[Reader-list] Afghanistan war logs

[Nagraj Adve]

Afghanistan war logs: Massive leak of secret files exposes truth of occupation

• Hundreds of civilians killed by coalition troops
• Covert unit hunts leaders for 'kill or capture'
• Steep rise in Taliban bomb attacks on Nato


    * Nick Davies and David Leigh
    * guardian.co.uk, Sunday 25 July 2010 22.03 BST



A huge cache of secret US military files 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 neighbouring
Pakistan and Iran are fuelling 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 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 criticised the publication of the files by
Wikileaks: "We strongly condemn the disclosure of classified
information by individuals and organisations, 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 Defence 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.