Afghan War Diary

[rasyte]

hope it's not posted yet...

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      WikiLeaks 'Afghan War Diary' Provides Ground-Level Account Of Afghanistan War

WASHINGTON — Some 90,000 leaked U.S. military records posted online Sunday amount to a blow-by-blow account of six years of the Afghanistan war, including unreported incidents of Afghan civilian killings as well as covert operations against Taliban figures.

The online whistle-blower WikiLeaks posted the documents on its website Sunday. The New York Times, London's Guardian newspaper and the German weekly Der Spiegel were given early access to the documents.

The Guardian described the collection as, "a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan."

The White House condemned the document disclosure, saying it "put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk."

The leaked records include detailed descriptions of raids carried out by a secretive U.S. special operations unit called Task Force 373 against what U.S. officials considered high-value insurgent and terrorist targets. Some of the raids resulted in unintended killings of Afghan civilians, according to the documentation.

Among those listed as being killed by the secretive unit was Shah Agha, described by the Guardian as an intelligence officer for an IED cell, who was killed with four other men in June 2009. Another was a Libyan fighter, Abu Laith al-Libi, described in the documents as a senior al-Qaida military commander. Al-Libi was said to be based across the border in Mir Ali, Pakistan, and was running al-Qaida training camps in North Waziristan, a region along the Afghan border where U.S. officials have said numerous senior al-Qaida leaders were believed to be hiding.

The operation against al-Libi, in June 2007, resulted in a death tally that one U.S. military document said include six enemy fighters and seven noncombatants – all children.
The Guardian reported that more than 2,000 senior figures from the Taliban and al-Qaida are on a "kill or capture" list, known as JPEL, the Joint Prioritized Effects List. It was from this list that Task Force 373 selected its targets.

The New York Times said the documents – including classified cables and assessments between military officers and diplomats – also describe U.S. fears that ally Pakistan's intelligence service was actually aiding the Afghan insurgency.

According to the Times, the documents suggest Pakistan "allows representatives of its spy service to meet directly with the Taliban in secret strategy sessions to organize networks of militant groups that fight against American soldiers in Afghanistan, and even hatch plots to assassinate Afghan leaders."

The Guardian, however, interpreted the documents differently, saying they "fail to provide a convincing smoking gun" for complicity between the Pakistan intelligence services and the Taliban.

In a statement released Sunday, White House national security adviser Gen. Jim Jones lauded a deeper partnership between the U.S. and Pakistan, saying, "Counterterrorism cooperation has led to significant blows against al-Qaida's leadership." Still, he called on Pakistan to continue its "strategic shift against insurgent groups."

Pakistan's Ambassador to the U.S. Husain Haqqani said the documents "do not reflect the current on-ground realities." The United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan are "jointly endeavoring to defeat al-Qaida and its Taliban allies militarily and politically," he added.

Der Spiegel, meanwhile, reported that the records show Afghan security officers as helpless victims of Taliban attacks.

The magazine said the documents show a growing threat in the north, where German troops are stationed.

The classified documents are largely what's called "raw intelligence" – reports from junior officers in the field that analysts use to advise policymakers, rather than any high-level government documents that state U.S. government policy.

While the documents provide a glimpse of a world the public rarely sees, the overall picture they portray is already familiar to most Americans. U.S. officials have already publicly denounced Pakistani officials' cooperation with some insurgents, like the Haqqani network in Pakistan's tribal areas.

The success of U.S. special operating forces teams at taking out Taliban targets has been publicly lauded by U.S. military and intelligence officials. And just-resigned Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who was leading the Afghan war effort, made protecting Afghan civilians one of the hallmarks of his command, complaining that too many Afghans had been accidentally killed by Western firepower.

WikiLeaks said the leaked documents "do not generally cover top-secret operations." The site also reported that it had "delayed the release of some 15,000 reports" as part of what it called "a harm minimization process demanded by our source," but said it may release the other documents after further review.

Jones, the White House adviser, took pains to point out that the documents describe a period from January 2004 to December 2009, mostly during the administration of President George W. Bush.

That was before "President Obama announced a new strategy with a substantial increase in resources for Afghanistan, and increased focus on al-Qaida and Taliban safe havens in Pakistan, precisely because of the grave situation that had developed over several years," Jones said.

But Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, "However illegally these documents came to light, they raise serious questions about the reality of America's policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan."

A different U.S. official said the Obama administration had already told Pakistani and Afghan officials what to expect from the document release, in order to head off some of the more embarrassing revelations.

