<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">[Good morning, Roger. I trust you've seen this morning's NYT? Remember that the NYT has not exactly been hostile to the Obama administration...]<div><br></div><div><br></div><div>AFGHANS ORDER ELITE U.S. FORCES OUT OF PROVINCE</div><div><br></div><div>COMPLAINTS OF ABUSES</div><div><br></div><div>Americans to Be Barred From a Staging Area for the Taliban</div><div><br></div><div>By MATTHEW ROSENBERG</div><div><br><div style="text-align: left;">KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan government barred elite American forces from operating in a strategic province adjoining Kabul on Sunday, citing complaints that Afghans working for American Special Operations forces had tortured and killed villagers in the area... </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;">The action ... reflected a deep distrust of international forces that is now widespread in Afghanistan, and the view held by many Afghans, President Hamid Karzai among them, that the coalition shares responsibility with the Taliban for the violence that continues to afflict the country [HOW DELICATELY PUT!]... </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;">Afghan officials said the measure was taken as a last resort. They said they had tried for weeks to get the coalition to cooperate with an investigation into claims that civilians had been killed, abducted or tortured by Afghans working for American Special Operations forces in Maidan Wardak. But the coalition was not responsive, they said... </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;">A statement from the presidential palace suggested that abuses might have been committed by American troops, and not just by Afghans working alongside them. [BUT OF COURSE THAT CAN'T BE THE CASE!] <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left; ">But in interviews after the announcement, Afghan officials indicated that the Afghans were the main suspects, and that the Americans were seen as enabling the abuses rather than perpetrating them. [THE </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: left; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><font face="georgia, times new roman, times, serif">ADMINISTRATION'S</font></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: left; "><font face="georgia, times new roman, times, serif"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> ORGAN CALLS ON IMPLICIT RACISM FOR DEFENSE] </span></font></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="georgia, times new roman, times, serif"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><br></span></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="georgia, times new roman, times, serif"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Much of the work done by American Special Operations forces in Afghanistan or anywhere else is highly classified, and information about it is closely guarded. A senior American military officer, for instance, said he did not know whether such forces were based in Maidan Wardak or were based elsewhere and were flown in for missions. </span></font><font face="georgia, times new roman, times, serif"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Afghan officials are, for the most part, told even less, and many in the Karzai administration no longer wish to allow Americans to continue “running roughshod all around our country,” said a person who is close to Mr. Karzai.</span></font> [IT'S SECRET, LIKE THE DRONE PROGRAM! NOT OF COURSE FROM ITS VICTIMS...] </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;">...offensive operations are increasingly becoming the sole purview of the Special Operations forces [SIC]. United States officials, in fact, are planning to rely heavily on the elite troops to continue hunting members of Al Qaeda and other international militants in Afghanistan after the NATO mission here ends in 2014 [WHILE OBAMA LIES ABOUT WINDING DOWN THE WAR, HE IN FACT PLANS TO CONTINUE HIS PREFERRED POLICY OF WORLD-WIDE MURDER BY HIS 'ELITE TROOPS' - HIS SS NOW OPERATING IN 120 COUNTRIES!]... </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;">“There have been lots of complaints from the local people about misconduct, mistreatment, beating, taking away, torturing and killing of civilians by Special Forces and their Afghan associates,” said Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial government. He cited a raid on a village on Feb. 13, when American troops and Afghans working with them detained a veterinary student. “His dead body was found three days later in the area under a bridge,” Mr. Khogyani said, prompting protests against foreigners ... villagers in Maidan Wardak had reported a number of similar episodes in recent months, including the disappearance of nine men in a single raid. “People from the province, elders from villages, have come to Kabul so many times, and they have brought photographs and videos of their family members who have been tortured”...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;">[Obama's preference for the use of the death squads from the "Joint Special Operations Command" - apparently under the control of the thug John Brennan - is dictated by his unwillingness to deal with the problem of Gitmo prisoners. Murder eliminates the problem of prisoners. For Obama's extra-legal use of 'elite forces,' see e.g. <<a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175426/nick_turse_a_secret_war_in_120_countries">http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175426/nick_turse_a_secret_war_in_120_countries</a>>. And for those who came in late - or believe that American exceptionalism means there can be no historical parallels to Obama's actions - see an account of the "Protection Squadron," e.g. <<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ss">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ss</a>>. --CGE] </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br></div></div><div> <br><div><div>On Feb 25, 2013, at 5:54 AM, Roger Helbig <<a href="mailto:rwhelbig@gmail.com">rwhelbig@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">This is despicable subject line - The United States does not have an<br>SS and any member of this list who has relatives who were killed in<br>the Holocaust or who served in the military who liberated the death<br>camps should join me in condemning Estabrook's extremely poor judgment<br>and choice of words. I doubt he will apologize, he is not a big<br>enough man to do that!<br><br>On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 12:31 AM, C. G. Estabrook <<a href="mailto:cge@shout.net">cge@shout.net</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote type="cite"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/world/asia/afghanistan-orders-us-troops-from-key-province-of-wardak.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/world/asia/afghanistan-orders-us-troops-from-key-province-of-wardak.html</a><br>_______________________________________________<br></blockquote></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>