Al-Jazeera
Why does the US government think burning Qurans is less civilised than drone attacks on civilian populations?
Barack Obama, the US president, has warned that threats to burn the Quran are a sure and effective way to swell the ranks of al-Qaeda. This may be true, but largely because such symbolic acts of ‘Islamophobia’ are widely viewed as verifying the perception that the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, along with its backing of Israel, are motivated by its hostility towards Muslims.
The previously unheard of pastor of a small Florida church may have scrapped his plan to publicly burn hundreds of Qurans on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, but the threat alone has done untold damage to the already troubled relationship between the Muslim world and the West.
The US government’s reaction to the plan will not have gone unnoticed. But no matter how strong the words of condemnation, those on the receiving end of US occupation or air raids will be struck by the apparent inconsistency.
General David Petraeus, the US commander in Afghanistan, warned that burning the Quran could endanger the lives of US troops who might become the target of retribution. But why do Obama and Petraeus think that burning the Quran is any less civilised or more dangerous than their use of unmanned drones to target suspected Taliban or al-Qaeda fighters and the subsequent civilian casualties these attacks often entail?
Terry Jones, the pastor behind the planned Quran bonfire, may be insane, as some, including his own daughter, have suggested. But what excuse do sane and sophisticated people like Obama, Petraeus, and Robert Gates, the US secretary of defence, have?
Dehumanisation
In his Cairo speech, Obama attributed the blame for some of the misunderstanding between the West and the Muslim world to the acts of terrorism carried out by a minority of Muslims. “The attacks of September 11, 2001 and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights,” he said. But he totally glossed over the fact that before – just as after – 9/11, the US engaged in unjust wars against mainly Muslim countries – a threat that is more potent than any plan to burn Qurans.
If it were not for these wars and a history of US support for the Israeli occupation and dictators in the region, the threat to burn Qurans – as ugly and offensive as it clearly is – would not have been anything more than the act of a small-time minister searching for attention and obsessed with his own prejudices.
But in an atmosphere of ‘Islamophobia’ – fed by a mistrust and ignorance of Islam – and US wars against Muslim countries, the suggestion of a Quran-burning day becomes something much more significant.
It also reflects the general dehumanisation of Muslims and Arabs – particularly those who have been the victims of American and Israeli bombings – that has taken root, allowing some of the US public to become immune to the crimes committed by their own government or with their government’s backing.
Today, as Americans grieve the victims of the 9/11 attacks, it is important to recognise that sorrow is a shared universal sentiment that does not exclude religions or races.
In the weeks following 9/11, the American press devoted pages and air time to giving a human face to the victims of the attacks. It is not realistic or even right to expect the American media to give the exact same treatment to the victims of US wars. But, until very recently, the US media rarely even questioned the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and when it did, the questions asked rarely centred on the civilian deaths, which were at best seen as inevitable incidents of war and, at worst, as necessary collateral damage.
Such a mentality is more damaging in the long run than any individual threatening to burn the Quran, because it plants the seeds of dehumanisation.
In the words of Kathy Kelly, an American peace activist who is currently facing trial for ‘trespassing’ in a drone-manufacturing plant during an anti-war protest, the mainstream media “does little to help ordinary [Americans] … understand that the drones which hover over potential targets in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen create small “ground zeroes” in multiple locales on an everyday basis”.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
U.S. troops charged with murder of Afghan civilians
Reuters
Twelve U.S. soldiers have been charged with gruesome crimes in Afghanistan ranging from murdering civilians to keeping body parts as war trophies — revelations that the Pentagon said on Thursday damaged America’s image around the world.
The infantry soldiers from the 5th Stryker Brigade based in Washington state deployed to Kandahar province a year ago and the murders occurred between January and March, according to charges by army prosecutors made public this week.
“Allegations like this are … very serious,” Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told a news briefing.
“Clearly, even if these allegations are proved to be untrue, it is unhelpful. It does not help the perceptions of our forces around the world.”
Morrell declined to comment on the specifics of the charges because the case is still in the military justice system.
Five soldiers were charged in June with the murder of three Afghan civilians in Kandahar province.
But new charges disclosed to the media on Wednesday show seven others have also been charged in the case and face accusations that include conspiracy to cover-up the crime.
An Army spokeswoman said four of the soldiers have been charged for keeping body parts, which beyond finger bones and a skull include leg bones and a human tooth. It was unclear where the remains had come from based on the charge sheets.
Morrell said the allegations had yet to be proven, but were “serious nonetheless.”
“They are, I think you all would agree, an aberration in terms of the behavior of our forces, if true, around the world,” he said.
“We’ve got 150,000 men and women deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan right now whose mission is to protect the Iraqi and Afghan people,” he said. “They are risking their lives to protect the Iraqi and Afghan people.
“So I don’t believe the allegations here against those few individuals are representative of the behavior or the attitudes of the entire force,” Morrell said.
The charges, whether ultimately proven true or not, had already damaged the U.S. military’s reputation, he said.
Twelve U.S. soldiers have been charged with gruesome crimes in Afghanistan ranging from murdering civilians to keeping body parts as war trophies — revelations that the Pentagon said on Thursday damaged America’s image around the world.
The infantry soldiers from the 5th Stryker Brigade based in Washington state deployed to Kandahar province a year ago and the murders occurred between January and March, according to charges by army prosecutors made public this week.
