Things have changed since Robert Blake made the above statement , and tables turned to question why USA should not, firstly be hauled before a war crimes tribunal and subjected to a forced international investigation for the crimes it is committing in Afghanistan, and secondly for dishonesty in making use of the Security Council of the UNO to declare war in Libya and violation of the human rights of Libyan civilians.
In the case of the first it has to be reminded that Robert Blake going by the Tamil Diaspora and LTTE terrorist Websites, and the UK Channel 4, accused Sri Lanka Armed Forces for all types of crimes from, rape to cold blooded shooting of blindfolded hands tied terrorists taken as prisoners.
But now Robert O’Blake, there is evidence of cold blooded murder of Afghan civilians by the soldiers of the US Army. The photos are not fakes like those presented by UK Channel 4 to accuse Sri Lanka Armed Forces, of men wearing uniforms like those worn by Sri Lanka Soldiers, pointing guns at blind folded, arms tied persons lying on the ground with knees up , supposed to have been shot by the Soldiers of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces. Those photos were doctored.
This new evidence of killing of Afghan civilians, makes one question who really are the perpetrators of violation of human rights. And it also makes one ask why the Secretary General of UN Ban Ki Moon and his High Commissioner of UN Human Rights Commission Navi Pillai should not resign as they are being used by America and the West as a cover to carry on war crimes under the blanket of UN Approval.
Ban Ki Moon who appointed a panel of investigation to look into the violation of human rights during the last phase of the military operations against the terrorists in Sri Lanka, the Amnesty International, and the Human Rights Watch maintain a holy silence. .
The Security Council resolution 1973 passed on the 18 March,2011, ( not unanimously but with China, Russia, India, Germany and Brazil abstaining to vote) only allowed the USA and the alleys not to allow Gaddifi’s war planes flying in to the air space over Benghazi , and not to deploy ground forces.
But apparently the American Air Force taking cover under the resolution 1973 bombed areas out side Benghazi. It could be argued that the resolution 1973 which did not permit deployment of ground forces for the reason of avoiding loss of human life, could not meant to have permitted the aerial bombardments. If it is interpreted to read that it does, it would be a contradiction of the resolution 1973, because the aerial bombardment would have the same effect of loss of human life if ground forces would have been deployed.
Worst of all the President Barrack Obama who was elected by the American people who were tired with President George Bush for making America a “policeman “ of the world committing its youth in an unwanted war sacrificing both American youth, and Afghan and Iraki lives, is trying to do exactly what the President George Bush was doing during his time in office. The President Barrack Obama has failed to take a different path, a path of peace and understanding to solve political problems, rather than the same old American path of threat and force.
Yesterday in Latin America making use of the UN Security Council sanction of resolution 1973, the President Barrack Obama demanded that Libyan leader should leave Libya. That was not a condition of the resolution 1973. America and the West fooled the Arab League to join them, to carry out their hidden agenda of chasing away Gaddafi and bombardment of Libya without concern for civilian life. From the images of blasts resulting from American bombs in Tripoli one cannot rule out that those bombardments did not result in civilian deaths.
A French journalist without showing images of the dead civilians said that Gaddafi had sent dead bodies from elsewhere pretending that they were the bodies of civilians who died in American bombardment. One can of course distinguish old dead bodies from the new from the “colour of the blood smears”.
Coming back to the Afghan Civilians killed by American Soldiers, it is nothing new as it had already happened in the American Torture camp of Abu Ghraib, where the prisoners of war of Iraq were treated like animals and such tortures were carried out with the knowledge of the American State Department covering up the dirt casting the blanket of responsibility for the torture upon Janis Karpinski the head of the prison camp. And also in detention Camps in Guantanamo.
It was Hillary Clinton the US Secretary of State who said "Now, reading the headlines, one might think that the use of rape as a tactic of war only happens occasionally, or in a few places, like the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Sudan. That would be bad enough, but the reality is much worse. We’ve seen rape used as a tactic of war before in Bosnia, Burma, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere.” This was an insult to our Armed Force which is one of the most disciplined in the world.
I think both the US Secretary of State and Robert Blake should apologise to the President of Sri Lanka for their inappropriate remarks about the Sri Lanka Army based on what had been said by those of the terrorist front organizations in America.
Robert Blake should under the circumstances learn to “shut his mouth” without making false accusations against the Government of Sri Lanka threatening to haul it before a war crimes tribunal, as now it has become evident that it is the President and the US Administration that should be hauled before a war crimes tribunal and not Sri Lanka.
But on the other hand the following photos that appeared in the Spiegel Online International of the 22 March, 2011 are real and not doctored and they speak for them selves. The photos have been accept as true by Colonel Thomas Collins apologizing for the “ suffering the photos have caused.”
