[Peace-discuss] What Obama's not telling us

[C. G. Estabrook]

Afghanistan war logs: Massive leak of secret files exposes truth of occupation
• Hundreds of civilians killed by coalition troops
• Covert unit hunts leaders for 'kill or capture'
• Steep rise in Taliban bomb attacks on Nato
     * Nick Davies and David Leigh
     * guardian.co.uk, Sunday 25 July 2010 22.03 BST

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 over 1,000 US troops.

Their publication comes amid mounting concern that Barack Obama's "surge" 
strategy is failing and as coalition troops hunt for two US navy sailors 
captured by the Taliban south of Kabul on Friday.

The war logs also detail:

• How a secret "black" unit of special forces hunts down Taliban leaders for 
"kill or capture" without trial.

• How the US covered up evidence that the Taliban have acquired deadly 
surface-to-air missiles.

• How the coalition is increasingly using deadly Reaper drones to hunt and kill 
Taliban targets by remote control from a base in Nevada.

• How the Taliban have caused growing carnage with a massive escalation of its 
roadside bombing campaign, which has killed more than 2,000 civilians to date.

In a statement, the White House said the chaotic picture painted by the logs was 
the result of "under-resourcing" under Obama's predecessor, saying: "It is 
important to note that the time period reflected in the documents is January 
2004 to December 2009."

The White House also criticised the publication of the files by Wikileaks: "We 
strongly condemn the disclosure of classified information by individuals and 
organisations, which puts the lives of the US and partner service members at 
risk and threatens our national security. Wikileaks made no effort to contact 
the US government about these documents, which may contain information that 
endanger the lives of Americans, our partners, and local populations who 
co-operate with us."

The logs detail, in sometimes harrowing vignettes, the toll on civilians exacted 
by coalition forces: events termed "blue on white" in military jargon. The logs 
reveal 144 such incidents. Some of these casualties come from the controversial 
air strikes that have led to Afghan government protests in the past, but a large 
number of previously unknown incidents also appear to be the result of troops 
shooting unarmed drivers or motorcyclists out of a determination to protect 
themselves from suicide bombers. At least 195 civilians are admitted to have 
been killed and 174 wounded in total, although this is likely to be an 
underestimate because many disputed incidents are omitted from the daily 
snapshots reported by troops on the ground and then collated, sometimes 
erratically, by military intelligence analysts.

Bloody errors at civilians' expense, as recorded in the logs, include the day 
French troops strafed a bus full of children in 2008, wounding eight. A US 
patrol similarly machine-gunned a bus, wounding or killing 15 of its passengers, 
and in 2007 Polish troops mortared a village, killing a wedding party including 
a pregnant woman, in an apparent revenge attack.

Questionable shootings of civilians by British troops also figure. The American 
compilers detail an unusual cluster of four British shootings in the streets of 
Kabul within the space of barely a single month, in October/November 2007, 
culminating in the killing of the son of an Afghan general. Of one shooting, 
they wrote: "Investigation is controlled by the British. We not able [sic] to 
get the complete story."

A second cluster of similar shootings, all involving Royal Marine commandos in 
the ferociously contested Helmand province, took place in a six-month period at 
the end of 2008. Asked by the Guardian about these allegations, the Ministry of 
Defence said: "We have been unable to corroborate these claims in the short time 
available and it would be inappropriate to speculate on specific cases without 
further verification of the alleged actions."

Rachel Reid, who investigates civilian casualty incidents in Afghanistan for 
Human Rights Watch, said: "These files bring to light what's been a consistent 
trend by US and NATO forces: the concealment of civilian casualties. Despite 
numerous tactical directives ordering transparent investigations when civilians 
are killed, there have been incidents I've investigated in recent months where 
this is still not happening. Accountability is not just something you do when 
you are caught. It should be part of the way US and NATO do business in 
Afghanistan every time they kill or harm civilians."

The reports, many of which the Guardian is publishing in full online, present an 
unvarnished and often compelling account of the reality of modern war. Most of 
the material, although classified "secret" at the time, is no longer militarily 
sensitive. A small amount of information has been withheld from publication in 
the Guardian because it might endanger local informants or give away genuine 
military secrets. Wikileaks, whose founder, Julian Assange, obtained the 
material in circumstances he will not discuss, also says it redacted harmful 
material before posting the bulk of the data on its own "uncensorable" series of 
global servers.

Wikileaks published in April this year a previously suppressed classified video 
of US Apache helicopters killing two Reuters cameramen on the streets of 
Baghdad, which gained international attention. A 22-year-old intelligence 
analyst, Bradley Manning, was arrested in Iraq and charged with leaking the 
video, but not with leaking the latest material. The Pentagon's criminal 
investigations department continues to try to trace the leaks and recently 
unsuccessfully asked Assange, he says, to meet them outside the US to help them.

Assange allowed the Guardian to examine the war logs at our request. No fee was 
involved and Wikileaks has not been involved in the preparation of the 
Guardian's articles.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/25/afghanistan-war-logs-military-leaks