CIA and Afghanistan are two words that should not go together, as painful experience has shown.
3
Once the consequences of global warming have worked their way through the world in the next 3-7 decades, I suspect that the Afghans will be living pretty much the way they have lived for the last 2 millenia. As for North America, I'm not so sure.
1
I am so ashamed.
5
Thank you for the article. For me, the shocking part of the topic of how the CIA behaves, or guides foreign forces, is the most damning part of the whole issue.
The US, a nation that constantly uses 'Human Rights' violations in condemning -- especially Leftist governments, has used the CIA in endless repressions, tortures and murders implicitly or explicitly -- all over the world. If we combine the role that the CIA played in Indonesia, Vietnam as well as all S.E Asian countries with the barbarous murders of all progressives and Leftists in South and Central America, through the paramillitary groups, one just shudders.
Again, thanks for the expose of this hypocrisy that lies at the heart of US foreign policy. --- world-wide..
12
In the words of our former President-cum-war-criminal, Mission Accomplished!
1
In the words of our former President-cum-war criminal, Mission Accomplished!
1
This is the kind of peace keepers America has become due to government going to all Volunteer service people.
They are losers who couldn’t get a job in regular industry so they went in service . I have to laugh as an old drafteee
4
@Ed Whyte
These are not soldiers from the volunteer army though. This is our CIA's secret forces doing this like they have always done, their secret little wars against people.
The CIA has a bad habit of funding terrorists, killers, and criminals in order to support the dominance of the US across the world.
When you want something nasty to happen to people, the CIA is always ready to volunteer.
6
U.S. sanctioned and sponsored terrorism using the CIA in conjunction with the host nation's personnel has been a problem and human rights violations since the 70's and mostly under a Republican regime. Dubya stepped up the use of torture violating the Geneva convention agreement and Obama chose not to prosecute the offenders. Congress had their dog and pony show investigations and emphatically stated America would not use CIA torture or murder again.
I now see why IQ45, aka Cadet Bone Spurs, wanted to remove the U.S.A. from the entire Geneva convention agreement. His plans were to use the CIA led terrorism once again ensuring signatory countries could not hold him or his paid aggressors responsible for human rights abuse, genocide, or torture of human beings.
Will the new Democrat House hold hearings on these heinous crimes against humanity holding Agent Orange and his cronies accountable including all U.S. citizens whether contractors or civil servants? We fight terrorism in this manner creating martyrs who in turn attack this nation for revenge of human rights violations and we wonder why it happens. How long will the citizens turn their heads to these atrocities? Justice must be meted out to All U.S. citizens involved just as a common criminal or murderer would be dealt with by American law. Killing children, innocent bystanders deserves the death penalty or life sentences in federal prisons or in the host country's prisons.
8
@Waggaze
Probably not, since the democrats also use the CIA to carry out the dark deeds. We have ignored what the CIA does for decades now.
Oh and the CIA started in the 60s' doing it's nasty stuff.
America's foreign policy has never been good towards many countries. We have caused the deaths of probably hundreds of thousands of people and none of the people in charge have ever seen justice. I doubt we will start now.
2
Someone has to make sure the world has heroin
4
“But perhaps that is the terrorists’ dream: the dream of an immortal enemy. For, if the enemy no longer exists, it becomes difficult to destroy it.” -Jean Baudrillard, ‘The Spirit of Terrorism’
2
How many times does sponsoring torture, abuse, and atrocity have to blow up in the faces of the United States government before we learn the lesson that it is not only morally wrong, it harms our interests too in the long term? It is painful to watch my country making the same terrible mistakes again, and again, and again, and again.
7
@Sean -- "It is painful to watch my country making the same terrible mistakes again, and again, and again, and again."
Such a consistent pattern does not qualify as a "mistake."
We are not told the back story of why these people were killed. Perhaps it was local politics or economic advantage. We just were not told.
However, death squads are so much a constant that they are a method, not a mistake.
Those who use that method should be jailed, but for decades they've been promoted instead.
7
@Mark Thomason
I would plainly say that as described in the article the CIA, at very least with the White House's sufferance under several administrations, has chosen to repeatedly harm the long-term interests of the United States and even directly sabotage the work of some other arms of government in order to avoid real but short-term difficulties.
(to say nothing of harming the Afghans).
That's a deliberate method, sure, but also a mistake.
8
What happened to good investigative journalism? The federal government in Afghanistan has abdicated their supervision over this military unit even though they are the top of the chain of command because they like the results. This fact light piece can now be used by the Afghan Governments and the Taliban as propaganda to blame the CIA. You need local journalists but you also need an emotionally removed editor or unsubstantiated misleading stories like this will become the standard of Journalism in the Times. This is a borderline opinion piece put out as hard news.
Afghan Soldiers, not Americans, have the ultimate say on targets and means. The complainants are local in the Article. The federal government in Afghanistan is responsible for these abuses but instead of holding them to account the Times offers up the CIA as scape goat. Reality: Afghanistan has no ability or desire to control this unit of the Afghan military. They do not trust that a regional or local government office or official will not disclose plans to the Taliban. For the same reasons are complaints and investigations from local government even reliable, they appear to be the primary source of information? The CIA takes advantage of the Afghan government weakness to accomplish US goals.
Civilian deaths and torture are part of every war. Congress no longer votes on going to war(to hard) and has not meaningfully used or Court tested the War Powers Resolution.
