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  1. #1
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    Default Report: Marines broke international law

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070414/...rines_shooting

    KABUL, Afghanistan - A U.S. Marine unit broke international humanitarian law by using excessive force during a shooting spree last month that left 12 people dead, an Afghan human rights group said in a report Saturday.

    The troops fired indiscriminately at pedestrians, people in cars, public buses and taxis in six different locations along a 10-mile stretch of road in Nangahar province after an explosives-rigged minivan crashed into their convoy on March 4, according to the report by Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission.

    Six people were killed near the blast site, while the other six died on the road as the troops sped away, said Ahmad Nader Nadery, the group's spokesman.

    The dead included a 1-year-old boy, a 4-year-old girl and three women, the report said. Thirty-five people were wounded in the shootings.

    "In failing to distinguish between civilians and legitimate military targets the U.S. Marines Corps Special Forces employed indiscriminate force," the report said. "Their actions thus constitute a serious violation of international humanitarian law standards."

    The group said its report was based on interviews with victims and their families, witnesses, local community leaders, hospital officials and police.

    A U.S. military commander has also determined that the Marines used excessive force and referred the case for possible criminal inquiry, a senior U.S. defense official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

    U.S. military officials said after the incident that the suicide attack was part of an ambush that included militant gunmen shooting at Marines, which may have caused some of the civilian casualties.

    The human rights group's report said "there is some evidence at the immediate site of the incident to support this claim, but it is far from conclusive and all witnesses and Afghan government officials interviewed uniformly denied that any attack beyond the initial (suicide car bombing) took place."

    The group also alleges that U.S. troops serving with NATO's International Security Assistance Force in southern Afghanistan returned to the area after the bombing for an investigation and a cleanup operation, which involved the removal of all bullet shells and cartridges.

    The group said it interviewed a member of Afghanistan's National Police criminal investigations office who said his unit had searched around the site after the incident, but that "ISAF forces had collected all shells, magazines, cartridges from the spot and we could not find any trace or sign of them."

    U.S. military officials were not available to comment on that allegation.

    Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly pleaded for Western troops to show more restraint amid concern that civilian deaths shake domestic support for the foreign military involvement that he needs to prop up his government, increasingly under threat from a resurgent Taliban.

    The initial U.S. military investigation concluded that the Marines' response was "out of proportion to the threat that was immediately there," the senior U.S. defense official said Wednesday in Washington.

    The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the probe's results have not been released. The findings have been forwarded to U.S. Central Command, which has responsibility for U.S. military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia.

    Another official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the initial military investigation concluded that there was a "reasonable suspicion" the Marines violated the rules for the use of deadly force, and that crimes, possibly including homicide, may have been committed in the aftermath of the convoy being struck.

    One Marine was wounded in the blast, which also killed the bomber.

    Army Maj. Gen. Francis H. Kearney III, head of Special Operations Command Central, opened an investigation into the incident after taking the highly unusual step of ordering the unit of about 120 Marines out of Afghanistan.

    "We deeply regret the loss of life and casualties that resulted from the (suicide car bombing) and the actions that followed," Lt. Col. Lou Leto, spokesman at Kearney's command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., said in a statement. "We will work to prevent similar events from occurring in the future."

    The Marines are in a special operations unit that deployed from Camp LeJeune, N.C., in January with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. After Kearney ordered them out of Afghanistan, they returned to their unit's ships in the Persian Gulf.

    The unit is one of four Marine Special Operations Command companies established since the command was created in February 2006. The one ordered out of Afghanistan was the first to deploy abroad.

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by LiberalNation View Post
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070414/...rines_shooting

    KABUL, Afghanistan - A U.S. Marine unit broke international humanitarian law by using excessive force during a shooting spree last month that left 12 people dead, an Afghan human rights group said in a report Saturday.

    The troops fired indiscriminately at pedestrians, people in cars, public buses and taxis in six different locations along a 10-mile stretch of road in Nangahar province after an explosives-rigged minivan crashed into their convoy on March 4, according to the report by Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission.

    Six people were killed near the blast site, while the other six died on the road as the troops sped away, said Ahmad Nader Nadery, the group's spokesman.

    The dead included a 1-year-old boy, a 4-year-old girl and three women, the report said. Thirty-five people were wounded in the shootings.

    "In failing to distinguish between civilians and legitimate military targets the U.S. Marines Corps Special Forces employed indiscriminate force," the report said. "Their actions thus constitute a serious violation of international humanitarian law standards."

    The group said its report was based on interviews with victims and their families, witnesses, local community leaders, hospital officials and police.

    A U.S. military commander has also determined that the Marines used excessive force and referred the case for possible criminal inquiry, a senior U.S. defense official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

    U.S. military officials said after the incident that the suicide attack was part of an ambush that included militant gunmen shooting at Marines, which may have caused some of the civilian casualties.

    The human rights group's report said "there is some evidence at the immediate site of the incident to support this claim, but it is far from conclusive and all witnesses and Afghan government officials interviewed uniformly denied that any attack beyond the initial (suicide car bombing) took place."

    The group also alleges that U.S. troops serving with NATO's International Security Assistance Force in southern Afghanistan returned to the area after the bombing for an investigation and a cleanup operation, which involved the removal of all bullet shells and cartridges.

