Another war crime in Iraq

[Thanas]

Source

As revealed by a State Department diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks last week, US forces committed a heinous war crime during a house raid in Iraq in 2006, wherein one man, four women, two children, and three infants were summarily executed.

The cable excerpts a letter written by Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions, addressed to then Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. American troops approached the home of Faiz Harrat Al-Majma’ee, a farmer living in central Iraq, to conduct a house raid in search of insurgents in March of 2006.

“It would appear that when the MNF [Multinational Forces] approached the house,” Alston wrote, “shots were fired from it and a confrontation ensued” before the “troops entered the house, handcuffed all residents and executed all of them.” Mr. Faiz Hratt Khalaf, (aged 28), his wife Sumay’ya Abdul Razzaq Khuther (aged 24), their three children Hawra’a (aged 5) Aisha ( aged 3) and Husam (5 months old), Faiz’s mother Ms. Turkiya Majeed Ali (aged 74), Faiz’s sister (name unknown), Faiz’s nieces Asma’a Yousif Ma’arouf (aged 5 years old), and Usama Yousif Ma’arouf (aged 3 years), and a visiting relative Ms. Iqtisad Hameed Mehdi (aged 23) were killed during the raid.

Alston’s letter reveals that a US airstrike was launched on the house presumably to destroy the evidence, but that “autopsies carried out at the Tikrit Hospital’s morgue revealed that all corpses were shot in the head and handcuffed.”

The details revealed in the cable are a valuable insight into how many of these house raids turn out. The raids, often carried out in the middle of the night, have become one of the primary strategies of the US war in Afghanistan, with tens of thousands orchestrated just in the last year.

In one notable and comparable incident in February of 2010, US Special Operations Forces surrounded a house in a village in the Paktia Province in Afghanistan. Two civilian men exited the home to ask why they had been surrounded and were shot and killed. US forces then shot and killed three female relatives (a pregnant mother of ten, a pregnant mother of six, and a teenager).

Instead of calling in an airstrike to hide the evidence, US troops, realizing their mistake, lied and tampered with the evidence at the scene. The initial claim, which was corroborated by the Pentagon, was that the two men were insurgents who had “engaged” the troops, and the three murdered women were simply found by US soldiers, in what they described as an apparent honor killing. Investigations into the incident eventually forced the Pentagon to retract its initial story and issue an apology.

Civilian deaths are a common occurrence in these commonly occurring raid operations. In May, NATO killed another four civilians in a night raid, and another three in early August. No soldiers or US officials have been held to account.

The cable can be viewed here


What kind of fuck handcuffes a three year old girl and then shoots her in the head?

[Shroom Man 777]

....

[Shroom Man 777]

I know it's a tragedy, Thanas. Which is why I wanted to juxtapose all the horrible things that has happened ever since with, well, the supposedly idealistic and well-meaning and moralizing rationalization and opening statement of the whole war itself.

It might've been in bad taste, but you compare all the words they spouted in the time leading up to the war, all the nonsense freedom-democracy-liberation shit, and look at everything horrible that's happened since and it just looks even more obscene.

It's war. War is ugly and horrible. But somehow, looking back to all their rationalizations and all their pretty words makes it even worse. Which was what I was trying to convey.

But yeah, I'm sorry. It's deplorable, and that's kind of how I react to deplorable things, by juxtaposing the atrocity with the ideologues'' rhetoric, so those who believe in the rhetoric can see what it's really like. To hit them in the face with it. I hate the rhetoric, I hate the bullshit the psycho warmongers espouse, and I just want to grab them by the head, tape their eyelids back, and let them see this - and everything horrible just like this - just so they'll understand what the human cost of war is.

This, and other horrible things like this, is what happens in war and I'm tired of people wiping it under the rug or rationalizing it or compartmentalizing it as "collateral damage" or a necessity to national interest or whatever bullshit they spout all the damn fucking time. Fuck them.

[open_sketchbook]

This shit doesn't even surprise me anymore. It's just business as usual for the great forces of democracy and freedom.