“Allegations like this are … very serious,” Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told a news briefing.
“Clearly, even if these allegations are proved to be untrue, it is unhelpful. It does not help the perceptions of our forces around the world.”
Morrell declined to comment on the specifics of the charges because the case is still in the military justice system.
Five soldiers were charged in June with the murder of three Afghan civilians in Kandahar province.
But new charges disclosed to the media on Wednesday show seven others have also been charged in the case and face accusations that include conspiracy to cover-up the crime.
An Army spokeswoman said four of the soldiers have been charged for keeping body parts, which beyond finger bones and a skull include leg bones and a human tooth. It was unclear where the remains had come from based on the charge sheets.
Morrell said the allegations had yet to be proven, but were “serious nonetheless.”
“They are, I think you all would agree, an aberration in terms of the behavior of our forces, if true, around the world,” he said.
“We’ve got 150,000 men and women deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan right now whose mission is to protect the Iraqi and Afghan people,” he said. “They are risking their lives to protect the Iraqi and Afghan people.
“So I don’t believe the allegations here against those few individuals are representative of the behavior or the attitudes of the entire force,” Morrell said.
The charges, whether ultimately proven true or not, had already damaged the U.S. military’s reputation, he said.
Coverage of Koran Case Stirs Questions on Media Role
New York Times
A renegade pastor and his tiny flock set fire to a Koran on a street corner, and made sure to capture it on film. And they were ignored.
That stunt took place in 2008, involving members of the Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kan., an almost universally condemned group of fundamentalists who also protest at military funerals.
But plans for a similar stunt by another fringe pastor, Terry Jones, have garnered worldwide news media attention this summer, attention that peaked Thursday when he announced he was canceling — and later, that he had only “suspended” — what he had dubbed International Burn a Koran Day. It had been scheduled for Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Unlike the Koran-burning by Westboro Baptist, Mr. Jones’s planned event in Gainesville, Fla., coincided with the controversy over the proposed building of a Muslim community center in Lower Manhattan near ground zero and a simmering summerlong debate about the freedoms of speech and religion.
Mr. Jones was able to put himself at the center of those issues by using the news lull of summer and the demands of a 24-hour news cycle to promote his anti-Islam cause. He said he consented to more than 150 interview requests in July and August, each time expressing his extremist views about Islam and Sharia law.
By the middle of this week, the planned Koran burning was the lead story on some network newscasts, and topic No. 1 on cable news — an extraordinary amount of attention for a marginal figure with a very small following. On Thursday, President Obama condemned Mr. Jones’s plan, and his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said that there were “more people at his press conferences than listen to his sermons,” in a bit of media criticism.
Mr. Jones’s plan, announced in July, slowly gained attention in August, particularly overseas. It became a top story in the United States this week after protests against Mr. Jones in Afghanistan and after the commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus, warned that the Koran burning could endanger troops.
“Before there were riots and heads of states talking about him, it could have been a couple of paragraphs in a story about Sept. 11 commemorations,” Kathleen Carroll, the executive editor of The Associated Press, said Thursday. “It’s beyond that now.”
In some ways, this week’s events were the culmination of a year’s worth of hateful statements and stunts by Mr. Jones and the few dozen members of his church.
Mr. Jones started to make noise in Gainesville in the summer of 2009, when he posted a sign outside his church that read “Islam is of the devil.” The Gainesville Sun (which is owned by The New York Times Company) wrote about the sign, under the headline “Anti-Islam church sign stirs up community outrage.”
He told The Sun that the sign would not be his last.
The newspaper soon published an investigation into what it called the church’s “financial abuses,” which included a profit-making eBay furniture sales business operating on the church’s property.
The congregation’s protests continued last fall, when some children from the church wore anti-Islam shirts to school, prompting another article by The Sun, which was picked up by The Associated Press and republished by outlets like USA Today and Al Arabiya, an Arabic language news network.
People with the same anti-Islam shirts sometimes roamed the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, said Fiona Mc Laughlin, a professor at the university, prompting a counterprotest with T-shirts that read, “Ignorance is of the devil.”
The church “never really rested after that first billboard,” said Jacki Levine, the managing editor of The Sun. She said the newspaper’s staff members had repeatedly discussed how to be “responsible” in its coverage — “We walked as carefully as we could walk.”
Islam was not Mr. Jones’s only target. Church members also held protests against Craig Lowe, an openly gay man who was elected mayor of Gainesville in April.
Mr. Jones’s announcement about the Koran burning gained only a little attention at first, with a single short article published by a Web site called Religion News Service. That article was subsequently mentioned by bigger sites, like Yahoo, and by the end of the July Mr. Jones had been booked on CNN, where the host Rick Sanchez called his plan “crazy” but added, “At least he has got the guts to come on this show and face off.”
Alarmed by negative mentions about Gainesville in overseas news outlets, Mr. Lowe released a statement Aug. 3 labeling Mr. Jones’s church a “tiny fringe group and an embarrassment to our community.”
News executives said the proposed burning took on a greater significance after the protests in Afghanistan and in other Muslim countries. In Kabul last Sunday, up to 500 people attended a protest at which Mr. Jones was burned in effigy, according to The A.P.
That, too, is when Ms. Mc Laughlin took notice. With 11 other professors, she wrote a column for The Sun condemning the plan titled “The world is watching.”
