Lulua
10-09-2002, 14:59
Assalaamu alaikum.
In the wave of increasing US funds in the billions of dollars for defense and other war-related expenditures, as well as the billions of dollars donated as 'charity' as well as military expertise and weaponry to Israel, the US has benevolently admitted to some mistakes being made in the Afghanistan war.
And, in admitting their mistakes, they have been soooooooooo generous so as to donate $1000 dollars to the families of those killed by their mistake.
Is that all that those lives are worth? A measly $1000 dollars? Paid to the remaining families???
-----------------------
US Pentagon sources admit mistake in Afghan village raid
(02/05/2002) (Agencies)
The US military now acknowledges making a deadly mistake two weeks ago in a nighttime raid on a village near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.
Pentagon sources said that US special forces troops have returned to the village of Hazar Kadam, where at least 15 people were killed in what soldiers believed was an attack on a Taliban compound, and expressed regret that some of the casualties were innocent civilians.
At the same time, the Afghan families of those killed in the raid have now been paid US$1,000 each in US$100 bills.
US officials claim the Pentagon did not pay the money, indicating it was provided instead by Hamid Karzai's interim Afghan government, which they say got the money from the CIA. The CIA denies providing the money.
Sources said that Karzai's government had expressed concern that the investigation was not going fast enough, and that it needed to deal with the political situation as quickly as possible.
Afghan officials say the death toll was 21; the US military puts the figure at 15.
Americans have been holding 27 prisoners from the raid, but US military sources say nearly all of them will soon be released. Pentagon officials said at least two were Taliban and will remain in custody.
Speaking to ABCNEWS' This Week on Sunday, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said a senior US military officer is heading up an investigation of the raid and the findings would be released to the public.
The admission came as US forces handed over the body of a relative of Karzai, who was a victim of a US bombing error, to the Karzai family for a reburial on Monday, the family said.
Qasim Jan was killed in southern Afghanistan when US forces mistakenly bombed anti-Taliban forces led by Karzai.
Jan was one of at least six anti-Taliban fighters and three US special forces soldiers killed by a 2,000-pound bomb dropped north of Kandahar by an American bomber on Dec. 5.
Handing Back Stinger Missiles
Afghanistan's new interim administration handed back dozens of Stinger missiles to Washington amid growing fears that the presence of the anti-aircraft weapons, remnants of the anti-Soviet campaign in the 1980s, could threaten the fragile security situation in Afghanistan.
There were signs of growing cooperation between Afghanistan and former rival Russia as well, as Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov arrived for talks with senior Afghan officials. Ivanov's visit marked the restoration of diplomatic ties between Russia and Afghanistan more than a decade after Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan after a disastrous 10-year occupation.
Resistance to the Soviet occupation of 1979-1989 saw large quantities of arms, including the celebrated Stinger missiles, supplied to Afghanistan. Many of the weapons were provided by the CIA.
With millions of dollars in reconstruction aid hinging on the country's security situation, Karzai has been pushing for an expansion of the international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan during a recent visit to the United States and Britain.
Meanwhile, two rival factions vying for control of Mazar-e-Sharif Monday agreed to establish a security commission to demilitarize the northern Afghan city and help establish law and order.
Fighting around Mazar-e-Sharif in the past few days has been especially troubling as ethnic Uzbek warlord Gen. Rashid Dostum faced off with Ustad Atta Mohammad, an ethnic Tajik commander.
About 40 people were killed when troops belonging to Dostum's Junbish-i-Mellie and Mohammad's Jamiat-i-Islami clashed last week.
Following UN-mediated negotiations, the two groups, along with a third operating in the area - the ethnic Hazara faction Hezb-i-Wahdat - agreed to hand control of the city to a new security council, which is expected to be set up by next week.
Under the deal all heavy machine guns, tanks and armored personnel carriers will be withdrawn from Mazar-e-Sharif, under the scrutiny of a UN observer. In the eastern Afghan town of Gardez, negotiators were meeting to settle a dispute over who would control Paktia province following last week's fighting between forces loyal to a government-appointed governor and a local warlord.
About 50 people were killed in Paktia last week when troops loyal to government-appointed governor Padshah Khan Zadran clashed with forces loyal to local Pashtun warlord Haji Saifullah.
In other developments:
** Following accusations made by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that Iran was helping Taliban and al Qaeda members flee Afghanistan, Iran Monday challenged the Bush administration to provide proof of its allegations and accused Washington of seeking to dominate the world.
** Yemen has started to expel more than 100 foreign Islamic scholars, including British and French nationals, as part of a crackdown on terror. The British Foreign Office confirmed that Yemen deported four British Muslims from the Yemeni capital of Sanaa last week. Two other British nationals, however, remain in detention in Yemen.
http://www.chinadaily.net/news/2002-02-05/55498.html
In the wave of increasing US funds in the billions of dollars for defense and other war-related expenditures, as well as the billions of dollars donated as 'charity' as well as military expertise and weaponry to Israel, the US has benevolently admitted to some mistakes being made in the Afghanistan war.
