Whistleblowing in the age of the internet. From the Guardian:
A huge cache of secret US military files today provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fuelling the insurgency.
The disclosures come from more than 90,000 records of incidents and intelligence reports about the conflict obtained by the whistleblowers' website Wikileaks in one of the biggest leaks in US military history. The files, which were made available to the Guardian, the New York Times and the German weekly Der Spiegel, give a blow-by-blow account of the fighting over the last six years, which has so far cost the lives of more than 320 British and more than 1,000 US troops.
And what are some of the stories being revealed? From the Guardian article, "Secret CIA paramilitaries' role in civilian deaths":
Shum Khan was a deaf and dumb man who lived in the remote border hamlet of Malekshay, 7,000ft up in the mountains. When a heavily armed squad from the CIA barrelled into his village in March 2007, the war logs record that he "ran at the sight of the approaching coalition forces … out of fear and confusion".
The secret CIA paramilitaries, (the euphemism here is OGA, for "other government agency") shouted at him to stop. Khan could not hear them. He carried on running. So they shot him, saying they were entitled to do so under the carefully graded "escalation of force" provisions of the US rules of engagement.
Khan was wounded but survived. The Americans' error was explained to them by village elders, so they fetched out what they term "solatia", or compensation. The classified intelligence report ends briskly: "Solatia was made in the form of supplies and the Element mission progressed".
Behind the military jargon, the war logs are littered with accounts of civilian tragedies. The 144 entries in the logs recording some of these so-called "blue on white" events, cover a wide spectrum of day-by-day assaults on Afghans, with hundreds of casualties.
They range from the shootings of individual innocents to the often massive loss of life from air strikes, which eventually led President Hamid Karzai to protest publicly that the US was treating Afghan lives as "cheap". When civilian family members are actually killed in Afghanistan, their relatives do, in fairness, get greater solatia payments than cans of beans and Hershey bars. The logs refer to sums paid of 100,000 Afghani per corpse, equivalent to about £1,500.
US and allied commanders frequently deny allegations of mass civilian casualties, claiming they are Taliban propaganda or ploys to get compensation, which are contradicted by facts known to the military.
But the logs demonstrate how much of the contemporaneous US internal reporting of air strikes is simply false.
Read the files on the Wikileaks website here.
These crimes can’t be walked back. They’re like pedophiles who murder their victims; only destruction of the criminal can ever atone for such outrages.
Let’s see how long it takes for the Times to report this story (if it ever does)…
The ICYMI RSS Feed is tracking the coverage. Great consolidated source for under-covered news and commentary.
Lobewyper —
Wikileaks gave the nyt two weeks with the documents, they’re all over it. Bigger than the Pentagon Papers.
The major question is whether it’s sand in the gears for war on Iran. . .
Thanks, Oscar. Let’s hope it’s sand and plenty of it!
Sand? The Guardian article says, “Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fuelling the insurgency.”
Iran. That means we have to bomb them, of course.
exactly… just one more excuse for a faraway war in a faraway land, never on usa soil… all for ‘your’ protection of course… anyone who believes the word ‘terrorist’ has any life in it anymore is part of the problem.. the terrorist is the usa gov’t, along with the military complex that is driving it..
Jethro July 25, 2010 at 9:29 pm
“Sand? The Guardian article says, “Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fuelling the insurgency.”
Iran. That means we have to bomb them, of course.”
The guardian is zionist and that is what they wrote, but how does it really square with the material. on every”color revolution”, the guardian lied to reinforce israeloamerican propaganda, why would they stop now when ziofasism, inc. needs them more than ever?
more likely greasing the wheels for war on Iran.
This morning (July 26) NPR news ran the story that EU is imposing additional sanctions on Iran, targeting finance and energy.
On the C Span news minute this morning, the same story was reported but with the additional statement that SOME somebody believes war on Iran is become more probable since all these diplomatic measures have failed to deter Iran from its ambitions.
C Span added that Ahmadinejad had cautioned EU against imposing the sanctions, and said that Iran would respond harshly.
