Confused reporting on Khanadar massacre

[Cain]

http://www.pajhwok.com/en/2012/03/15/20-us-troops-executed-panjwai-massacre-probe

A parliamentary probe team on Thursday said up to 20 American troops were involved in Sunday's killing of 16 civilians in southern Kandahar province.

The probing delegation includes lawmakers Hamidzai Lali, Abdul Rahim Ayubi, Shakiba Hashimi, Syed Mohammad Akhund and Bismillah Afghanmal, all representing Kandahar province at the Wolesi Jirga and Abdul Latif Padram, a lawmaker from northern Badakhshan province, Mirbat Mangal, Khost province, Muhammad Sarwar Usmani, Farah province.

The team spent two days in the province, interviewing the bereaved families, tribal elders, survivors and collecting evidences at the site in Panjwai district.

Hamizai Lali told Pajhwok Afghan News their investigation showed there were 15 to 20 American soldiers, who executed the brutal killings.

"We closely examined the site of the incident, talked to the families who lost their beloved ones, the injured people and tribal elders," he said.

[Juana]

Wonderful. 

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

I lost all respect for Fareed Zakaria when he referred to the multiple attacker theory as a "conspiracy theory" and tut-tutted Karzai for giving it airtime.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17411009

15 people? Apparently not! One chap on his third tour, injured by an IUD previously in Iraq. So there's at least a motive. To the extent of "nasty brown people"

Speaking in Seattle on Thursday, where Sgt Bales is based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, John Henry Browne said his new client was a "mild-mannered" man who bore no antipathy towards Muslims.

He described him as "a decorated soldier" who had an exemplary record before the shooting.

The lawyer also suggested the soldier, who began his first deployment to Afghanistan in December, was not fit to serve because of injuries he had suffered on previous tours of duty.

Mr Browne said that a car accident caused by a roadside bomb in Iraq had given the soldier a concussive head injury. Part of his foot had also been removed in surgery because of a battle-related wound, he added.

"I think it's of interest that we have a soldier who has an exemplary record, a decorated soldier who was injured in Iraq, to his brain and to his body and then despite that was sent back," he said.

Mr Browne, who has represented a number of high-profile clients including serial killer Ted Bundy and a teenage thief known as the Barefoot Bandit, said his client was a happily married man with two children, aged three and four.

I have no idea what's going on here. Someone is full of shit and everyone has a reason to lie.



This could probably be turned into some sort of German board game.

[Placid Dingo]

I lost all respect for Fareed Zakaria when he referred to the multiple attacker theory as a "conspiracy theory" and tut-tutted Karzai for giving it airtime.

Qg, do you have a link to Karzai's comments? I'd like to read it.

[Cain]

I lost all respect for Fareed Zakaria when he referred to the multiple attacker theory as a "conspiracy theory" and tut-tutted Karzai for giving it airtime.

Fareed Zakaria - the voice of conventional American foreign policy analysis.  That alone should engender some mistrust.  (Also the fact he writes like an IR undergrad, and has done for at least the last decade, somewhat annoys on a personal level.  There are plenty of competent, intelligent and media-savvy IR professionals out there - hell, give Dan Drezner some airtime, he's not only a professor, he wrote a book about zombies and international political theory.  That deserves recognition)

And, as Glenn Greenwald shows, while decrying Muslim "conspiracy theorism" is a sport for certain pundits, by any objective standard, the American media does exactly the same kind of thing.

[Cain]

Turns out the sergeant in question had been drinking with two other soldiers on the night of the shooting, and he also left the base not once but twice that night.  He returned from his first trip at half past midnight, but then left again at 02:00 for at least a couple of hours.

Karzai also said his Parliament's investigation did not get cooperation from American officials.

Also, you might want to read this: http://publicintelligence.net/staff-sgt-robert-bales-censored/

"I've never been more proud to be a part of this unit than that day," Bales said now a member of 2-3 Inf. headquarters, "for the simple fact that we discriminated between the bad guys and the noncombatants and then afterward we ended up helping the people that three or four hours before were trying to kill us. I think that's the real difference between being an American as opposed to being a bad guy, someone who puts his family in harm's way like that."

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The guy has kids. That, for some reason, adds another layer of horror.