Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org
“Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death” Broadcast for the First Time Ever in the US: Eyewitnesses Testify that US Troops Were Complicit in the Massacre of up to 3,000 Taliban Prisoners During the Afghan War
Friday, May 23rd, 2003
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/05/23/1637201
The film has been broadcast on national television in countries all over the world and has been screened by the European parliament. Human rights lawyers are calling for investigation into whether U.S. forces are guilty of war crimes. But no U.S. media outlet has broadcast the film.
Today, on Democracy Now!, the U.S. broadcast premiere of a documentary film called “Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death.”
The film provides eyewitness testimony that U.S. troops were complicit in the massacre of thousands of Taliban prisoners during the Afghan War.
It tells the story of thousands of prisoners who surrendered to the US military’s Afghan allies after the siege of Kunduz. According to eyewitnesses, some three thousand of the prisoners were forced into sealed containers and loaded onto trucks for transport to Sheberghan prison. Eyewitnesses say when the prisoners began shouting for air, U.S.-allied Afghan soldiers fired directly into the truck, killing many of them. The rest suffered through an appalling road trip lasting up to four days, so thirsty they clawed at the skin of their fellow prisoners as they licked perspiration and even drank blood from open wounds.
Witnesses say that when the trucks arrived and soldiers opened the containers, most of the people inside were dead. They also say US Special Forces re-directed the containers carrying the living and dead into the desert and stood by as survivors were shot and buried. Now, up to three thousand bodies lie buried in a mass grave.
The film has sent shockwaves around the world. It has been broadcast on national television in Britain, Germany, Italy and Australia. It has been screened by the European parliament. It has outraged human rights groups and international human rights lawyers. They are calling for investigation into whether U.S. Special Forces are guilty of war crimes.
But most Americans have never heard of the film. That’s because not one corporate media outlet in the U.S. will touch it. It has never before been broadcast in this country.
Today, Democracy Now! brings you the premiere broadcast of “Afghan Massacre” in the United States.
“Afghan Massacre” is produced and directed by award-winning Irish filmmaker Jamie Doran. Doran is has worked at the highest levels of television film production for more than two decades. His films have been broadcast on virtually every major channel throughout the world. On average, each of his films are seen in around 35 countries. Before establishing his independent television company, Jamie Doran spent over seven years at BBC Television.
The film was researched by award-winning journalist Najibullah Quraishi, who was beaten almost to death when he tried to obtain video evidence of US Special Forces’ complicity in the massacre. Two of the witnesses who testified in the film are now dead.
* “Afghan Massacre: the Convoy of Death” - produced and directed by award-winning Irish filmmaker Jamie Doran.
www.democracynow.org
you and ziggy sure do some cool captures.
peace.
This one is the window into world view as the
septic ichor seaps from the white house container ship
of state. look hard at what we have become and be afraid
and angry. with reason.
...hair of dog perhaps? (Just kidding.)
This story definatly relates to the nuke-em all attitude of the right. What happened to the Geneva convetion and treating prisoners of war with respect. Bush said "that when those Iraqies look into the eys of our soldiers they see strength and integrity" or something pretty close to that. The truth of the matter is that our government has become like Hitlers Germany or Cezars Rome. Alling itself with the very same outlaw regiems and killers it says it is destroying. The US has become an occuping army and dictator acting unilateraly like all the empires of the past.
But it has one thing in comman with Rome, corruption, it is rotting to the core with buisness intrests gone wild in on scandal after another. Wall street is a disgrace with corporate pigs at the traugh embezzaling investors 401ks and cooking the books in colusion with Auditors.
The government agencies who are supposed to be protecting our environment are headded by former Corporate CEO's who come from the very same companies who they are supposed to be watching.
You have Donalad Rumsfeld Dick Cheny and Papa Bush who are all just defense company lobbiest. Bush the first works for the Carlye group as a defense lobbiest while his son is president . And gee you tell me does the word conflict of intrest mean anything to You?
I think the brave men and women who died for this great country would want more than just an empire. They died for true and honest democray with an infasturcture of justice. Were the sick and old and unemployed are underwritten by the rest of us.
Bush and his regiem are truly destroying government as we know it and its time to wake up America before its too
late
I had two Beck's Dark....
Spank me.
seriously, isn't this kinda creepy?
Think of the world and the reaction to these open
war crimes. We're doing EVERYTHING to provoke
retaliation. Fun times ahead with martial law.
They're salivating in antici-----------------------------------------pation. :-(
...paint with too broad a brush. Their are gentle spirits who oppose the Bush Junta's crimes from the Right. As a Libertarian I find agreement with both ends and I do find people on both ends with whom I agree and disagree.
No, I am not going to get mushy and do a "Rodney King".
However, I think that you will find people at both ends of the political spectrum who abhor this kind of inhuman abomination. Count me among them.
doesn't this kind of ring similar to the Malmedy massacre?
You know.
Fritz Kramer may have ordered it to obscure evidence also.
but that's another thread.
GW has learned well and taught his soldiers the ways of extermination.
Seig heil!!!