The U.S. Army has dismissed all charges against the last of five soldiers to face a court-martial in the slaying of unarmed Afghan civilians, officials from their home base near Tacoma, Washington, said on Friday. - Army Specialist Michael Wagnon had been charged with premediated murder in the death of a villager in Afghanistan during a tour of duty in February 2010. "As of right now, he's pretty much a free man," said Lieutenant Colonel Gary Dangerfield, a spokesman for Joint Base Lewis-McChord. "He is still in the Army but a free man." Wagnon, 31, was released from military detention and placed under home confinement in April.

The United States military has said in a secret report that the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control over Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw from the country, Britain's The Times newspaper said Wednesday. - "Many Afghans are already bracing themselves for an eventual return of the Taliban," the newspaper said, quoting the report. "Once ISAF (NATO-led forces) is no longer a factor, Taliban consider their victory inevitable," it quoted the report. The Times said the "highly classified" report was put together by the U.S. military at Bagram air base in Afghanistan for top NATO officers last month. The BBC also carried a report on the leaked document. Large swathes of Afghanistan have already been handed back to Afghan security forces, with the last foreign combat troops due to leave by the end of 2014.

NYT: Panetta Says U.S. to End Afghan Combat Role as Soon as 2013
John Glaser: Panetta: US to End Combat Role in Afghanistan Next Year
The People's Voice/ICOS/The Senlis Council: STRUGGLE FOR KABUL: THE TALIBAN ADVANCE [December 10th, 2008]

Pakistan dismissed claims made in a classified NATO report that it is aiding Taliban guerrillas in neighboring Afghanistan, a study that also said the militants may again take power in Kabul once foreign troops leave in 2014. - “For me this is old wine in an even older bottle,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said at a press conference in Kabul today. “I don’t think these claims are new. I can just disregard this as potentially strategic leak.” A report by senior NATO officers in Afghanistan says the Taliban are unbeaten and “its strength, motivation, funding and tactical proficiency remain intact,” the London-based Times said today. The report, entitled “State of the Taliban,” was based on 27,000 interviews with detainees and has been reviewed by the newspaper, according to the Times.

Ministry of Defence says 1st Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment soldier was shot during a foot patrol in Helmand province. - Officials have not yet released the identity of the soldier but said his family has been notified. Britain has about 9,500 troops in Afghanistan, most based in the southern province. The death brings to 397 the number of British personnel who have died in Afghanistan since "operations" [the occupation] began in 2001.

After an Afghan soldier turned on French troops, killing four, Sarkozy has doubt about efficacy of NATO mission. - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday that he was suspending training operations in Afghanistan after an Afghan soldier killed four French soldiers and wounded a dozen more in a shoot out. Sarkozy also said the shooting raises serious doubts about the efficacy of NATO’s training mission in Afghanistan and could possibly lead France to withdraw its 3,600 troops from the mission sooner rather than later. The attack that killed the French troops is just one in a long line of similar attacks that have been occurring in recent weeks. U.S. Marines and other coalition troops are being killed and attacked by Afghan army soldiers that are receiving training from NATO. The government has been mum about the rising number of such incidents because it flies in the face of, for example, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s comment last month that the U.S. is “winning” in Afghanistan. A central goal of the mission is to train an Afghan army, but so far the army is made up of illiterate criminals and drug addicts who sometimes attack NATO soldiers and quit in droves.

AWIP: Four French troops shot by Afghan soldier
PressTV: Another US-led soldier killed in S Afghanistan
PressTV: US army base attacked in Afghanistan

At least three civilians have been killed after US military forces attacked a residential area in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nagarhar, Press TV reports.

Local residents told Press TV that the victims, among them a teacher, died in the Achin district of the province, located some 120 kilometers (74 miles) east of the country's capital Kabul, on Friday morning when American forces launched a raid in the area. Local officials argued the deceased had no connection with the Taliban or any other militant group. However, the US military figures in the provincial capital city of Jalalabad claimed that the trio had initially offered refuge and assistance to a bomber, who was responsible for an assault on a US airbase in eastern Afghanistan a few days earlier. The US-led invasion of Afghanistan took place in 2001. The move removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues to rise across Afghanistan, despite the presence there of some 130,000 US-led troops.

Four French soldiers have been killed in northern Afghanistan after a serviceman from the Afghan National Army opened fire, officials say. - Another 16 French soldiers were injured, some seriously, in the incident in Kapisa province. An official told the BBC that an Afghan non-commissioned officer got into a "verbal clash" and opened fire. President Nicolas Sarkozy said France was suspending its training programmes in Afghanistan following the attack. He was sending his defence minister, Gerard Longuet, to the country immediately, he said. A Taliban spokesman said it was not clear if the attacker was a member of their group but described him as a "conscientious Afghan soldier".

