"Kandahar Kill Team"

Yitzhak Rabin

I read an article in todays Irish Times that was probably the most repugnant thing I have read in the longest time. Even though I am not in the US army, and would never ever do or condone the things outlined in the article it made me ashamed to be a soldier. Its an absolutely shocking read.

US SOLDIERS in Afghanistan murdered civilians for sport, mutilated the bodies of their victims and kept severed fingers and part of a skull as “trophies”, according to an indepth report published by Rolling Stone magazine yesterday.

The journalist and screenwriter Mark Boal investigated the atrocities using army records and more than a dozen interviews. Boal won Academy Awards in 2009 for best original screenplay and best picture for The Hurt Locker , about US forces in Iraq.

The US soldiers described by Boal in Rolling Stone call Afghans “hajis” and “savages”. They “constantly” smoked hashish supplied by Afghan interpreters.

Cpl Jeremy Morlock, who was last week sentenced to 24 years in prison, “did any drug he could get his hands on”. Army officers repeatedly ignored evidence of the killings, on the plains of Kandahar Province between January and May of last year. When confronted with irrefutable proof, the army went to great lengths to suppress the information.

The German magazine Der Spiegel last week published three photographs taken by members of the unit. Rolling Stone has published many more, including images of a decapitated head being prodded with a stick, limbs and mangled torsos.

In some of the photographs, soldiers grin beside the Afghans they killed, portraying “a front-line culture among US troops in which killing Afghan civilians is less a reason for concern than a cause for celebration,” Boal writes.

Cpl Morlock and Pte First Class Andrew Holmes, then aged 21 and 19, killed the unit’s first victim, a “smooth-faced kid, about 15 years old” on January 15th, 2010. While their officers were meeting with a village elder, the men singled out the youth, who was working alone in a poppy field.

The soldiers knelt behind a wall and tossed a grenade at the boy, whose name was Gul Mudin. As it exploded, they fired at him with an M4 assault rifle and a machine gun. They then claimed the boy attacked them. The army captain who arrived on the scene thought the story was “strange”. But he did not follow up on it, and ordered a staff sergeant to deliver the coup de grace. The dead boy turned out to be the son of the village elder whom the officers had visited.

Morlock and Holmes had themselves photographed with Gul Mudin’s half-naked body. Staff sergeant Calvin Gibbs – whom the army holds most responsible for the atrocities – cut off the boy’s little finger and gave it to Holmes as a trophy, which he carried around thereafter in a zip-lock bag. After killing the boy, the men of 3rd platoon were “high-fiving” each other in jubilation, Boal reports.

Morlock and five other soldiers, who have yet to be tried, were promised more lenient treatment for testifying against Gibbs, who allegedly urged the men to kill Afghans whom they suspected of supporting the Taliban. Gibbs had skulls tattooed on his left shin: three red skulls represented the men he killed in Iraq; three blue skulls those he “waxed” in Afghanistan.

Some 20 villagers went to the unit’s headquarters to protest bitterly at the death of Gul Mudin, but their protest was disregarded. The platoon’s top two officers were promoted. When the father of a soldier in the unit called a command centre in the US to complain, the sergeant on duty told him, “Stuff like that happens.” Sgt Gibbs began collecting AK47s, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons used by insurgents so the soldiers could plant them as fake evidence next to the bodies of the civilians they killed. Their second victim was a man whom the army later said it believed to be deaf or mentally retarded.

Using thermal imagery, they discovered him curled in a ball by a roadside one night. They kept part of his skull as a trophy.

In the village of Marach Agha, Gibbs shot at close range an unarmed man whom he claimed belonged to the Taliban. The unit’s fourth confirmed victim was Mullah Allah Dad, a white-bearded cleric who was killed as the first boy was – with a grenade and gunfire. Soldiers “pushed away the dead man’s wife and children, who were screaming hysterical with grief”. Gibbs again used medical shears to amputate the corpse’s little finger, which he kept for himself.

The atrocities were discovered only because the soldiers beat up a colleague who complained about them smoking hashish in his room. Twelve soldiers have been charged in all, but the army has kept secret its report on officer accountability in the case. “None of us in the platoon – the platoon leader, the platoon sergeant – no one gives a f--k about these people,” Morlock said.

I then read the original Rolling Stone article which goes into more detail. Its a horrible read. What I actually find worse about this is not the killings themselves, which are horrendous, but it is the cover up and lack of action by the officers of the unit involved. It really goes some way to explaining why the Afghani people show such hostility to the occupying forces.

Here are some of the images:

Graphic!

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/photos/the-kill-team-photos-20110327

RMD

Sickening ****s all involved. I hope each and everyone of them get's charged with the utmost available. Not only are they killing innocent civilians, they are getting the good coalition soldiers killed by helping turn people to the extremists and ruining relations with civilians who can provide essential support.

Manic Moran

Morlock has alread plead guilty to the charges he was facing. He's looking at about 25 years.

NTM

Morpheus

I feel sorry for the REAL soldiers who will sadly but ultimately pay the real price, for the cowardly acts carried out by these sh!theads.