1
Reminds me of the 2009 Indian movie, 'Kurbaan', where an Afghan orphan, whose family was wiped out in Afghanistan in a US bombing raid and grows up in India, remembers the massacre and plans a revenge. He marries an Indian professor who gets an academic position in NYC and he follows her there and gets in touch with some Afghans already living in NYC and plotting their own revenge - blow up a metro train! Fortunately, the love of his wife keeps him from going through with it.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurbaan_(2009_film)#Plot)
I wonder if such things can happen in reality. Are there people who have suffered injustice seeking revenge on the perceived perpetrators, i.e., the US?
4
@Dreamer
Actually yes there are.
There was a report by the CIA that showed that our policies created more terrorists because of what happened to their families and friends.
Yet even the CIA seems to ignore it's own report and continues to practice acts that create more terrorists.
3
Our CIA is not smart enough to realize any of the goals we have set in Afghanistan. These night raids have been the single most effective weapon we have had against *ourselves* in that country. They drive Taliban resisters straight into the arms of the Taliban. If I'd known we'd get this stupid about things, I'd have been against allowing any American troops to actually land in that country ever. Especially not the CIA, who I think are all one sandwich short of a picnic right now.
3
Building tomorrow's battlefield for the MIC
3
We fund and train them; we own their abuses and crimes!
5
The CIA, lasting legacy of Harry Truman and Allen Dulles, fighting the "good fight." Uh huh.
5
Lessons taught in Mohammad Reza Shah's Iran and Vietnam are being repeated... Sadly.
5
We are attempting to defeat terrorists and terrorism with tactics that create more recruits. For several years, we have heard of reports of Afghan military and police turning on their American counterparts; these kind of actions will continue to increase, especially if the CIA continues to behave "poorly" and continue to support "unethical" behavior.
History tells us that our time in Afghanistan is running out. No "occupying force" has lasted more than 25 years before Afghans put tribal differences aside to remove said "invader." Tamer the Lame and his Mongols lasted 25 years before leaving due to Afghans saying enough is enough. Furthermore, at the height of their military power in the 19th century, the British failed to subdue Afghanistan. Why can't we learn from history?
5
While any violation of human rights are abhorrent and probably counter-productive, I cannot help but be struck by the fact that virtually ever killing of civilians by U.S. opponents is always presented as evidence of the growing power of the opposition and that the U.S. and its allies can no longer protect civilians, whereas every killing of civilians by the U.S. and its allies is always presented as driving the population into the hands of the opposition. The U.N. recently estimated that 60% of the civilian casualties in the first 6 months of the year were caused by the Taliban or Islamic State. Why then is that not causing the Afghans to back the government? Why are we instead told that the country is gradually falling under Taliban / IS control? Why are we not told that the attacks on civilians by U.S. back forces demonstrate that the Taliban cannot protect the civilian population and is losing control of the country?
@Michael
Because the taliban is winning the war of ideas. And they are winning control of the country.
When you are seen as the good guy, but turn out to be just as bad as the other, you lose the moral high ground, esp when you are an outsider.
And the taliban are not outsiders. Plus the taliban offer a simple solution, much like the christian right does in the US. You need strong leaders to protect you and democracy is failing you. The US is not offering a strong leader, the leadership in Kabul is weak.
2
The C.I.A. has dusted off its notorious Vietnam War era Phoenix program. If the program really began in 2001, as reported in the article, that means three administrations, Bush, Obama and now Trump have tolerated death squads directed by us and working in our name. Nothing ever really changes. The ends always justify the means, for the powerful, who are exempt from accountability. What nation or nations would call the U.S. to account? It makes me ashamed to call myself an American.
4
I don't often agree with Trump, but believe we should negotiate a complete withdrawal from Afganistan and let the people there sort themselves out or better or worse. I note Vietnam today seems to be doing well.
4
This is just one more outrage among countless similar outrages from endless generations of war. Yes, honorable prosecutions of war have existed at certain times and places, and they stand as beacons in the otherwise total blackness that war typically represents. The far greater beacons of our humanity have always fought hardest to avoid war at all cost, short of the anihilation of their responsibility to protect the innocent. Far more often, war's commanders become drunk on their power to control life and death, especially, as here, when they can act with impunity.
3
This is not new, the morally upright people of US are surprised when they read these accounts as they are never told the truth about wars, Wars that we routinely commit war crimes. It was our General Raymond Hufft who ordered our troops in World War II to "Take no Prisoners" (Battle of the Bulge) in a small town of Chinon, France /Belgium (Check out Patton's Papers) This is where the surrendered German Army was massacred in cold blood, everyone knew it was a war crime, but no one would bring any charges against the soldiers who followed the illegal order nor the General who gave these orders.
The only way we can avoid these war-crimes is by not having our soldiers put in these situations.
The making of war is criminal in itself. When would we learn to settle our differences peacefully and stop glorifying war?
9
Everyone is sure that they are doing the right thing; everyone is sure that the "other" is the bad guy. And with at least three separate enforcement systems - each sure that they are right - there is no oversight, and no common goal. If this is CIA tradecraft, they need to go back to school.
2
The gravest un-wisdom of our time is the unwillingness of American leaders to look ahead and see inevitable consequences or their decisions. They think in the short-term like mid-level corporate managers. They waste flagrantly, plant the seeds off future waste, and leave.
5
A glimpse inside the sausage factory. Americans want to scarf down hot dogs- but have no idea how they are made. This article is anti-American. I am proud of the men and women who serve the CIA - Our true heroes!
@Aaron
The true americans? Quite right. Americans have always been willing to slaughter women and children, commit terrible atrocities, and support the worse people to do our bidding.
