Hundreds of Muslim Prisoners Killed by CIA Agent in '01 U.S. Said to Have Averted Inquiry Into ’01 Afghan Killings
By James Risen New York Times | July 11 (but online July 10) 2009
WASHINGTON — After a mass killing of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Taliban prisoners of war by the forces of an American-backed warlord during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, Bush administration officials repeatedly discouraged efforts to investigate the episode, according to government officials and human rights organizations.
American officials had been reluctant to pursue an investigation — sought by officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the State Department, the Red Cross and other human rights groups — because the warlord, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, was on the payroll of the Central Intelligence Agency and his militia worked closely with United States Special Forces in 2001, several officials said. They said the United States also worried about undermining the American-supported Karzai government, in which General Dostum has served as a defense official.
“At the White House, nobody said ‘no’ to an investigation, but nobody ever said ‘yes,’ either,” said Pierre Prosper, the former war crimes ambassador for the United States. “The first reaction of everybody there was ‘Oh, this is a sensitive issue. This is a touchy issue politically.’ ”
It is not clear how — or if — the Obama administration will address the issue. But in recent weeks, State Department officials have quietly tried to thwart General Dostum’s reappointment as military chief of staff to the president, according to several senior officials, and suggested that the administration may not be hostile to an inquiry.
The question of culpability for the prisoner deaths — which may have been the most significant war crime in Afghanistan since the 2001 American-led invasion — has taken on new urgency since the general, an important ally of President Hamid Karzai, was reinstated to his government post last month. He had been suspended last year and living in exile in Turkey after he was accused of threatening a political rival at gunpoint.
“If you bring Dostum back, it will impact the progress of democracy and the trust people have in the government,” Mr. Prosper said. Arguing that the Obama administration should investigate the 2001 killings, he added, “There is always a time and place for justice.”
While President Obama has deepened the United States’ commitment to Afghanistan, sending 21,000 more American troops there to combat the growing Taliban insurgency, his administration has also tried to distance itself from Mr. Karzai, whose government is deeply unpopular and widely viewed as corrupt... (Emphasis supplied)
Hoffman's afterword: The CIA's Dostum perpetrated a gruesome mass murder and thousands more of his "Taliban" prisoners died of disease, starvation and mistreatment in appalling conditions in dungeons. The Afghan people want an honest government. As long as Afghanistan is ruled by warlords like Dostum and Karzai's corrupt joke of a government, America will send the finest special operations troops in the world there to no avail. We will not conquer the Taliban under such circumstances.
*** Posted by Michael Hoffman at 7/10/2009 01:37:00 PM Labels: Abdul Rashid Dostum, Afghanistan, Central Intelligence Agency, Hamid Karzai, Pierre Prosper, U.S. war crimes