    The group said it interviewed a member of Afghanistan's National Police criminal investigations office who said his unit had searched around the site after the incident, but that "ISAF forces had collected all shells, magazines, cartridges from the spot and we could not find any trace or sign of them."

    U.S. military officials were not available to comment on that allegation.

    Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly pleaded for Western troops to show more restraint amid concern that civilian deaths shake domestic support for the foreign military involvement that he needs to prop up his government, increasingly under threat from a resurgent Taliban.

    The initial U.S. military investigation concluded that the Marines' response was "out of proportion to the threat that was immediately there," the senior U.S. defense official said Wednesday in Washington.

    The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the probe's results have not been released. The findings have been forwarded to U.S. Central Command, which has responsibility for U.S. military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia.

    Another official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the initial military investigation concluded that there was a "reasonable suspicion" the Marines violated the rules for the use of deadly force, and that crimes, possibly including homicide, may have been committed in the aftermath of the convoy being struck.

    One Marine was wounded in the blast, which also killed the bomber.

    Army Maj. Gen. Francis H. Kearney III, head of Special Operations Command Central, opened an investigation into the incident after taking the highly unusual step of ordering the unit of about 120 Marines out of Afghanistan.

    "We deeply regret the loss of life and casualties that resulted from the (suicide car bombing) and the actions that followed," Lt. Col. Lou Leto, spokesman at Kearney's command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., said in a statement. "We will work to prevent similar events from occurring in the future."

    The Marines are in a special operations unit that deployed from Camp LeJeune, N.C., in January with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. After Kearney ordered them out of Afghanistan, they returned to their unit's ships in the Persian Gulf.

    The unit is one of four Marine Special Operations Command companies established since the command was created in February 2006. The one ordered out of Afghanistan was the first to deploy abroad.
    LMAO off. US Marine Special Forces? NO SUCH THING.

    Let's not blame the bad guys. Let's blame the good guys.
    “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” Edumnd Burke

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gunny View Post
    LMAO off. US Marine Special Forces? NO SUCH THING.

    Let's not blame the bad guys. Let's blame the good guys.
    I'm sure she supports our troops tho !!!!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gunny View Post
    LMAO off. US Marine Special Forces? NO SUCH THING.

    Let's not blame the bad guys. Let's blame the good guys.
    I think she post these types of articles to see if she can get a rise out of people..
    "A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself."
    Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC)

  5. #5
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    Default

    Hey even the US gov said they did wrong and pulled them from the country.

    Good guys tend to try to avoid killing four year olds regardless of the bad guys.

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    Quote Originally Posted by LiberalNation View Post
    Hey even the US gov said they did wrong and pulled them from the country.

    Good guys tend to try to avoid killing four year olds regardless of the bad guys.
    SO your point is ?

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    This makes us aka the US look bad. Not like good guys. If people don't see us as good guys these type of limited wars will never work.

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    Quote Originally Posted by LiberalNation View Post
    This makes us aka the US look bad. Not like good guys. If people don't see us as good guys these type of limited wars will never work.
    Incidents like this do----they look even worse when people like you disseminate them out of contex and without mentioning any atrocities committed by he enemy.

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    For one I didn't write the article and I didn't take anything out of context. I'm just as happy to post stories about the terrorists atrocities which normally are much worse then our own when I come across them searching yahoo for my daily dose of news.

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    I'm trying to figure out where this Marine Special Forces thing comes in too. Force Recon is the closest thing to special forces they would have. All Marines are special forces. Marine Special Forces is redundant.

    I suspect the attackers were hiding among the population and the marines fired back. I would bet money they didn't just walk around abitrarily shooting people. And I would want to know just who makes up this human rights commission if they are all afgan. And then how reliable are the supposed witnesses. Shades of flying imam's would muslims lie?
    When I die I'm sure to go to heaven, cause I spent my time in hell.

    You get more with a kind word and a two by four, than you do with just a kind word.

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    Quote Originally Posted by LiberalNation View Post
    For one I didn't write the article and I didn't take anything out of context. I'm just as happy to post stories about the terrorists atrocities which normally are much worse then our own when I come across them searching yahoo for my daily dose of news.
    What a crock of shit--show me one!

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    I remember posting something about Iranian women’s right activist being arrested. Posted article about those brits taken captive here maybe I know on other boards. Actually post more on the terrorists on more liberal boards and more about the US problems on here because they cause more of a stir if you match the stories to go against the boards dominant ideology.

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    Quote Originally Posted by LiberalNation View Post
    I remember posting something about Iranian women’s right activist being arrested. Posted article about those brits taken captive here maybe I know on other boards. Actually post more on the terrorists on more liberal boards and more about the US problems on here because they cause more of a stir if you match the stories to go against the boards dominant ideology.
    Nice of you to cause a stir---I guess Stephianie was correct--you post for effect.

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    Somewhat for effect sure. No use posting articles few people will debate and many will just ignore. I post something bad about terrorists and you get a few lame comments about how awful, ect. Post a story about US troops doing something bad and you get people defending them, questioning the source and having some debate. Which I can then debate back.

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    I am glad the US military investigates and holds people accountable for crimes committed during war. We are still a good country at the core. Now we just have to get rid of the crooks that are running things right now.
    "Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows"
    Martin Luther King Jr.

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