Another U.S. official said it may take days to comb through all the documents to see what they mean to the U.S. war effort and determine their potential damage to national security. That official added that the U.S. isn't certain who leaked the documents.

Another official said teams of analysts started examining the documents the moment they were disclosed online.

All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity to comment on the release of classified material.

U.S. government agencies have been bracing for the release of thousands more classified documents since the leak of a classified helicopter cockpit video of a 2007 firefight in Baghdad. That leak was blamed on a U.S. Army intelligence analyst working in Iraq.

Spc. Bradley Manning, 22, of Potomac, Md., was arrested in Iraq and charged earlier this month with multiple counts of mishandling and leaking classified data, after a former hacker turned him in. Manning had bragged to the hacker, Adrian Lamo, that he had downloaded 260,000 classified or sensitive State Department cables and transmitted them by computer to the website Wikileaks.org.

Lamo turned Manning in to U.S. authorities, saying he couldn't live with the thought that those released documents might get someone killed.

[mjj4ever777]

Thanks for posting this. I watched this on CNN last night. Looks like we are starting to see the "truth", behind all the corruption in the "system", starting to be revealed to the public! I'm sure this is only the "tip" of the iceburg! Let's see what happens next!

[paula-c]

The only one that puts American lives at risk is the U.S. government itself, and its intervention policy and warmongering in those countries

[Sarahli]

When will this end !!?

Here is the article of the Guardian:

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

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.
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[emeraldcity]

Thanks for posting this. I watched this on CNN last night. Looks like we are starting to see the "truth", behind all the corruption in the "system", starting to be revealed to the public! I'm sure this is only the "tip" of the iceburg! Let's see what happens next!

I agree.  When "LIGHTMAN" opened up at the beginning of TII, we could see flashes of video footage.  It's clear now that this was the TRUTH being revealed, piece by piece by piece.  We are still in the "reveal" stage.  Michael is educating us well  

[Believe 777]

Thanks for posting this. I watched this on CNN last night. Looks like we are starting to see the "truth", behind all the corruption in the "system", starting to be revealed to the public! I'm sure this is only the "tip" of the iceburg! Let's see what happens next!

I agree.  When "LIGHTMAN" opened up at the beginning of TII, we could see flashes of video footage.  It's clear now that this was the TRUTH being revealed, piece by piece by piece.  We are still in the "reveal" stage.  Michael is educating us well  

Very well said, I like your thinking    This must be one of the 7 layers of TII. The truth will prevail!

[Cameron]

I didn't wait those documents to know how the truth really is. The power of internet it's an amazing source of informations. Plus, I have my own source of info over there.
But this is good that more people can see the truth because of all those documents leaked.

Great !  

[Empathy]

It could also be leaked to spark controversy in a different way. Perhaps to get people annoyed.  I have never forgotten what the government did with all our personal records, like child benefit data, driving licence data, medical data, leaving it on roadsides backseats and trains to blow around in the wind, or miraculously disappear in the office system into the hands of 'anonymous' people.

I think its all deliberate personally - just like the oil spills.

[Empathy]

...........dont forget, if you get people angry, it could create a revolution, if there were a revolution, then the powers that be have the ultimate reason to CULL the nation.

Dont give it to them. :!:

[2 Bad]

Perhaps it's similar to the "V" movie. the corrupt create a situation, people are hurt and harmed and brainwashed along the way, then BAM they fix it and Oh they are the heros, misleading along the way. H1N1, 911 and so much more.
Good idea to question all this, it could just be leaked on purpose and it is frightening to think who the target is.

Shamone'

[Sarahli]

Innocent people are assassinated in Afghanistan and Irak and this leak I think is not made on purpose by the Gov. If someone is annoyed it's the Governements that are involved in this war. They kill children, women and men without distinction even for revenge. I think that they consider that their lives have less value or no value at all. They just don't care.
Just imagine if children were being killed in Europe or the USA the same way by foreign countries who would have come against a so-called war on terrorism because some kamikazes would have hijacked planes and destroyed buildings with innocent people inside ? Imagine that a group of foreign soldiers knocks at your door and take you and your family out by force a gun pointed on you ?
What would happen ?

They spread highly toxic products in these lands to make people fall ill and die and to transmit diseases and cancers generations after generations. The number of cancers has suddenly grew and a lot of children have leukemias, malformations (for those who survive after birth). Well what's happening there is horrible and this information is only the tip of the iceberg. I will avoid to put pictures here it's too disturbing.