The CIA are not heroes, but they do represent the US and how we terrorize across the world.
2
We shouldn’t be too naïve. Just because the military withdraws, doesn’t me the CIA withdraws as well. Two different organizations, two different missions—sometimes at odds.
3
Why are we still in Afghanistan if the perpetrator of the greatest criminal act against the U.S., Osama Bin Laden, was killed in 2011? Oh...that's right...we still delusionally think we can turn a foreign country into a democracy. No...wait...it's because we are the "world's policemen" and have to root the world of terrorist cells which is a futile "whack-a-mole" endeavor perpetuated by private defense contractors so they can keep the war machine going using taxpayer funds to line their pockets.
5
There is a strategy and tactics for counter insurgency and separate ones for counter terrorism and separate ones for conventional warfare. Counter insurgency is for ending the insurgency rather than eliminating bad guys. Counter terrorism focuses on eliminating the bad guys. Conventional warfare is for ending an enemy’s ability to fight.
The simplest to accomplish is conventional war. The capacity to fight is reducible to well known quantifiable factors. Reduce those enough and further warfare becomes impossible.
The most complex is counter insurgency. The insurgency exists with the cooperation of a much large population which supports them willingly or unwillingly and from which the insurgents are free to recruit people and to obtain intelligence and material support. To win the population the government convince them to turn against the insurgents. When the government sees the population as the enemy, the control over the population by the insurgents becomes nearly impossible to undo.
In between is counter terrorism. This focuses upon identifying and eliminating active fighters and crucial supporters. The hope being that more active fighters and suppliers will not replace them. This is the strategy that politicians and most conventional warfare commanders tend to think will bring the fastest results. It would seem to have taken over our efforts in Afghanistan.
2
Outstanding journalism! Deserving of a wider readership than it will get.
Many thanks to Julian Barnes, Mark Mazzetti, Thomas Gibbons-Neff for the reportage and to Jim Hulyebroek for the fine photography.
Happy New Year
7
The CIA has been conducting a secret war in Afghanistan and its operations are paramilitary, “largely opaque to military generals operating in the war zone.”
Although the CIA had “sponsored” strike forces in Afghanistan “in the early days of the American invasion in 2001, when the United States allied with militia forces to help topple the Taliban regime,” it was already involved in the country during the Soviet occupation, by providing the mujahideen guerrillas with an estimated $3bn in arms. The US, after a humiliated defeat in Vietnam, wanted the Kremlin have its “own Vietnam” by backing the Islamic resistance.
Today the CIA is fighting the Taliban and other Islamists, some of whom it armed in the 1980s to fight the Soviet army.
7
I have no doubt that the CIA does many important things to protect this company and that there are many heroes in their ranks. But I also have no doubt that they have a dark side that undertakes operations like what is described here. They always have, at least for the past 50 years that I have paid attention. They did it in Vietnam/Laos/Cambodia. They did it in Iran, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Iraq, ongoing in Afghanistan, and who knows where else. I have no doubt they did similar actions in Syria. They undercut everything this country is supposed to stand for and those who order and carry out such policies should be held accountable. But we all know they won't be. They never are. They just keep carrying out their secret atrocities, justifying them in the name of national security. And ultimately making the world a lot less safe for Americans.
8
@Buzzman69
"...protect this company..." Freudian slip?
Kinda chilling...
1
America should never be on the side of terror and atrocity let alone sponsor and direct it. Whether it was Operation Phoenix in Vietnam or death squads in Central America such tactics were wrong and disastrous in their effect (as if any end could justify such means). The problem is staring us in the face; the Central Intelligence Agency should be in the business of intelligence, not war-making. We have a military for war-making. The military must be under the command of civilian, preferably non-malevolent leadership, and war must be duly declared by Congress. We have a constitution for very good reasons.
265
The constitution is a marketing document which has little relevance to how we are governed.
23
@David virgien "We have a constitution for very good reasons."
The Constitution only means what the Republican Party says it means.
10
@david virgien-Just read about "Operation Phoenix" for the first time. Americans affiliated with this murderous program may still be among us as witnessed by CIA tactics in Afghanistan. What an amoral criminal waste. Let the investigations begin!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Program
7
The leader of this massacre squad is Eric Prince. His sister is our Sec of Education.
This is why the US is looked upon with revulsion.
17
My thought exactly. Eric Prince, and no doubt his sister Betsy DeVos, believe in mercenary tactics and evidently do not care for honor, decency, moral values, or public education for all; they do care about “more “ money for themselves and their family.
6
The leader of this particular massacre squad is some Afghanistani native. Eric Prince headed up the mercenaries in Iraq. Try to keep up.
2
Countries smart enough not to blow their entire budget on war and destruction don't have terrorism problems.
All we ever do is spread horror and death and further endanger ourselves in the process.
Scrap the military. Use the money for something productive.
10
@VoiceofAmerica
Scrap the military? WOW!! That is some powerful statement.
1
"Afghanistan did not have forces capable of dealing with what was regarded as an existential threat to the U.S. " As horrific as Islamic terrorist acts have been there is no way they have ever represented an existential threat to the US. How many times as many innocents have been killed by the "war on terror" than by the terrorists themselves? The paranoia and xenophobia sowed within people in the US by those who used 9/11 as an excuse to move the country closer to a police state is far more of an existential threat to the nation. Trump needed only to use the "Islamic terrorist " dog whistle to demonize a caravan of people fleeing from countries in Central America. Countries whose current troubles are in no small way the result of CIA meddling in years past.
