Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Rumsfeld's renegade unit blamed for Afghan deaths

Rumsfeld's renegade unit blamed for Afghan deaths
Special Forces group implicated in three incidents that claimed the lives of 
hundreds of innocent civilians / MarSOC was set up by former defence 
secretary despite opposition from within the Marine Corps
By Jerome Starkey in Kabul
Saturday, 16 May 2009
  a.. group was behind at least three of Afghanistan's worst civilian 
casualty incidents, The Independent has learnt, raising fundamental 
questions about their ongoing role in the conflict.
Troops from the US Marines Corps' Special Operations Command, or MarSOC, 
were responsible for calling in air strikes in Bala Boluk, in Farah, last 
week - believed to have killed more than 140 men, women and children - as 
well as two other incidents in 2007 and 2008. News of MarSOC's involvement 
in the three incidents comes just days after a Special Forces expert, 
Lieutenant-General Stanley McChrystal, was named to take over as the top 
commander of US and Nato troops in Afghanistan. His surprise appointment has 
prompted speculation that commando counterinsurgency missions will increase 
in the battle to beat the Taliban.
MarSOC was created three years ago on the express orders of Donald Rumsfeld, 
US defence secretary at the time, despite opposition from within the Marine 
Corps and the wider Special Forces community. An article in the Marine Corps 
Times described the MarSOC troops as "cowboys" who brought shame on the 
corps.
The first controversial incident involving the unit happened just three 
weeks into its first deployment to Afghanistan on 4 March 2007. Speeding 
away from a suicide bomb attack close to the Pakistan border, around 120 men 
from Fox Company opened fire on civilians near Jalalabad, in Nangahar 
province. The Marines said they were shot at after the explosion; 
eyewitnesses said the Americans fired indiscriminately at pedestrians and 
civilian cars, killing at least 19 people.
The US Army commander in Nangahar at the time, Colonel John Nicholson, said 
he was "deeply ashamed" and described the incident as "a stain on our 
honour". The Marines' tour was cut short after a second incident on 9 March 
in which they allegedly rolled a car and fired on traffic again, and they 
were flown out of Afghanistan a few weeks later.
The top Special Operations officer at US Central Command, Army Major General 
Frank Kearney, refuted MarSOC's claims that they had been shot at. "We found 
no brass that we can confirm that small-arms fire came at them," he said, 
referring to ammunition casings. "We have testimony from Marines that is in 
conflict with unanimous testimony from civilians."
At the military hearings on the incident, which were held back in the US, 
soldiers said the MarSOC troops, who called themselves Taskforce Violence, 
were gung-ho and hungry to prove themselves in battle. The inquiry also 
heard testimony suggesting there were tensions between the Marine unit and 
its US Army counterparts in Nangahar province.
Col Nicholson told the court the unit would routinely stray into areas under 
his control without telling him, ignoring usual military courtesies. "There 
had been potentially 25 operations in my area of operations that I, as a 
commander, was not aware of," he said. Asked about the moment he was told of 
the March shootout, he added: "My initial reaction was, 'What are they doing 
out there?' " The three-week military inquiry ultimately spared the Marine 
unit from criminal charges.
There are around 2,500 troops in MarSOC. Around half are frontline troops, 
the rest are support and maintenance. Originally the unit was used to plug 
gaps in the Special Forces world and it has operated in more than 16 
countries since being set up by Mr Rumsfeld in 2006. However, in a recent 
interview, its commanding officer, Major General Mastin Robeson, revealed he 
has been ordered to focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan. Today MarSOC answers 
to the Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command, based in Kabul. 
That in turn answers to US Forces Afghanistan, which is led by the top US 
commander, David McKiernan, who is soon to be replaced by General 
McChrystal.
In August last year, a 20-man MarSOC unit, fighting alongside Afghan 
commandos, directed fire from unmanned drones, attack helicopters and a 
cannon-armed Spectre gunship into compounds in Azizabad, in Herat province, 
leaving more than 90 people dead - many of them children.
And just last week, MarSOC troops called in the Bala Baluk air strikes to 
rescue an Afghan police patrol that had been ambushed in countryside in 
Farah province. US officials said two F18 fighter jets and a B1 bomber had 
swooped because men on the ground were overwhelmed. But villagers said the 
most devastating bombs were dropped on compounds some distance from the 
fighting, long after the battle was over, and when Taliban forces were 
retreating. Afghan officials said up to 147 people were killed, including 
more than 90 women and children.
US officials dispute the number of people killed in each of the MarSOC 
incidents, which sparked angry public demonstrations and condemnation from 
Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
The spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Greg Julian, denied 
reports that commanders have lost confidence in the Marine unit. "MarSOC was 
involved in these incidents, but it's not all the same guys. They get the 
lessons passed on from all of the rotations and experiences. Yet, they are 
human," he said. "They have the same rules of engagement that everyone has."
The so-called "tactical directive" was introduced last September in the wake 
of the international uproar that followed the Azizabad deaths. It requires 
troops to exercise "proportionality, restraint, and utmost discrimination" 
when calling in air strikes. Claims that bombs were dropped in last week's 
incident in Farah long after the fighting finished suggest those directives 
may not have been followed by MarSOC.
Meanwhile, Afghan MPs have called for new laws to regulate the presence of 
foreign forces in Afghanistan, and limit use of air strikes, house searches 
and Special Forces operations. Sayed Hussein Alemi Balkhi, one of the chief 
proponents of the planned legislation, said: "Special Forces, all forces, 
should be regulated by the law. If they won't accept that we have to ask 
bigger questions about what they are doing here."
Indipendent

 secretary despite opposition from within the Marine Corps
irrilevante, Rummy non c'è più. Se Obama non ne fosse la bella copia,
avrebbe fatto piazza pulita dei suoi boia, e invece addirittura
nasconde le testimonianze dei loro crimini