AFGHANISTAN
Massacred prisoners' hands were tied
The Pentagon has made it clear that it will manage the news
coming out of Afghanistan--either by direct censorship or by
bombing the offices of independent news sources like
Al-Jazeera.
Now we know why.
What just happened to hundreds of Taliban prisoners of war
at a fortress outside Kunduz in northern Afghanistan would
enrage and sicken anyone who cares about justice and humanity.
Amnesty International on Nov. 28 called for an urgent inquiry
into how the estimated 400 prisoners were killed--only a
handful survived--after witnesses said they had seen about 50
bodies lying in the courtyard, their hands tied behind their
backs.
The official story was that they were killed in an uprising
that got out of control. The Northern Alliance called in air
strikes by U.S. jets. When that failed to kill all the
prisoners, oil was poured into the lower chambers of the
fortress and set on fire. As the Taliban tried to escape the
flames, a tank mowed them down.
Washington has admitted that a CIA agent was killed in the
fighting and five U.S. Special Forces were injured by U.S.
bombs. What was going on at the fortress? Were prisoners being
tortured and executed in summary fashion? Is that why they
rebelled? Or was the "rebellion" just disinformation to cover
an out-and-out slaughter of helpless captives?
Remember, the Taliban released the Western missionaries they
had been holding without a scratch. And for them, this is a
defensive war, fought on their own territory against an enemy
that has invaded from 10,000 miles away. How civilized compared
to the barbaric conduct of the Pentagon and its puppet
forces.
--Deirdre Griswold
Reprinted from the Dec. 6, 2001, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
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