16
I don't understand why you give so much benefit of the doubt to the CIA who are proven torturers and sadists and no doubt fired up these Afghans to do what they do. To blame the Afghans is ridiculous... and all done in bad faith. "He who pays the piper calls the tune." Now, for the CIA to turn around and blame Anti-American sentiment on the behaviour of these Afghans is simply ridiculous. They are being paid in dollars by Americans.
Look, where's your collective memory? The US has form in torturing and killing innocents in Muslim countries. Abu Graib, Fallujah and Guantanomo - not to mention a history of rendition - speak volumes about what their "masters" value and advocate. The fact is the US shouldn't be there and has no idea about the kind of war it's involved in... its not an insurgency from the Taliban - it's a civil war between Afghans.
The stupidity of the US = and now the CIA - beggars belief. And stupidity is the generous term here. Trump is right. Withdraw before you're soundly beaten.
8
It's reasonable to believe that the dozens of cases of brutality against the population by these C.I.A.-backed units of Afghan soldiers have driven the friends and relatives of the dead and humiliated victims into the ranks of the Taliban to seek revenge.
But where then are the friends and relatives of the thousands of schoolteachers, minor local officials, moderate imams, and suspected informants killed by the Taliban? Where are the stories of grieving survivors of Taliban brutality recounting the atrocities committed against their families and vowing revenge against the militants?
After so many years of Taliban operations in Afghanistan, this logic of 'brutality against civilians only creates more enemies' would have led to waves of recruits volunteering to fight against them.
So where are they?
Reminds me of the Phoenix Program in the Vietnam War.
The US has no legal basis to be occupying Afghanistan. This type of behavior would get people prosecuted as war criminals, but it is unlikely that the US would let it's staff or allies ever be tried.
7
I visited afghanistan on1978, back then it was a marvelous very friendly place to visit.then came the ussr invasion,the usa became involved and on and on,we all know the story
The biggest mistake for that nation has been to have given
Hospice to osama bin laden,if it wasn't for that no usa citizen would have been able to locate
Afghanistan on any map,nor being able to spell the name of that country .these people Have
Been living for the last 40 years in a war setting,never experienced by most nation!!!!!
As usual the usa is a war monger as long as these wars are abroad.
Usa wanted revenge for 9-11 and is now in a swamp for how long more?
How many of these long traumatized people (iraq,afghanistan etc) will seek revenge for their living hell?
5
This needs to stop!
9
Well, it won't. Sorry.
1
Most experts agree the the only modern post 15th century idea the afghans have embraced is the AK-47.
And maybe RPGs.
2
There is so little good independent journalism from Afghanistan or Iraq...here's the obligatory quarterly and/or year-end report-a summary of UN work-from Afghanistan saying nothing is what it needs to be and our morally corrupt efforts are counterproductive? CIA-sponsored forces "holding the line" by using inhumane and illegal methods-heart of darkness Cambodia redux- Thanks NYT. Trump's chaos Presidency has sucked air out of all other critical issues for two years now...as planned?
2
The use of torture by CIA Officers is an established fact-- since at least the 1960's. One CIA Officer, speaking about how he supervised the use of electrical torture in Laos, was still haunted by the screams of his victims. Even 40 Years later. "Americans want CIA officers to do what needs to be done, in the shadows, to defend the US, but they want us to do it in secret, to deny it, so they not have to live with the stain of it on their own souls." Doubters, who have not had the chance to interview CIA officers themselves could read Truth, Torture, and the American Way: The History and Consequences of U.S. Involvement in Torture, by Jennifer K. Harbury and Amy Goodman
10
There is so little good independent journalism from Afghanistan or Iraq...here's the obligatory quarterly and/or year-end report from Afghanistan saying nothing is what it needs to be and our morally corrupt efforts are counterproductive? Thanks NYT. Trump's chaos Presidency has sucked air out of all other critical issues for two years now...as planned?
1
A few days ago I submitted a comment relative to our presence in the middle east where I stated that I agreed with President Trump to withdraw our troops from Syria and the middle east as a whole. This is more evidence that we are wasting blood and treasure for a cause we can not win.
The real irony of it all is that our armies in the middle east are the most sophisticated, well equipped, best trained military in the world and we are losing to a bunch of ill trained, ill disciplined, street fighters armed with Nisson pick-up trucks with machine guns mounted on the back and IEDs.
As a veteran I want to know what is the objective of the operation? What is the plan once we reach our objective and what is our exit strategy? I'm beginning to think after 17 years or more we have non of the above. Time to come home.!!!
9
Let’s not forget that it is a war zone. The raids that the CIA plans and launches through local armed groups or jointly are high value targets, think of international terrorism cells.
Taliban/Al Qaeda/ISIS are masters of deception and unfortunately these villagers do accommodate insurgents and terror organizations. When villagers get caught red handed or suffer losses it is natural that they blame American and Afghan foreces for monetary compensations.
Sometimes civilians are harmed but they are never intentional or due to lack of care or attention to their lives and livelihoods.
These operations are not cheap and CIA doesn’t travel around the world to target a few villagers.
I hope that the media launches investigative reports in how Pakistan supports the insurgency which is
the single root cause of all sufferings in Afghanistan.
5
@Kabir Faryad The CIA does have a reputation, Afghanistan is nothing new. They do hire others to do the dirty work for them.