[wautd]

the incident eventually forced the Pentagon to retract its initial story and issue an apology.

And... That's it? Please tell me these murderes were sentenced to jail.

[Thanas]

the incident eventually forced the Pentagon to retract its initial story and issue an apology.

And... That's it? Please tell me these murderes were sentenced to jail.

Of course not.

[open_sketchbook]

It would be a fundamental betrayal to our men in uniform if we held them accountable for their actions.

[mr friendly guy]

Can't we just boycott America or something? Or maybe vent about liberating Iraq from American occuptation.

Oh wait. That type of rhetoric is ONLY allowed to used against non western nations. Got it. Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

[TheHammer]

It would be a fundamental betrayal to our men in uniform if we held them accountable for their actions.

There are and have been prosecutions for crimes committed by troops. One example - http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/jeremy-mo ... d=13196633

And assuming no prosecution will be forthcoming would be a poor assumption to make.

Incidents of wrongdoing definitely should be prosecuted, but at the same time its also an extremely tough job they are being asked to do. Mistakes will undoubtedly be made despite the best of intentions. If you haven't seen the documentary "Battle for Marjah" it will give you a new perspective as to what these hous raids are like. When you look at, as the article notes, tens of thousands of these reads being conducted, I don't think you can charactarize these indcidents as "business as usual".

[evilsoup]

If they were adults, then I could understand that this could be an 'honest mistake'. Hells, even if there was a thirteen-year-old involved, it'd disgust me; but I might just be able to accept that soldiers could panic. But in this case, with two five-year-olds, a three-year-old and a five month old baby? How can you dare to try and justify this shit?

Furthermore, the autopsies revealed that these people had been handcuffed - that means they had surrendered. Which makes their killing not an accident in a dangerous midnight raid, but a deliberate and serious war crime.

Assuming no prosecution would be a poor assumption..? Dude, this stuff happened in 2006 - five years ago! If the US army wanted to prosecute the people responsible then they would be in prison RIGHT NOW! But no, instead they decide to torture the hero responsible for dragging their monstrous depravities into the light of day.

...did you actually read the article, or just skim it and then decide to leap to the defence of the poor widdle war-crime-enabling military-industrial complex?

[TheHammer]

If they were adults, then I could understand that this could be an 'honest mistake'. Hells, even if there was a thirteen-year-old involved, it'd disgust me; but I might just be able to accept that soldiers could panic. But in this case, with two five-year-olds, a three-year-old and a five month old baby? How can you dare to try and justify this shit?

Furthermore, the autopsies revealed that these people had been handcuffed - that means they had surrendered. Which makes their killing not an accident in a dangerous midnight raid, but a deliberate and serious war crime.

Assuming no prosecution would be a poor assumption..? Dude, this stuff happened in 2006 - five years ago! If the US army wanted to prosecute the people responsible then they would be in prison RIGHT NOW! But no, instead they decide to torture the hero responsible for dragging their monstrous depravities into the light of day.

...did you actually read the article, or just skim it and then decide to leap to the defence of the poor widdle war-crime-enabling military-industrial complex?

If that was addressed to me, please read what I wrote and what I was addressing. If you still didn't get it, then to sum up I'm disputing the notion that this was a "business as usual" event, not defending the event itself.

[Thanas]

So why have there been no arrests, despite it happening five years ago?

Clearly, business as usual seems to mean "hush it up" in these cases.

[evilsoup]

Incidents of wrongdoing definitely should be prosecuted, but at the same time its also an extremely tough job they are being asked to do. Mistakes will undoubtedly be made despite the best of intentions.

That sounds suspiciously like defending the event to me, or at least trying to mitigate the soldiers' responsibility.

I don't think that anyone in this thread is saying this behaviour is some kind of standard operation (if it was, there wouldn't be anyone left alive in Baghdad at this point), so if that's what you intended to argue then I'm not sure what the point of making your post was.

And assuming no prosecution will be forthcoming would be a poor assumption to make.

