More on U.S. cover-up of Khataba raid..

[Deadgnome]

I know this has been mentioned here with the Times article posted earlier, but this Salon article gives a little more information here. I find this whole act absolutely despicable, especially with the timing of the Wikileaks video and word that there is another video coming from them next week on a bombing that killed close to 100 civilians. Why are we painting these guys as heroes again?

...

U.S. forces' horrifying Afghanistan cover-up
Our troops killed five non-insurgents at a birthday party in Paktia. Could they at least give us an explanation?
BY JENN KEPKA
This post originally appeared on Jenn Kepka's Open Salon blog.

Wow. On February 11, a U.S.-led NATO force visited a house near the village of Khatabeh in Paktia Province, Afghanistan to investigate possible Taliban or militant activity. The next day, NATO's International Security Assistance Force Public Affairs Office released a statement saying that the force had "found the bound and gagged bodies of two women and dead bodies of two men in a compound during an operation last night." A joint investigation was initiated.

Rod Nordland wrote a brief about this for The New York Times that day, too, including an interview with the Paktia Province police chief, who said there were two men and three women killed, and that the killings -- which he blamed on Taliban militants -- were carried out during the celebration of a baby's birth.

If it seems both horrible and likely that the troops mistook a birthday celebration for a gathering of militants, you've been keeping score. If you're wondering how, exactly, there was a party going on around a couple of bodies, you're also asking the right questions. You may suspect that this is about to take a turn from "awful" to "extremely awful."

It does: Yesterday, the ISAF released a statement claiming oops, they were wrong, no one was dead when they got there -- they did that:

Read on: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2010/04/05/us_forces_afghanistan_killings_open2010

[tekisui]

1. knr.

[Deadgnome]

2. Here's some info on the new video coming Monday

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/04/hype-conspiracy-or-must-see-tv-wikileaks-to-unveil-drone-video/#ixzz0kKjZtUg0

[jakeXT]

3. kick

international forces were responsible for the deaths of three women who were in the same compound where two men were killed by the joint Afghan-international patrol searching for a Taliban insurgent.

The two men, who were later determined not to be insurgents, were shot and killed by the joint patrol after they showed what appeared to be hostile intent by being armed.