1
The US and great powers never learn the lessons of history even barely 20-50 years of history. Laos..Cambodia and Vietnam misunderstood by the US and allies and client states 1956- 75 in Southeast Asia. Delusional leaders think of misguided exceptionalism and are self tricked into the Impossible at great cost to ordinary peoples lives often innocents or soldiers doing their duty with confusing hopeless strategies. As this article points out .And the "mirror image theory " comes into play as the atrocities and methods of the "enemy" are imitated. Time to leave Afghanistan to settle it's own fate and future.
8
Very good reporting, but please do identify the contractor companies involved. They are paid by our tax dollars.
9
@Maura3
The military and the CIA are also paid with our tax dollars.
4
There comes a time when enough is enough. Afghanistan has been a loose nation with many fifes and chieftains for hundreds of years. Many armies have fought there with a result of zip. I vote on now more American treasure be wasted on a civilization that apparently doesn't want change. Our initial effort was there was important, it is now a backlash.
2
In all the articles I read about Afghanistan, I have not seen one cohesive paragraph as to why we are still there. The only major accomplishment I have seen is the low cost heroin that is now available on our streets. Once more we support narco-terrorists in that name of freedom.
The only people who benefit from this ongoing fiasco will be the Chinese, in their search of controlling the worlds mineral reserves. Who do you think is going to spread the wealth there once the Americans leave and get the concessions for such?
1
@Michael Panico
The Chinese at least have sort of an excuse to be there. Afghanistan looks a lot like Mexico from Beijing. Not that that is an excuse, it shouldn't be. But who could blame them any more than the US is willing to accept our fair share of blame for what goes wrong on Mexico? After NAFTA, the creation of enormous demand for drugs due to US government policies like prohibition that encourage black markets, and the hollowing-out of national sovereignty due to that and other aspects of the drug war, Mexicans may wonder why they don't build a wall to keep the US out.
The Chinese should be very careful what they wish for living next to or even just near Afghanistan.
The question that we, the American citizens and financiers of these atrocities abroad, should answer for ourselves "Is something similar possible in Europe? Why are the targets always of non-European stock?"
Talban was entirely a creature of Pakistan and US perfidy. The fianancing came from Saudi Arabia via Pakistan which pocketed an unknown percentage as its commission. Pakistan continues to calibrate its support to the Taliban to meet its own interests. Cut off Saudi financing and it would resolve problems not only in Afghanistan but in several other countries. It will also make Pakistan a less corrupt country and will shut down the terrorism factories in that coutry.
I hope the education system in the US will revise the curriculum to teach the next generation that cutural norms vary acoss the globe and rnone is inferior to ours.
7
All the more reason we should get out of that country right now.
2
I shall hereafter refer to Afghanistan as “the Drain with no bottom”. It is time to top this “drain” off. The primary function to to sap our national bank account to a “no win” standard. We have more chance for a controlling situation by taking our hands from around the Taliban’s necks and negotiate their running of the country. There will be more political stability in the whole area. This is a war of attrition and it is time to change direction. Since we have been unable to affect much if any political change on the ground, we should retire.
2
Out Now! The CIA is a rogue, terrorist group that defies oversight and accountability. It needs reined in or needs to be dismantled.
8
@Munda Squire, could not agree more.
1
Given that the United States is responsible for things like the genocidal slaughter of native Americans (often partly referred to as Manifest Destiny); the strategic hamlet program, Operation Phoenix, and the My Lai Massacre all three in Vietnam; the Bush Administration's unprovoked Shock & Awe campaign in Iraq and the abuses at Abu Ghraib ... I'm shocked, shocked that we are now linked to brutal forces in Afghanistan that might undo all the gentle reforms the US has brought to Afghanistan in the name of nation building.
9
Democrats and the New York Times must get behind President Trump’s courageous decision to withdraw troops from Syria and Afghanistan.
8
Where have I seen this story before. Oh yeah, central America, South America, southeast Asia, Asia proper, etc.
CIA operatives train local forces who then become violent and kill with impunity. What a surprise!
8
Between those who committed these alledged atrocities and the American people is a chain of command staffed by career CIA officers who are American citizens. They must have known.
They originally approved in advance and understood the “rules of engagement” described in this report. It is virtually certain “after action reports” were routinely filed by the CIA advisors on the ground.
The only certainty is that their reports contain results of these actions by American CIA officers on the ground, and reveal the complicity of theior more senior CIA officers . Government rules of classification guarantee these official reports will never be revealed and that such tragedies will occur again.
Every American involved acted ultimately as agents of the American people. It is, of course, a matter of national security that their actions remain hidden from public view.
It is worth recalling that this is not the first incident of such atrocities reported to the American people by a free press. These NYT reporters found some version of the truth by examining evidence and interviewing eye witnesses.
They did not rely on press briefings to assess our government’s claims of success in combating the Taliban. Fifty years ago,the Pentagon Papers and coverup of the Mai Lai massacre in Viet Nam was an education in military and CIA’s tactics of coverup that the American press never forgot.
3
In war, the mission must be completed at all costs. "At all costs" usually means at all costs to the designated enemy, including the civilians.
The opposition forces also believe in "at all costs" and they too commit expedient acts of atrocity on their enemy and their own civilians.
But what about "at all costs" to our country? The generals assume that's okay, which is why they do not stop wars they do not know how to win. Have you ever heard of a general who advised stopping a war?
The CIA is a state-sponsored terrorist organization that trains terrorists. That's their job. They are part of the military.
Afghanistan is not civilized, it's people do not think like we do. Here's a true story: An Afghani had a valued tractor so he had his son walk in front of the tractor in case there was a land mine.