Yeah, I’m starting to wonder if Wikileaks is controlled opposition, damage control for the establishment, as they seem to only release details on issues many people are already well aware of at least in general sense.
as far as the freaks in power are concerned this is just another event for them to blow off.. “National Security Advisor James Jones says the disclosure could endanger lives and US security.”
these “”**”"s are happy to kill, murder from a drone and etc.etc. innocent people in faraway lands with no concern for justice of any sort … what makes anyone think this is going to stop anything??
did obama change anything? they are going to find julian assange and make a role model out of him.. the media is a part of the problem – nyc and wapo especially… instead of serving the people, they’re serving the military complex… this story is just the beginning, and nothing is going to end anytime soon.. i wish it was different..
“…”escalation of force” provisions of the US rules of engagement.”
The rules of engagement sound familiar, in fact they are almost the duplicate of what was used in Iraq –
UNITED STATES OCCUPATION FORCE KILLS 10,000 OR MORE IRAQIS PER MONTH!
You have the best that money can buy –
GOVERNMENT, OF, FOR, AND BY THE ELITE
Many document about the I-P conflict are obtained by Wikileaks from the United States Congressional Research Service.
The CRS is a Congressional “think tank” with a staff of around 700. Reports are commissioned by members of Congress on topics relevant to current political events. Despite CRS costs to the tax payer of over $100M a year, its electronic archives are, as a matter of policy, not made available to the public.
Individual members of Congress will release specific CRS reports if they believe it to assist them politically, but CRS archives as a whole are firewalled from public access.
“…CRS archives as a whole are firewalled from public access.”
The entire political process and workings are firewalled from the public Citizen, that is what it was initially created to do. Are you (all inclusive “you”) satisfied? Must be
RE: “Secret CIA paramilitaries’ role in civilian deaths” – The Guardian
FROM SHERWOOD ROSS, 07/24/10:
SOURCE – link to veteranstoday.com
Yeah, whats the difference between this and everything I’ve ever heard about the Gestapo? Scale? Maybe not. More likely most incidents are not recorded at all.
This is the very same depravity that Reagan feigned outrage over when the Soviets were butchering Afghan civilians. Now the US is doing the butchering. The Cold War is over, so there seems to be little need to pretend as though the US holds the moral high ground against the evil Soviets.
When it suits the United States’ imperial designs it provides Afghans with shoulder fired surface to air missiles to bring down Soviet aircraft. When it doesn’t suit it, it butchers Afghans willy-nilly. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
One decade the US publicly supports the Mujaheddin, the next, it condemns them as terrorists.
Hey, didn’t the US government do the same thing with big bad Sadam?
The nuances are both complex and perplexing, thereby rendering unbridled questioning of America’s involvement tantamount to reactionary maximalism. Engagement with the Other is necessarily part of the search for a new and better narrative. Isolation and condemnation will result in destabilization of the nation and much consternation instead of acclamation.
For an understanding of what the US and its contractors have been doing in the Middle East over the last 10 years, I highly recommend Jeremy Scahill’s book entitled Blackwater.
Additionally, there’s a documentary entitled Iraq for Sale. I highly recommend that DVD, as well.
Just so I am clear now. A Republican President lied to get the U.S. into a war while a Democratic President is lying to keep the U.S. in the war. While in Vietnam a Democratic President lied to get the U.S. into a war and a Republican President lied to keep the U.S. in the War. GWB = LBJ; BHO = =RMN. ? =GRF?
When people ask me how can you be an Anarchist? Wouldn’t the most ruthless and predetory elements soon enslave the others? And then I ask, what would be the difference to our current state of affairs?
the most ruthless and predatory do seem to be israelis/zionists and they have a stranglehold over US policy and actions – a parasitic near death-grip upon us
… we used to follow the Geneva Conventions and Daniel Ellsberg is still alive to give speeches about The Pentagon Papers
… in this new coarser, dumbed-down, desensitized age – where America follows israel’s lead, very likely Mossad and/or US intelligence will kill Wikileaks’ Julian Assange and court-martial and prison for the US soldier who gave him the documents
zionism and its agents in America is clearly a cancer upon America, and it is killing what our nation says it stands for … if that isn’t a clear and present danger what is?
