Afghanistan happenings- Dawood Kahn

DAWOOD KHAN'S BLOG

Silk Roads and Siamese Smiles

• THE JOURNEY SO FAR…
 
• ARCHIVES
 
• RSS FEED

AFGHANISTAN, CENTRAL ASIA, HAMID KARZAI, PANJWAYI, US SOLDIER KILLS AFGHAN CIVILIANS

American “Soldier” Murders Civilians in Southern Afghanistan

In Afghanistan on March 11, 2012 at 6:18 pm

It’s finally happened.  An American has gone off the deep end in Afghanistan.

This guy wakes up this morning.  Puts on some salwar kamees or Man Jams.   Man Jams being the colloquial term for the local fashion of the region.  They’re called Man Jams because they look like pajamas for men.  I own a couple of pair and they are comfortable.  This Insane Idiot grabs his rifle and walks off the base.  I guess when he woke up this morning,  He shit, showered and shaved.  Drank a cup of coffee.  Then he stood up and thought; “Fuck, I’m gonna go kill me some motherfuckers…” and strolls on off the base.

A few minutes later, he’s in the middle of Panjwayi District.  The Dude starts shooting civilians.  The rumor is that he may have wounded or killed up to16 victims.  One rumor has him walking house to house.  Shooting victims in their beds.  That’s the nature of war and rumors.  Every iteration grows in violence and strangeness.  We’ll have to wait for the real story and casualty count.  Once he’s finished, he walks back to the base and turns his rifle and himself in and tells his command what he’s done and that he’s crazy.  He thinks that he should be sent home.  The amazing thing is that he was able to walk off the base, kill several people and walk away unopposed and unnoticed.  No one seems to have known that anything was amiss UNTIL this guy tells them what he’s done.  No one had a clue.  WTF!

Everything is calm.  There are no tires burning.  No protests or demonstrations of which I am aware despite the photos in the attachedmedia links.  I’m sure that most people aren’t even aware of it.  Most of the Afghans who are even aware that something occurred probably still think it was a local bandit.  The rest of Afghanistan is most certainly clueless about the event entirely.

BUT!  The US has released the information on the shooting to the local representatives of the international press.  The local press, of course, is printing the news all over the wires and the internets.  I’ve seen links from media in Pakistan (of course), Indonesia, the AP, Reuters and several others popping up over the last few hours.

It was insane what this guy did.  It was more insane to have released what he did to all points North, South, East and West.  This should have been kept on the down low.

This guy opened up the potential for many, many deaths.  His actions were onerous.  His actions were heinous.  He killed innocent people for no reason other than he was mentally imbalanced.  Someone should have caught that and that soldier should not have been here.

The one thing that is not really being discussed is that this kid is supposedly from the same unit where two soldiers were killed during the Qu’ran Burning Intifada over the last couple of weeks.  I’m sure that is what put the kid over the edge.  He’s here trying to make Afghanistan safe.  Afghans who are supposed to be our allies are murdering us over a couple of burnt books.  Quite a few Coalition Soldiers are angry that Afghans turned on us in such a manner.  There’s a lot of mission burn out over the Qu’ran Burning incident.  Not because the Qu’rans were burned but because Afghan Soldiers went native and started shooting at us and Civilians were so vocal thanks to the press about Americans “disrespecting Islam.”  Most of the Coalition goes out of their way to “respect” Islam.  We’ve spent Billions on this place.  We’ve shed blood in this place.  The Taliban is constantly murdering Afghans and no one bats an eye over it.  Americans burn a few copies of the Qu’ran and it’s a mad house.  Nah, I doubt that has anything to do with this.

But was it a mad house?  Were the demonstrations truly nation wide?  What percentage of the population protested and demonstrated?  From what I could tell, less than 1% of the population demonstrated over the burnt Qu’rans.  That same week of the Qu’ran burnings, I had an Afghan Officer tell me that “we have to pray that the Americans do not leave us.”  The press, though, made it seem as though the country was being over run with protestors and demonstrations were being held in every city, town, hamlet, borough and village.  The media, of course, lies and sensationalizes to sell advertising space or their agenda.

The US Department of State and the US Department of Defense are equally insane for having released the news of the shooting incident.  Lives are at stake here.  Not theoretical lives.  Real lives.  The potential for blood loss from a reaction to this is massive.  Of course, the media will sensationalize any reaction.  They’ll sit at the Serena Hotel or the Safi Landmark Hotel in their comfy chairs and loveseats and type out little white lies and no one will call them on it.

But!  I suppose that if we didn’t release the news in a timely manner, there was no way that we could have sent a swift and appropriately groveling apology for the incident to that thief Hamid Karzai.