We will not cure them of stoning women to death. We are not teaching them a lesson. The government is still corrupt, probably more so with $900 billion in aid since 2001. This war has cost us $1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) over 17 years. If we leave now or wait twenty years the Taliban will still be there - since it's their country, they can out-wait us.
Genghis Khan mostly succeeded, but we failed to make Afghanistan a stable, peaceful and democratic nation. To do so we'd have to kill everyone and raze all the cities down to dust.
The Taliban say, “The Americans have all the watches - we have all the time.”
8
@Fourteen The USA invaded Afghanistan to make it a peaceful, stable and democratic nation? Was it not to get even for 9/11?
1
@R. Littlejohn
Exactly. Someone was going to pay for 9/11.
2
@R. Littlejohn
That was the real reason, but Bush said it was for freedom and democracy. What's a little lie going to do? Get us into a war for many years?
1
"stopgap program"?
Really?!?
The NY Times does a public service by publishing this, but I'd think somewhat more skepticism would be appropriate. The US has a long history of sponsoring such clandestine, human rights-abusing forces. Then denying any involvement while making nice noises about the importance of human rights.
It started long before Vietnam, but this program sounds no more stopgap at any point on its timeline than the CIA-run PHOENIX assassination program then. Then there's the contras who attacked Nicaraguan farmers, teachers, doctors, and at least one American. Not to mention extensive assistance to the death squads in El Salvador and Guatemala.
Official sponsorship of such forces - no one seriously suggests that these are years-long "rogue operations," do they? - amounts to official complicity in war crimes. Not "alleged" but actual clear-cut violations of international law and the rules of war. The CIA should stick to intelligence, because it's record of running sordid covert ops such as these is drenched in innocent blood.
If the CIA was really serving American interests, rather than it's own bureaucratic expansion into criminal behavior, it would be reporting on and turning in those who commit crimes in our names. Instead, it's just year after year of atrocities that do nothing but inspire more desire to lash out with terrorism. Who can blame terrorists if the reason they arrive is the worst kind of terror, which is state-sponsored terror?
6
This is inexcusable. The CIA should not be controlling military forces anywhere. I doubt if Trump will do anything to stop these murderers, but someone needs to stop it. Thanks to the Times for letting us know what is really going on in our name.
15
This an old understanding in Afghanistan that dates back to when Russian invaded Afghanistan and they were defeated. That understanding is simple " The enemy of America if also our enemy does not make America out friend" During the Russian invasion of Afghan we sent 100s of millions of dollars and trained millions of Afghan soldiers, even before the last tank was receding into Russia all and ant kind of aid was cut off 70% of all males left in the country were under the age of 14, we did not build one school we just left they know that if the Taliban were to leave it would happen again that's why there own forces are acting that way they want to create future Taliban.
1
So the United States is torturing and killing civilians in a foreign land with whom we are not at war. Are we no longer bound by the terms of the Geneva Convention?
Are U.S. government employees and contractors burning children to death on official orders, or are they unspoken ("wink, wink") with the understanding that the C.I.A. does not need to follow any rules of law whatsoever?
Does this "freedom" exist only in Afghanistan, or is it everywhere C.I.A. employees/contractors operate? Is the United States still a country governed by law, or is that now considered a quaint notion?
Also, if U.S. citizens have the "freedom" to kill on foreign soil, have C.I.A. lawyers determined that these same extra-judicial killings can be accomplished here in America?
Are we still permitted to ask about these things, and if so, for how long?
17
The New World Order under Vladimir Putin will have some benefits as well as costs for the United States. The major impacts are likely to be these:
--The price of oil will finally stabilize as Russia, the world's largest producer, corners the market, takes control of OPEC and the Middle East as well as benighted countries such as Venezuela, Mexico and Nigeria. Russia is even in a position to seize control of North Sea production via its new sub base in Norway.
--With Russia controlling the region and the U.S. government, Israel will no longer be able to dictate terms on the Palestinian issue or any other. Represented by a Fox News reporter at the U.N., the U.S. will roll over and play dead in international debates.
--The U.S., no longer the world's police force, will not need overseas bases unless the Kremlin decides to use U.S. military forces as an arm of its own military policy.
--Under control of the Kremlin, the atrocities of the CIA may abate or may actually worsen. It remains to be seen. Putin can use the CIA as a "false flag" operation when he wants to protect the image of the FSB or GRU.
--Russia and China will battle over development of Artificial Intelligence, but Russia may have the advantage through its control of the United States and Silicon Valley. This will be an existential struggle between the two super powers. As a client state of Russia, the U.S. will have to adopt a passive posture in this "dataclysmic" event.
3
Afghan institutions will not be strengthened or transformed my American intervention and training. They were not by the Soviets in the 1970s and especially in the 1980s, and they will not by the Pakistani either (or the Chinese at some point?). Only s perennial military presence and use of force may provide some semblance of control. Do we want to assume this perpetual obligation of occupation? We might as well annex the place. This global "front line" is a total drain of our resources. Let them fight their own wars. We will not win this one. Can't we have a more realistic military policy? Whose fantasy of unending global wars is this?
6
Based on the success of the Taliban and the inability of the Afghan government to hold its own after years of support, it appears the majority of the Afghans support the Taliban and their barbarism.
And the barbarism outside a few population centers isn't a new phenomena. Prior to the current war, villagers murdered teachers sent by the government to educate both genders.
With no great groundswell of desire by the people to move out of the 15th century, it is time for us to move on. A tragedy for the percentage who aspire to something more than a life of primitivism, no doubt. But, I've yet to see. a realistic alternative.
11
Since the result is to drive villagers to the Taliban I believe that is the intention of the C.I.A.