“We just saw everything escalating,” she said Thursday, citing the “sum effect” of all the coverage and the ensuing reactions. (The New York Times wrote a substantial article about Mr. Jones on August 26.)
On Thursday, before Mr. Jones suspended his plans, The A.P. determined that it would not distribute pictures of Korans being burned, restating a policy not to cover events that are “gratuitously manufactured to provoke and offend.”
“There are lots of other similarly offensive images that we choose not to run all the time,” Ms. Carroll said. “Most people don’t know that because, of course, we don’t run them.”
Before the suspension, CNN and Fox News Channel said they would not show any images of a Koran being burned.
Bill Keller, the executive editor of The New York Times, said in an e-mail message that the newspaper had “no policy against publishing things that might offend someone — lots of people are offended by lots of things — but we try to refrain from giving widespread offense unless there is some offsetting journalistic purpose.”
“A picture of a burning book contributes nothing substantial to a story about book-burning, so the offense seems entirely gratuitous,” Mr. Keller continued. “The freedom to publish includes the freedom not to publish.”
The episode has given rise to at least a little soul-searching within news organizations. Chris Cuomo, an ABC News anchor, wrote Thursday afternoon on Twitter, “I am in the media, but think media gave life to this Florida burning … and that was reckless.”
A renegade pastor and his tiny flock set fire to a Koran on a street corner, and made sure to capture it on film. And they were ignored.
That stunt took place in 2008, involving members of the Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kan., an almost universally condemned group of fundamentalists who also protest at military funerals.
But plans for a similar stunt by another fringe pastor, Terry Jones, have garnered worldwide news media attention this summer, attention that peaked Thursday when he announced he was canceling — and later, that he had only “suspended” — what he had dubbed International Burn a Koran Day. It had been scheduled for Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Unlike the Koran-burning by Westboro Baptist, Mr. Jones’s planned event in Gainesville, Fla., coincided with the controversy over the proposed building of a Muslim community center in Lower Manhattan near ground zero and a simmering summerlong debate about the freedoms of speech and religion.
Mr. Jones was able to put himself at the center of those issues by using the news lull of summer and the demands of a 24-hour news cycle to promote his anti-Islam cause. He said he consented to more than 150 interview requests in July and August, each time expressing his extremist views about Islam and Sharia law.
By the middle of this week, the planned Koran burning was the lead story on some network newscasts, and topic No. 1 on cable news — an extraordinary amount of attention for a marginal figure with a very small following. On Thursday, President Obama condemned Mr. Jones’s plan, and his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said that there were “more people at his press conferences than listen to his sermons,” in a bit of media criticism.
Mr. Jones’s plan, announced in July, slowly gained attention in August, particularly overseas. It became a top story in the United States this week after protests against Mr. Jones in Afghanistan and after the commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus, warned that the Koran burning could endanger troops.
“Before there were riots and heads of states talking about him, it could have been a couple of paragraphs in a story about Sept. 11 commemorations,” Kathleen Carroll, the executive editor of The Associated Press, said Thursday. “It’s beyond that now.”
In some ways, this week’s events were the culmination of a year’s worth of hateful statements and stunts by Mr. Jones and the few dozen members of his church.
Mr. Jones started to make noise in Gainesville in the summer of 2009, when he posted a sign outside his church that read “Islam is of the devil.” The Gainesville Sun (which is owned by The New York Times Company) wrote about the sign, under the headline “Anti-Islam church sign stirs up community outrage.”
He told The Sun that the sign would not be his last.
The newspaper soon published an investigation into what it called the church’s “financial abuses,” which included a profit-making eBay furniture sales business operating on the church’s property.
The congregation’s protests continued last fall, when some children from the church wore anti-Islam shirts to school, prompting another article by The Sun, which was picked up by The Associated Press and republished by outlets like USA Today and Al Arabiya, an Arabic language news network.
People with the same anti-Islam shirts sometimes roamed the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, said Fiona Mc Laughlin, a professor at the university, prompting a counterprotest with T-shirts that read, “Ignorance is of the devil.”
The church “never really rested after that first billboard,” said Jacki Levine, the managing editor of The Sun. She said the newspaper’s staff members had repeatedly discussed how to be “responsible” in its coverage — “We walked as carefully as we could walk.”
Islam was not Mr. Jones’s only target. Church members also held protests against Craig Lowe, an openly gay man who was elected mayor of Gainesville in April.
Mr. Jones’s announcement about the Koran burning gained only a little attention at first, with a single short article published by a Web site called Religion News Service. That article was subsequently mentioned by bigger sites, like Yahoo, and by the end of the July Mr. Jones had been booked on CNN, where the host Rick Sanchez called his plan “crazy” but added, “At least he has got the guts to come on this show and face off.”
Alarmed by negative mentions about Gainesville in overseas news outlets, Mr. Lowe released a statement Aug. 3 labeling Mr. Jones’s church a “tiny fringe group and an embarrassment to our community.”
News executives said the proposed burning took on a greater significance after the protests in Afghanistan and in other Muslim countries. In Kabul last Sunday, up to 500 people attended a protest at which Mr. Jones was burned in effigy, according to The A.P.
That, too, is when Ms. Mc Laughlin took notice. With 11 other professors, she wrote a column for The Sun condemning the plan titled “The world is watching.”
“We just saw everything escalating,” she said Thursday, citing the “sum effect” of all the coverage and the ensuing reactions. (The New York Times wrote a substantial article about Mr. Jones on August 26.)
