The Sky News headline does not tell the full story; it appears several enlisted men were directed to dispose of the Korans found to have been burned, but they were not given clear orders how to get rid of them. The actual burning was apparently begun by Afghans manning the pit. You have to read far down in the linked story to read this. Emphasis mine. US officials said several of the soldiers, who have not been publicly identified, are likely to face disciplinary proceedings. They were not told to burn the books, although it’s unclear how they were supposed to dispose of Muslim texts. ‘There were crossed wires,’ said one official familiar with the investigation. ‘There’s no indication this was a deliberate attempt to defile religious materials.’ Afghan workers at the burn pit spotted several Korans in the flames and ’started getting riled up’ over the desecration of holy books, another official said. The workers pulled several charred books from the fire and told other Afghans, igniting widespread outrage. There’s no explanation as to why the Afghans manning the pit did not see the books prior to their beginning to burn. While it states they were not told to burn them, it’s unclear from the report that they were told how to appropriately dispose of them. Meanwhile, powerful Muslim clerics are demanding a public trial, using the threat of more violence as leverage and the Afghan government looks like it may be playing politics. Five blamed for Koran burnings The military investigation largely supports official US claims that the burnings were inadvertent. The officials said soldiers had confiscated religious materials because they believed the books were being used to pass written messages among prisoners. The books circulated from prisoner to prisoner as part of the prison’s lending library. The books were initially put in a storage area, but they were removed a few days later after enlisted soldiers were told to dispose of them. In Kabul, there were signs that any perceived failure to sufficiently punish those responsible could lead to a new round of angry protests. A group of politically powerful Muslim clerics met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and demanded a public trial in an Afghan court for the US troops involved in the incident, Karzai’s office said in a statement. The clerics denounced the Koran-burning as an ‘inhumane, savage act’ and said no apology would suffice, the presidential palace said. In releasing the clerics’ statement, Karzai appeared to be seeking leverage for his demand that the detention facility at Bagram be handed over to Afghan control. His office quoted the clerics as demanding ‘the closure of prisons run by foreigners’. If, as thought, prisoners were using them to pass extremist messages, it’s little wonder the clerics would want to take control of the prisons away from the U.S. Given recent history, were I the soldiers in question, I would not feel positive as regards the current Commander-in-Chief having my back. Here is what seems to have happened: full item at link . A US army investigation into the burning of Korans in a rubbish pit in Afghanistan found several soldiers misinterpreted an order, officials say. The investigation found that five US soldiers were responsible for confiscating the Korans and other religious materials from a US-run detention facility near Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, and dumping them in a pit used to incinerate rubbish. News of the incident sparked targeted attacks that killed six Americans and violent riots that left more than 30 people dead. Hundreds of foreign military and civilian advisers working at Afghan government offices were withdrawn by embassies and NATO commanders as the crisis mounted.
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Probe: Korans Placed in Trash by Soldiers, Inadvertently Burned by Afghan Workers
Thanks to Barack Obama’s failure to lead, events surrounding the burning of religious materials at Bargam Airfield–materials that included Qurans in which detainees were writing “extremist messages or inscriptions”–are perilously spiraling out of control. And now, Afghanistan President Karzai is calling for the American troops who took part in the burning to stand trial . Karzai’s doing this because he can. And the reason he can is because all Obama has displayed up to this point is weakness. Think about it: although U.S. military personnel have come forward to say the materials were only burned was because of the messages and inscriptions detainees had written within them, Obama has apologized twice to Karzai. One apology was what you’d call a regular apology, and the second one was what Obama spokesman Jay Carney called a “ severe apology.” What’s next? Will we offer to behead ourselves so Taliban and Al Qaeda members don’t have to go through all the hassle of catching us and tying us up? Obama may have missed this, but we are at war in that part of the world . Not a play war, like on Xbox, but a real war where American men and women in uniform are in harm’s way day and night. We’ve already lost two brave military personnel via an Afghan solider who was incited by the alleged burning of these materials, used by detainees to exchange extremist messages. And our troops could face even more loses if Obama doesn’t stand up and fight for change . If Obama would do that, this situation could be handled quickly. When Karzai asks for our troops to be put on trial for burning the religious materials that contained the extremist messages, we should simply ask whether he’ll put the extremist who shot and killed two of our soldiers on trial as well. And when Karzai asks for an apology so he can show the power he has over the American president, we should remind him that he only rules Afghanistan by our good graces and financial support . In no uncertain terms, we should let him know that the next time an Afghan soldier shoots an American, the financial aid disappears for good. Period. We have to deal from a position of strength because doing anything less is self-imposed weakness. Right now we’re in trouble, not because we burned religious materials that contained extremist messages, but because we are projecting weakness.
