US gunship destroys MSF hospital.

[kickazz]

Nasty accounts of significant suffering of patients and medical practitioners alike after a US gunship fired upon a Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital in Kudunz, Afghanistan:

"Patients burned in their beds, medical staff were decapitated and lost limbs, and others were shot by the circling AC-130 gunship while fleeing the burning building," the report said.

MSF's internal review of the attack describes the assault as a war crime.

"The view from inside the hospital is that this attack was conducted with the purpose to kill and destroy," MSF's general director Christopher Stokes said.

"We are still expecting and hoping to get a really detailed version of what happened that night and a clear explanation. Because all the information that we have provided so far, shows that a mistake is quite hard to understand and believe at this stage."

Have not yet heard a response from the perps other than "sorry" - but on face value this appears to be a pretty serious war crime. Will be interesting to watch in coming days how they weasel their way out of it.

 

[Procrastinator35]

Nasty accounts of significant suffering of patients and medical practitioners alike after a US gunship fired upon a Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital in Kudunz, Afghanistan:

Have not yet heard a response from the perps other than "sorry" - but on face value this appears to be a pretty serious war crime. Will be interesting to watch in coming days how they weasel their way out of it.

Chalk another one down to 'U.S Intelligence'.....An oxymoron if ever there was one!

How can anyone still possibly subscribe to the notion that this Nation is the defender of humanity, freedom & human rights?

This happened on October 3rd & we're just hearing about it now???

Here's a picture of an AC-130 gunship.

 

[Malifice]

Chalk another one down to 'U.S Intelligence'.....An oxymoron if ever there was one!

How can anyone still possibly subscribe to the notion that this Nation is the defender of humanity, freedom & human rights?

This happened on October 3rd & we're just hearing about it now???

Here's a picture of an AC-130 gunship.

Changed the gun config on them recently. Terrifying bit of kit. Requires air superioirty (they get shot down easy) but once up and running, god help anything on the ground.

 

[kickazz]

Seems they were shooting people trying to flee, so not just a chick up, a really bad one.

They've had a month to come up with an excuse now.......

 

[Malifice]

Seems they were shooting people trying to flee, so not just a chick up, a really bad one.

They've had a month to come up with an excuse now.......

High profile target inside. Deliberate most likely in my view.

 

[kickazz]

High profile target inside. Deliberate most likely in my view.

You might be taking the piss, but even if that is their excuse, it's still a war crime is it not? Unless it was not properly marked as a hospital?

It's bad enough that those Daesh campaigners are beheading aid workers, don't need the US military trying to outdo them.

 

[Procrastinator35]

Seems they were shooting people trying to flee, so not just a chick up, a really bad one.

They've had a month to come up with an excuse now.......

More like, they've suppressed it's release for a month to take the sting of it.

If Putin's cronies did that, it'd be headline news the following day!....Inexcusable.

 

[Malifice]

You might be taking the piss, but even if that is their excuse, it's still a war crime is it not? Unless it was not properly marked as a hospital?

It's bad enough that those Daesh campaigners are beheading aid workers, don't need the US military trying to outdo them.

Im not taking the piss. I struggle to believe it was accidental (although its a possibility). A MSF hospital would have been clearly marked on every map in the AO and beyond. I cant fathom how that aircraft was green lit to engage that grid reference by 'accident'.

It's possible, but in my view (and from my experience) it's far more likely that the spooks were of the view that there was a high value target in that building and the collateral damage was deemed acceptable.

Welcome to modern warfare.

 

[Procrastinator35]

High profile target inside. Deliberate most likely in my view.

And damn the 30 or so innocent French & foreign legion doctors & nurses inside!....The inhumanity of the CIA is palpable....As an organization, they are just plain evil & should be disbanded. They can no longer be trusted & are answerable to no-one, so it seems.

This kind of incident should bring down a govt department at the very least....******* Appalling & deplorable...And yet all that will happen is an investigation (By the CIA-Read cover-up) & a slap on the wrist.

American foreign policy in action: Naked, Raw & playing games with other peoples lives....Their Utter s**t & Their not human.

 

[Malifice]

And damn the 30 or so innocent French & foreign legion doctors & nurses inside!....The inhumanity of the CIA is palpable....As an organization, they are just plain evil & should be disbanded. They can no longer be trusted & are answerable to no-one, so it seems.

This kind of incident should bring down a govt department at the very least....******* Appalling & deplorable...And yet all that will happen is an investigation (By the CIA-Read cover-up) & a slap on the wrist.

American foreign policy in action: Naked, Raw & playing games with other peoples lives....Their Utter s**t & Their not human.

Man they nuked japan, and the Poms firebombed the crap out of even more civvies in Dresden etc.

What makes you think that we (as people) have changed that much in 70 years? Its' war. This is what happens.

 

[Procrastinator35]

Man they nuked japan, and the Poms firebombed the crap out of even more civvies in Dresden etc.

What makes you think that we (as people) have changed that much in 70 years? Its' war. This is what happens.