On Thursday, before Mr. Jones suspended his plans, The A.P. determined that it would not distribute pictures of Korans being burned, restating a policy not to cover events that are “gratuitously manufactured to provoke and offend.”
“There are lots of other similarly offensive images that we choose not to run all the time,” Ms. Carroll said. “Most people don’t know that because, of course, we don’t run them.”
Before the suspension, CNN and Fox News Channel said they would not show any images of a Koran being burned.
Bill Keller, the executive editor of The New York Times, said in an e-mail message that the newspaper had “no policy against publishing things that might offend someone — lots of people are offended by lots of things — but we try to refrain from giving widespread offense unless there is some offsetting journalistic purpose.”
“A picture of a burning book contributes nothing substantial to a story about book-burning, so the offense seems entirely gratuitous,” Mr. Keller continued. “The freedom to publish includes the freedom not to publish.”
The episode has given rise to at least a little soul-searching within news organizations. Chris Cuomo, an ABC News anchor, wrote Thursday afternoon on Twitter, “I am in the media, but think media gave life to this Florida burning … and that was reckless.”
MPs vote to keep UK troops in Afghanistan
BBC News
MPs have overwhelmingly backed keeping UK troops in Afghanistan, in the first vote they have held on the issue.
There have been several statements and debates since the invasion took place almost nine years ago, but a motion has not previously been put to MPs.
The vote, on the question that “this House supports the continued deployment of UK armed forces in Afghanistan”, passed by a majority of 296.
Some 334 UK troops have died and around 10,000 are serving in the war.
The decision to join the US-led invasion was taken without a parliamentary vote, unlike the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
It was backed by the leaderships of all three main parties.
‘Swift withdrawal’
In June, Prime Minister David Cameron said he wanted UK troops out of Afghanistan within five years, but added he preferred not to “deal in too strict timetables”.
The Commons motion on troops in Afghanistan was tabled by the newly established Backbench Business Committee, which lays down the agenda for debate time not taken up by the government.
During the debate Labour’s Paul Flynn, who represents Newport West, said: “The rate at which British soldiers are being killed in Afghanistan is now four times that of our US counterparts.
“The whole of the operation is continuing and there isn’t any possible outcome that is going to be just, that is going to be honourable.”
He told MPs: “We have turned so many corners we have been round the block half a dozen times in Afghanistan. We are still in hell and it is still getting worse.”
‘Very difficult’
Conservative Bob Stewart, who was a UN commander in Bosnia in 1992, praised the bravery of soldiers, saying many did not understand the “nuances” of politicians and the public saying they supported them but not the war.
He added: “We now have a situation where we have an increase of soldiers on the ground… and actually the principles of counter-insurgency are beginning to work and they are protecting the people. The key to this is whether the Afghan people can feel protected, safe and can live a decent life.
“But the fact of the matter is we have a real problem. We have a military aim which is probably to make sure that Afghanistan never threatens us again. We have a political aim… which is we want Afghanistan to have a decent lifestyle, taking part in the international community… and therefore not threaten us.
“It is a very difficult job our troops are doing.”
The government insists the Afghanistan mission is essential to ensuring the UK’s security, by hampering the growth of terrorist organisations in the region.
There have been numerous ministerial statements and general debates about the war, since it started in November 2001, without going to a vote.
The motion was passed by 310 votes to 14.
MPs have overwhelmingly backed keeping UK troops in Afghanistan, in the first vote they have held on the issue.
There have been several statements and debates since the invasion took place almost nine years ago, but a motion has not previously been put to MPs.
The vote, on the question that “this House supports the continued deployment of UK armed forces in Afghanistan”, passed by a majority of 296.
Some 334 UK troops have died and around 10,000 are serving in the war.
The decision to join the US-led invasion was taken without a parliamentary vote, unlike the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
It was backed by the leaderships of all three main parties.
‘Swift withdrawal’
In June, Prime Minister David Cameron said he wanted UK troops out of Afghanistan within five years, but added he preferred not to “deal in too strict timetables”.
The Commons motion on troops in Afghanistan was tabled by the newly established Backbench Business Committee, which lays down the agenda for debate time not taken up by the government.
During the debate Labour’s Paul Flynn, who represents Newport West, said: “The rate at which British soldiers are being killed in Afghanistan is now four times that of our US counterparts.
“The whole of the operation is continuing and there isn’t any possible outcome that is going to be just, that is going to be honourable.”
He told MPs: “We have turned so many corners we have been round the block half a dozen times in Afghanistan. We are still in hell and it is still getting worse.”
‘Very difficult’
Conservative Bob Stewart, who was a UN commander in Bosnia in 1992, praised the bravery of soldiers, saying many did not understand the “nuances” of politicians and the public saying they supported them but not the war.
He added: “We now have a situation where we have an increase of soldiers on the ground… and actually the principles of counter-insurgency are beginning to work and they are protecting the people. The key to this is whether the Afghan people can feel protected, safe and can live a decent life.
“But the fact of the matter is we have a real problem. We have a military aim which is probably to make sure that Afghanistan never threatens us again. We have a political aim… which is we want Afghanistan to have a decent lifestyle, taking part in the international community… and therefore not threaten us.
“It is a very difficult job our troops are doing.”