PressTV: France mulls early Afghanistan pullout
International Business Times: France Hints at Early Afghan Exit after Gunman Kills Four Soldiers
Global Post: France suspends training ops after Afghan soldier shoots dead 4 French troops

Top NATO official Sir Simon Gass indicated today the alliance plans a more or less open-ended commitment to funding the Karzai government, saying he believed the nation will require “decades” of support beyond 2014. - Sir Simon insisted that NATO would have to learn the mistake from the failed Soviet occupation — apparently not the “don’t occupy Afghanistan” mistake. Instead, he sees the mistake coming three years after the Soviet troops left, when they withdrew funding from the Najibullah regime. And there appears to be no chance of that happening here, with the Karzai government expected to be on the dole more or less forever, needing $7 billion annually in foreign funding just to prop up their military.

The latest US intelligence report concludes the war against the Taliban has reached an impasse, with the Taliban remaining committed to taking back Afghanistan by force as soon as NATO troops leave the country. - Two current and one former US official speaking on condition of anonymity told AP the intelligence community’s take on the war is that the Taliban may only be paying lip service to peace talks with NATO and Afghan government. The classified Afghan National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) declares the war at a stalemate, with NATO security gains far outweighed by corruption at all levels of Afghan government. The report also finds special operations raids and programs to bolster local Afghan security are somewhat effective in degrading the Taliban, but it returns as soon as NATO forces withdraw from an area. The assessment also questions the overall success of the longest war in US history.

At least two of four US Marines shown in a video appearing to urinate on Taliban corpses have been identified, a Marine Corps official has told the BBC. - The video, which was posted online, purports to show the Marines standing over the bodies of several Taliban fighters, at least one of whom is covered in blood. The Marines have begun a criminal investigation and an internal inquiry. US officials and Afghan officials have condemned the video. The Taliban condemned the video, but said it would not affect the political process. The origin of the video is not known, but it was originally posted to YouTube. It has not been verified but correspondents say all indications are that it is authentic.

David Swanson/Russia Today: Marine video exposes systemic abuse by US troops - Video Interview

Arthur Silber: The Varieties of Pissing - The rulers of the United States piss on you, and on every other human being on Earth not favored by privilege and power.
James Cogan: US marines desecrate Afghan dead - As in previous cases of military abuse, it seems the media will publicly vilify the rank-and-file troops involved in the desecration, but abstain from any commentary—let alone criticism—of the political and military establishment that created the debased climate in which this abuse took place.

The price of Afghan opium rose dramatically in 2011, the UN has said. - Opium poppy farmers in Afghanistan probably earned more than $1.4bn (£910m) last year - equivalent to 9% of the country's GDP, it estimates. Prices started to rise in 2010 after the poppy crop was hit by a fungal disease. The head of the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime said opium helped fund the Taliban insurgency and fuelled corruption in Afghanistan. "Opium is a significant part of the Afghan economy," Yury Fedotov said. Around 90% of the world's opium comes from Afghanistan, according to the office, which carries out an annual survey of production there. The Afghan Opium Survey for 2011 found that the value of opium in the country had increased by 133%. Areas of poppy cultivation which had been affected by the fungal disease in 2010 recovered and yields went back up. Last year's survey had predicted a rise in poppy planting as farmers responded to higher market prices.

Paul DeRienzo: Interview with Alfred McCoy
Kurt Nimmo: Afghanistan: Drug Addiction Lucrative for Neolib Banksters, CIA
William Blum: The Real Drug Lords: A brief history of CIA involvement in the Drug Trade
Michel Chossudovsky: Washington's Hidden Agenda: Restore the Drug Trade

Glen Ford: Americans Are Deeply Involved In Afghan Drug Trade - The U.S. set the stage for the Afghan (and Pakistan) war eight years ago, when it handed out drug dealing franchises to warlords on Washington's payroll. Now the Americans, acting as Boss of All Bosses, have drawn up hit lists of rival, “Taliban” drug lords. “It is a gangster occupation, in which U.S.-allied drug dealers are put in charge of the police and border patrol.” “U.S.-allied drug dealers are put in charge of the police and border patrol, while their rivals are placed on American hit lists.” If you’re looking for the chief kingpin in the Afghanistan heroin trade, it’s the United States. The American mission has devolved to a Mafiosi-style arrangement that poisons every military and political alliance entered into by the U.S. and its puppet government in Kabul. It is a gangster occupation, in which U.S.-allied drug dealers are put in charge of the police and border patrol, while their rivals are placed on American hit lists, marked for death or capture. As a result, Afghanistan has been transformed into an opium plantation that supplies 90 percent of the world’s heroin. [Illustration: David Dees]