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Karzai Wants Americans Tried for Quran Incident; Will Obama Defend Troops?
Retired Army Major General James B. Vaught is a veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam. And he’s angry at the current U.S. Special Operations Command, who he believes is way too cozy with the media. General Vaught… “Get the hell out of the media!” he boomed at a recent conference on special operations/low intensity conflict sposnored by the National Defense Industrial Association. He directed those words at Admiral William H. McRaven, who is the Commander of U.S. Special Operations who had just spoken at the conference. He warned that if the cozy relationship continued, it would put missions like the killing of Osama Bin Laden and the rescue of kidnapping victims in Somalia at risk because too much operational information is being shared. Next time, ”You’re going to fly in and they’re going to shoot down everybody in the helicopter. You’ve splasing this all over the media, and I flat out don’t understand that.” Admiral McRaven McRaven responded that that was an impossible approach in this day and age. One reason he became a Navy SEAL, said McRaven, is because he had seen the classic John Wayne movie, The Green Berets . As much as I understand the General’s sentiments, the fact of the matter is we live in a media age. And failure to play to media game—when necessary–means that you put yourself at a political disadvantage. I wish it weren’t so–but it’s true. Our armed forces fight multiple battles today, and some of the most important are in the media.
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General Vaught To Special Operations Command: ‘Get The Hell Out Of The Media’
There’s a new Predator in the skies. The Predator-C Avenger has been flight tested over Southern California by General Atomics, and it looks impressive. The Avenger can fly at more than 400 knots and has an endurance of 16 hours. It is the fastest of the Predator family and can carry 3,500 pounds of weapons and equipment internally as well as hard wing points that can carry up to 2,000 pounds of weapons. It has a 44-foot long fuselage and a 66-foot wingspan. The Air Force is expected to begin testing soon. Some report that the system has already been tested over Afghanistan.
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New Predator Drone Being Tested
This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com . The African Union celebrates China’s rise in Africa Egypt detains son of US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood Arab League suspends its observer mission to Syria Greece ‘budget commissioner’ proposal adds new vitriol to euro debate An ordinary day in Pakistan The African Union celebrates China’s rise in Africa A traditional dancer performs during the inauguration of the new African Union headquaters in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, on Saturday. (Reuters) The African Union has inaugurated a new headquarters with tributes to China’s rise in Africa. The new $200 million Chinese-built headquarters was officially opened by China’s senior political adviser Jia Qinglin, standing in for Premier Hu Jintao. In a speech to an audience of heads of state and African diplomats in the spectacular 2500-seat Grand Hall, Jia hailed the rapid growth of China-Africa relations. China’s trade with African countries reached $150 billion last year, he said, a 13 fold increase in the past decade. Others at the ceremony praised China as the model for Africa’s economic growth. VOA Egypt detains son of US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood A confrontation between the U.S. and Egypt is growing over the arrest last week of Sam LaHood, the son of US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, in a raid by the Egyptian regime on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working for democracy in Egypt. Several other Americans have been detained as well, on charges of working for an unregistered NGO, and they may be jailed for five years. The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) is blaming the recent unrest in Egypt on “foreign hands,” and has accused local NGOs of receiving money from abroad. Bikya Masr (Cairo) Arab League suspends its observer mission to Syria The Arab League has frozen its monitoring mission to Syria because of increasing violence, a lot of it taking place right under the noses of the Arab League observers. The decision to freeze the mission comes in the midst of a broad regime offensive that’s killed about 100 people in the past few days, many in their own homes. Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby: “Given the critical deterioration of the situation in Syria and the continued use of violence … it has been decided to immediately stop the work of the Arab League’s mission to Syria pending presentation of the issue to the league’s council.” Syria accused the Arab League of ending the mission in order to pressure the U.N. Security Council: “Syria regrets and is surprised at the Arab decision to stop the work of its monitoring mission. This will have a negative impact and put pressure on (Security Council) deliberations with the aim of calling for foreign intervention and encouraging armed groups to increase violence. However, an analyst says, “There has been a dramatic escalation in violence in Syria and, I believe that the termination of the mission of the Arab League observers in Syria indicates that the Syrian Army is about to launch a major offensive. The regime is about to do something dramatic.” VOA and Reuters Greece ‘budget commissioner’ proposal adds new vitriol to euro debate IMF chief Christine Lagarde on Saturday (AP) As the days go by and the eurozone debate over the coming default on Greece debt grows more vitriolic, a new proposal has emerged that’s infuriated the Greek public. International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Christine Lagarde said that a “fiscal compact” is set to be signed on Monday by eurozone officials, and a leaked document reveals a German proposal to force Greece to accept an external “budget commissioner” who would have the power to veto government decisions on budget, taxes and spending if they were not in line with committed targets. Reaction from the Greek government was furious. The education minister, Anna Diamantopoulou, a former EU commissioner, slammed the idea as “the product of a sick imagination.” The proposal freaked out other people as well, since it would obviously also apply to Ireland, Portugal, and other indebted countries. However, the German proposal points out: “Given the disappointing compliance so far, Greece has to accept shifting budgetary sovereignty to the European level for a certain period of time.” London Telegraph and Al-Jazeera An ordinary day in Pakistan Following are security developments in Pakistan on Saturday: KARACHI – At least three people were injured when unidentified men threw a hand grenade at a hardware shop in the southern city of Karachi, police officials said. KURRAM – A roadside bomb killed two Pakistani soldiers when it exploded in the Jogi area of the northwestern Kurram tribal region, near the Afghanistan border, a local security official said. Nothing special. Just another ordinary day in the life of Pakistan. Reuters