Is it? Do you honestly expect a prosecution for a five-year-old crime? Maybe if there was a lot of public outrage over this, but there isn't. If the US army was interested in pursuing a prosecution, they would have done so already; and anything short of that is evidence of a de facto coverup.

[Erik von Nein]

And assuming no prosecution will be forthcoming would be a poor assumption to make.

Yeah, and the best part is the only reason there would be any prosecution to speak of would be due to this cable leak. Now isn't that sad.

[Alyeska]

A point raised on another forum.

Curious as to why a five month old infant needed to have its arms handcuffed behind its back before being executed by a gunshot to the head. Seems unnecessary since babies have trouble crawling at that age.

Would a baby actually be handcuffed? Even with plastic zip ties?

[Stark]

When you're executing prisoners to cover up your mistakes, why quibble about OH&S? It's quite conscientious they even remembered to murder the baby at all!

[Thanas]

A point raised on another forum.

Curious as to why a five month old infant needed to have its arms handcuffed behind its back before being executed by a gunshot to the head. Seems unnecessary since babies have trouble crawling at that age.

Would a baby actually be handcuffed? Even with plastic zip ties?

Where are you going with this?

[Alyeska]

Where are you going with this?

The story was released on many different sites. The two I've read both say every single person was handcuffed, but used different wording. Indicating source material said everyone was handcuffed and the reporters are reporting this.

I don't think the baby was handcuffed. So I question the accuracy of some of the source material.

It could be entirely accurate. Someone could have handcuffed the baby. Or it could be 95% accurate. All the people were killed but the baby was shot without being handcuffed.

This is why an investigation is important. Determine the facts and met out punishment to those guilty. Don't cover it up. Where was I going with that? The facts might not be what we think they are. But we should still investigate and determine the truth to the best of our ability.

[Stark]

To investigate, you have to admit that something happened.

[Thanas]

This is why an investigation is important. Determine the facts and met out punishment to those guilty. Don't cover it up. Where was I going with that? The facts might not be what we think they are. But we should still investigate and determine the truth to the best of our ability.

None of the reports however disagree in all details. What is happening here is quibbling over a minor detail. It doesn't matter whether they shot the baby or whether they first handcuffed and then shot the baby.

Really, this is rather pointless and using this to somehow doubt the entire report ever happened is more than a bit of a stretch.

[Magis]

I haven't been able to read the cable itself because Wikileaks seems to be down, but from what I've read in news reports I don't see any evidence that directly links the U.S. troops to the civilian killings.

There's a possibility that it happened precisely as the soldiers claim - they approached a house, were fired upon from within the house, and then called an air strike. If the Iraqi coroner is correct that family members were bound an executed, I don't see necessarily why it points to the troops. The men firing from inside the house towards the troops may have performed the executions. It's not as though violence/robberies/honour killings/etc. were particularly rare in the country at the time, and if the gunmen were indeed in a house filled with corpses, that probably would have offered ample motivation for them to attempt to fight off the soldiers rather then permit an inspection of the premises.

That's perhaps a devil's advocate theory, but I doubt there's enough physical evidence to indict let alone convict any of the soldiers in question (unless one of them confesses or something.)

[Thanas]

I haven't been able to read the cable itself because Wikileaks seems to be down, but from what I've read in news reports I don't see any evidence that directly links the U.S. troops to the civilian killings.

The cable:

I would like to draw the attention of your Government to
information I have received regarding a raid conducted by
the Multinational Forces (MNF) on 15 March 2006 in the house
of Faiz Harrat Al-Majma'ee, a farmer living in the outskirts
of Al-Iss Haqi District in Balad (Salah-El-Din Governorate).

I have received various reports indicating that at least 10
persons, namely Mr. Faiz Hratt Khalaf, (aged 28), his wife
Sumay'ya Abdul Razzaq Khuther (aged 24), their three
children Hawra'a (aged 5) Aisha ( aged 3) and Husam (5
months old), Faiz's mother Ms. Turkiya Majeed Ali (aged 74),
Faiz's sister (name unknown), Faiz's nieces Asma'a Yousif
Ma'arouf (aged 5 years old), and Usama Yousif Ma'arouf (aged
3 years), and a visiting relative Ms. Iqtisad Hameed Mehdi
(aged 23) were killed during the raid.

