contribution by Ben Six

In the twilight of 2009, Afghan investigators accused the International forces of “kill[ing] 10 youths, eight of them school students inside two rooms in a house, without encountering any armed resistance.”

NATO dismissed these claims, saying that “non-military Americans” had “fired in self-defence after being shot at by villagers”.

A source told Jerome Starkey of the Times that it had been “a joint operation that was conducted against an IED cell that Afghan and US officials had been developing information against for some time”.

An ISAF statement added that “several assault rifles, ammunition, and ammonium nitrate used in bomb-making [had been] discovered”.

Nevertheless, as Afghanistan united in condemnation, it called for “an immediate joint investigation”.

For weeks, though, nothing more was heard. Dave Lindorff of Counterpunch phoned up the Pentagon who, limply, claimed that the ISAF were pursuing their inquiries.

So little was cared about the incident, it seemed, that when he dropped a line to the House Armed Services Committee, they asked him to send them details.

Finally, in late February, Starkey reported a NATO official’s admission that “knowing what we know now, it would probably not have been a justifiable attack…we don’t now believe that we busted a major ring”.

“Ultimately,” he went on, “[W]e did determine this to be a civilian casualty incident“. “Incidents such as this“, the Times was told, “Do not reflect any conduct that ISAF would condone and it is not the way ISAF trains any of our Afghan partners”.

That, it seems, is all that their “investigation“‘s come to. Strange, really, as their knowledge just after the killings was so rich. The “assault rifles” they claimed to discover have vanished without trace, and the only “ammunition” we’re sure exists was fired into the poor, dead students.

We still don’t know who the killers were. Several officials have admitted to the presence of American forces, but “US [troops] based in Kunar denied any knowledge of the raid” and “Nato insists that the troops were not part of the International Security Assistance Force”.

No one has been willing to identify – let alone accept responsibility for – the “non-military Americans”, or the Afghan troops that it’s claimed were with them.

All we have are the memories of the poor, petrified Afghan villagers who offered accounts to Jerome Starkey. The men and children, some of them as young as twelve, were killed without the slightest sign of aggression towards the fierce, night-goggled troops.

“Most were shot at close range where they slept”, we’re told, while another was dragged from his marital room, to be executed along with his three nephews. The families have seen no justice, nor received any closure; just “$2,000 compensation for each person killed”.

The killers, we must guess, walk free: safe and unnamed, without even a half-hearted slap on the wrist. Their organisation, whatever it is, has escaped embarrassment, let alone censure. The ISAF haven’t explained their many false accounts: the mystery gunfight, the “IED” reports or the non-existent “discovered” armoury.

The media is asking no questions. When Brown, Clegg and Cameron walk out for the “defence” debate, their smug assurance won’t be troubled.

It’s under the mat, with just a hint of red seeping from up beneath.

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