3
You have a peculiar President who happens to be100 percent correct. Get out of Syria. Get out of Afghanistan.Get out of the Middle East. Trump may be obnoxious but some of his foreign policy is to be admired for guts above criticism from the military industrial complex who sees complexity rather than reality. This stuff is to much for us. Stop it now. It is out of control. No respect for life. No objective response just destruction. Who are we. What are we afraid of. Why do we give the CIA and the military so much power. Enough is enough.
12
This isn't just one mission that CIA brutality has undermined. It is EVERY mission the CIA has undertaken since WW2. The long history of CIA reliance on torture and abusive tactics corresponds with the fact the CIA has never been able to get it right. Every encounter becomes a loss and every loss another "learning experience". The CIA is now headed by Gina Haspel who was deeply involved in waterboarding, torture, and destroying CIA records of abuse. There is no effective oversight and there is no limit to the depradations of this particularly brutal and ineffective agency.
17
If only there were a war powers act. Oh...
6
There is no question that the forces combating militants in rural Afghanistan face extraordinary pressures. But there must be some way to communicate to them that it is unnecessarily brutal, to say the least, to murder unarmed civilians, especially women and children. When the CIA trains those forces, it is beholden upon them to emphasize the immorality of murder, assassination, etc. There is no threat from a three-year-old child cowering in a corner, and no immediate threat from an unarmed woman frightened by a sudden raid. I know I will never experience the pressures facing those who fight the militants, but it is inconceivable that anyone, under any pressure, would shoot unarmed civilians startled in their own homes. There must be a way to stop this.
50
@Barry Moskowitz: It's worse than that, though. It isn't as if we were even trying to stop this: we're the ones starting it. As the man said on the TV show, "We're the ones who knock."
The CIA is training and sponsoring these units, just as they have been responsible for similar units in the Americas, and wherever they find it useful. We are systematically communicating to them that this is how you fight this kind of war. This is part of our American repertoire, although some of us try to object.
8
Abhorrent. These are death squads under US direction and pay. Any other country would be condemned by us for doing this. We condemned Saudi Arabia for killing Kashogi, and rightly so. We can’t think we are champions for human rights and at the same time operate with disregard and impunity. Look at the aftermath of the abuses in Central America, ruined societies overrun by gangs. End this.
90
@Tony Quintanilla This bring to memory what is said about President Reagan and the Republican Party but forget about the deaths caused by the personnel bombs and are still maiming youngster in some Central America countries: Remember the Contras?.
4
@Tony Quintanilla-Let's not forget Erik Prince (of Blackwater fame for killing civilians in Iraq,) has been advising and pressing Trump to privatize the U.S. war in Afghanistan with a cadre of contractors — and a private air force. Hope the NY Times and other media will keep investigating as this could be the behind-the-scenes path Trump is supporting.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/31/world/asia/cia-afghanistan-strike-force.ht
3
I find myself more concerned with the decentralized nature of our protection agencies and the apparent lack of communication between them than I am about the humanitarian violations. Both are extremely worrying, but if the United States can’t maintain a unified, coordinated purpose and mission overseas than we’ve failed before we’ve even started. Are there really benefits to having multiple agencies (CIA, army, etc...) operating in the same regions under different leadership and fulfilling different purposes?
6
This is obviously an awful incident---tragic and unforgivable. Of course, there are many outraged commenters and attacks on the CIA. The CIA has been criticized and attacked for decades and yet, it still rolls around doing bad things, committing atrocities. So, we make these comments and so what? Does anything change? No. What could be done to make things change? How can the righteous, right thinking people hold the atrocious, nasty perpetrators of evil deeds, misrepresenting America, accountable? How could we at least identify them and make them stand up and explain their actions? At the moment there are 169 commenters. How are we actually going to do something? Please make some suggestions.
3
First, you need actual facts. Buried in the article: no US presence on bad raids or during torture. No CIA control since 2012. These are Afghan military units local politicians accuse the CIA of controlling. No doubt the CIA gets some benefit out of these forces but to make the leap and accuse them of encouraging these types of open human rights abuses ignores the CIA's intelligence and self interest. What spy organization would want the kind of attention war crimes generates?
For how we address it look at the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation into CIA "black sites". Congressional over site isn't perfect but it does exist and is the Constitutional solution. Call your congressperson ask if there will be an investigation.
Years ago, many people suggested that the Afghan "problem", would better be handled by the Mafia, than by our military - perhaps that chicken has come home to roost.
In what way is the C.I.A. not a Mafia? The public has never been told what they are doing, and our politicians seem to have no control over them.
Do we not have a Guantanamo? Is it not a mirror of our world view?
Overall - both at home and abroad - our "democracy" story line is thin. I would not trust any of our politicians to take my dog for a walk.
11
A triumph of journalism for the New York Times. And proof that "American Exceptionalism" is not an exception at all from the tradition of ruthless, bloodthirsty treatment of innocents in wartime. How can anyone bellow the belligerant "USA" chant after revelations such as these? Will Congress investigate? Who in the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations has knowledge of these atrocities? Is there a tacit agreement to give them plausible deniability? Will we make reparations? And will there be blowback?
8
Phoenix Program by CIA in Vietnam...winning hearts and minds everywhere. Could the Taliban possibly be worse?! NOT.
3
What I see happening is the awareness of the Taliban in refusing to deal with the installed Afghan officials and to insist on dealing directly with the US figures which they correctly view as having the power. As this interferes with the standard military mind set of installing figure heads to be the gate keepers and to keep the actual power figures from being approached, they have been subjected to extermination. The US does not tolerate being approached as an equal in any zone, war or peace. Is this a war crime, Yes. Is the UN going to do anything about it , No.