The government insists the Afghanistan mission is essential to ensuring the UK’s security, by hampering the growth of terrorist organisations in the region.
There have been numerous ministerial statements and general debates about the war, since it started in November 2001, without going to a vote.
The motion was passed by 310 votes to 14.
US soldiers ‘killed Afghan civilians for sport and collected fingers as trophies’
The Guardian
Soldiers face charges over secret ‘kill team’ which allegedly murdered at random and collected fingers as trophies of war
Twelve American soldiers face charges over a secret “kill team” that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies.
Five of the soldiers are charged with murdering three Afghan men who were allegedly killed for sport in separate attacks this year. Seven others are accused of covering up the killings and assaulting a recruit who exposed the murders when he reported other abuses, including members of the unit smoking hashish stolen from civilians.
In one of the most serious accusations of war crimes to emerge from the Afghan conflict, the killings are alleged to have been carried out by members of a Stryker infantry brigade based in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan.
According to investigators and legal documents, discussion of killing Afghan civilians began after the arrival of Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs at forward operating base Ramrod last November. Other soldiers told the army’s criminal investigation command that Gibbs boasted of the things he got away with while serving in Iraq and said how easy it would be to “toss a grenade at someone and kill them”.
One soldier said he believed Gibbs was “feeling out the platoon”.
Investigators said Gibbs, 25, hatched a plan with another soldier, Jeremy Morlock, 22, and other members of the unit to form a “kill team”. While on patrol over the following months they allegedly killed at least three Afghan civilians. According to the charge sheet, the first target was Gul Mudin, who was killed “by means of throwing a fragmentary grenade at him and shooting him with a rifle”, when the patrol entered the village of La Mohammed Kalay in January.
Morlock and another soldier, Andrew Holmes, were on guard at the edge of a poppy field when Mudin emerged and stopped on the other side of a wall from the soldiers. Gibbs allegedly handed Morlock a grenade who armed it and dropped it over the wall next to the Afghan and dived for cover. Holmes, 19, then allegedly fired over the wall.
Later in the day, Morlock is alleged to have told Holmes that the killing was for fun and threatened him if he told anyone.
The second victim, Marach Agha, was shot and killed the following month. Gibbs is alleged to have shot him and placed a Kalashnikov next to the body to justify the killing. In May Mullah Adadhdad was killed after being shot and attacked with a grenade.
The Army Times reported that a least one of the soldiers collected the fingers of the victims as souvenirs and that some of them posed for photographs with the bodies.
Five soldiers – Gibbs, Morlock, Holmes, Michael Wagnon and Adam Winfield – are accused of murder and aggravated assault among other charges. All of the soldiers have denied the charges. They face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted.
The killings came to light in May after the army began investigating a brutal assault on a soldier who told superiors that members of his unit were smoking hashish. The Army Times reported that members of the unit regularly smoked the drug on duty and sometimes stole it from civilians.
The soldier, who was straight out of basic training and has not been named, said he witnessed the smoking of hashish and drinking of smuggled alcohol but initially did not report it out of loyalty to his comrades. But when he returned from an assignment at an army headquarters and discovered soldiers using the shipping container in which he was billeted to smoke hashish he reported it.
Two days later members of his platoon, including Gibbs and Morlock, accused him of “snitching”, gave him a beating and told him to keep his mouth shut. The soldier reported the beating and threats to his officers and then told investigators what he knew of the “kill team”.
Following the arrest of the original five accused in June, seven other soldiers were charged last month with attempting to cover up the killings and violent assault on the soldier who reported the smoking of hashish. The charges will be considered by a military grand jury later this month which will decide if there is enough evidence for a court martial. Army investigators say Morlock has admitted his involvement in the killings and given details about the role of others including Gibbs. But his lawyer, Michael Waddington, is seeking to have that confession suppressed because he says his client was interviewed while under the influence of prescription drugs taken for battlefield injuries and that he was also suffering from traumatic brain injury.
“Our position is that his statements were incoherent, and taken while he was under a cocktail of drugs that shouldn’t have been mixed,” Waddington told the Seattle Times.
Soldiers face charges over secret ‘kill team’ which allegedly murdered at random and collected fingers as trophies of war
Twelve American soldiers face charges over a secret “kill team” that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies.
Five of the soldiers are charged with murdering three Afghan men who were allegedly killed for sport in separate attacks this year. Seven others are accused of covering up the killings and assaulting a recruit who exposed the murders when he reported other abuses, including members of the unit smoking hashish stolen from civilians.
In one of the most serious accusations of war crimes to emerge from the Afghan conflict, the killings are alleged to have been carried out by members of a Stryker infantry brigade based in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan.
According to investigators and legal documents, discussion of killing Afghan civilians began after the arrival of Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs at forward operating base Ramrod last November. Other soldiers told the army’s criminal investigation command that Gibbs boasted of the things he got away with while serving in Iraq and said how easy it would be to “toss a grenade at someone and kill them”.
One soldier said he believed Gibbs was “feeling out the platoon”.
Investigators said Gibbs, 25, hatched a plan with another soldier, Jeremy Morlock, 22, and other members of the unit to form a “kill team”. While on patrol over the following months they allegedly killed at least three Afghan civilians. According to the charge sheet, the first target was Gul Mudin, who was killed “by means of throwing a fragmentary grenade at him and shooting him with a rifle”, when the patrol entered the village of La Mohammed Kalay in January.
