Fox News & Oliver North Involved with U.S. Afghanistan Massacre Cover-up

http://valtinsblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/fox-news-oliver-north-involved-with-us.html

Fox News & Oliver North Involved with U.S. Afghanistan Massacre Cover-up

The UK TimesOnline has posted a video of the aftermath of the killings of dozens of villagers in the Afghan village of Nawabad (called Azizabad in other stories). The U.S. has maintained that seven civilians and three dozen Taliban militants were killed in the combined U.S. Special Forces/Afghan Army/U.S. air operation last August 21. The United Nations and local villagers insist that 92 civilians were killed, over half of them children. According to the article:

In the video scores of bodies are seen laid out in a building that villagers say is used as a mosque; the people were killed apparently during a combined operation by US special forces and Afghan army commandos in western Afghanistan. The film was shot on a mobile phone by an Afghan doctor who arrived the next morning.

Local people say that US forces bombed preparations for a memorial ceremony for a tribal leader. Residential compounds were levelled by US attack helicopters, armed drones and a cannon-armed C130 Spectre gunship.
Besides the UN, the villagers' account is backed up by investigations from an Afghanistan government delegation and what the Times calls Afghanistan's "leading human rights organisation."

Now, NATO command is backing off the official story, noting that there is a "discrepancy" in death toll figures, and expressing the usual "heartfelt sorrow." But , as the Times reports, a new report by Human Rights Watch says that under reporting of civilian deaths in Afghanistan is out of control. (The report criticizes both U.S./NATO and Taliban forces.)

Taking what it says are the most conservative figures available, Human Rights Watch has calculated that civilian deaths as a result of Western airstrikes tripled between 2006 and 2007 to 321. In the first seven months of this year the figure was 119. In the same period, 367 civilian deaths were attributed to Taleban attacks. It accuses US officials of routinely denying reports of civilian deaths.
Perhaps the most amazing political news surrounding the Nawabad massacre is that the Pentagon says it relied for its account, in part, on corroborative evidence by the embedded journalist on the scene: Fox News "reporter" Oliver North! The Times portrays North as coming "to prominence in the 1980s Iran-Contra affair."

Actually, North was convicted for three felonies in regards to his activities during the Iran-Contra scandal. He only escaped a suspended prison sentence and $150,000 in fines because, as his Wikipedia bio describes it, an "appeals court found that witnesses in his trial might have been impermissibly affected by his immunized congressional testimony." North had been deputy director for political-military affairs for the National Security Council under Reagan, until the scandal brought his career to a halt.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7603969.stm



US forces in Afghanistan are to review an inquiry into an air raid last month after new video evidence emerged indicating scores of civilian deaths.

The US had earlier said that no more than seven civilians died in the attack on the western province of Herat.

However, the Afghan government and the UN said up to 90 people were killed, including many women and children.

The US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) says such attacks are eroding support for the government and foreign forces.

HRW says civilians deaths from international air strikes nearly tripled between 2006 and 2007.

Disturbing footage

The US general in charge of Nato-led troops (Isaf) in Afghanistan said at the weekend that he was requesting the US military's Central Command to review the investigation into last month's air raid.

No one but the 19 percenters listen to that jerk. Too bad he didn't pull the trigger when he put that gun to his head.

we're supposed to be winning them, not splattering them all over the countryside every chance we get.

at the same time. Not sure how I feel about this....not surprised, that's for damn sure!!

K-R.

all their garbage gets recycled into society.

who *shudder* report things instead of sitting on them: Melani McAlister's Epic Encounters shows how rapidly this sublimates into Islamophobia, from Netanyahu to Rules of Engagement

A technicality overturned Oliver North's convictions of destroying evidence, accepting bribes, and obstructing an investigation.

he keeps coming 'round.

And this makes us "safer", says the bush regime.

Stupid MFers.

a long time. Whenever Oliver shows up you can
bet he's making some money on an arms or narc
deal.

And if a few nuns get raped and murdered along
the way no worries. The nazi Pope BennyDick XVI
is agin that Liberation Theology thing.

the Dick criticizes Russia for using brute force on Georgia.

Cheney accuses Russia of using ‘blunt force’

By Guy Dinmore and John Thornhill in Cernobbio, Italy

Published: September 6 2008 18:39 | Last updated: September 6 2008 18:39

Dick Cheney, the US vice president, broadened his attack on Russia late on Saturday, directly challenging Vladimir Putin’s view of history and warning that his government could “not have it both ways” by using “brute force” and still hoping to build economic progress.

Mr Cheney saved his toughest anti-Russian speech for the last leg of his tour of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Italy.

His unequivocal rhetoric contrasted with the more moderate remarks of José Manuel Barroso, the head of the European Commission who goes to Moscow on Monday with Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, to try to get Russia to abide by the ceasefire agreement it signed after invading Georgia last month.

Addressing the global Ambrosetti conference near Lake Como, Mr Cheney said that within a 30-day period Russia had violated the sovereignty of a democratic country, breached a ceasefire agreement with the EU, seriously damaged its international standing and undermined its relations with the US.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/21949b02-7c38-11dd-a25c-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1