“Zionism and it’s agents are a cancer on America”
“Parasitic death grip”
This sort of talk leads to physical harm against Jews.
C’mon Max, you’re making me ashamed! Damn it, if you’re brave enough and tough enough to carve a Jewish State out of somebody else’s home, why are you so scared?
You are really letting me down. You are not the stuff the Stern Gang and Irgun was made out of. Just make sure to only leave the house in groups of ten or more.
Why are your responses always “how does this harm me or mine” & never “what harm are I or mine inflicting”?
The same could be asked of you.
On Wikileaks and Helen Thomas: link to youtube.com
Would it be to much to ask WikiLeaks to leak documents re the following topics [in no particular order]?:
1. the USS Liberty;
2. Jonathan Jay Pollard;
3. Mossad activity with the US immediately priorto 9/11;
4. Israel theft/misappropriate of nuclear technology and fissile material from the US.
I think this would be a great service to the people of the USA.
There’d have to be whistleblowers in the right places to pass on the documents first, wouldn’t there?!
Yes, there would have to be, and iIfind it impossible to believe that there are no disgruntled low-level staffers with access to at least some of this info and disagreement with the direction of US-Israel relations.
I assume it’s a crime to induce or importune people to leak this information?
There’s a difference between being “disgruntled” and being willing to risk both your career and personal freedom.
what did the US military and our government learn from Vietnam. DON’T SHOW AMERICANS THE PICTURES THE VIDEOS, let most Americans stay in the dark, pressing those pedals to the metal getting to the mall. Don’t show them the killings, the war crimes committed in their names. Most do not want to know
This morning NPR tried to put the focus on the Pakistan/Taliban connection.
Clair Baldeson must have asked four times in the World service hour. Is this really news? What is new exposed by this wikileaks drop. As if the BBC or the MSM in the states have continually exposed how many people have been killed, injured, tortured, displaced in Afghanistan, Iraq etc
Prof Cole on it
link to juancole.com
Also on the Israeli lobbies efforts to march us into a war with Iran
link to juancole.com
Foreign policy
The logs of war: Do the Wikileaks documents really tell us anything new?
link to blog.foreignpolicy.com
The fallout from Wikileaks is the subject on CSPAN this Monday morning, July 27th, 2010. Nearly all the call-ins took the position that the leakers were enemies of the USA, basically, traitors. These callers did not discuss the actual contents of theWikileaks at all. In my opinion, the underlying operating principle, unvoiced per se, was one of American exceptionalism, a principle that echoes the principle of Zionism. Here’s more on the myth of American exceptionalism: link to powerofnarrative.blogspot.com
Wow, thanks for the link, that was excellent. It’s a vitally important topic, on which there is a dearth of literature, in political science at least. However, there was an excellent dissertation on it just done by a student at Georgetown: link to government.georgetown.edu
Depressing.
Compare this:
Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks
link to youtube.com
Note the reaction when the interviewer asks the audience whether any of them think Assange is a troublemaker.
(Lifted it from WRH.)
I love Authur Silber. Very in depth writer on the roots of violence. I also redread Empire Burlesque which is a sort of satallitte.
Read, but also ‘redread’ uggh.
Wow, no mention of how the release of these documents will harm American troops. I guess the well-being of our soldiers is only important when Israel can be vilified in the process.
You can cut the hypocrisy with a knife!
Schwartzmann – “Wow, no mention of how the release of these documents will harm American troops. I guess the well-being of our soldiers..”
So, the Israeli Propaganda-Abteilung goon pretends to become an American, all of a sudden?
Nuremberg principles: Illegally committing the crime of aggression makes one a legitimate, repeat legitimate, target of resistance. Being in Iraq or Afghanistan in US uniform or on official business makes you automatically a criminal.
“I was obeying orders” is not acceptable defence. It hangs both the giver of orders and the one who obeys it.
The US Constitution and the US military code prescribe the punishment of criminals against peace and the war criminals. The guilty party is whoever tries to protect them from punishment (asking for the “well-being” of criminals is just your job, isn’t it?)
As for Israelis like you, you have no Constitution or laws to apply the international conventions, so the Nuremberg laws should apply whenever an Israeli is caught anywhere.