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29-Jan-12 World View: German Proposal for EU Control over Greece’s Budget Causes Fury
US Army and Afghan Army play volleyball in southwestern Kandahar in 2011. On Sunday, a similar match in Zabul province turned deadly when an Afghan Army member shot and killed one American, wounding three. — It would be most helpful for at least one of the GOP candidates to think long and hard about what is going wrong with the Bush-Obama Afghanistan War and share his thoughts with his fellow citizens. A good place to start would be with examining — noticing — the serial murders of ISAF soldiers by Afghan Army members, particularly given the fact that the Bush-Obama strategy is to train the Afghan security forces (at exorbitant US taxpayer cost) as the supporting pillar of our so-called Exit Strategy. As George W. Bush used to say about Iraq, as they stand up, we stand down. And that worked out so well. In the last three months the murder count in five separate attacks by uniformed Afghan security forces inside the wire includes: Three Australian Diggers killed and ten wounded; four non-specified NATO troops wounded; two members of France’s elite 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment killed; and, most recently, one US soldier killed and three wounded – while playing volleyball. Excluding the Australian losses, the remaining attacks occurred in the past three weeks . Adding to my informal record, this grim toll (which doesn’t inlude non-fatal injuries) now comes to 43 ISAF troops killed by their Afghan counterparts in the past 26 months. In April 2011 alone, the body count came to 11 Americans killed by their Afghan counterparts, including the mass murder of nine at Kabul Airport (column here ) by a long-serving Afghan Air Force officer. Even this sensational story failed to draw much in the way of media interest, even — no, particularly — on Fox News. Do we know the fate of the Afghan shooter in this case? Was he charged? Is he in prison? Is he drawing a US-taxpayer salary? We have no answers. We have no interest. If anyone is tracking my addition, I now believe the total ANA murders of ISAF troops for April 2011 was 11, and not, as I previously thought, 15. But clearly, an official Price-Waterhouse-style accounting of this scandal is required. If any Congressman sufficiently cared, for example, the Congressional Research Service or some Pentagon office would be tasked to track these casualties of hearts-and-minds COIN. But politicians don’t care; neither do the media. ABC News, in fact, folds in the victims of the latest ANA murder of an American (at a volleyball game; I can’t get over that) with all other NATO casualties for the month. It is as though such killings were the regular, non-extraordinary price of doing battle. Call it the normalization of madness . Or, better, call it dhimmitude. Late last year, an editorial in Marine Corps Times justified teaching Marines to observe Islamic religious practices as a matter of personal safety inside the wire. The message is: mustn’t offend our Muslim alllies whom we are supporting in every way or they’ll kill us — classic submission. But about the Western warriors who have been killed? Silence. Dhimmitude.
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Operation Enduring and Unexamined Dementia, Cont’d
Another attack by an Afghan service member has killed four French troops and wounded 16. Reuters photo This brings my admittedly informal tally of the grim toll to 52 Western personnel killed by Afghan security forces in the past 26 months since the November 2009 attack by an Afghan policeman that killed five British troops inside the wire. That November 2009 atrocity has served as a baseline in my attempt to track this grim toll at my blog and in my column over the past two years. Looking back, however, I find that on October 3, 2009 , two Americans were killed and two others wounded as they slept by an Afghan Army soldier on duty. To the best of my calculations, then, that makes 54 infidels murdered by Muslim “allies” in Afghanistan in the past 27 months. This figure is almost certainly low, not only because I have undoubtedly missed reports, but it’s also quite likely that other incidents, particularly in action, have gone undetected, unreported. The total also doesn’t take into account non-fatal incidents, such as the September 2009 attack on an American soldier for drinking water during Ramadan by an Afghan policeman in Kabul. The American was “only” seriously wounded. Congress should order an official reckoning of these casualties of jihad. Today’s attack on the French is different from all of the others in that it has elicited a healthy reflex in the French: the survival reflex. From the AFP report: French troops had surrounded their base in Kapisa and were not allowing any Afghan soldiers to approach, a security source told AFP. The AP reports: French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday that France is suspending its training programs for Afghan troops after the killings, which he announced in a speech after the U.S-led coalition said an Afghan soldier shot and killed four NATO troops. Sarkozy said it was “unacceptable” that Afghan troops would attack French soldiers. He said French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe is heading to Afghanistan after the attack, which is among the most deadly for French forces in the 10 years they have been serving in the NATO-led international force in Afghanistan.