Outrage across the world after footage emerges showing U.S. troops 'urinating on dead Afghan bodies'. - Footage showing American soldiers urinating on dead Afghan bodies has sparked outrage across the world - with Afghanistan's leaders labelling it as a 'recruitment tool for the Taliban'. The 'disgusting' and 'highly reprehensible' 40-second clip shows four men in combat gear standing over the three corpses with their genitals exposed as they relieve themselves. The men can be heard joking 'Have a great day, buddy', 'Golden like a shower' and 'Yeahhhh!' as they groan with relief whilst urinating. It has sparked anger from Afghans, with top negotiator from President Hamid Karzai's High Peace Council Arsala Rahmani, saying it will have a 'very, very bad impact on peace efforts'.

Russia Today: Marines urinating on Taliban video scandal sparks outrage

On both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border, the reckless and incendiary policies of the Obama administration have set the stage for another year of carnage and deepening mass opposition. - The crisis besetting the US/NATO occupation of Afghanistan has been deepened over recent days. Its own puppet government, headed by President Hamid Karzai, has publicly accused the American military of torture and arbitrary detention at the largest US-run prison in the country.

The US military has been accused of abuse and torture at its notorious detention center in Afghanistan. Investigators say most detainees at Bagram prison are being held without charge or firm evidence of guilt.

Inmates of the US-run prison outside Bagram Air Base north of Kabul complained of freezing cold, humiliating strip searches and being deprived of light, according to Gul Rahman Qazi, who led an investigation ordered by President Hamid Karzai.

President Karzai ordered the investigative commission to be set up on January 5, after demanding that the US transfer full control over its military prisons to local authorities within a month. "Foreign troops are not allowed to run prisons in Afghanistan, which is sovereign and has its own constitution," Karzai said on Thursday. According to President Karzai, the Bagram prisoners are subject to Guantanamo-like conditions with ''many cases of violations of the Afghan constitution and other applicable laws of the conventions on human rights.” Officially, the detention facility is run by the US and Afghanistan jointly, but local authorities currently control only a small portion of the prison.

From another grisly find...(The We!)

A mass grave containing at least 10 human skulls was discovered in northern Afghanistan by construction workers digging the earth to build a car park in an army compound, Afghan officials said on Wednesday.

The discovery of the grave Tuesday in the northern Balkh province in the Deh Dadi district near the site of a major battle during the country's bloody civil war of the early 1990s is yet another reminder of the country's turbulent past. "We brought 10 to 15 skeletons out of the grave and then stopped digging," said Mohammad Nahim, a spokesman for the Afghan army in the north said. Nahim added that the army asked forensic and human rights bodies to investigate the grave, where the hands of skeletons, some poking out from dusty sweaters, had been tied behind their backs with blue rope. [See item below.]

The men were travelling with a local interpreter and driver on the Jalalabad road, east of Kabul. They work for a "private security company" [MI6/CIA] and were carrying AK-47 assault rifles - one of the most commonly used weapons in Afghanistan. Thousands of private security guards operate in Afghanistan, including many foreigners. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has in the past accused them of undermining the security services and taking work from Afghan nationals. The men were were arrested along with their driver and interpreter. Kabul police have called on their employers to explain why they were transporting the guns without proper documentation. Kabul police chief Ayub Salangi told the BBC at least 15 of the AK-47s did not have serial numbers. [...] The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul says that such cases, while hardly routine, have occurred in the past. A British man was briefly detained in 2007 for having more 100 pistols. In the same year an American bounty hunter, Jack Idema, was pardoned by President Hamid Karzai after a period in jail for running a private prison in Kabul and torturing Afghans. [See item below.]

The Taliban announced Tuesday that they will open an office in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar to hold talks with the United States, an unprecedented step toward a peace process that might lead to a winding down of the 10-year war in Afghanistan. Although U.S. and Taliban representatives have met secretly several times over the past year in Europe and the Persian Gulf, this is the first time the Islamist insurgent group has publicly expressed willingness for substantive negotiations.

The Taliban have attacked the largest American military base in Afghanistan on the first day of the New Year despite US efforts to negotiate with the militant group, Press TV reports. - A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said on Sunday that fatalities had been caused after the militants hit the US Bagram Air Base in the north of the Afghan capital Kabul with nine missiles. He added that they launched the attack when the US forces were celebrating the start of the new year. Afghan officials also announced that the heavily-fortified airbase had been hit by a barrage of rockets, but claimed that the attack had not caused any casualties.

