{news} Fw: USGP-INT Wikileaks: massive leak of secret files exposes disastrouswar in Afghanistan (The Guardian)

[Justine McCabe]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Scott McLarty" <scottmclarty at yahoo.com>
To: <usgp-int at gp-us.org>
Sent: Monday, July 26, 2010 12:07 AM
Subject: USGP-INT Wikileaks: massive leak of secret files exposes 
disastrouswar in Afghanistan (The Guardian)


> Wikileaks: Massive Leak of Secret Files Exposes Truth of Occupation
>
> By Nick Davies and David Leigh
> The Guardian (UK), July 25, 2010
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/series/afghanistan-the-war-logs
> http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/07/25-3
>
>
> A huge cache of secret US military files 
> (http://www.guardian.co.uk/warlogs) 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 neighboring Pakistan and Iran are fueling 
> 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 (http://wikileaks.org) 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 more than 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 naval 
> personnel 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 
> their 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 criticized the publication of the files by Wikileaks: 
> "We strongly condemn the disclosure of classified information by 
> individuals and organizations, 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, 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, but this is likely to be an underestimate as 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 UK troops also figure. The US 
> compilers detail an unusual cluster of four British shootings in Kabul in 
> the space of barely a month, in October/November 2007, culminating in the 
> death of the son of an Afghan general. Of one shooting, they wrote: 
> "Investigation controlled by the British. We are not able to get [sic] 
> complete story."
>
> A second cluster of similar shootings, all involving Royal Marine 
> commandos in Helmand province, took place in a six-month period at the end 
> of 2008, according to the log entries. Asked by the Guardian about these 
> allegations, the Ministry of Defense 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 the 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, though classified "secret" at the time, is no longer 
> militarily sensitive. A small amount of information has been withheld from 
> publication 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, said it would 
> redact harmful material before posting the bulk of the data on its 
> "uncensorable" 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 
> logs at our request. No fee was involved and Wikileaks was not involved in 
> the preparation of the Guardian's articles.