The plus side of this, potentially, is that these were people who were killed.  Mere humans.  Political pawns to be played for sure.  They weren’t Qu’rans.  Many Afghans probably won’t bat an eyelash.  They’re inured to violence unless riled up by the local Mullah with a bone to pick.  Especially if it was mostly women who were killed.  No proper Afghan cares about the lives of women.  Especially if they’re past their breeding prime or if they haven’t squeezed out a few boys by the time they’re seventeen.  If they were little girls who were killed, many, if not most, Afghans won’t care much either.

Thankfully, the guy didn’t kill any donkeys or goats.  Then we’d have a real problem on our hands.

I’ve seen donkey deaths cause instant mini-riots.  I’ve seen Afghans shrug off the death of a little girl like it was a fly that had just been swatted.  These two incidents occurred on the Jalalabad Road.  Little Girl gets hit by a car.  They pulled the body off of the street and carried her away.  A donkey got hit and the owner went crazy.  The crowd grew dangerous and started throwing objects.   Both times, it was the French.  They seemed to be prone to these kinds of incidents back in ’05 and ’06.

Since no Qu’rans or livestock were involved, many Afghans will probably give this incident little notice.  Of course, the Afghan politicians (THUGS) will use it to soak us for more money and to show their influence by having Obama and the various ISAF Generals break dance with more groveling apologetic acrobats.  After all, the Coalition funding at their disposal to embezzle is slowly drying up as we near 2014.  The Afghan Parliamentarians, Ministers and Generals need issues like this so they might better fund their retirements.

Like

Be the first to like this post.

▶ 4 Responses

Seals tell of bin laden raid

SEALS tell of killing ‘Bin’ Laden

Upset by the official account, US Navy SEALS reveal the truth of the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, nicknames and all

Osama Bin Laden was killed within 90 seconds of the US Navy Seals landing in his compound and not after a protracted gun battle, according to the first account by the men who carried out the raid. The operation was so clinical that only 12 bullets were fired. The Seals have spoken out because they were angered at the version given by politicians, which they see as portraying them as cold-blooded murderers on a “kill mission”. They were also shocked that President Barack Obama announced Bin Laden’s death on television the same evening, rendering useless much of the intelligence they had seized.

Chuck Pfarrer, a former commander of Seal Team 6, which conducted the operation, has interviewed many of those who took part for a book, Seal Target Geronimo, to be published in the USA this week.

The Seals’ own accounts differ from the White House version, which gave the impression that Bin Laden was killed at the end of the operation rather than in its opening seconds. Pfarrer insists Bin Laden would have been captured had he surrendered.

“There isn’t a politician in the world who could resist trying to take credit for getting Bin Laden but it devalued the ‘intel’ and gave time for every other Al-Qaeda leader to scurry to another bolt hole,” said Pfarrer. “The men who did this and their valorous act deserve better. It’s a pretty shabby way to treat these guys.”

The first hint of the mission came in January last year when the team’s commanding officer was called to a meeting at the headquarters of joint special operations command. The meeting was held in a soundproof bunker three stories below ground with his boss, Admiral William McRaven, and a CIA officer. They told him a walled compound in Pakistan had been under surveillance for a couple of weeks. They were certain a high-value individual was inside and needed a plan to present to the president. It had to be someone important. “So is this Bert or Ernie?” he asked. The Seals’ nicknames for Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are a reference to two Muppets in Sesame Street, one tall and thin and the other short and fat. “We have a voice print,” said the CIA officer, “and we’re 60% or 70% certain it’s our guy.” McRaven added that a reconnaissance satellite had measured the target’s shadow. “Over 6ft tall.”

When McRaven added they would use Ghost Hawk helicopters, the team leader had no doubt. “These are the most classified, sophisticated stealth helicopters ever developed,” said Pfarrer. “They are kept in locked hangars and fly so quiet we call it ‘whisper mode’.” Over the next couple of months a plan was hatched. A mock-up of the compound was built at Tall Pines, an army facility in a national forest somewhere in the eastern US. Four reconnaissance satellites were placed in orbit over the compound, sending back video and communications intercepts. A tall figure seen walking up and down was named “the Pacer”.

Obama gave the go-ahead and Seal Team 6, known as the Jedi, was deployed to Afghanistan . The White House canceled plans to provide air cover using jet fighters, fearing this might endanger relations with Pakistan . Sending in the Ghost Hawks without air cover was considered too risky so the Seals had to use older Stealth Hawks. A Prowler electronic warfare aircraft from the carrier USS Carl Vinson was used to jam Pakistan’s radar and create decoy targets. Operation Neptune’s Spear was initially planned for April 30 but bad weather delayed it until May 1, a moonless night. The commandos flew on two Stealth Hawks, code named Razor 1 and 2, followed by two Chinooks five minutes behind, known as “Command Bird” and the “gun platform”. On board, each Seal was clad in body armor and night vision goggles and equipped with laser targets, radios and sawn-off M4 rifles. They were expecting up to 30 people in the main house, including Bin Laden and three of his wives, two sons, Khalid and Hamza, his courier, Abu Ahmed al- Kuwaiti, four bodyguards and a number of children. At 56 minutes past midnight the compound came into sight and the code “ Palm Beach ” signaled three minutes to landing. Razor 1 hovered above the main house, a three-story building where Bin Laden lived on the top floor. Twelve Seals abseiled the 5ft-6ft down onto the roof and then jumped to a third-floor patio, where they kicked in the windows and entered. The first person the Seals encountered was a terrified woman, Bin Laden’s third wife, Khaira, who ran into the hall. Blinded by a searing white strobe light they shone at her, she stumbled back. A Seal grabbed her by the arm and threw her to the floor. Bin Laden’s bedroom was along a short hall. The door opened; he popped out and then slammed the door shut.

“Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo,” radioed one Seal, meaning “eyes on target”. At the same time lights came on from the floor below and Bin Laden’s son Khalid came running up the stairs towards the Seals. He was shot dead.

Two Seals kicked in Bin Laden’s door. The room, they later recalled, “smelt like old clothing, like a guest bedroom in a grandmother’s house”. Inside was the Al-Qaeda leader and his youngest wife, Amal, who was screaming as he pushed her in front of him. “No, no, don’t do this!” she shouted as her husband reached across the king-size bed for his AK-47 assault rifle. The Seals reacted instantly, firing in the same second. One round thudded into the mattress. The other, aimed at Bin Laden’s head, grazed Amal in the calf. As his hand reached for the gun, they each fired again: one shot hit his breastbone, the other his skull, killing him instantly and blowing out the back of his head.

Meanwhile Razor 2 was heading for the guest house, a low, shoe box-like building, where Bin Laden’s courier, Kuwaiti, and his brother lived. As the helicopter neared, a door opened and two figures appeared, one waving an AK-47. This was Kuwaiti. In the moonless night he could see nothing and lifted his rifle, spraying bullets wildly. He did not see the Stealth Hawk.

On board someone shouted, “Bust him!”, and a sniper fired two shots. Kuwaiti was killed, as was the person behind him, who turned out to be his wife. Also on board were a CIA agent, a Pakistani- American who would act as interpreter, and a sniffer dog called Karo, wearing dog body armor and goggles. Within two minutes the Seals from Razor 2 had cleared the guesthouse and removed the women and children. They then ran to the main house and entered from the ground floor, checking the rooms. One of Bin Laden’s bodyguards was waiting with his AK-47. The Seals shot him twice and he toppled over.

Five minutes into the operation the command Chinook landed outside the compound, disgorging the commanding officer and more men. They blasted through the compound wall and rushed in. The commander made his way to the third floor, where Bin Laden’s body lay on the floor face up. Photographs were taken, and the commander called on his satellite phone to headquarters with the words: “Geronimo Echo KIA” — Bin Laden enemy killed in action.

“This was the first time the White House knew he was dead and it was probably 20 minutes into the raid,” said Pfarrer.

A sample of Bin Laden’s DNA was taken and the body was bagged. They kept his rifle. It is now mounted on the wall of their team room at their headquarters in Virginia Beach , Virginia , alongside photographs of a dozen colleagues killed in action in the past 20 years.

At this point things started to go wrong. Razor 1 took off but the top secret “green unit” that controls the electronics failed. The aircraft went into a spin and crashed tail-first into the compound. The Seals were alarmed, thinking it had been shot down and several rushed to the wreckage. The crew climbed out, shaken but unharmed. The commanding officer ordered them to destroy Razor 2, to remove the green unit, and to smash the avionics. They then laid explosive charges.

They loaded Bin Laden’s body onto the Chinook along with the cache of intelligence in plastic bin bags and headed toward the USS Carl Vinson. As they flew off they blew up Razor 2. The whole operation had taken 38 minutes.

The following morning White House officials announced that the helicopter had crashed as it arrived, forcing the Seals to abandon plans to enter from the roof. A photograph of the situation room showed a shocked Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, with her hand to her mouth.

Why did they get it so wrong? What they were watching was live video but it was shot from 20,000 ft by a drone circling overhead and relayed in real time to the White House and Leon Panetta, the CIA director, in Langley. The Seals were not wearing helmet cameras, and those watching in Washington had no idea what was happening inside the buildings. “They don’t understand our terminology, so when someone said the ‘insertion helicopter’ has crashed, they assumed it meant on entry,” said Pfarrer.

What infuriated the Seals, according to Pfarrer, was the description of the raid as a kill mission. “I’ve been a Seal for 30 years and Inever heard the words ‘kill mission’,” he said. “It’s a Beltway [ Washington insider’s] fantasy word. If it was a 'kill mission' you don’t need Seal Team 6; you need a box of hand grenades.”

Ambulance in Texas

Ambulance in Texas