Mar-17-2012 05:07

Murder in Afghanistan

Debbie Menon for Salem-News.com

Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales named as suspect in Afghanistan massacre.

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, left, in Fort Irwin, CA 2011. (U.S. Army)

(MELBOURNE) - The revelation of Sgt. Bales’ identity comes (The Lookout)
after criticism from Afghan President Hamid Karzai about the lack of
U.S. cooperation in investigating the massacre. Karzai also questioned
whether just one American soldier was involved.

I guess the Sgt. Bales identity has broken and is all over the web and Front Pages by now. (This Ain’t Hell)

This is a massive coverup for negligent failure of
leadership, and an attempt to hide a major control and command problem
in a runaway renegade Army which is operating on the verge of “out of
control” and “out of command.”

In his exchange with President Obama, President Karzai
mentions that Obama asked him whether he had “seen the video.” “The
Video” which the US Army claims came from the security cameras at the
“Fort” showing evidence of the “lone, single perpetrator of the murders”
surrendering with his hands in the air to the sentries as he returned
to the gate.

As if it proved anything, Karzai responded by questioning the legitimacy of the video as a forgery or staged video.

He said, and I paraphrase, that when he asserted to
Obama that he had evidence that more than one man did the jobs, that
Obama became upset, impatient and terse with him, and belligerently
asked had he not seen “the evidence” (of the one man scenario) in the
security video from the CCTV cameras at the gate, to which he replied,
“You mean the alleged video?”

It is unlikely that anyone in the general public will
ever see the video inasmuch as every time the US or Israel has tried to
use videos to prove an event they have always fallen apart under
technological examination as forgeries. And, you can wager that, if you
ever get to see this one, the features of the “individual” will be too
obscure to make positive identity possible.

Against this “evidence,” Karzai has the testimony of a large number of people who were witnesses at the scene of the murders.

Honestly, I would believe any Afghan, however
incredible his story, before I would believe anything uttered by a
lackey of the DOD or the IDF for that matter. It is a case of proven
liars versus innocent victims.

Afghan leader blasts US over probe into shootings

By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press

KABUL,
Afghanistan (AP) — Warning he’s at the “end of the rope” over civilian
casualties, Afghanistan’s president angrily accused the U.S. on Friday
of not sharing information about how an American soldier allegedly shot
and killed 16 Afghans in two villages.

Afghan President
Hamid Karzai listens to speeches of a family member,unseen, of Afghan
civilians who were killed Sunday by a US soldier in Panjwai in Kandahar
province at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, March
16, 2012. Afghan President Hamid Karzai lashed out at the United States
on Friday, saying he is at the “the end of the rope” because of the
lack of U.S. cooperation into a probe of a killing spree allegedly
carried out by an American soldier. (AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid)

The incident
has reverberated through the already complicated relations between the
U.S. and Afghanistan, endangering talks over a long-term relationship
after most U.S. and NATO combat troops withdraw by the end of 2014.

In an
emotional meeting with relatives of the shooting victims, Karzai said
the villagers’ accounts of the massacre were widely different from the
scenario depicted by U.S. military officials. The relatives and
villagers insisted that it was impossible for one gunmen to kill nine
children, four men and three women in three houses of two villages near a
U.S. combat outpost in southern Afghanistan.

Karzai pointed to one of the villagers from Panjwai district of Kandahar province and said:

“In his
family, in four rooms people were killed — children and women were
killed — and then they were all brought together in one room and then
set on fire. That, one man cannot do.”

Karzai said
the delegation he sent to Kandahar province to investigate the shootings
did not receive the expected cooperation from the United States. He
said many questions remained about what occurred, and he would be
raising the questions with the U.S. military “very loudly.”

The U.S. military had no comment on Karzai’s remarks.

Read the full report here: The Salt Lake Tribune