Afghanistan

[winston]

Blackwater guard jailed over Afghan shooting

A US federal judge sentenced a former Blackwater security guard to 30 months in prison for killing an Afghan citizen in 2009.

The judge also ordered 29-year-old Justin Cannon to serve two years of supervised release after his prison term ends.

Cannon and a second Blackwater guard, Christopher Drotleff, 31, were convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the May 5, 2009 shooting of Romal Mohammad Naiem, an unarmed Afghan civilian.

Drotleff was sentenced to three years and one month in prison on June 14.

"Justin Cannon opened fire with an AK-47 at the rear of a retreating vehicle and took the life of an innocent Afghan," said US Attorney Neil MacBride.

"While Mr. Cannon was in Afghanistan to support U.S. troops, his incredibly reckless behavior instead undermined our military mission and weakened the bond of trust with the Afghans," MacBride said.

Both Cannon and Drotleff were accused of leaving their military base without authorization to transport local interpreters.

After the lead vehicle in their convoy crashed during the nighttime outing and overturned on its side, they firing several multiple shots at a passing car, killing Naiem, who was a passenger in the car, and injuring the car's driver.

Another Afghan man walking his dog in the area was also fatally shot. Both Drotleff and Cannon were acquitted of charges in his death and the shooting of the driver.

Blackwater was renamed Xe after it was caught up in several scandals in Iraq, in particular the deaths of between 14 and 17 civilians in Baghdad in September 2007.

Source: AFP

[kennynah]

few innocent civilians murdered and these criminals get 30months jail time... injustice...

anyways, as far as i'm concerned, the americans are invading Afghanistan and pillaging their resources..just as they did to Iraq, under the disguise of a democratic ideology...

no different from the early misguided christians and muslims who waged "holy" wars, in the name of God and Allah, to conquer and occupy territories.

we never learn from history, do we? again and again, we repeatedly commit the same atrocious acts of violence against one another.. just like uk is now unscrupulously bombing libya civilians in the name of freeing libyans.... one has got to be mentally blind not to see the hidden agenda behind such attacks

by the way, if you have not already heard, obama formally announced the withdrawal of american troops starting this year. the withdrawal exercises will go on until 2013 but eventually a good 68K soldiers will still be occupying Afghanistan..

you may say, all these do not concern me...but wait...

what if one day, the americans think that we are too oppressed by the familee..and decide to get a UN backed security decision to "free" Singaporeans? suddenly, we get foreign aircrafts over our sky and foreign troopers on our soil?
so, we must be careful when we think we are for such 'freedom" acts of violence...they can come to our doorsteps

China, being such a mighty nation now, is wise and has almost always abstained from voting for such unilaterally enacted acts of crimes against another nation, in whatever name those invasions are made under... in other words, they do not meddle in oher countries' affairs...they know better the simple principle... "do not do unto others, what you do not want done unto you"

[winston]

I can agree with the invasion of Afghanistan because it was to take out the Talibans, who were responsible for 911.

For Iraq, Cowboy has an old score to settled with Saddam for his Dad, as Saddam did not comply with the UN Resolutions when Cowboy Senior was President.

And when they did not find any WMD, Cowboy tried to link Iraq to Al-Qaeda, eventhough there was no Al-Qaeda activity in Iraq.

Disgusting...

[kennynah]

and so...when some one threatens you, you sling your gun, hunt him down and shoot him dead and in the process kill more innocent lives?

if so, we are all at the brink of WWIII... in this world we live in currently, which country is not a threat to another?

even those nazis who massacred the jews during WWII are brought to justice through ICC in nuremburg... of cos there are a few who hunt them down and take them out today...but mostly, they are brought to justice through peaceful means...


and c'mon, who is to say for certainty that 911 was the work of some radical muslims?

[winston]

and c'mon, who is to say for certainty that 911 was the work of some radical muslims?

Unless you believe those Conspiracy Thoerists that 911 was an inside job, there's no doubt in my mind that Osama did it.

This is especially after watching an interview of Osama, where he mentioned that he did not expect the buildings to collapse. And that's from a professional evaluation as he's an Engineer..

Well, the Conspiracy Theorists are also saying that Osama attacked the buildings and the CIA did not stop them. Or that it was an Inside Job that took down the buildings, after it was attacked ..

Taking out Afghanistan, was to remove a base for Osama and the Talibans, for future terror activities.

[kennynah]

i really do not know who did the 911 job... and i must admit, the conspiracy theories are interesting...especially when you review the footages of how the buildings came tumbling down, including the adjacent tower that was not even hit by the planes...

so long as we don't oppress people, take advantage of them, murder the men and rape their women, why would anyone want to set themselves as as a human bomb? i'm quite sure those who strapped bombs onto themselves have parents/siblings/children of their own... they not human meh? i don't think they did it out of kicks..but very deep resentment for those they were willing to kill...

[LenaHuat]

Hamid Kazai's brother has been killed in his southern Afghan home .

[kennynah]

half brother he was shot by his own bodyguard

[winston]

World fails Afghanistan despite spending billions by Michelle Nichols

KABUL (Reuters) - The global community has failed to create a politically stable and economically viable Afghanistan despite pouring billions of dollars into the South Asian nation during a decade-long war against the Taliban, says the International Crisis Group.

The Brussels-based think tank said the United States and its allies still lacked a coherent policy to strengthen Afghanistan ahead of a planned withdrawal of foreign combat troops from the unpopular war by the end of 2014.

"Despite billions of dollars in aid, state institutions remain fragile and unable to provide good governance, deliver basic services to the majority of the population or guarantee human security," it said in a report released this week.

So far $57 billion in aid has been spent in Afghanistan, but largely failed to fulfil the pledge to rebuild the country, the report said, and sustainability was "virtually impossible" as only 20 percent had been channeled through the government.

About $29 billion of that had been spent on the Afghan police and army, which "have thus far proved unable to enforce the law, counter the insurgency or even secure the seven regions" recently handed over to them, the report found.


Source: Reuters US Online Report World News

[kennynah]

It's just a covert manner to launder money into arms industries and "officially" strip afghanistan of their natural resources.