We were at war with the German's & Japan....Pretty sure it was called WWII & that they did some pretty nasty s**t to the Allies in return....Last I checked, there's been no declaration of war on Afghanistan! And why would there be?....Just what in the hell are the yanks doing there for a start?

None of what you've stated excuses this action.

 

[Malifice]

We were at war with the German's & Japan....Pretty sure it was called WWII & that they did some pretty nasty s**t to the Allies in return....Last I checked, there's been no declaration of war on Afghanistan! And why would there be?....Just what in the hell are the yanks doing there for a start?

None of what you've stated excuses this action.

Im not excusing the action at all. Im just saying you shouldnt be surprised. In war, people die.

And generally, in most wars, far more civilians die than soliders. Often intentionally.

 

[Procrastinator35]

Im not excusing the action at all. Im just saying you shouldnt be surprised. In war, people die.

And generally, in most wars, far more civilians die than soliders. Often intentionally.

And no surprise to find the story stashed in the middle pages of our leading newspapers....This is front page news & ought to be front & center of every adults attention who cares about & believes in the values of democracy....It's Nothing short of a disgrace on every front.

What if that were your son or daughter in that building?....I'd want the US govt's guts for garters, if that were the case.....Little wonder why most of the world hates the U.S; When it contravenes those very principles upon which its own constitution is founded, whenever it suits them.

Their paranoia is founded upon atrocious acts of inhumanity such as this; And is well placed....Zero transparency, accountability & notions of justice.

Irregardless of whether or not you consider it a war-time action....Attacking a hospital is a direct violation of every conceivable humanitarian & UN directive/ convention....This act is beneath contempt & whoever authorized it is worse than evil.

 

[SullaBC]

US Rejects Hospital Bombing Investigation, Instead Smashes into Hospital in Tank, Destroying Evidence
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/10/us-rejects-investigation-instead-smashes-into-hospital-in-tank-destroying-evidence.html



violation of the Geneva Convention

http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/doctors-without-borders-report-kunduz-hospital-bombing_563b408ee4b0307f2cac20dc?section=australia&adsSiteOverride=au

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u-s-plane-shot-victims-fleeing-doctors-without-borders-hospital-n457871

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/msf-response-spurious-claims-kunduz-hospital-was-taliban-base



U.S. Claims $5 Billion Intelligence System “Offline” At Time Of Afghan Hospital Bombing
http://www.activistpost.com/2015/10/u-s-claims-5-billion-intelligence-system-offline-at-time-of-afghan-hospital-bombing.html


Doctors Without Borders (MSF) continues to demand an independent war crimes probe of the U.S. bombing of its hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, after releasing its own preliminary investigation. The U.S. airstrike on October 3 killed at least 30 people, including 13 staff members, 10 patients and seven unrecognizable victims yet to be identified. In a new report based on interviews with dozens of witnesses, MSF describes patients burning in their beds, medical staff who were decapitated and lost limbs, and staff members shot from the air while they fled the burning building. Doctors and other medical staff were shot while running to reach safety in a different part of the compound. MSF says it provided the GPS coordinates to U.S. and Afghan officials weeks before and that the strikes continued for half an hour after U.S. and Afghan authorities were told the hospital was being bombed
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/11/9/rejecting_us_claims_msf_details_horrific

http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/en...2cac20dc?section=australia&adsSiteOverride=au

 

[Whit3y]

If Putin's cronies did that, it'd be headline news the following day!....Inexcusable.

this

 

[Procrastinator35]

US Rejects Hospital Bombing Investigation, Instead Smashes into Hospital in Tank, Destroying Evidence

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Robert Barsocchini

After changing its story many times, the US now admits that it intentionally threw bombs, for more than an hour, at the now famous Doctors Without Borders hospital, proving accurate the assessment of DWB staffer Meinie Nicolai, who said the US attack was “a premeditated massacre.”

Since initial US claims that the protected DWB hospital was a “Taliban stronghold” and so forth have been debunked as stupid, the US now claims it targeted the hospital because one man, a “Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence spy”, was inside.

However, Glenn Greenwald points out that the US puppet government in Afghanistan has had it out for DWB for some time because they treat patients indiscriminately, whereas US allies like Israel, for example, discriminate between patients, treating Al Qaeda fighters while targeting members of the UN-recognized Syrian government: “Israel has opened its borders with Syria in order to provide medical treatment to Nusra Front and al-Qaida fighters wounded in the ongoing civil war, according to The Wall Street Journal.”

On October 14th, an “international panel” announced that it was “ready to investigate the deadly US [hospital] bombing”, but would need “assurances from Barack Obama and the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, that their governments [would] comply.”

The US rejected the initiative for the investigation, and instead, on October 15th, sent soldiers to smashup the bombed hospital with a tank, “destroy[ing] potential evidence” for the war crimes investigation.

To explain this, the US announced that the tank was carrying the US’s own “investigators”.


Yeah....No sign of a guilty conscience There!

