here, some consideration needs to be given. Will this require fundamental changes? Or is this less of a factor than it seems?
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