Afghan officials say an American reconnaissance drone has crashed in Afghanistan's southeastern province of Paktia, Press TV reports. - A Tuesday statement released by NATO confirmed the incident but claimed that the unmanned aircraft made an emergency landing “due to technical malfunction.” According to locals, US-led forces have cordoned off the site of the incident. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid also claimed that members of the militant group shot down the drone in the Ahmadabad district of the province. The Taliban say they have shot down several aircraft and NATO choppers in different parts of Afghanistan over the past few months. Activities by the militants have persisted despite the presence of around 150,000 US-led forces in Afghanistan. The United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 under the pretext of combating terrorism and eradicating the Taliban militancy but its failure has forced Washington to turn to negotiation with the militants. The Taliban have steadily stepped up their attacks on the US-led forces, inflicting heavy casualties and damage on them.

The British government has asked Washington to hand over a man held by US forces in Afghanistan after the appeal court ordered a writ of habeas corpus be issued seven years after he was detained. The court ordered the writ last week after hearing that Yunus Rahmatullah was detained by UK special forces in Iraq in 2004, and then handed over to US forces who flew him to Bagram prison, north of Kabul. The court heard on Wednesday that the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence had asked the US government to transfer Rahmatullah to British custody so that he could be released. However, the US defence department replied three days later that the responsible official "is currently on travel", and that it would respond at some unspecified date in the future.

John Glaser: Britain Asks US to Hand Over Bagram Detainee

Despite the 1855 occupation soldiers killed in the war-torn country since the US-led invasion in 2003, the US Defense Chief boasts and says his country is “winning”. - During a visit to Afghanistan, Panetta reviews the war effort between Kabul and Washington, which is on track to recall 33,000 troops by the end of the next year and is shifting its focus to an advisory role in “training” Afghan security forces. "We're moving in the right direction and we're winning this very tough conflict," he told troops at Forward Operating Base Sharana, 56 kilometers from the Pakistan border, in the eastern province of Paktika.

Reports say the US has dumped the remains of nearly 300 American troops killed in action overseas in a landfill in the state of Virginia. - According to the Washington Post, report on Wednesday, the incinerated partial remains of at least 274 American troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan had been sent to the King George county landfill in Virginia. The US Air Force is reported to have dumped the cremated partial remains in the landfill between 2004 and 2008. The report was based on database information at the Dover Air Base mortuary, where the remains of most war fatalities return. The actual number is considered to be far more than what the military admitted to, before reportedly halting the practice in 2008. The US military concealed the corpses' dumping from families who had authorized the military to dispose of the remains in a dignified and respectful manner. Officials say there are no plans to alert the families of the deceased soldiers.

Washington Post: Remains of hundreds of troops left in landfill

Hazara people are Turkic people and descendants of the Kushans. There are also Mongol influences in ten percent of Hazaras. Hazara People are living in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India and central Asian countries like Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. Hundreds of thousands of Hazara people live in EU, USA, Canada, and Australia. - Hazara People International Network: This Timeline has been developed to provide a snapshot of the Hazara’s situation in Afghanistan since 1890. Hazara people are the most persecuted people in the world. They are victims of genocide, slavery, war crimes and crimes against humanity. This timeline shows how the systematic crimes against the Hazaras is continuing. PDF

Helicopters of the NATO-led international forces killed three women and injured two men in southern Afghanistan, local authorities said Tuesday. - The International Security Assistance Force fired rockets into civilian houses in Zhari district of volatile Kandahar province on Monday, said Zalmai Ayoubi, the provincial governor's spokesman. Witnesses said that the helicopters fired four rockets. A spokesman for the international military did not confirm the attack, but Ayoubi said the alliance had acknowledged the incident. Last week, an NATO airstrike in same district killed nine civilians, most of them children.

FAIR: Dead Afghan Kids Still Not Newsworthy

The United States has used tactical nuclear weapons in its military campaign against Iraq and Afghanistan, a Middle East expert tells Press TV. - “Tactical nuclear weapons were used, at least one in Iraq and several were used in Afghanistan --in the Tora Bora mountains,” Peter Eyre, a Middle East consultant, said. Eyre pointed out that the atomic bomb dropped on Afghanistan's Tora Bora region was so powerful that it actually created an earthquake there. The analyst went on to say that the use of such lethal weapons by US military, which is a gross violation of the Geneva Convention, has been sanctioned by the US presidents; thus they should be prosecuted for war crimes. "In America, the ultimate commander in chief is the president," Eyre said, adding that the President has the final say in using such weapons. The US is the first country in the world to develop nuclear weapons and the only one to use them.