Morlock and another soldier, Andrew Holmes, were on guard at the edge of a poppy field when Mudin emerged and stopped on the other side of a wall from the soldiers. Gibbs allegedly handed Morlock a grenade who armed it and dropped it over the wall next to the Afghan and dived for cover. Holmes, 19, then allegedly fired over the wall.
Later in the day, Morlock is alleged to have told Holmes that the killing was for fun and threatened him if he told anyone.
The second victim, Marach Agha, was shot and killed the following month. Gibbs is alleged to have shot him and placed a Kalashnikov next to the body to justify the killing. In May Mullah Adadhdad was killed after being shot and attacked with a grenade.
The Army Times reported that a least one of the soldiers collected the fingers of the victims as souvenirs and that some of them posed for photographs with the bodies.
Five soldiers – Gibbs, Morlock, Holmes, Michael Wagnon and Adam Winfield – are accused of murder and aggravated assault among other charges. All of the soldiers have denied the charges. They face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted.
The killings came to light in May after the army began investigating a brutal assault on a soldier who told superiors that members of his unit were smoking hashish. The Army Times reported that members of the unit regularly smoked the drug on duty and sometimes stole it from civilians.
The soldier, who was straight out of basic training and has not been named, said he witnessed the smoking of hashish and drinking of smuggled alcohol but initially did not report it out of loyalty to his comrades. But when he returned from an assignment at an army headquarters and discovered soldiers using the shipping container in which he was billeted to smoke hashish he reported it.
Two days later members of his platoon, including Gibbs and Morlock, accused him of “snitching”, gave him a beating and told him to keep his mouth shut. The soldier reported the beating and threats to his officers and then told investigators what he knew of the “kill team”.
Following the arrest of the original five accused in June, seven other soldiers were charged last month with attempting to cover up the killings and violent assault on the soldier who reported the smoking of hashish. The charges will be considered by a military grand jury later this month which will decide if there is enough evidence for a court martial. Army investigators say Morlock has admitted his involvement in the killings and given details about the role of others including Gibbs. But his lawyer, Michael Waddington, is seeking to have that confession suppressed because he says his client was interviewed while under the influence of prescription drugs taken for battlefield injuries and that he was also suffering from traumatic brain injury.
“Our position is that his statements were incoherent, and taken while he was under a cocktail of drugs that shouldn’t have been mixed,” Waddington told the Seattle Times.
Muslims toning down Eid festivities in honor of Sept. 11
The Washington Post
Each year on Eid al-Fitr, the end of the Ramadan month of fasting, 8,000 to 10,000 Muslims stream into the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring in shifts for special Eid services, followed by food, singing, dancing and henna decorating to celebrate one of Islam’s most festive holidays.
The religious services are on for this year. But not the rest.
“No celebrations, no festivities,” said Rashid Makhdoom, who is on the center’s board of directors. By uncomfortable coincidence, the holiday falls this year around Sept. 11 – for the first time since the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Eid, like other Muslim events, is calculated on a lunar calendar and occurs slightly earlier each year. This week, depending on when in August one started fasting, it is either on the 9th, 10th, or 11th.
“Particularly, people are taking care not to do any celebrations on the day of 9/11, because it is a day of tragedy and we have to be sensitive,” Makhdoom said. “That’s the mood of the Muslims, generally very subdued.”
U.S. mosques have loudly condemned terrorism, and many services this year will commemorate the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, including, they point out, Muslims. But many say they are rethinking more festive activities in the wake of what has been a tense summer for Muslims in the United States.
A proposal to build an Islamic center near the site of the World Trade Center in New York provoked a swell of anti-Muslim sentiment; protesters have targeted mosques in other states; a Muslim
cabdriver was stabbed; and a Florida church has said it will burn Korans on Sept. 11.
In light of this, Muslim leaders say they fear that Eid celebrations could be misconstrued, mistakenly or deliberately.
“There are those who are promoting the idea that Muslims will be celebrating on 9/11 because that fits their hate-filled agenda,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. “If we hold a community bazaar or a family fun day, it’ll be seized on by these people.”
To forestall misunderstandings, the Council of Muslim Organizations in greater Washington has called on its 147 member groups to avoid holding Eid celebrations on Sept. 11, and Muslim leaders are encouraging congregants to explain to non-Muslim friends and neighbors that the convergence this year is mere coincidence. A few groups are also beefing up security for this year’s event.
But some Muslims disagree on whether to adjust Eid activities in light of Sept. 11.
“There are two strains of thought,” Hooper said. “One is that Islam should not be blamed for 9/11 and that Muslims should not have to alter their religious practices, and that if you do, that shows some kind of guilt; and the other is, ‘Hey, let’s show a little sensitivity.’ ”
The convergence even feels uncomfortable for some Muslims. “On one hand, 9/11 is a very difficult day for us, and on the other hand, Eid is like our Christmas – it’s a day for celebration,” said Zeba Iqbal, executive director of the Council on the Advancement of Muslim Professionals, one of several groups promoting a Muslim day of service on Sept. 11. “We’re all very bittersweet and somewhat conflicted as to the best way to celebrate and commemorate at the same time.”
A sampling of Islamic groups in the Washington area, home to an estimated 250,000 Muslims, showed that most had no celebrations planned on Sept. 11, and many had moved or toned down their usual activities.