In the meantime....Those 22 innocent victims?....US Forces: 22....Justice: 0

 

[Procrastinator35]

U.S. Claims $5 Billion Intelligence System “Offline” At Time Of Afghan Hospital Bombing

TOPICS: Afghanistan; Human Rights: Joe Wright

OCTOBER 23, 2015

By Joe Wright

Apparently any time something happens that calls into question the nobility of the U.S. mission to protect the planet, you can chalk it up to a coincidental intelligence “systems failure” … 9/11, no WMDs in Iraq, ISIS appearing out of nowhere….

It’s an old tactic that dates back much further, but continues to be recycled nonetheless.

The latest is the bombing of the Kunduz hospital in Afghanistan. An act so outrageous that it’s being called a war crime by anyone remotely affected by the event. And that wasn’t even the worst of it. As an imminent investigation was about to take place, the U.S. ran a military vehicle through the hospital, possibly destroying key evidence. They called that “inspecting damage.”

The U.S. is now claiming that their $5 billion intelligence computer system just happened to be offline the day of the bombing, effectively making the hospital a blind spot to the bombing campaign. The Associated Press states:

The U.S. Army’s $5 billion intelligence network, which is designed to give commanders battlefield awareness but has been criticized for years as a boondoggle, was not working in Afghanistan during the recent American air attack on a hospital, according to a member of Congress who has been in touch with military whistle-blowers.

Significant elements of the Distributed Common Ground System, a network of computers and sensors designed to knit together disparate strands of intelligence, were off line in Afghanistan when U.S. commanders approved an air strike Oct. 3 that killed 22 staff, patients and others at a Doctors without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Rep. Duncan Hunter wrote Tuesday to Defense Secretary Ash Carter.

To their credit, the Associated Press already has established the great likelihood that the U.S. military had physically been at the hospital for days prior to the incident, so would not have needed a $5 billion dollar apparatus to make a decision to strike or not. Further, the Guardian reported that hospital representatives had already notified the US military of the exact GPS coordinates. Naturally, U.S. officials also have claimed that it was an enemy base of operations, but this strongly conflicts with reports by the doctors and witnesses from the hospital.

Now, instead of war crime investigations, the latest round of propaganda seeks to divert attention to a failed computer system that will be exposed by “whistle-blowers:”

The story about the bombing has already changed at least four times, and the best excuse they have decided upon is that yet another massive intelligence failure has occurred (to the tune of billions of taxpayer dollars, and many more to fix the issue of course).

At best we have a complete waste of money, a stunning level of incompetence, and a callous acceptance of 22 dead to be nothing but a collateral damage mistake.

At worst, it shows just how naive the people of the United States are believed to be, by those directing the instruments of war in their name.

THIS^^^.....Also add apathy & indifference by a distracted & disinterested (for the most part) populace!

 

[little graham]

the 'other side" of the story.

Human Rights Watch’s despicable Director, Kenneth Roth. He tweeted, “Kunduz attack is awful, but recall that Assad attacks hospitals deliberately all the time”. The occasion on which he was commenting was an airstrike by American coalition aircraft on the hospital of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) in Kunduz, Afghanistan. The USA quickly shifted the blame to Afghan authorities, who were alleged to have said 10-15 Taliban fighters were hiding in the building or compound in which it was located. First, there is no evidence that Assad’s government forces have ever attacked a hospital deliberately, not even once, never mind “all the time”. The tweet was quickly deleted, but screen caps remain so that he cannot deny he said it.

https://marknesop.wordpress.com/2015/10/07/add-a-cup-of-crocodile-tears-western-values-is-a-myth/

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

Chalk another one down to 'U.S Intelligence'.....An oxymoron if ever there was one!

How can anyone still possibly subscribe to the notion that this Nation is the defender of humanity, freedom & human rights?

This happened on October 3rd & we're just hearing about it now???

Here's a picture of an AC-130 gunship.

and to think, I used to sing about these things at primary school in the 70s.

 

[blackcat]

accident

Poe's law

 

[little graham]

accident

Poe's law

I started a thread a while back about the Yemen war and quite extensively referenced western recognized media outlets that documented the atrocities. Thread was deleted. In those reports about the atrocities and the western arms used against civilians, which is against the law for us sell in those circumstances, time and time again these guys (MSF) were the ones keeping records for the UN and other agencies.

It was you who taught me about that pattern in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and things like the Rwandan massacre.

A not so polite "shut up"?

 

[blackcat]

I started a thread a while back about the Yemen war and quite extensively referenced western recognized media outlets that documented the atrocities. Thread was deleted. In those reports about the atrocities and the western arms used against civilians, which is against the law for us sell in those circumstances, time and time again these guys (MSF) were the ones keeping records for the UN and other agencies.

It was you who taught me about that pattern in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and things like the Rwandan massacre.

A not so polite "shut up"?

I found it quite bemusing all the brouhaha over Peter Greste and no mentions about the deaths of Al Jazeera by western forces and Sami al Haj in Guantanamo.

evo put the Chomsky critique up a coupla days back, but this was p'raps more egregious, Greste comes out to great fanfare and meets heads of state, does he ever mention the deaths of his journalist company fellow reporters by tanks and marines in iraq and about Sami el Haj or al Haj in G-Bay. a'course not. what - a - w@nk