Russia has threatened to block NATO's supply routes to Afghanistan, should the Western military alliance continue to disregard Moscow's concerns about the US-led defense shield for Europe, a report says. - Russian Ambassador to NATO Dmitri Rogozin warned that Moscow will review its cooperation with the Western military alliance on Afghanistan if the NATO fails to address Russia's objections, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. Earlier on Thursday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned that direct actions will be taken if his country's concerns are not addressed. Medvedev envisioned possible missile attacks on Poland, Romania, Spain, and Turkey as a means to disable the counter-missile batteries, if the United States fails to acknowledge the concerns of the Russian defense officials. He also warned that the country will deploy nuclear weapons to European borders in response to the move.

Nato helicopters have fired on a military checkpost near Pakistan's Afghan border, killing up to eight soldiers. The unprovoked and indiscriminate attack took place in the Pakistani tribal region of Mohmand, the Pakistani military said in a statement. - In response, Pakistan has closed the border crossing for supplies bound for Nato forces in Afghanistan. Nato said it was aware of "an incident" near the border and was investigating. The alleged attack took place at the Salala checkpoint, about 1.5 miles (2.5 km) from the Afghan border, Reuters reports, at around 02:00 local time (21:00 GMT). If confirmed, the attack would further complicate US-Pakistan relations, already under strain following a unilateral US raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan in May. Unnamed officials initially put the toll at up to eight, including an army major, but it has since risen. At least seven soldiers were wounded.

PressTV: Pakistan summons US envoy over raid
MSNBC: NATO chopppers kill up to 28 Pakistani troops
Russia Today: NATO helicopters fire on checkpoint, 25 killed

NATO Terms Killings 'Unfortunate' and Promises Inquiry. - NATO warplanes attacked the village in the Zhari District of Kandahar today, killing at least seven civilians, including six children, and injuring two other children. The attack came after a gunbattle outside the village between NATO and Taliban forces. NATO officials termed the killings “unfortunate” and said they came “in response to insurgent action.” They have promised to launch an inquiry into why the children were bombed.

Glenn Greenwald: The fruits of liberation - Six children were among seven civilians killed in a NATO airstrike in southern Afghanistan. They were between 4 and 12 years old and all were killed, except an 8-year-old daughter who was badly wounded. Officials claimed that the aircraft were chasing “insurgents” when they fired on the children.

Taliban "militants" say they have shot down a helicopter operated by the US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the troubled eastern Afghanistan, Press TV reported. - Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the "militants" successfully targeted the helicopter on Thursday in the Qarabagh district of Kabul Province, and all 33 foreign troops on board were killed in the incident. However, ISAF dismissed the Taliban's claim, saying a mechanical failure forced the helicopter to make an emergency landing. The Western military alliance added that all the crewmembers were rescued and there were no casualties in the incident. In another incident, thirty-one US special operation troops and seven Afghan commandos were killed when their CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed in the early hours of August 6 in Afghanistan's eastern province of Wardak. The Taliban claimed they downed the helicopter with rocket fire while it was taking part in an attack on a house where militants had gathered.

A US-led airstrike has left at least nine civilians, including women and children, dead in Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar, Press TV reports. - Local sources said on Tuesday that three children and two women were among the dead. Afghan authorities told reporters that they would investigate the incident. Meanwhile, the US military admitted to having launched an airstrike, but said that all those killed were militants. Earlier on Tuesday, four civilians were killed and three others were wounded after their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Alingar district of Laghman Province in eastern Afghanistan. Afghan civilians have paid a high price since the US-led invasion of the country in 2001. According to figures released by the United Nations, the number of civilians killed in the first half of this year saw a 15 percent increase.

Around 1,000 people, mostly students, took to the streets in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday to protest against plans for a long-term partnership deal with the United States, which they fear could lead to an extended presence of U.S. troops. - Afghan political and community leaders endorsed the idea of a strategic partnership, with some caveats, after a 2,000-strong national gathering, or loya jirga, which ended on Saturday. The demonstrators gathered just outside the capital of eastern Nangarhar province and burnt an effigy of U.S. President Barack Obama as they protested against the prospect of U.S. troops remaining in Afghanistan. All foreign combat troops are currently slated to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, with security nationwide to be handed over to the national police and army. However, other foreign advisers will remain to work with Afghan forces. "We are totally against any American presence in Afghanistan, they kill our people in their arbitrary operations," said university student Mohammad Tahir Qane.