The All Dulles Area Muslim Society center in Sterling, one of the nation’s largest mosques, typically holds Eid events for 15,000 to 20,000 people in five locations, including synagogues, churches, hotels and sports facilities, with everything from prayer to children’s moon bounces; it will celebrate Eid on the 10th and hold its ninth annual interfaith peace gathering on the 11th.
“We have been very firm in recommending that people avoid festivities on Sept. 11,” said ADAMS board member Rizwan Jaka, adding, “If Eid was on Saturday, we would not have done the moon bounce.”
Anwer Hasan, founder and board member of the Howard County Muslim Council who attends Dar Al-Taqwa mosque in Ellicott City, said community leaders had alerted local elected officials to the holiday.
“We need to bring awareness to the American community here, so if anyone brings it to their attention, they know what it is,” Hasan said.
At the same time, Muslim leaders want to alert their own members. “We fear that. . . maybe some immigrant communities that might be newer to this country might not attach the same level of importance to September 11th,” Iqbal said, adding that pictures of smiling Muslims after a Sept. 10 Eid service could seem jarring in a newspaper published Sept. 11.
Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church will have pony rides, a moon bounce and free ice cream – but on Sept. 12, said Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, a member of the Council of Muslim Organizations’ executive committee. He added that major Islamic centers in the area are following the recommendation.
But not all. “There are people who have raised issues with me, saying, ‘How did you come up with this? I don’t know if this sends the right signal,’ ” Abdul-Malik said.
The issue may be less of a problem for non-immigrant Muslim communities, said Tariq Najee-ullah, resident imam of Masjid Muhammad, one of the District’s oldest African American mosques, which plans to have music performances, poetry, basketball and football on Sept. 10.
“We have a very strong history here,” Najee-ullah said, adding that many non-Muslim relatives of congregants will also attend. “For 75 years, we’ve been a pillar of the community. I don’t think the community will get the wrong impression of who we are.”
Each year on Eid al-Fitr, the end of the Ramadan month of fasting, 8,000 to 10,000 Muslims stream into the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring in shifts for special Eid services, followed by food, singing, dancing and henna decorating to celebrate one of Islam’s most festive holidays.
The religious services are on for this year. But not the rest.
“No celebrations, no festivities,” said Rashid Makhdoom, who is on the center’s board of directors. By uncomfortable coincidence, the holiday falls this year around Sept. 11 – for the first time since the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Eid, like other Muslim events, is calculated on a lunar calendar and occurs slightly earlier each year. This week, depending on when in August one started fasting, it is either on the 9th, 10th, or 11th.
“Particularly, people are taking care not to do any celebrations on the day of 9/11, because it is a day of tragedy and we have to be sensitive,” Makhdoom said. “That’s the mood of the Muslims, generally very subdued.”
U.S. mosques have loudly condemned terrorism, and many services this year will commemorate the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, including, they point out, Muslims. But many say they are rethinking more festive activities in the wake of what has been a tense summer for Muslims in the United States.
A proposal to build an Islamic center near the site of the World Trade Center in New York provoked a swell of anti-Muslim sentiment; protesters have targeted mosques in other states; a Muslim
cabdriver was stabbed; and a Florida church has said it will burn Korans on Sept. 11.
In light of this, Muslim leaders say they fear that Eid celebrations could be misconstrued, mistakenly or deliberately.
“There are those who are promoting the idea that Muslims will be celebrating on 9/11 because that fits their hate-filled agenda,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. “If we hold a community bazaar or a family fun day, it’ll be seized on by these people.”
To forestall misunderstandings, the Council of Muslim Organizations in greater Washington has called on its 147 member groups to avoid holding Eid celebrations on Sept. 11, and Muslim leaders are encouraging congregants to explain to non-Muslim friends and neighbors that the convergence this year is mere coincidence. A few groups are also beefing up security for this year’s event.
But some Muslims disagree on whether to adjust Eid activities in light of Sept. 11.
“There are two strains of thought,” Hooper said. “One is that Islam should not be blamed for 9/11 and that Muslims should not have to alter their religious practices, and that if you do, that shows some kind of guilt; and the other is, ‘Hey, let’s show a little sensitivity.’ ”
The convergence even feels uncomfortable for some Muslims. “On one hand, 9/11 is a very difficult day for us, and on the other hand, Eid is like our Christmas – it’s a day for celebration,” said Zeba Iqbal, executive director of the Council on the Advancement of Muslim Professionals, one of several groups promoting a Muslim day of service on Sept. 11. “We’re all very bittersweet and somewhat conflicted as to the best way to celebrate and commemorate at the same time.”
A sampling of Islamic groups in the Washington area, home to an estimated 250,000 Muslims, showed that most had no celebrations planned on Sept. 11, and many had moved or toned down their usual activities.
The All Dulles Area Muslim Society center in Sterling, one of the nation’s largest mosques, typically holds Eid events for 15,000 to 20,000 people in five locations, including synagogues, churches, hotels and sports facilities, with everything from prayer to children’s moon bounces; it will celebrate Eid on the 10th and hold its ninth annual interfaith peace gathering on the 11th.
“We have been very firm in recommending that people avoid festivities on Sept. 11,” said ADAMS board member Rizwan Jaka, adding, “If Eid was on Saturday, we would not have done the moon bounce.”
