Tries to hide U.S. role
Newsweek 'discovers' evidence of war crimes in
Afghanistan
By Greg Butterfield
Newsweek magazine cover-dated Aug. 26 "broke" a story
Workers World reported months ago: the massacre of prisoners by
the U.S.-allied Northern Alliance in November 2001.
In a cover-story titled "The Death Convoy of Afghanistan,"
Newsweek reports how captured Taliban and Al Qaeda soldiers
were placed in sealed cargo containers and marched across the
countryside from Kunduz to Dasht-I-Leili--the site of a
now-uncovered mass grave.
When asked by Newsweek's reporters about the number of dead
in the mass grave, an unnamed United Nations official said,
"The only thing we know is that it's a very large site" with a
"high density of bodies in the trial trench."
A leaked UN memo says that 960 captives died of suffocation
in the containers on the road to Dasht-I-Leili and there is
sufficient evidence to begin a "criminal investigation." Aziz
ur Rahman Razekh, director of the Afghan Organization of Human
Rights, said, "more than a thousand people died in the
containers."
The UN memo goes on: "Considering the political sensitivity
of this case and related protection concerns, it is strongly
recommended that all activities relevant to this case be
brought to a halt until a decision is made concerning the final
goal of the exercise: criminal trial, truth commission, other,
etc."
What "political sensitivity" could be so alarming that "all
activities relevant to this case be brought to a halt"? It is
the indisputable role of the U.S. occupation forces in these
war crimes.
And that's why Newsweek isn't telling the whole story.
U.S. guilty of war crimes
"Nothing that Newsweek learned suggests that American forces
had advance knowledge of the killings, witnessed the prisoners
being stuffed into the unventilated trucks or were in a
position to prevent that," the magazine claims, although it
admits that U.S. Special Forces and CIA were "in the area."
One of two things is possible. Either Newsweek's reporters
weren't looking too hard. Or Newsweek's editors and management
are lying. There is ample evidence of U.S. culpability.
The Pentagon is in charge of all military operations in
Afghanistan--both by its own troops and the Northern Alliance.
The Bush administration and the brass are calling the
shots.
As reported in the July 4, 2002, issue of Workers World, and
by mainstream media outside the United States, Irish filmmaker
Jamie Doran documented numerous eyewitness accounts of the
prisoners held in sealed containers, the Dasht-I-Leili mass
grave, and torture of prisoners by U.S. troops and CIA
operatives.
Reports of the "caravan of death" and mass graves began
circulating last winter. But it was Doran's film "Massacre at
Mazar" that brought Dasht-I-Leili to world attention and
prompted the UN investigation.
In June, Doran presented a rough cut of the film to the
European Parliament and German Reichstag. Together with human
rights attorneys and anti-war parliament members, he exposed
the existence of the mass grave, fearing the evidence would
otherwise be destroyed.
Eyewitness interviews conducted secretly by Doran showed,
among other things, that U.S. soldiers accompanied the "caravan
of death"; that U.S. officers ordered Northern Alliance troops
to shoot into containers holding suffocating prisoners; that a
U.S. officer then ordered the bodies dumped at Dasht-I-Leili;
and that U.S. troops stood by and watched while still-living
prisoners were executed at the mass grave.
Some of those interviewed by Doran believe up to 3,000
people are buried in the mass grave. All of the eyewitnesses
agreed to testify before an international body on war crimes if
one were established, despite the great danger to their own
lives.
Spin control?
However much Newsweek would like to aid the U.S. cover-up by
putting all the blame on the Northern Alliance, the revelations
are spinning out of Washington's control.
While the Dasht-I-Leili mass grave came as a shock to many
people here, most of the world already knows about the U.S.
role there.
When Doran's film was first shown, the Pentagon and White
House issued terse denials dismissing the accounts as baseless.
But according to Newsweek, the Department of Defense now says
it knew of the mass grave as far back as
"December/January."
Now that the proof is out in the open, they are taking
another tack. The brass claim they've been urging Afghan
President Hamid Karzai to open an investigation all along.
Karzai is, of course, a U.S. puppet, a former Unocal Oil Co.
adviser who was put in power by the occupation forces.
Asked about the mass grave while visiting Afghanistan, Gen.
Tommy Franks, head of the U.S. military command, made a
revealing slip of the tongue. "The right thing to do is for
people to go take a look," he said, "and then we will decide
what we find." (BBC, Aug. 25)
So after the information is gathered, then the military
brass and Bush administration will "decide"!
Franks brazenly added that the U.S. military "needs to step
up efforts" in countries bordering Afghanistan. (Financial
Times, Aug. 26) Meanwhile, the Pentagon is preparing for more
bloody massacres, this time in Iraq.
Reprinted from the Sept. 5, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
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