Jason Ditz: Student Protests in East Afghanistan Condemn Effort to Extend US Occupation

A US soldier has been found guilty of killing Afghan villagers for sport and taking fingers and teeth as trophies. - Staff Sgt Calvin Gibbs had claimed his victims were Taliban and placed weapons near their bodies in a bid to prove they had been killed in combat and were not civilians. The 26-year-old was sentenced to life imprisonment by a US military jury for murder, conspiracy and other charges in a case likely to bolster claims by Afghan leaders that the US army often kills civilians and falsely claims that they are insurgent fighters. Prosecutors said Gibbs led a unit which described itself as "a kill team" that routinely pretended unarmed Afghans had died as a result of military action. During the seven-day court martial at a base south of Seattle,he admitted cutting the fingers off the bodies of the dead and yanking out a tooth of a victim saying it was "like keeping the antlers of a deer you'd shoot" and he "disassociated" the bodies from being human. Gibbs, from Montana, was the most senior of five soldiers from 5th Stryker Brigade accused of shooting three unarmed civilians in Kandahar Province last year.

AWIP: Army sergeant found guilty in staged murders of three Afghan civilians

Calvin Gibbs is convicted as the ringleader of a rogue 'kill team,' as well as for keeping body parts as trophies and organizing the gang beating of a fellow soldier over the 5th Stryker Brigade's use of hashish. - Reporting from Seattle— An Army sergeant so sharp he looked like a recruiting poster — who had skulls tattooed on his leg said to represent the people he'd killed in Iraq — was convicted of three counts of premeditated murder Thursday in the most gruesome war crimes case to emerge from the war in Afghanistan. Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, 26, was also found guilty of keeping decomposing fingers, leg bones and a tooth as trophies from corpses, and organizing the gang beating of a fellow soldier he feared would report the rampant hashish use in what Army officials say was an "out of control" platoon. The five-member military jury deliberated about four hours before convicting Gibbs, who led a team from what was then the 5th Stryker Brigade. Gibbs, from Billings, Mont., was sentenced to life in prison, but will be eligible for parole after 10 years.

The News Tribune: Jury finds Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs guilty on all “kill team” charges
Jerry White: Photos released of atrocities by US “kill team” in Afghanistan
NYT: Young Soldier Both Revered and Reviled [Photo]

AWIP:
GI admits sport killing in Afghanistan
Army: Soldiers formed ‘kill team’ to randomly execute Afghans

[Oct 29, 2009] U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) killed well over 1,500 civilians in night raids in less than 10 months, analysis of official statistics on the raids released by the U.S.-NATO command reveals. - That number would make U.S. night raids by far the largest cause of civilian casualties in the war in Afghanistan. The report by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan on civilian casualties in 2010 had said the use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) by insurgents was the leading cause of civilian deaths, with 904. Except for a relatively few women and children killed by accident, the civilians who died in the raids were all adult males who were counted as insurgents in press releases and official data released by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). The revelation by the New York Times Wednesday that Ahmed Wali Karzai, the [late] brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, has long been on the payroll of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is only the tip of a much bigger iceberg of heavy dependence by U.S. and NATO counterinsurgency forces on Afghan warlords for security, according to a recently published report and investigations by Australian and Canadian journalists. U.S. and other NATO military contingents operating in the provinces of Afghanistan's predominantly Pashtun south and east have been hiring private militias controlled by Afghan warlords, according to these sources, to provide security for their forward operating bases and other bases and to guard convoys.

Breaking The Silence - Truth and Lies in the War on Terror (HQ Copy) by John Pilger - John Pilger dissects the truth and lies in the 'war on terror'. Award-winning journalist John Pilger investigates the discrepancies between American and British claims for the 'war on terror' and the facts on the ground as he finds them in Afghanistan and Washington, DC. In 2001, as the bombs began to drop, George W. Bush promised Afghanistan "the generosity of America and its allies". Now, the familiar old warlords are regaining power, religious fundamentalism is renewing its grip and military skirmishes continue routinely. In "liberated" Afghanistan, America has its military base and pipeline access, while the people have the warlords who are, says one woman, "in many ways worse than the Taliban". In Washington, Pilger conducts a series of remarkable interviews with William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, and leading Administration officials such as Douglas Feith, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and John Bolton, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. These people, and the other architects of the Project for the New American Century, were dismissed as 'the crazies' by the first Bush Administration in the early 90s when they first presented their ideas for pre-emptive strikes and world domination. Pilger also interviews presidential candidate General Wesley Clark, and former intelligence officers, all the while raising searching questions about the real motives for the 'war on terror'While President Bush refers to the US attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq as two 'great victories', Pilger asks the question - victories over whom, and for what purpose? Pilger describes Afghanistan as a country "more devastated than anything I have seen since Pol Pot's Cambodia". He finds that Al-Qaida has not been defeated and that the Taliban is re-emerging. And of the "victory" in Iraq, he asks: "Is this Bush's Vietnam?"

