CIA Death Squads Killing with “Impunity” in Afghanistan
by
Joe Kay
A United Nations investigator released a preliminary report last week citing widespread civilian deaths in Afghanistan, often at the hands of unaccountable units led by the CIA or other foreign intelligence agencies.
The investigator is Philip Alston, a New York University professor serving as the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary execution. His report provides a partial glimpse into the illegal actions of intelligence agencies, occupying forces, and Afghan police, as they seek to repress opposition to the US-led occupation and US-backed government.
Alston focused on civilian killings by US and other international
military forces, citing 200 reported deaths in the first four months of
2008. This figure, however, was based on tabulations by the United
Nations and other international organizations, and is undoubtedly a
serious underestimation.
In addition to civilians killed in air
raids— often targeted indiscriminately at civilian dwellings— Alston
reported on “a number of raids for which no state or military command
appears ready to acknowledge responsibility.”
In a press
conference on Thursday, Alston elaborated, saying, “I have spoken with
a large number of people in relation to the operation of foreign
intelligence units. I don’t want to name them but they are the most
senior level of the relevant places. These forces operate with what
appears to be impunity.” The location of the incidents cited in the
report indicate that the intelligence agencies in question include the
CIA or US Special Operations Forces.
The report cited a few
incidents as examples of extra-judicial killings. In January 2008, two
brothers were killed in Kandahar province in a raid led by
“international personnel.” Alston found that the victims “are widely
acknowledged, even by well-informed Government officials, to have had
no connection to the Taliban, and the circumstances of their deaths are
suspicious. However, not only was I unable to get any international
military commander to provide their version of what took place, but I
was unable to get any international military commander to even admit
that their soldiers were involved.”
Other incidents involved
raids by Afghans led by unnamed “international intelligence services”
out of bases in both Kandahar and Nangarhar provinces.
- “It is
absolutely unacceptable for heavily-armed internationals accompanied by
heavily-armed Afghan forces to be wandering around conducting dangerous
raids that too often result in killings without anyone taking
responsibility for them,” the report stated.
The British
Independent newspaper provided some additional information. It noted,
- “A Western official close to the investigation said the secret units
are still known as Campaign Forces, from the time when American Special
Forces and CIA spies recruited Afghan troops to help overthrow the
Taliban during the US-led invasion in 2001. ‘The brightest, smartest
guys in these militias were kept on,’ the official said. ‘They were
trained and rearmed and they are still being used.’”
The
Independent went on to cite one incident involving British forces. “In
Helmand, where most of Britain’s 7,800 troops are based, Special Forces
were accused of slitting a man’s throat in a botched night raid last
year. Security sources now claim the operation was mounted by a secret
spy unit.”
Alston also reported on the actions of Afghan police.
“They function not as enforcers of law and order, but as promoters of
the interests of a specific tribe or commander,” he reported. He cited
one incident in which Afghan police massacred a group from a rival
tribe. There was no investigation by the government or the occupying
forces. In another incident, police killed nine and wounded 42 unarmed
protesters in Sheberghan in May 2007.
In general, he found
little to no interest among US or Afghan officials in monitoring or
following up on civilian deaths. “The level of complacency in response
to these killings is staggeringly high,” he said.
At the press
conference, he noted, “When I asked for the number of reported civilian
casualties over the past year or so, I was told that those figures are
either not available in Afghanistan—which I was told by several senior
military people—or that they are secret and cannot be provided to me.
When I asked for the results of certain cases, to ascertain whether
those involved have been punished, I was told that no such information
is available here in Afghanistan and that perhaps I should read the
newspapers of the countries concerned.”
The fact that the CIA is
involved in covert operations in Afghanistan is neither new nor
surprising. Already by the 1970s, the CIA had developed ties to
sections of the Afghan population, and in particular Islamic
fundamentalist elements, in an effort to undermine the Soviet-backed
government. Later, the CIA was heavily involved in developing ties to
anti-Taliban warlords prior to the US invasion and occupation in 2001.
Following
the invasion, Afghanistan—and in particular the Bagram Air Force Base
near Kabul—became a transit point for prisoners captured by the United
States and destined for Guantánamo Bay, secret CIA prisons, or
US-allied countries that practice torture. US intelligence agencies
were reportedly also involved in the interrogation of prisoners at the
Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
In 2005, US media reported on the
operations of US-backed deaths squads in Iraq, deployed to kill
suspected opponents of the US occupation. Yasser Salihee, a special
correspondent for news agency Knight Ridder who was investigating the
death squads, was killed with a bullet to the head in June of that
year. Separate reports related how the US military had modeled Iraqi
units on the death squads deployed in Central America during the 1980s
to eliminate left-wing opposition to US policies.
While most of
the CIA’s actions remain shrouded in secrecy, one CIA contractor was
prosecuted for torturing an Afghan prisoner to death in 2003. The
contractor, David Passaro, interrogated and beat the prisoner, Abdul
Wali, for two days, injuring him so severely that he died two days
later.
In a separate development, the New York Times reported on
Saturday that the Pentagon is moving forward with the construction of a
40-acre prison complex at the Bagram military base. The current prison,
as well as separate prisons run by the Afghans and by the US, are
reportedly insufficient to hold the massive number of individuals swept
up by the occupying forces.
The facility may also be used for
prisoners currently detained in Guantánamo Bay. It will be designed to
hold as many as 1,100 people.
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