And, in admitting their mistakes, they have been soooooooooo generous so as to donate $1000 dollars to the families of those killed by their mistake.
Is that all that those lives are worth? A measly $1000 dollars? Paid to the remaining families???
-----------------------
US Pentagon sources admit mistake in Afghan village raid
(02/05/2002) (Agencies)
The US military now acknowledges making a deadly mistake two weeks ago in a nighttime raid on a village near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.
Pentagon sources said that US special forces troops have returned to the village of Hazar Kadam, where at least 15 people were killed in what soldiers believed was an attack on a Taliban compound, and expressed regret that some of the casualties were innocent civilians.
At the same time, the Afghan families of those killed in the raid have now been paid US$1,000 each in US$100 bills.
US officials claim the Pentagon did not pay the money, indicating it was provided instead by Hamid Karzai's interim Afghan government, which they say got the money from the CIA. The CIA denies providing the money.
Sources said that Karzai's government had expressed concern that the investigation was not going fast enough, and that it needed to deal with the political situation as quickly as possible.
Afghan officials say the death toll was 21; the US military puts the figure at 15.
Americans have been holding 27 prisoners from the raid, but US military sources say nearly all of them will soon be released. Pentagon officials said at least two were Taliban and will remain in custody.
Speaking to ABCNEWS' This Week on Sunday, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said a senior US military officer is heading up an investigation of the raid and the findings would be released to the public.
The admission came as US forces handed over the body of a relative of Karzai, who was a victim of a US bombing error, to the Karzai family for a reburial on Monday, the family said.
Qasim Jan was killed in southern Afghanistan when US forces mistakenly bombed anti-Taliban forces led by Karzai.
Jan was one of at least six anti-Taliban fighters and three US special forces soldiers killed by a 2,000-pound bomb dropped north of Kandahar by an American bomber on Dec. 5.
Handing Back Stinger Missiles
Afghanistan's new interim administration handed back dozens of Stinger missiles to Washington amid growing fears that the presence of the anti-aircraft weapons, remnants of the anti-Soviet campaign in the 1980s, could threaten the fragile security situation in Afghanistan.
There were signs of growing cooperation between Afghanistan and former rival Russia as well, as Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov arrived for talks with senior Afghan officials. Ivanov's visit marked the restoration of diplomatic ties between Russia and Afghanistan more than a decade after Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan after a disastrous 10-year occupation.
Resistance to the Soviet occupation of 1979-1989 saw large quantities of arms, including the celebrated Stinger missiles, supplied to Afghanistan. Many of the weapons were provided by the CIA.
With millions of dollars in reconstruction aid hinging on the country's security situation, Karzai has been pushing for an expansion of the international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan during a recent visit to the United States and Britain.
Meanwhile, two rival factions vying for control of Mazar-e-Sharif Monday agreed to establish a security commission to demilitarize the northern Afghan city and help establish law and order.
Fighting around Mazar-e-Sharif in the past few days has been especially troubling as ethnic Uzbek warlord Gen. Rashid Dostum faced off with Ustad Atta Mohammad, an ethnic Tajik commander.
About 40 people were killed when troops belonging to Dostum's Junbish-i-Mellie and Mohammad's Jamiat-i-Islami clashed last week.
Following UN-mediated negotiations, the two groups, along with a third operating in the area - the ethnic Hazara faction Hezb-i-Wahdat - agreed to hand control of the city to a new security council, which is expected to be set up by next week.
Under the deal all heavy machine guns, tanks and armored personnel carriers will be withdrawn from Mazar-e-Sharif, under the scrutiny of a UN observer. In the eastern Afghan town of Gardez, negotiators were meeting to settle a dispute over who would control Paktia province following last week's fighting between forces loyal to a government-appointed governor and a local warlord.
About 50 people were killed in Paktia last week when troops loyal to government-appointed governor Padshah Khan Zadran clashed with forces loyal to local Pashtun warlord Haji Saifullah.
In other developments:
** Following accusations made by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that Iran was helping Taliban and al Qaeda members flee Afghanistan, Iran Monday challenged the Bush administration to provide proof of its allegations and accused Washington of seeking to dominate the world.
** Yemen has started to expel more than 100 foreign Islamic scholars, including British and French nationals, as part of a crackdown on terror. The British Foreign Office confirmed that Yemen deported four British Muslims from the Yemeni capital of Sanaa last week. Two other British nationals, however, remain in detention in Yemen.
http://www.chinadaily.net/news/2002-02-05/55498.html