The US' reconstruction project in Iraq could be described as a giant money pit. Tens of billions of US dollars have been invested in rebuilding the country and from what experts say, with loose accountability. - This week about 7 billion dollars that was once feared lost was supposedly found in Iraq's Central Bank. Iraq and the US pointed fingers at each other. Wayne Madsen who has been following the Coalition Provisional Authority and its role in Iraq development says even though an amount of money may have been found--it's paltry by comparison. The massive amount of taxpayer dollars spent in Iraq indicates money was stolen, misappropriated, or simply lost. The reconstruction of Iraq was the largest nation-building program in US history. The cost to the US taxpayer is more than $63 billion and counting. Even after troops leave, the US will be paying excessive amounts to shape the country for a geopolitical advantage. The details on how much money may have been gone missing may never REALLY be known. Some of the records have been sealed for decades.

AWIP: Billions Lost in Secret Federal Reserve Funding of Iraq War

KABUL, Afghanistan — At least 13 American soldiers and four Afghans were killed when a Taliban suicide car bomber attacked an armored shuttle bus in Kabul on Saturday, a Western military official said. - It was the single most deadly attack for American or other NATO troops in the capital since the war began, military officials said, and follows brazen Taliban assaults on the American Embassy and NATO headquarters in the capital last month. Such high-profile attacks have been seen as a shift in Taliban strategy as they struggle against a surge in American troops that has loosened the militants’ grip on the Taliban heartland in the South and compromised the ability to stage more conventional attacks on NATO forces. American officials see the latest assaults as the Taliban’s attempt to shake confidence in the Afghan government, which is taking over security from NATO in Kabul and other areas of the country. The deaths on Saturday represented the largest loss of American lives in Afghanistan since 30 Americans died in an Aug. 6 attack on a helicopter.

PressTV: In Afghan war, 16 US-led soldiers killed

Villagers in Afghanistan say they were forced to walk ahead of Afghan and U.S. Soldiers along roads in areas believed to be mined by the Taliban. National Public Radio reports villagers said the Afghan and U.S. troops pulled them from their homes one evening in early September and forced them to walk in front of the troops for more than a mile in the Panjwai district, southwest of Kandahar city.

A July United Nations report asserting that only 30 civilians died in targeted raids in Afghanistan during the first six months of 2011 reflected only a very small fraction of night raids in which civilians were killed, according to officials of the independent Afghan commission that co-produced the 2010 report on civilian casualties with the U.N. mission. - The report on civilian casualties by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) attributed 80 percent of the 1,462 civilian deaths it counted during the six-month period to the Taliban — mostly from improvised explosive devices — and only 14 percent of them to “pro-government forces.” The report credited the U.S.-NATO military command with reducing civilian casualties in night raids during the six-month period by 15 percent compared with the same period last year.

Wesley Clark is a retired four-star general of the United States Army. Clark was valedictorian of his class at West Point, was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford where he earned a master's degree in economics, and later graduated from the Command and General Staff College with a master's degree in military science. He spent 34 years in the Army and the Department of Defense, receiving many military decorations, several honorary knighthoods, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Retired four-star general and former Democratic Presidential candidate Wesley Clark criticizes the course of U.S. foreign policy in the wake of September 11, 2001.

NATO warplanes continuing the massive offensive in the Kunar Province, which yesterday they reported has killed at least 115 “insurgents,” struck a crowd of civilians overnight, wounding at least 13 of them. - “A coalition munition fell short of the insurgents’ position,” Capt. Justin Brockhoff explained, insisting that they weren’t aiming at the civilians. He said all 13 were wounded but only three were taken to the hospital. That’s the official position, at least. Other reports, so far unconfirmed, have suggested that some of the victims may have been killed, with one even suggesting all 10 who weren’ taken to the hospital died on the scene.

An airstrike by NATO-led forces in eastern Afghanistan injured 13 civilians, a spokesman for the military alliance said Friday. "At approximately 11:30 (pm) on Thursday in Ghazi Abad district of Kunar province, a coalition munition fell short of the insurgents' position," said Captain Justin Brockhoff, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The estimable Angela Keaton crystallized the war in her last post (below). The war becomes difficult for the establishment to talk about when it is presented as it is by the video of injured Iraqi children. They can’t inject their technocratic policy-wonkery, and even nationalistic themes and Exceptionalist rhetoric is grossly misplaced.

