An Interview with Conn Hallinan
columnist from the Foreign Policy in Focus
Press TV
"Around 90,000 US military documents have leaked, showing how US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan have killed or wounded hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents.
....
Press TV: The memos also reveal the operations of a secret special forces "black unit" that is charged with the "kill or capture" without trial of Taliban leaders. With the Taliban not being a standing, physical army, wouldn't this ultimately lead to more civilian causalities in a war that is already unpopular with the Afghans and much of the international community?
Conn Hallinan: Well, have written about this special unit for the last two years. The black unit originally started in Iraq and is now being used in Afghanistan. Stanley McChrystal, the former commander, one of the commanders in Iraq and then commander in Afghanistan was the person who put this thing together. These are essentially death squads. That is what they are, and what they do is they go around and they assassinate, and very rarely make arrests, they mainly assassinate people that they consider to be leading members of the Taliban.
First of all, it is a violation of the laws of war. You can't do this, you cannot have extrajudicial executions by any unit, the civilian or military. And the effect of these night time raids, which is what the Afghans have been so deeply concerned about. In the night time raids they kill innocent people all the time. And what is the definition of an insurgent? I mean, is it somebody who is carrying a gun? Is it somebody who meets and talks with the Taliban?
We do not know; we have no idea; we have no public criteria for which these death squads operate. We do not know how they define people; we do not know anything about it. It is really a scam."
columnist from the Foreign Policy in Focus
Press TV
"Around 90,000 US military documents have leaked, showing how US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan have killed or wounded hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents.
....
Press TV: The memos also reveal the operations of a secret special forces "black unit" that is charged with the "kill or capture" without trial of Taliban leaders. With the Taliban not being a standing, physical army, wouldn't this ultimately lead to more civilian causalities in a war that is already unpopular with the Afghans and much of the international community?
Conn Hallinan: Well, have written about this special unit for the last two years. The black unit originally started in Iraq and is now being used in Afghanistan. Stanley McChrystal, the former commander, one of the commanders in Iraq and then commander in Afghanistan was the person who put this thing together. These are essentially death squads. That is what they are, and what they do is they go around and they assassinate, and very rarely make arrests, they mainly assassinate people that they consider to be leading members of the Taliban.
First of all, it is a violation of the laws of war. You can't do this, you cannot have extrajudicial executions by any unit, the civilian or military. And the effect of these night time raids, which is what the Afghans have been so deeply concerned about. In the night time raids they kill innocent people all the time. And what is the definition of an insurgent? I mean, is it somebody who is carrying a gun? Is it somebody who meets and talks with the Taliban?
We do not know; we have no idea; we have no public criteria for which these death squads operate. We do not know how they define people; we do not know anything about it. It is really a scam."
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