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Killing of French Soldiers Continues a Tragic Trend in Afghanistan
This video came out a month ago, and the U.S. Army is investigating. Apparently they have been pushed hard by PETA. The man with the bat appears to be a local Afghan, not a member of the U.S. Armed Forces. Given the recent controversy of US Marines urinating on Taliban corpses, the military brass is doubling down on videos that bring them bad publicity. From the Army Times : Army investigators are probing the video of a sheep being beaten with a baseball bat while a group of what appear to be soldiers cheer and laugh, according to a military spokesman. Military commanders in Afghanistan have condemned the video, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force said in an email. He said the Army Criminal Investigation Command opened an investigation after the video surfaced in November. “We are aware of a Live Leak video depicting the killing of a sheep,” the spokesman said. “The actions of those involved are not condoned or supported in any way. We are currently assessing the situation to determine more information.” The full story is here .
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Shock Video: Sheep Beating Video With US Army Soldiers Watching Now Under Investigation
United States House of Representatives Louie Gohmert from Texas just came back from leading important discussions overseas in defense our interests in Afghanistan. He starts by explaining the situation in Afghanistan and the incredible work the United States military has done by defeating the Taliban, and how the Obama Administration seems to discount all the hard work of our troops by releasing high ranking Taliban leaders. Representative Gohmert clearly states what will happen if the US releases the Taliban leaders and the danger it will bring, not only to the United States but to Afghanistan as well. Will the president follow through with this horrific lack of judgment and release these dangerous terrorists? You can hear Rep. Gohmert’s entire interview at Secure Freedom Radio.
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Congressman Gohmert Cautions Against Releasing Taliban Leaders from Gitmo
From the Associated Press: Afghan entrepreneurs hard at work… KABUL, Afghanistan — Revenue from opium production in Afghanistan soared by 133 percent last year to about $1.4 billion, or about one-tenth of the country’s GDP, according to a United Nations report received Friday. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said the price rise was due to a plant disease that wiped out much of the opium crop in 2010. Although yields returned to pre-blight levels in 2011, the prices have remained high, the survey said. Definitive statistics are hard to obtain in Afghanistan, but the survey said the value of the crop may now be the equivalent of nine percent of the country’s GDP. “Opium is therefore a significant part of the Afghan economy and provides considerable funding to the insurgency and fuels corruption,” said Yury Fedotov, director of the Vienna-based agency. He called for a stronger commitment from Afghan and international partners “to turn this worrying trend around.” Income from opium finances weapons and equipment purchases for the Taliban. Afghanistan provides about 90 percent of the world’s opium, the raw ingredient for heroin. The U.N. and the Afghan government have long tried to wean the country off the lucrative crop. The largest areas of opium poppy cultivation are in the violent south of Afghanistan, where it can be hard to make money on legal crops and where criminal networks exist to buy and sell the poppy crop. Most farmers surveyed said they were primarily motivated by the high prices gained by opium poppy cultivation, particularly in comparison with wheat, which suffered a fall in price last year. The survey showed that 6,400 tons of opium were produced last year, in comparison with 4,000 tons (3,600 metric tons) in 2010. It said rising opium prices drove Afghan farmers to increase cultivation of the illicit opium poppy plants by 7 percent in 2011, despite a major push by the Afghan government and international allies. Most of the opium from landlocked Afghanistan is shipped through Iran and Pakistan. Russia, which has around 2 million opium and heroin addicts, is also a principal route for drugs headed for Europe. Moscow has repeatedly urged the U.S. military to take stronger action against Afghan drug labs. Russia has also trained several hundred Afghan counternarcotics agents. “Counternarcotics is not the exclusive domain of specialized units alone, but the shared responsibility of everybody concerned with security, stability, governance and development in Afghanistan and the wider region,” Fedotov said.
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Something Is Working In Afghanistan: Opium Revenue Up 133%