Anwer Hasan, founder and board member of the Howard County Muslim Council who attends Dar Al-Taqwa mosque in Ellicott City, said community leaders had alerted local elected officials to the holiday.
“We need to bring awareness to the American community here, so if anyone brings it to their attention, they know what it is,” Hasan said.
At the same time, Muslim leaders want to alert their own members. “We fear that. . . maybe some immigrant communities that might be newer to this country might not attach the same level of importance to September 11th,” Iqbal said, adding that pictures of smiling Muslims after a Sept. 10 Eid service could seem jarring in a newspaper published Sept. 11.
Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church will have pony rides, a moon bounce and free ice cream – but on Sept. 12, said Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, a member of the Council of Muslim Organizations’ executive committee. He added that major Islamic centers in the area are following the recommendation.
But not all. “There are people who have raised issues with me, saying, ‘How did you come up with this? I don’t know if this sends the right signal,’ ” Abdul-Malik said.
The issue may be less of a problem for non-immigrant Muslim communities, said Tariq Najee-ullah, resident imam of Masjid Muhammad, one of the District’s oldest African American mosques, which plans to have music performances, poetry, basketball and football on Sept. 10.
“We have a very strong history here,” Najee-ullah said, adding that many non-Muslim relatives of congregants will also attend. “For 75 years, we’ve been a pillar of the community. I don’t think the community will get the wrong impression of who we are.”
US church’s plans to burn Qur’an berated across Muslim world
The Guardian
Widespread anger over desecration threat marking ninth anniversary of 9/11 and its timing – a day after end of Ramadan
The Muslim and Arab world has responded angrily to the threats to burn the Qur’an, with the story featuring prominently on television news channels and in the press. Lebanon’s Christian president,
Michel Suleiman, issued a statement saying the threat was “in clear contradiction to the teachings of the Abrahamic religions and of dialogue among the three faiths”.
Abd al-Razzaq Mu’nis, a former Syrian deputy minster of religious affairs, told Alalam TV, an Iranian Arabic-language channel, that this was typical of western arrogance: “We are used to seeing the arrogant administrations in the US and Europe take turns in offending Islam and the figure of the Prophet Muhammad, using different styles to stir repulsive sectarian fanaticism.”
In Abu Dhabi, the Khaleej Times condemned a “rabid and insane act by an extremist pastor”, while Lebanon’s Daily Star warned of “a fire of rage that could consume swaths of the globe.”
Ramin Mehmanparast, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, warned western countries not to “desecrate” Islamic objects of worship to avoid creating “sensitive situations between public opinion and Muslims”.
On Sunday thousands of Indonesians gathered outside the US embassy in Jakarta calling for “jihad to protect Qur’an”.
The timing of the controversy coincides with the end of Ramadan. Muslim and Arab countries will announce tonight whether the feast of Eid al-Fitr will start tomorrow or Friday, depending on the sighting of the new moon. Eid al-Fitr is one of the two biggest Muslim holidays of the year.
“There is a feeling of unease as Eid al-Fitr is approaching, close to the anniversary of 9/11,” a correspondent for the Saudi Arab News reported from Ohio.
Commenting on the website of Al-Manar TV– run by Lebanon’s Hezbollah – an Algerian named Lily commented: “Allah will protect his book before it is harmed. This Ramadan Muslims are praying to Allah to [deal with] the hateful crusaders.” An unnamed Moroccan wrote: “Provocations of this kind will only increase the power of Islam.”
Widespread anger over desecration threat marking ninth anniversary of 9/11 and its timing – a day after end of Ramadan
The Muslim and Arab world has responded angrily to the threats to burn the Qur’an, with the story featuring prominently on television news channels and in the press. Lebanon’s Christian president,
Michel Suleiman, issued a statement saying the threat was “in clear contradiction to the teachings of the Abrahamic religions and of dialogue among the three faiths”.
Abd al-Razzaq Mu’nis, a former Syrian deputy minster of religious affairs, told Alalam TV, an Iranian Arabic-language channel, that this was typical of western arrogance: “We are used to seeing the arrogant administrations in the US and Europe take turns in offending Islam and the figure of the Prophet Muhammad, using different styles to stir repulsive sectarian fanaticism.”
In Abu Dhabi, the Khaleej Times condemned a “rabid and insane act by an extremist pastor”, while Lebanon’s Daily Star warned of “a fire of rage that could consume swaths of the globe.”
Ramin Mehmanparast, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, warned western countries not to “desecrate” Islamic objects of worship to avoid creating “sensitive situations between public opinion and Muslims”.
On Sunday thousands of Indonesians gathered outside the US embassy in Jakarta calling for “jihad to protect Qur’an”.
The timing of the controversy coincides with the end of Ramadan. Muslim and Arab countries will announce tonight whether the feast of Eid al-Fitr will start tomorrow or Friday, depending on the sighting of the new moon. Eid al-Fitr is one of the two biggest Muslim holidays of the year.
“There is a feeling of unease as Eid al-Fitr is approaching, close to the anniversary of 9/11,” a correspondent for the Saudi Arab News reported from Ohio.
Commenting on the website of Al-Manar TV– run by Lebanon’s Hezbollah – an Algerian named Lily commented: “Allah will protect his book before it is harmed. This Ramadan Muslims are praying to Allah to [deal with] the hateful crusaders.” An unnamed Moroccan wrote: “Provocations of this kind will only increase the power of Islam.”
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