I don't think it serves the interest of the Gov. involved and unfortunately I fear that many people especially those who have the power to make things change just don't care. After all Afghanistan and Irak are so far from here. UN is a big farce. Nations don't seem to be United.

I don't think that it's the problem-reaction-solution trick because they are supposed to be there for the solution part, eradicate terrorism. It only increased in reality.

[Sarahli]

I have came across another perspective. And I must admit that it may also serve the US Gov finally...


Wikileaks/Wikipedia Truth Serving Lies (with CIA/Mossad oversight)

So Wikileaks has exposed the truth about the Afghan/Pakistan war? 91,000 leaked documents expose the fact that war is a nasty, two-faced, dishonorable business with even (shock horror) covert operations set up to assassinate leaders of the enemy.

What is getting most attention, however, is the allegation that the ISI (the Pakistani Secret Service) is secretly backing the Taliban and other documents demanding that the Pakistani government turn decisively against the militants, creating a justification for US operations inside Pakistan and a possible pretext for full-on invasion of the country.

A few months ago we were reading that the US were funding the Taliban. There are many other stories of this kind from people like Webster Tarpley and Wayne Madsen.

WHISTLEBLOWING?

All this 'whistleblowing' does little other than serve the interests of the US possibly expanding their war. No establishment figure is seriously compromised by these 'leaks', nor is policy undermined in any new way. The war is wicked? The people who care already know that and this 'new' information makes little difference to that perception one way or the other.

Why do the 'leaks' contain no embarrassing whistleblowing. Why is there no exposition of the betrayal felt by many soldiers and their officers who know the war(s) have got nothing to do with protecting America or the UK (....I have spoken to one British army officer who is acutely aware of the betrayal of his troops and of wider British interests and is waiting for [and working towards] the same revolution as myself. Meeting this man was the most encouraging moment of the last six months for me).

Wikileaks made its name with this footage.

Again, innocent people get murdered by coalition troops. Evil...embarrassing....but tell us something we didn't know.

We know that the powers-that-be are determined to control both sides of every argument. They lead the opposition against themselves. That's why "Stop The War" will not even MENTION 9/11 Truth and exclude from the ranks of their leadership anyone who wants to raise reasonable questions about the events of 9/11.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is 'annoyed' by 9/11 truth. That there IN ITSELF makes him, to any sensible person, a placeman of the security services.

This, like the StopTheWar position, is called a 'limited hangout'. There is no end of this kind of maneuvering out there as in, for example, Chomsky's indefatigable support of Israel ("America" is the problem, not the international bankers who own it nor the Jewish Lobby who control it.....criticism most definitely never goes THERE. These are simply NOT issues).

LIMITED HANGOUT

'Limited hangout' is making a pretense at protest in order to disable genuine protest.

IT IS USING TRUTH TO SERVE LIES.

It is the Hegelian dialectic in action.

Many good people are led down futile paths when they trust and follow these people.

Even the name for the operation, 'Wikileaks', tells a story.

Here we see one CIA/Mossad operation supporting another. We are supposed to see 'Wiki' and think 'truth' as in that honourable internet encyclopedia 'Wikipedia'(......whose 'Mossad' entry, by the way, does NOT include their famous motto, "By way of deception thou shalt make war"). There is a lifetimes work for somebody exposing the spinning and obfuscation in support of establishment narratives on this lousy site.

For a more detailed look at the 'Wikileaks' operation see here.

LATE NEWS

Uh-O. Lookee here....Wikileaks 'reveal' that Bin Laden was being tracked through Pakistan:

"In August 2006, a US intelligence report placed Bin Laden at a meeting in Quetta, over the border in Pakistan.
It said he and others - including the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar - were organising suicide attacks in Afghanistan."

So there it is. That evil fiend, Bin Laden, is not dead (as most people who follow the information believe). He is alive and well and organising Al Qaeda, or is it the Taliban, to carry out suicide bombings against our boys in Afghanistan.

Well, now we know.

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[Sarahli]

So what do you guys think about Wikileaks ? Playing a double game or not ? I'm lost...

[Serenitys_Dream]

So what do you guys think about Wikileaks ? Playing a double game or not ? I'm lost...

The wiki leaks could be "Just What The Doctored Ordered" to make this new government policy seem that it is required but let's not forget that the CIA and other government agencies have been manipulating the media for years. By controlling whistle blowers, the information that is received is only what the US Government/Military want the public and servicemen/women to know.

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