According to the information received, American troops
approached Mr. Faiz's home in the early hours of 15 March
2006. It would appear that when the MNF approached the
house, shots were fired from it and a confrontation ensued
for some 25 minutes. The MNF troops entered the house,
handcuffed all residents and executed all of them. After the
initial MNF intervention, a US air raid ensued that
destroyed the house.

That is the text of the cable as to what went down. It is pretty clear cut.

[K. A. Pital]

It is a very "tough job" to ask people not to execute folks and especially babies? What's "tough" about this exactly?

Especially as Iraqis aren't some sort of rampaging Nazis or whatnot who just burned down Washington DC and surroundings and killed bazillions of people, in which case revengeful massacres would at least be somewhat explainable... They did nothing to injure or harm U.S. civilians.

Though of course if you spout racist bullshit on TV all day long, people who get in the Army might have a wrong impression of things.

[Edi]

It would be a fundamental betrayal to our men in uniform if we held them accountable for their actions.

There are and have been prosecutions for crimes committed by troops. One example - http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/jeremy-mo ... d=13196633

Morlock and the Afghanistan Kill Team hit the news media with a big splash and became too big to cover up. Even then, the curious thing about it is that even though the actions of the rogue platoon were known at the company command level and higher, no officers of any kind have been prosecuted and only a couple of scapegoats have gone to jail. Just like Abu Ghraib where they managed to sentence a couple of low level flunkies and no officer was ever even charged with anything even though it went right to the top.

And assuming no prosecution will be forthcoming would be a poor assumption to make.

Assuming no prosecution will take place is the default position based on the past history of US military conduct in instances of atrocities or crimes committed by US service members. There are dozens of incidents that bear this out and the rare instances that do actually proceed to a full court martial usually hand out only slaps on the wrist or target a few designated scapegoats despite widespread wrongdoing.

I don't think you can charactarize these indcidents as "business as usual".

The past history of such incidents disagrees with you.

[TheHammer]

I haven't been able to read the cable itself because Wikileaks seems to be down, but from what I've read in news reports I don't see any evidence that directly links the U.S. troops to the civilian killings.

The cable:

I would like to draw the attention of your Government to
information I have received regarding a raid conducted by
the Multinational Forces (MNF) on 15 March 2006 in the house
of Faiz Harrat Al-Majma'ee, a farmer living in the outskirts
of Al-Iss Haqi District in Balad (Salah-El-Din Governorate).

I have received various reports indicating that at least 10
persons, namely Mr. Faiz Hratt Khalaf, (aged 28), his wife
Sumay'ya Abdul Razzaq Khuther (aged 24), their three
children Hawra'a (aged 5) Aisha ( aged 3) and Husam (5
months old), Faiz's mother Ms. Turkiya Majeed Ali (aged 74),
Faiz's sister (name unknown), Faiz's nieces Asma'a Yousif
Ma'arouf (aged 5 years old), and Usama Yousif Ma'arouf (aged
3 years), and a visiting relative Ms. Iqtisad Hameed Mehdi
(aged 23) were killed during the raid.

According to the information received, American troops
approached Mr. Faiz's home in the early hours of 15 March
2006. It would appear that when the MNF approached the
house, shots were fired from it and a confrontation ensued
for some 25 minutes. The MNF troops entered the house,
handcuffed all residents and executed all of them. After the
initial MNF intervention, a US air raid ensued that
destroyed the house.

That is the text of the cable as to what went down. It is pretty clear cut.

Pretty clear cut in what way? Who made these reports? What evidence was gathered to cooberate them?Was there any follow up to the incident? Is this ALL there is? Because quite frankly I don't see how you can make a determination on this based on that single cable.