Photo No.1
Photo No.2
Photo No.3
The Article carrying the photos reads:
The 'Kill Team' Images
US Army Apologizes for Horrific Photos from Afghanistan
The United States and NATO are concerned that reactions could be intense to the publication of images documenting killings committed by US soldiers in Afghanistan. The images appeared in the most recent edition of SPIEGEL, which hit the newsstands on Monday.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has already telephoned with her Afghan counterpart to discuss the situation. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon has likewise made contact with officials in Kabul. The case threatens to strain already fragile US-Afghan relations at a time when the two countries are negotiating over the establishment of permanent US military bases in Afghanistan.
In a statement released by Colonel Thomas Collins, the US Army, which is currently preparing a court martial to try a total of 12 suspects in connection with the killings, apologized for the suffering the photos have caused. The actions depicted in the photos, the statement read, are "repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States."
The suspected perpetrators are part of a group of US soldiers accused of several killings. Their court martials are expected to start soon. The photos, the army statement said, stand "in stark contrast to the discipline, professionalism and respect that have characterized our soldiers' performance during nearly 10 years of sustained operations."
Major Public Backlash
At NATO headquarters, there are fears that the coming days could see angry protests in Afghanistan or even potential attacks against NATO units. "The images have an enormous potential here in Afghanistan," one NATO general told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Experience shows that it might take a couple of days, but then people's anger will be vented."
NATO, under the leadership of the US Army, has been preparing for possible publication of the photos for close to 100 days. In dozens of high-level talks with their Afghan partners, military leaders have sought to pursue the same strategy used by the US diplomatic corps in the case of the sensitive diplomatic cables released late last year by WikiLeaks. They warned those most directly affected and made preparations for the photos' appearance in the public sphere. This "strategic communication" was aimed at preventing a major public backlash.
The high ranks of those involved in the talks show just how seriously Washington has taken the problem. US Vice President Joe Biden recently spoke about the case with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The head of all NATO troops in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, likewise met with Karzai.
By apologizing and by promising that those responsible will be prosecuted, the US is hoping to prevent Karzai from making any angry public statements on the case.
Whether the effort will ultimately be successful remains to be seen. On Tuesday, Karzai is scheduled to address his country to talk about the transfer of responsibility for his country's security from NATO to Afghanistan. With him will be members of the NATO leadership and the US ambassador to Afghanistan. Karzai's address contains no mention of the so-called "kill team," but the Afghan president is notorious for being unpredictable.
Political Conflict with the US
Observers say the fact that there hasn't been any serious reaction or demonstrations so far doesn't mean the danger has passed. One fact could be that Monday is a holiday in Afghanistan. A high-ranking official in the Afghan Foreign Ministry, who is close to President Karzai, said he believed the development would trigger a serious political conflict with the US.
"I assume we won't see the full effect of this matter until tomorrow, at the very soonest, when people return to work. Many people have Monday off," he told SPIEGEL ONLINE. He said the incidents had been "too outrageous" not to spark protests. "That this is engaging people can be seen by the fact that it is already being discussed on the Internet," he added.
In neighboring Pakistan, where relations with the United States are likewise strained, officials are also watching the matter closely. "We are acknowledging it, but for now it is a matter for the Afghan government to make any charges," a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad said. The release of CIA employee Raymond Davis, who shot two men at the end of January and was let go after paying blood money, as well as the increase in US drone attacks in the western part of the country, triggered angry protests in Pakistan.
The SPIEGEL story printed on Monday includes new details about a series of murders of innocent Afghans committed by a group of US soldiers. One of the accused, Corporal Jeremy Morlock, 22, confessed to the murders three months ago. Morlock is scheduled to face a general court-martial on Thursday. In total, 12 US soldiers who were allegedly part of what has been described as a "kill team" in Afghanistan are expected to go on trial soon.
'They Mowed Him Down'
The piece in SPIEGEL reconstructs some of the atrocities and includes three previously unknown photographs. Among other things, they show two of the suspected killers posing next to a corpse. The victim in the image is Gul Mudin, an Afghan man killed on Jan. 15, 2010 in the village of La Mohammed Kalay. In total, SPIEGEL and SPIEGEL TV has obtained a significant number of photos and videos.
The suspects are accused of having killed civilians for no reason and then of trying to make it look as though the killings had been acts of self-defense. Some of the accused have said the acts had been tightly scripted.
In one incident, which has been reconstructed based on documents from the investigation, the soldiers themselves detonate a hand grenade in order to make it look like they were the subjects of an attack before killing a man. One of those who allegedly participated, Adam Winfield, 21, described the incident to his father in a chat on the social networking site Facebook. "They made it look like the guy threw a grenade at them and mowed him down," SPIEGEL quotes Winfield as having written in the chat.
In a second incident on Feb. 22, 2010, one of the members of the "kill team" who had been carrying an old Russian Kalashnikov, fired it before pulling out another gun and shooting 22-year-old Afghan Marach Agha. In a third incident on May 2, 2010, it appears that a hand grenade attack was again staged before the shooting and killing of Mullah Allah Dad.
The 12 men are also facing further charges of desecration of corpses, illegal possession of photos of corpses, drug abuse and acts of bodily injury against comrades.
-- with wire reports and additional reporting by Yassin Musharbash
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