Such is the power of video, so I thought I’d post some others from the Afghan war to the same effect. For context, civilian casualties in Afghanistan have seen a sharp rise in 2011. In a US airstrike in July, 14 civilians were killed, 8 of them children. In May, US soldiers killed a 12 year old Afghan girl in a night raid. In March, nine Afghan boys collecting firewood in eastern Afghanistan were annihilated by US airstrikes. US-supported Afghan militias have recently beat children, hammered nails into the feet of a young boy, and gang raped another 13 year old boy. In February of last year, a US night raid killed a teenage girl and two pregnant women. In September of last year, NATO attack helicopters bombed seven civilians, four of them children. A UN report last year found that almost 350 Afghan children were killed in 2009 alone.

Jason Ditz: US Deaths in Afghanistan: Obama Doubles Entire Bush-Era Total
RAWA: RAWA PHOTO GALLERY
The WE!: PHOTOS FROM AFGHANISTAN

NATO has confirmed that at least 206 troops working with the US-led military alliance have been poisoned near Mazar Sharif, capital of the northern Afghan province of Balkh, Press TV reports. - The NATO- led International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) says the soldiers fell ill after dining in Camp Marmal near Mazar Sharif late Wednesday, a Press TV correspondent reported on Friday. Around 138 of the victims are German while the rest are from other NATO countries engaged in the Afghan war. Mazar Sharif is located some 310 kilometers (192 miles) north of the capital Kabul. Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the incident as NATO has launched a probe into the cause of the food poisoning. This comes as according to a United Nations report on September 28, Afghanistan saw a near 40-percent rise in the number of security incidents compared with the same period in 2010.

Afghan detention facilities, which also hold children, have allegedly been carrying out 'systematic' torture and mistreatment of detainees, according to a newly-released United Nations (UN) report. - The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) carried out an extensive investigation for the report, interviewing 379 pre-trial detainees and convicted prisoners at 47 facilities of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and Afghan National Police (ANP) in 22 provinces from October 2010 to August. The report is the result of the investigation. According to UNAMA, there is "compelling" evidence that 125 detainees, or 46 percent, of the 273 detainees interviewed who had been in NDS detention experienced interrogation techniques at the hands of NDS officials that constituted torture, and that torture is practiced "systematically" in a number of NDS detention facilities throughout Afghanistan. The report also revealed that nearly all detainees tortured by NDS officials reported that the abuse took place during interrogations and was aimed at obtaining a confession or information.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A major investigation into an influential Afghan governor accused of taking bribes has been shut down and its top prosecutor transferred to a unit that doesn't handle corruption cases, Afghan and U.S. officials said. - The closing of the investigation into the former governor of Kapisa province, Ghulam Qawis Abu Bakr, comes on the heels of a grim, unpublicized assessment by U.S. officials that no substantive corruption prosecutions were taking place in Afghanistan despite President Hamid Karzai's pledge to root out graft. The Abu Bakr investigation raises troubling questions yet again about how much U.S. taxpayer money is lining the pockets of powerful Afghan officials, and whether the U.S. is doing all it can to persuade Karzai to crack down on corruption. It also suggests that the lax prosecution of corruption has pervaded all levels of government.

KABUL, Afghanistan—Insecurity and rising opium prices drove Afghan farmers to increase cultivation of the illicit opium poppy by 7 percent in 2011 despite a major push by the Afghan government and international allies to wean the country off of the lucrative crop, according to a U.N. report released Tuesday. - Afghanistan’s is the world’s largest producer of opium — the raw ingredient used to make heroin — providing about 80 percent of the world’s crop. Revenue from the drug has helped fund insurgents and the number of people invested in the underground opium economy has made it difficult for the Afghan government to establish its presence in opium-heavy regions. Tuesday’s report also shows that opium cultivation is spreading to new parts of the country, a troubling trend as international troops are trying to stabilize Afghanistan so that they can hand over security responsibilities to the government.

Demonstrations, die-ins, marches and occupations took place across the country on Oct. 7 and 8 marking the 10th anniversary of the Afghanistan war. In the last decade, thousands of Afghans have lost their lives, 1,700 U.S. service members have died and over 40,000 have been wounded. ANSWER Coalition members and activists organized or participated in several of these events. Below are reports from some of the cities where actions took place.

In comments discussing the ten year anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan, the top British commander in the nation Lieutenant General James Bucknall ruled out withdrawing from the nation at any point in 2015. - Lt. Gen. Bucknall addressed NATO’s 2014 drawdown date with the same dismissive attitude that US officials have in recent months, saying it was “not the end of the campaign” and that troops would be remaining for a long time afterward. “It’s a long-term commitment,” Bucknall insisted, in comments that likely won’t sit well in Britain. A recent poll showed overwhelming opposition to the conflict among British voters.