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3 posts tagged war crime

The US Drone program is incredibly heartless and cruel

In February, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism documented that after the U.S. kills people with drones in Pakistan, it then targets for death those who show up at the scene to rescue the survivors and retrieve the bodies, as well as those who gather to mourn the dead at funerals: “the CIA’s drone campaign in Pakistan has killed dozens of civilians who had gone to help rescue victims or were attending funerals.” As The New York Times summarized those findings: “at least 50 civilians had been killed in follow-up strikes after they rushed to help those hit by a drone-fired missile” while “the bureau counted more than 20 other civilians killed in strikes on funerals.”

Seriously? Our government isn’t even attempting to hide it’s blatant islamophobia and racism. MOURNING for someone makes you a terrorist target? Awful.

This repellent practice continues. Over the last three days, the U.S. has launched three separate drone strikes in Pakistan: one on each day. AsThe Guardian reports, the U.S. has killed between 20 and 30 people in these strikes, the last of which, early this morning, killed between 8 and 15. It was the second strike, on Sunday, thattargeted mourners gathered to grieve those killed in the first strike:

At the time of the attack, suspected militants hadgathered to offer condolences to the brotherof a militant commander killed during another US unmanned drone attack on Saturday. The brother was one of those who died in the Sunday morning attack. The Pakistani officials said two of the dead were foreigners and the rest were Pakistani.

Note that there is no suggestion, even from the “officials” on which these media reports (as usual) rely, that the dead man was a Terrorist or even a “militant.” He was simply receiving condolences for his dead brother. But pursuant to the standardsembracedby President Obama, the brother — without knowing anything about him — is inherently deemed a “combatant” and therefore a legitimate target for death solely by virtue of being a “military-age male in a strike zone.” Of course, killing family members of bombing targets is nothing new for this President: let’s recall thestill-unresolved questionof why Anwar Awlaki’s 16-year-old American son, Abdulrahman, was killed by a U.S. drone attack in Yemen two weeks after his father was killed.

I ask this sincerely: what kind of country targets rescuers, funeral attendees, and people gathered to mourn? If a Hollywood film featured a villainous King ordering lethal attacks on rescuers, funerals and mourners — those medically attending to or grieving his initial victims — any decent audience member would, by design, seethe with contempt for such an inhumane tyrant. But this is the standard policy and practice under President Obama and it continues through today. Recall the outrage that was sparked when WikiLeaks released its Collateral Murder video showing a U.S. Apache helicopter during the Bush era firing on unarmed rescuers, who had arrived to retrieve the initial victims who had been shot and were laying wounded on the ground. That tactic continues under President Obama, although it is now expanded to include the targeting of grieving rituals.

This last paragraph gets to the heart of it.

Posted by
From dusk till dawn

Reblogged from Blogging as Praxis

Leaked Video Shows US Contractors Randomly Killing Civilians

kadbudugorjeligradovi:

Employees of the US military contracting group Academi (formerly Xe, Blackwater USA and Blackwater Worldwide) are seen in new leaked video shooting their machine guns at random while driving through the streets of Baghdad, crashing into other cars and even running over a pedestrian without hesitation.

Academi received a $250 million contract by the Obama administration to provide military services in Afghanistan.

Posted April 07, 2012

Updated April 08, 2012 — The April 2012 issue of Harper’s Magazine includes “The Warrior Class,” a feature by Charles Glass on the rise of private-security contractors since 9/11. The conclusion to the piece describes a series of videos shown to Glass by a source who had worked for the private-security company Blackwater (now Academi, formerly also Xe Services) in Iraq. Clips and photos from the videos are shown below, introduced by Glass’s descriptions:

The first [video], identified as “Baghdad, Iraq, May–September 2005,” showed Blackwater convoys racing through town. Suddenly, the door of a Blackwater SUV opened and a rifle fired at passing traffic. “They opened the door,” my companion said. “You should never break the seal.”

A still photo showed some graffiti scrawled on a metal beam: THIS IS FOR THE AMERICANS OF BLACKWATER THAT WERE MURDERED HERE IN 2004 SEMPER FIDELIS 3/5 PS FUCK YOU.

The next tape had been taken by a camera in the turret of an armored vehicle. An [M4A1]¹1.
Corrected text. The gun was initially misidentified as an AK47.
fired from the turret at cars that had stopped to let the convoy pass. Whoever was firing the [gun] did so enthusiastically and often, sending rounds into parked cars and an overhead bridge. Another sequence showed a contractor vehicle rear-ending a car, shattering its back windshield.

The footage continued. A Humvee smashed into a car to move it out of the way. Guards swore at passersby. More armored vehicles smashed into civilian cars.

Blackwater helicopters shot at targets below in a Baghdad street.

But what about the tape dated April 1, 2006, which was shot from the front seat of the fourth car in an armored convoy? Driving along a wide boulevard in Baghdad, the lead vehicle swerved close to the curb of a traffic island. A woman in a black full-length burka began to cross the street. The vehicle struck the woman and knocked her unconscious body into the gutter. The cars slowed for a moment, but did not stop, nor did they even determine whether the victim was dead or alive. A voice in the car taking the video said, “Oh, my God!” Yet no one was heard on the radio requesting help for her. Most sickeningly, the sequence had been set to an AC/DC song, whose pounding, metallic chorus declared: “You’ve been… thunderstruck!”

The tape ended with the inscription IN SUPPORT OF SECURITY, PEACE, FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY EVERYWHERE.

source: information clearing house

Posted by
From dusk till dawn

Reblogged from kad budu gorjeli gradovi

Afghan slaughter suspect had criminal record

19 March, 2012

Reports are emerging that the American soldier suspected of killing 16 Afghans in a nighttime rampage has a criminal record. The man identified as Staff Sgt. Robert Bales remains locked up in solitary confinement in Kansas, awaiting charges.

Bales, who was flown to the prison at Fort Leavenworth on Friday following eleven years of service, has been found out to have had tough times in his home country before and in between his numerous deployments to the Middle East.

This includes a misdemeanor arrest for assaulting a girlfriend in 2002, which cost Bales twenty hours of compulsory anger management; and two instances of reckless driving. He was caught drunk behind the wheel in 2005, but did not face charges. Three years later, Bales paid $1,000 in fines and restitutions for a hit-and-run. The man said he fell asleep driving. The case was dismissed, according to the Associated Press.

When the soldier returned from his last deployment in Iraq he had difficulty reintegrating, including marital problems, ABC News reports citing its own sources. By that time, Banes is also said to have gone through an advanced treatment for a mild traumatic brain injury (TBI).

But officials that deployed Banes to Afghanistan concluded that the soldier had worked through all of his health and social issues. This is already argued by medical experts appraising the current situation. If the suspect’s mental breakdown is confirmed, the US military may fall under heavy criticism.

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