Burnt

Truly disgusting, brings back echoes of other similarly repugnant crimes.
I wondered are insurgency/guerrilla style wars where the enemy is everywhere
but not clearly identifiable so to speak lead to more actions such as this?

I read about this almost a week ago now i think, Bild a German tabloid photo
paper claims to have up to 4000 images taken by these guys.

PatsytheNazi

I remember watching a programme about some company of soldiers who for one reason or another had to do double the amount of duty out in Iraq. Anyway, some of them came back really f***ed up, it was like something out of the movie the Deer Hunter. For example he had a small arguement in a nightclub with his girlfriend about nothing - whose round it was/whatever. But in front of everyone, he pulled out a gun, cocked it, stuck it to her head and threatened to blow her brains out if she said another word. Crazy stuff :eek:

The Shtig

I can't believe he will only get 25 years, I cannot understand people that can easily kill innocent children.

This will have a terrible effect for all forces in Afghanistan not just the American and it's a shame, it's reversing the work that many brave men lost their life for.

Manic Moran

The Shtig wrote: »

I can't believe he will only get 25 years

The guilty plea. Usually a prosecutor will offer a lower sentence in return for the waiving of a trial, which saves time, money, and of course, absolutely guarantees a conviction.

NTM

Yitzhak Rabin

Manic Moran wrote: »

The guilty plea. Usually a prosecutor will offer a lower sentence in return for the waiving of a trial, which saves time, money, and of course, absolutely guarantees a conviction.

NTM

It was also because he agreed to testify against gibbs, who was apparently the main culprit in the killing.

Poccington

Absolutely disgusting.


However, I don't agree with the concept that “a front-line culture among US troops in which killing Afghan civilians is less a reason for concern than a cause for celebration,”. You can't take an isolated incident like this, in a war which has been going on for years and then apply it to all US combat troops.

arybvtcw0eolkf

yekahS wrote: »

Even though I am not in the US army, and would never ever do or condone the things outlined in the article it made me ashamed to be a soldier.

I wouldn't let the actions of a few murdering scumbags make me feel ashamed to be a soldier.

BigDuffman

Sick twisted cowards. The fact that this culture was tolerated by the rest is horrendous also the fact that a soldier found someone smoking hash in a billet more objectionable than murder is also inexcusable. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Yitzhak Rabin

Poccington wrote: »

Absolutely disgusting.


However, I don't agree with the concept that “a front-line culture among US troops in which killing Afghan civilians is less a reason for concern than a cause for celebration,”. You can't take an isolated incident like this, in a war which has been going on for years and then apply it to all US combat troops.

Cruz Mango Hailstorm wrote: »

I wouldn't let the actions of a few murdering scumbags make me feel ashamed to be a soldier.

Well thats the problem. I think that this isn't just an isolated incident of a few murdering scumbags. There is evidence that this practice was more widespread than just this platoon. The Platoon commander and Company Commander at least knew about it and did nothing. The father of the private who was trying to expose it and reported it to HQ back in the US and was told "these things happen, don't worry about it, it'll be dealt with when we get home". That shows either he didn't take it seriously, or it is a more widespread problem.

Also, they are only charging those directly involved in the incidents. That won't root out the problem. The problem is the way in which the officers of the unit excused the actions and turned a blind eye. If they had done the right thing and investigated the first incident, which was so absurd, then they would have saved the lives of at least 4 other innocent people.

The actions of this platoon will have undone any kind of good work the whole stryker battalion had done in the area.

If you even take the first murder of Mul Gudin. If you're his father, an elder who has been cooperating and helping the US forces and then you're asked to identify the body of your own son and told he tried to throw a grenade at the soldiers. They're painting your 15 year old son as a murderer, playing with his dead naked body, and desecrating his body by taking his finger as a trophy. How could you ever trust in coalition forces ever again? How could you want anything, but every single one of them dead?

I think if this is written off as the isolated incident of a few psychopaths who happened to be in the same unit, and the investigation doesn't go deeper into the pysche of frontline troops, and the lack of accountability of officers, then we're going to be seeing more reports of Kandahar Kill Teams in the future.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Taking all that into account I still wouldn't be shamed to be a soldier.

Yitzhak Rabin

Cruz Mango Hailstorm wrote: »

Taking all that into account I still wouldn't be shamed to be a soldier.

No, you're right to be honest.

I didn't phrase it right, and I still can't really explain what I meant. I suppose it was I would have always painted most individual soldiers as good men, even if perhaps the morality of the politicians who make the 'big' decisions was questionable. I think stories like this do raise questions about the mindset and psyche of a lot of the troops in Afghanistan.

But you are right, its no reason for us not to have pride in our job.

It should i suppose act as a warning to what can happen if we place too much emphasis on an 'us vs them' when in a foreign country. To be fair, the Irish have always had good relations with the local populace. Even in cases when troops have been killed, kidnapped etc. we have always treated the locals with the respect they deserve. That alone should be a source of pride for us.

Teangalad

Honestly, there should be nothing less than the death penalty on the table for these Guys, What is happening to the officers in command ?? especially the ones that allegedly turned a blind eye?

Yitzhak Rabin

Teangalad wrote: »

What is happening to the officers in command ?? especially the ones that allegedly turned a blind eye?

Promotion actually :mad: