U.S. accused of "widespread abuse of human rights" by Jimmy Carter

By Amy Bingham
ABC News
June 25, 2012

A former U.S. president is accusing the current president of sanctioning the "widespread abuse of human rights" by authorizing drone strikes to kill suspected terrorists.

Jimmy Carter, America's 39 th president, denounced the Obama administration for "clearly violating" 10 of the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, writing in a New York Times op-ed on Monday that the "United States is abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights."

"Instead of making the world safer, America's violation of international human rights abets our enemies and alienates our friends," Carter wrote.

While the total number of attacks from unmanned aircraft, or drones, and the resulting casualties are murky, the New America Foundation estimates that in Pakistan alone 265 drone strikes have been executed since January 2009 . Those strikes have killed at least 1,488 people, at least 1,343 of them considered militants, the foundation estimates based on news reports and other sources.

In addition to the drone strikes, Carter criticized the current president for keeping the Guantanamo Bay detention center open, where prisoners "have been tortured by waterboarding more than 100 times or intimidated with semiautomatic weapons, power drills or threats to sexually assault their mothers."

The former president blasted the government for allowing "unprecedented violations of our rights to privacy through warrantless wiretapping and government mining of our electronic communications."

He also condemned recent legislation that gives the president the power to detain suspected terrorists indefinitely, although a federal judge blocked the law from taking effect for any suspects not affiliated with the September 11 terrorist attacks.

"This law violates the right to freedom of expression and to be presumed innocent until proved guilty, two other rights enshrined in the declaration," Carter said.

While Carter never mentioned Obama by name, he called out "our government" and "the highest authorities in Washington," and urged "concerned citizens" to "persuade Washington to reverse course and regain moral leadership."

China Top Source Of Counterfeit U.S. Military Electronics (Bloomberg)

Editor`s note: Should it really be a surprise to anyone, that we are a society where we want everything on the cheap nowadays - goods and labor chiefly and China being the top world exported of cheap manufactured goods would supply counterfeit or 'aftermarket' parts for the U.S. military war machines and supply chains. Its the U.S. government and the lobbyist-controlled Congress who basically sent all the jobs and factories to the East while leaving the once mighty U.S. impotent in industrial manufacturing. So should we be so quick to blame China for our worries, where the government hands them billions of dollars worth of oil and gas concessions, approves the increased global Chinese state-media influence by allowing recent take over of AMC Theaters and giving them direct access to our Treasury to buy our debt? And the list goes on and on but these are just the recent developments in the past week and more will come surely as while our U.S. government touts and vilifies the Chinese government in every shape and form. - RA (Rubaiat`s Blog)


Bloomberg News
By Tony Capaccio
May 21, 2012

China’s government has failed to curb manufacturing of counterfeit military electronic parts by Chinese companies that are the “dominant source” of fakes in the U.S. defense supply chain, a Senate investigation found.

The U.S. Air Force suspended in January a Shenzhen, China- based company from supplying parts to U.S. contractors after it sold about 84,000 suspect components, many of them installed on U.S. aircraft, according to an example cited in the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee report released yesterday.

The panel’s report outlines the results of a 14-month investigation disclosing dozens of examples of suspected counterfeit electronic parts. Saying U.S. companies and the military services didn’t crack down on abuses, the committee said the defense industry “routinely failed to report cases of suspect counterfeit parts, putting the integrity of the supply chain at risk.”

The report didn’t cite any examples of counterfeit parts causing damage such as lives lost or planes that crashed.

The committee said it found “overwhelming and undeniable evidence to support” the conclusion that China hasn’t taken steps to stop operations “that are carried out openly in that country...”

(click here to read the full article)

Evidence to prove the government plans to enslave Americans into detention camps

Leaked U.S. Army Document Outlines Plan For Re-Education Camps In America
Political activists would be pacified to sympathize with the government

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Thursday, May 3, 2012

RELATED: Yes, The Re-Education Camp Manual Does Apply Domestically to U.S. Citizens

Read: Army manual for re-education camps applies to US citizens

A leaked U.S. Army document prepared for the Department of Defense contains shocking plans for “political activists” to be pacified by “PSYOP officers” into developing an “appreciation of U.S. policies” while detained in prison camps inside the United States.

The document, entitled FM 3-39.40 Internment and Resettlement Operations (PDF) was originally released on a restricted basis to the DoD in February 2010, but has now been leaked online.

The manual outlines policies for processing detainees into internment camps both globally and inside the United States. International agencies like the UN and the Red Cross are named as partners in addition to domestic federal agencies including the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA.

The document makes it clear that the policies apply “within U.S. territory” and involve, “DOD support to U.S. civil authorities for domestic emergencies, and for designated law enforcement and other activities,” including “man-made disasters, accidents, terrorist attacks and incidents in the U.S. and its territories.”

The manual states, “These operations may be performed as domestic civil support operations,” and adds that “The authority to approve resettlement such operations within U.S. territories,” would require a “special exception” to The Posse Comitatus Act, which can be obtained via “the President invoking his executive authority.” The document also makes reference to identifying detainees using their “social security number.”

Aside from enemy combatants and other classifications of detainees, the manual includes the designation of “civilian internees,” in other words citizens who are detained for, “security reasons, for protection, or because he or she committed an offense against the detaining power.”

Once the detainees have been processed into the internment camp, the manual explains how they will be “indoctrinated,” with a particular focus on targeting political dissidents, into expressing support for U.S. policies.

The re-education process is the responsibility of the “Psychological Operations Officer,” whose job it is to design “PSYOP products that are designed to pacify and acclimate detainees or DCs to accept U.S. I/R facility authority and regulations,” according to the document.
The manual lists the following roles that are designated to the “PSYOP team”.

     - Identifies malcontents, trained agitators, and political leaders within the facility who may try 
     to organize resistance or create disturbances.

     - Develops and executes indoctrination programs to reduce or remove antagonistic 
     attitudes.

     - Identifies political activists.

     - Provides loudspeaker support (such as administrative announcements and facility 
     instructions when necessary).

     - Helps the military police commander control detainee and DC populations during 
     emergencies.

     - Plans and executes a PSYOP program that produces an understanding and appreciation 
     of U.S. policies and actions.

Remember, this is not restricted to insurgents in Iraq who are detained in prison camps – the manual makes it clear that the policies also apply “within U.S. territory” under the auspices of the DHS and FEMA. The document adds that, “Resettlement operations may require large groups of civilians to be quartered temporarily (less than 6 months) or semipermanently (more than 6 months).”

The historical significance of states using internment camps to re-educate detainees centers around the fact that it is almost exclusively practiced by repressive and dictatorial regimes like the former Soviet Union and Stalinist regimes like modern day North Korea.
We have exhaustively documented preparations for the mass internment of citizens inside America, but this is the first time that language concerning the re-education of detainees, in particular political activists, has cropped up in our research.

In 2009, the National Guard posted a number of job opportunities looking for “Internment/Resettlement Specialists” to work in “civilian internee camps” within the United States.

In December last year it was also revealed that Halliburton subsidiary KBR is seeking sub-contractors to staff and outfit “emergency environment” camps located in five regions of the United States.

In 2006, KBR was contracted by Homeland Security to build detention centers designed to deal with “an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S,” or the rapid development of unspecified “new programs” that would require large numbers of people to be interned.

Rex 84, short for Readiness Exercise 1984, was established under the pretext of a “mass exodus” of illegal aliens crossing the Mexican/US border, the same pretense used in the language of the KBR request for services.

During the Iran-Contra hearings in 1987, however, it was revealed that the program was a secretive “scenario and drill” developed by the federal government to suspend the Constitution, declare martial law, assign military commanders to take over state and local governments, and detain large numbers of American citizens determined by the government to be “national security threats.”

Under the indefinite detention provision of the National Defense Authorization Act, which was signed by Barack Obama on New Year’s Eve, American citizens can be kidnapped and detained indefinitely without trial.

Read a portion of the Internment and Resettlement Operations manual below.



The following portions of the document make it clear that the policies apply “within U.S. territory” (as well as abroad in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan) and that domestic federal agencies are involved.




*********************
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.

Iran releases secrets of the surveillance drone they captured last year

    "...Gen Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of Iran`s aerospace division of the powerful Revolutionary   
    Guards, gave details he says were extracted from the top-secret surveillance drone`s 
    operational history in an effort to prove his claim.

    He told state TV Sunday the US RQ-170 Sentinel drone had been used to spy on the 
    compound in northwest Pakistan where Osama Bin Laden was hiding, claimed that the 
    drone flew over Osama Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan two weeks before the al-Qaida 
    leader was killed there in May 2011 by US Navy SEALs."

'No part is hidden to us': Iran says it is rebuilding captured U.S. drone
DailyMail/ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 22, 2012

Iran's military claims it has cracked the code to reverse engineer the American spy drove it captured last year and has begun building a copy.

Gen Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of the aerospace division of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, gave details he says were extracted from the aircraft's operational history in an effort to prove his claim.

He told state TV Sunday the US RQ-170 Sentinel done had been used to spy on the compound in northwest Pakistan where Osama Bin Laden was hiding when he was killed by US forces.

Cracked: The Iranian military claimed Sunday that it had reverse-engineered the drone that crash-landed in eastern Iran in December. Photo credit: DailyMail/AP

Tehran has flaunted the capture of the Sentinel, a top-secret surveillance drone with stealth technology, as a victory for Iran and a defeat for the United States in a complicated intelligence and technological battle.

It seized the unmanned aircraft in December when it crash-landed in eastern Iran. US officials have acknowledged losing the drone but said Iran will find it hard to exploit any data and technology aboard it because of measures taken to limit the intelligence value of drones operating over hostile territory.

Hajizadeh told state television that the captured surveillance drone is a 'national asset' for Iran and that he could not reveal full technical details. But he did provide some samples of the data that he claimed Iranian experts had recovered.

'There is almost no part hidden to us in this aircraft. We recovered part of the data that had been erased. There were many codes and characters. But we deciphered them by the grace of God,' Hajizadeh said.

Graphic: The RQ-170 was reportedly used to watch former Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden during the Navy SEAL mission that killed him. Photo credit: DailyMail/Reuters

He said all operations carried out by the drone had been recorded in the memory of the aircraft, including maintenance and testing.

Hajizadeh claimed that the drone flew over Osama Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan two weeks before the al-Qaida leader was killed there in May 2011 by US Navy SEALs. He did not say how the Iranian experts knew this.

Before that, he said, 'this drone was in California on October 16, 2010, for some technical work and was taken to Kandahar in Afghanistan on November 18, 2010. It conducted flights there but apparently faced problems and (US experts) were unable to fix it,' he said.

Hajizadeh said the drone was taken to Los Angeles in December 2010 where sensors of the aircraft underwent testing at an aerospace factory.

Worries: U.S. officials are concerned about the Iranians potentially sharing or selling what they could have recovered of the aircraft to China or Russia. Photo credit: DailyMail/Reuters

Military officials: These images give more credence to Iran's claims of having the highly-sensitive drone

'If we had not achieved access to software and hardware of this aircraft, we would be unable to get these details. Our experts are fully dominant over sections and programs of this plane,' he said.

'It's not that we can bring down a drone but cannot recover the data.'

There are concerns in the US that Iran or other states may be able to reverse-engineer the chemical composition of the drone's radar-deflecting paint or the aircraft's sophisticated optics technology that allows operators to positively identify terror suspects from tens of thousands of feet in the air.

Broke down: US officials say Iran had nothing to do with the drone crashing to earth. They contend it simply malfunctioned

There are also worries that adversaries may be able to hack into the drone's database, as Iran claimed to have done. Some surveillance technologies allow video to stream through to operators on the ground but do not store much collected data. If they do, it is encrypted.

Media reports claimed this week that Russia and China have asked Tehran to provide them with information on the drone but Iran's Defense Ministry denied this.

US Officials again involved in sex scandal...purported reports of event taken place on 'roof of Republican palace' in Iraq...and oh there`s a tape of it

Top diplomatic official 'had sex act performed on him while on roof of Baghdad palace... and it was caught on video'
DAILY MAIL
April 18, 2012

A foreign service officer has claimed there is a video of another U.S. official receiving oral sex on the roof of Iraq's Republican Palace.

In a blog post, Peter Van Buren claimed the married high-ranking member of the diplomatic corps engaged in the act with another State Department official.

The whistleblower, who was reportedly fired for revealing classified information in his memoir, said the philandering occurred during the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

Claims: Foreign service officer Peter Van Buren has written a blog post 

claiming an official received oral sex while in Iraq - and it was caught 

on film. Photo credit: wemeantwell/DailyMail 

On Wednesday, Van Buren published a blog post questioning what the State Department considers to be inappropriate behaviour.

He writes: 'What if a video existed that showed a prominent State Department VIP on the roof of the Republican Palace in Baghdad receiving, um, pleasure of an oral nature from another State Department officer not his wife, or even his journalist mistress of the time?'

He continues: 'What if that video has been passed around among Marine Security Guards at the Embassy to the point where it is considered "viral" with many copies made? 'What if the Deputy Chief of Mission... decided that the whole thing needed to be swept under the rug and made to go away, at least until some blogger got a hold of it.'

'Site': The married official allegedly engaged in the sex act with another State Department employee while on the roof of the Republican Palace in Baghdad, Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons/DailyMail

In an email to BuzzFeed, Van Buren declined to comment on the identity of the official.
The site suggested the location and timing of the supposed sex act meant only a handful of officials could be implicated - including Brett McGurk, a nominee to be the next ambassador to Iraq.

He also mentions other examples of questionable behaviour, including an agent who once posed for Playboy magazine.

Van Buren, who has served with the agency for 23 years, was a foreign service officer who served in Iraq.

He is currently fighting the State Department about details in his book, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose The Battle For The Hearts And Minds of The Iraqi People.

The State Department reportedly fired Van Buren for alleged violations of its policy, including failing to clear each blog post with his bosses and leaking classified information in his book.
He was also slated for criticising Hilary Clinton and former presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann on his blog.

The State Department has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Read more:

• BuzzFeed: Whistleblower Alleges Top U.S. Official Got Blowjob On Roof Of Baghdad Embassy
• What is Poor Judgement? | We Meant Well - Peter Van Buren

U.S. does a double-take: Obama messages Khamenei he is willing to accept civilian nuclear program in Iran provided no nuclear bombs be developed

'Obama signaled to Khamenei that U.S. could accept civilian nuclear program in Iran'
Washington Post's David Ignatius says U.S. president passed a message to Iran, through Turkish PM Erdogan, that he could agree to a civilian nuclear program if Tehran proved it was not building a nuclear bomb.

By Barak Ravid
Haaretz
March 6, 2012
U.S. President Barack Obama has recently passed a message to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Washington Post reported on Friday, which signaled that the United States would agree to an Iranian civilian nuclear program if they proved they were not developing a nuclear bomb.

According to David Ignatius, the Washington Post's senior columnist specializing in intelligence matters, Obama passed Khamenei the message through Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who visited Tehran this week.

U.S. President Barack Obama (R) shakes hands 

with Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan after a 

bilateral meeting in Seoul March 25, 2012.

Photo by: Reuters

Obama reportedly signaled Khamenei that the U.S. would be prepared to accept a civilian nuclear program in Iran, should the Iranian leader take steps that would support his public declarations in February, in which he said that Iran "would never develop nuclear weapons." The U.S., Obama also wrote, would also expect Iranian leaders to prove that Tehran does not have a military nuclear program.

Obama met with Erdogan at the nuclear summit in South Korea for two hours and asked him to pass on the message to Khamenei. Obama told Erdogan that the Iranians must understand that time is running out on a solution for the Tehran nuclear problem and that they must take advantage of the negotiations that will begin with the six world powers on April 13.

According to Ignatius, Obama did not give details as to whether Iran would be allowed to continue enriching uranium on its soil while developing its civilian nuclear program.

Erdogan told Obama that he will transfer the message, and the U.S. administration believes that he did so during the meeting he held with Khamenei in Tehran this week.

Since Obama entered the White House, an alliance was formed between him and Erdogan. The Turkish prime minister is the Muslim leader that is most closely associated with the U.S. president.

Negotiations between Iran and the six world powers are due to begin on April 13, but a location has yet been scheduled.


Related:
Exclusive: What were the six points Obama sent Khamenei through Erdogan?

Jackie to JFK: “Oh Jack, what have THEY done?” Secret Service agent shares his memories of Jackie Kennedy

Secret Service agent shares memories of Jackie Kennedy
Clint Hill was with her when JFK was assassinated, shared family’s private grief

By Halimah Abdullah (TODAY.com contributor)
MSNBC
4/5/2012

His code name was “Dazzle” – a Secret Service agent charged with protecting first lady Jackie Kennedy.

For Clint Hill, the job meant being present for some of the most painful and poignant moments of the Kennedy family’s life.

[...]

The memory haunts him still. “There was some material from the president’s head that had gone off to the right rear,” Hill told Guthrie. “And she had got – come up on the back of the car, trying to retrieve that material. She didn’t know I was there. And so when she came up in the car, I finally got a hold of her and helped her get it into the backseat. When I did that, the president’s body fell to its left into her lap.”

Hill said he’ll never forget the words the first lady said then: “They shot his head off. Oh Jack, what have they done?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

(click here to read the full article)

Never forget one of America`s darkest days: JFK Assassination: November 22, 1963

Don`t pay your taxes, the IRS will suspend your passport and deny travel

Bill Allows IRS to Deny Americans Right to Travel

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
April 5, 2012

photo credit: Infowars

Senator Barbara Boxer’s MAP-21 (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act) is headed to the House after clearing the Senate last month. Boxer’s bill allows the federal government to revoke the passports of citizens the IRS claims owe taxes.

[...]

The IRS is no longer strictly about taxes. “Top IRS officials have been working with Democrats on Capitol Hill to determine how the agency will enforce President Obama’s new health care law. Republican lawmakers estimate the legislation will require the hiring of many thousands of new (and armed) tax enforcement agents,” Fox News reported last month. “Under the new law, the IRS is required to fine taxpayers thousands of dollars if they do not purchase health insurance. In order for the government to enforce compliance, tax authorities will need information, for the first time, about people’s health care. Collecting that data will require more IRS personnel.”

In short, the IRS will act as an enforcer – armed to the teeth – for Obamacare, that is if it is not ruled to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in June.

The IRS is but one component of an increasingly tyrannical and militarized federal government...

(click here to read the full article)

US Soldiers sold weapons and drugs to DEA agents posing as Los Zetas

More Furious: U.S. Soldiers Trafficking Arms, Drugs to DEA Agents Posing as Los Zetas

Patrick Henningsen
Infowars.com
April 5, 2012

In case you missed it this week, an Afghan War veteran and one other active duty serviceman – along with multiple accomplices, were indicted for their involvement in a year-long federal agency sting. This particular story reads like a supermarket aisle fantasy novel… if only it were.

A gang which included US soldiers allegedly offered ‘wet-work’ murder-for-hire services, narcotics trafficking and stolen US military weapons to undercover Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents… posing as foot soldiers for Mexico’s notorious Los Zetas drug cartel.

Following the conclusion of a year long sting which ended in Laredo Texas, Kevin Corley, a 29 year old formerly active US Army Drill Seargent and Afghan veteran from Fort Carson, active duty soldier Samuel Walker, 28, both of Colorado Springs, CO, and Shavar Davis, 29, of Denver, CO, while two other men – Marcus Mickle, 20, and Calvin Epps, 26 have been arrested and charged in a conspiracy related to drug trafficking and attempted murder. A sixth man, Mario Corley, 40, from Saginaw, Texas, was also arrested in Charleston, S.C. as part of the same investigation.

During the arrest on last Saturday, another man, Jerome Corley was fatally shot.
The federal sting started back in January 2011, when Mr. Mickle entered negotiations with what he thought were members of the Lot Zetas Cartel, in order to purchase marijuana in return for stolen weapons.
(From left, Kevin Corley, Shavar Davis and Samuel Walker)

Mickle and Epps, first tried to organize the drugs shipment with the undercover agents, but are said to have brought Kevin Corley in after agents inquired about arms.

Corley later provided security for a 500 lb shipment of marijuana trucked from Texas to South Carolina, according to the complaint.

In addition, Kevin Corley offered to provide full combat training for 40 cartel members in just two weeks. The Army soldier explained that an array of military weapons could be easily stolen from army posts. According to the complaint document, Corley also “offered to provide tactical training for cartel members, including approaches, room clearing, security, and convoy security. Kevin Corley also offered to purchase weapons for the cartel under his name as long as he could destroy serial numbers.”

Kevin Corley traveled to Laredo on Jan. 7, to meet with undercover DEA agents and discuss the murder-for-hire scheme, where, according to the official complaint filing (PDF), “Kevin Corley proposed a $50,000 fee to perform the contract killing and retrieve the 20 kilograms of cocaine, and Kevin Corley offered to refund the money if the victim survived… also told the agents he would accept cocaine in lieu of the fee for his service, but ultimately agreed to accept $50,000 and five kilograms of cocaine for a full team.”

So we have Kevin Corley leading a US Military hit-squad for the DEA’s faux Zetas, and later conspiring to supplying drugs to these same Zetas.

A few interesting questions remain regarding this latest bizarre operation:

One of the unanswered questions here is why Kevin Corley and Walker was discharged from duty right before their unit were due to be deployed to Afghanistan in February?...

(click here to read the rest of the article)

9/11 'mastermind' Khalid Sheikh Mohammed charged

The United States has issued charges against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, setting the stage for what has been dubbed the "trial of the century".

By Barney Henderson
The Telegraph
April 4, 2012

Al-Qaeda operative Khalid Sheikh Mohammed shortly
after his capture, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan Photo: EPA

"The charges allege that the five accused are responsible for the planning and execution of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in New York and Washington DC, and Shanksville, Pa., resulting in the killing of 2,976 people," the Defense Department said in a statement.

"The convening authority referred the case to a capital military commission, meaning that, if convicted, the five accused could be sentenced to death."

Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, known as KSM, along with Walid bin Attash of Saudi Arabia, Yemen's Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Pakistan's Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali - also known as Ammar al-Baluchi - and Mustafa al-Hawsawi of Saudi Arabia will appear in court for arraignment proceedings within 30 days.

The trial, which could be months away, will be held at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the US government has set up military commissions to try terror suspects.
KSM was dragged from his hideout in Pakistan nine years ago. He was interrogated in prisons around the world for three years by CIA officers, which included 183 episodes of waterboarding.

He has spent the last six years in the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

The American Civil Liberties Union condemned the decision on Wednesday to proceed with a military trial.

"The Obama administration is making a terrible mistake by prosecuting the most important terrorism trials of our time in a second-tier system of justice," ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement.

"Whatever verdict comes out of the Guantanamo military commissions will be tainted by an unfair process and the politics that wrongly pulled these cases from federal courts, which have safely and successfully handled hundreds of terrorism trials," he said.

The use of gov`t mandated contraception...

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Dr. Eowyn - Fellowship of the Minds

Afghan civilian murders by US Forces story continued...

Taliban vows revenge against US forces over Afghan civilian murders
NEWSCORE/NEW YORK POST
Last Updated: 9:28 AM, March 12, 2012

UPDATE: Pentagon rebuffs Afghan trial in shooting spree


KABUL -- Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents vowed revenge Monday against "sick-minded American savages" after a US soldier killed 16 villagers in their homes, while the Afghan parliament demanded the perpetrator be put on public trial in the country.

The Taliban would "take revenge from the invaders and the savage murderers for every single martyr," the hardline Islamist group said in a statement on their website.

...Karzai reacted with anger to the incident, saying, "When the Americans are killing civilians intentionally, this is called terror and it is an unforgivable act."
Obama called Karzai on Sunday to personally express his "shock and sadness" at the incident.
"I am deeply saddened by the reported killing and wounding of Afghan civilians," Obama said in a statement. "I offer my condolences to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives, and to the people of Afghanistan, who have endured too much violence and suffering."
...

(click here to read the full article)

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/taliban_vows_revenge_against_us_eM2vmql8IoZbudcJG2KdsK#ixzz1ouaCjV1r

• American soldier has a 'breakdown' and shoots nine children dead in their sleep in house-to-house shooting rampage in Afghanistan that killed 16 civilians - Original story; WARNING CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES

US Soldier goes on a killing spree, just what is going on in Afghanistan? (WARNING: Graphic images)

American soldier has a 'breakdown' and shoots nine children dead in their sleep in house-to-house shooting rampage in Afghanistan that killed 16 civilians

Daily Mail
By BETH STEBNER
PUBLISHED: 08:54 EST, 11 March 2012 | UPDATED: 20:07 EST, 11 March 2012

• Shooter identified as Army staff sergeant from Fort Lewis, Washington
• Base regarded as 'most troubled in the military,' that housed soldiers involved in Afghan 'thrill killings' case in 2010
• Assigned to support a special operations unit of either Green Berets or Navy SEALs
• He allegedly went into three homes early this morning and shot dead 16 people after 'suffering mental breakdown'
• Nine children and three women among those reported dead
• Relative said he 'poured chemicals over their dead bodies and burned them'
• Afghan president Hamid Karzai condemned shootings as 'assassination'
• President Obama called attack 'tragic' and 'shocking'
• Attack could deepen strife and comes weeks after outrage over Koran burning at NATO base left at least 30 dead
• Afghan Taliban said in email they are likely to retaliate

Sixteen innocent Afghan civilians - including nine children and three women - were shot and killed by a rogue U.S. soldier who opened fire after suffering a 'mental breakdown' early this morning.

The Army staff sergeant, who was stationed at a U.S. base in Kandahar, reportedly entered three Afghan family’s homes around 3am this morning and began the killing spree. A relative of the deceased added that he then 'poured chemicals over their dead bodies and burned them.'
The shooter was identified by U.S. officials as an Army staff sergeant from Fort Lewis, Washington, who was believed to have acted alone.

Initial reports indicated he returned to the base after the shooting, turned himself in and was taken into custody at a NATO base in Afghanistan.

Disbelief: Two grief-stricken Afghan men look into the van where the body of a badly burned child lays, wrapped in a blue blanket.

(click here to read full article and view images, video WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT)


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2113410/US-soldier-shoots-dead-16-Afghan-civilians-house-house-shooting-spree-suffering-mental-breakdown.html#ixzz1orsmKp5c