Afghan official: Video shows soldier surrendering (very misleading headline)

[No Elephants]

Mar 14, 8:47 AM EDT

Afghan official: Video shows soldier surrendering

By MIRWAIS KHAN and HEIDI VOGT
Associated Press


KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The U.S. soldier who allegedly shot 16 Afghan villagers was caught on surveillance video that showed him walking up to his base, laying down his weapon and raising his arms in surrender, according to an Afghan official who viewed the footage.

The official said late Tuesday that U.S. authorities showed their Afghan counterparts the video to prove that only one perpetrator was involved in the shootings on Sunday, which have further strained already shaky relations between the two countries. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said nine of the dead were children.

Any major discrepancy between the official Afghan and U.S. accounts of the events on Sunday is likely to deepen the distrust.

One member of an Afghan government delegation investigating the killings said Wednesday that the group has concluded the shooting spree was carried out by more than one soldier. Parliament member Sayeed Ishaq Gilani said the delegation had heard from villagers who said they saw more than 15 troops at the scene.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_AFGHANISTAN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-03-14-08-47-39

Willie Geist said this morning that the video proved only one member of our military was involved. I guess he never caught "Wag the Dog" on TV? Or "Star Wars?" And, AP gives us a misleading headline, knowing many never read past the headline (if that). (I've heard journalists used to actually matter! Wonder what that would be like.0

Meanwhile, back in D.C.....

Panetta is staying we have to stay the course in Afghanistan and both Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate are saying the same thing. Coincidentally, Obama cautioned against rushing toward the exits about a day earlier than the Hallelujah Chorus started from every other corner in D.C.

It might seem like well-choreographed kabuki, if we all were not so very sure that the Red Team and the The Bllue Team are always fighting each other tooth and nail and agree with each other only very rarely....

[KoKo]

1. They still haven't released the soldiers name. Unusually long time...

BBC reporter was mentioning that this a.m. saying: "and there are still no reports of the soldiers name"..meaning that some media are questioning.

My thought is that if they'd released his name the Google/Facebook and other sites would have had everyone over there checking this guy out. Maybe they needed some time for some "floor scrubbing"...to clean things up. I don't remember it ever taking this long to release a name for such a huge news story. Usually it's only for rape victims or crimes where the next of kin hasn't been notified. :shrug:

[Leopolds Ghost]

2. So if this was carried out by a squad, they could have held one soldier responsible

And filmed him surrendering his weapon? Why does the film exist -- is it security footage?

[No Elephants]

3. The OP article is telling us why the Afghans believe the film exists.

I don't know if the US has given us its version of why it exists.

[Leopolds Ghost]

4. What I mean is, what is the stated source of the film

Random security camera footage?

[No Elephants]

5. Deleted. Dupe

[No Elephants]

6. ? As I posted above, I don't know if the U.S. has given us its version of why the film exists.

I assume that would be the version that would tell us why the film was generated; i.e., it's routinely generated footage from security cameras or whatever.

Then, it would become a matter of whether you believe the U.S. version or the Afghan version. Wag the Afghan Dog?