What we have learned from history is that the best way to make way with a country that has assets our corporates want is to make their job easier; eliminate a million or so which gives the rest elbow-room and the tyrant currently in charge a 20 year reprieve from complaints. For which it reliably appears, they are appropriately grateful.
3
We can learn from history that this method of cracking down on the hostile entity is not going to work. How can anyone trust and support an authority that killed your partner, siblings, and children? Such gruesome experience would scar one for life and give one ample motivation for vengeance. They should get to the root causes of why the indigenous people are seeking the help of insurgents. By addressing the needs of the people, they might have a good chance of building something sustainable in the region.
2
It is South Vietnam all over again. When will we learn.....
6
@M.Lee That is very true, when are going to learn. And do not forget the Korean Peninsula, Irak, Siria and on and on and on.
There's an old saying once popular in American circles... The Buck Stops Here. In other words, the person most responsible for the actions of those on the front line, barring insanity or psychopathy or treason, is the person or organization at the top of the command-chain. Trump has completely refused to take responsibility for ANYTHING that goes wrong, and its highly likely that he won't in this case either. YES, this situation goes all the way back to 2001, when an ill-advised war was declared in two countries NOT responsible for a terrorist attack on the US mainland (most of the attackers were from Saudi Arabia, which got a free pass..... wonder why, lol??), but surely Mr. Trump has known that CIA black ops were getting WAAAAY out of control, and that war crimes were being committed by forces under the control or at least the direct influence of the USA. It is now up to him to solve this mess before the whole situation comes crashing down again, as it did when the Soviets were forced to leave because they couln;t handle the situation properly and humanely. If he doesn't man up now, take full responsibilty for these atrocities and take effective, immediate action to stop them from recurring, then all the resulting death, sufffering and misery of innocent civilians at the hands of CIA-sponsored operatives will be on HIS head. That said, ordinary citizens can take action on their own: contact your congressmen and senators and other elected representatives, for starters!
3
@
Joseph Ross Mayhew
Let's not just blame Donald Trump for casting a blind eye. This goes back to the Bush administration, Dick Cheney, Barrack Obama and everyone in Congress that has security clearances. The origins of the CIA was as an intelligence agency but has morphed into a black ops army with no rules of engagement.
1
The US destroyed Al Qaeda in Afghanistan 18 years ago and despite spending some 7 Trillion dollars to prop up a puppet government that government still can't defend itself. As the Neocons (both left and right) are trying to force Trump to back down on his withdrawal plans it is urgent to back the withdrawal from Syria and Afghanistan. Since surely Trump will lose in 2020 this might be the last chance to get out of these rotten Civil wars having nothing to do with the US or its security.
3
Whatever values we once prided ourselves on as Americans are gone.
7
Oh, why do they hate us? Such a mystery.
7
Why after all this time do people still have any illusions what the CIA and FBI are all about. Let alone the US military.
4
Mohibullah, a relative of a dead family, " What is the difference between C.I.A force or the ISIS? " The torched remains of a 3 yr. old in a corner of a torched home. When a man with a gun at his door is fed chicken and yogurt while he is ready to feed a whole pig when the C.I.A with AK-47s appears at his door. Civilians all of them. Yes, what is the difference between the C.I.A and the ISIS? Zilch, nada, absolutely nothing! Eikenberry - lines blur while state-building. Does he mean state and people annihilation? We have become more barbaric than our barbaric than our cave men ancestors!
4
Viet Nam all over again, torched earth movement.
5
Bring our troops and spooks home now. It is criminal and stupid to be there, our government is guilty of war crimes, and anyone with sense knows that we will have to cut and run eventually--We knew that going in.
6
Thanks to the CIA's approach, I guess we're back to make "friends" for live. Great job on recruiting the next generation of suicide bombers and other terrorists. This isn't how we win hearts and minds. Even if we simply pull out now, does anybody really believe those misdeeds will be forgiven and forgotten? Successfully disengaging from a conflict like this takes a long-term strategy and commitment, something our current commander in chief is not exactly known for.
6
This is fine and necessary reporting, but it adds nothing new to the remarkable account by Anand Gopal in No Good Men Among the Living. Anand stayed on in Afghanistan after his newspaper assignment to investigate the brutal excesses of Special Forces units. Then as now, the errors are compounded when the outsiders don’t speak any of the local languages. Afghanistan has always been a disaster, but with Trump there is total incoherence. . It has been obvious since the beginning that a military “victory” over the Taliban is impossible. Like Iraq, we have witnessed a colossal geopolitical blunder.
9
From 2001 to 2012, Nato forces participated in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. Their role was to provide security and to develop good relationships with Afghans, to discourage them from joining the Taliban and instead to support the Western-installed Afghan government in Kabul.
Running separately and in parallel with ISAF, the US Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) was tasked purely with hunting down Al-Qaeda and Taliban members. Their small-unit operations frequently required them to call in airstrikes against villages or against groups of Afghans, such as at weddings or in vehicle convoys.
ISAF commanders frequently complained bitterly that the hard, patient work done by their troops to win Afghan "hearts and minds" was constantly being undone by the violence of the OEF operations, driving enraged villagers into the ranks of the Taliban as their best option.
The CIA-run Afghan operatives described here sound just like the CIA-run "death squads" who terrorized most Latin American countries at one time or another. The role of the Afghan terror squads is not just to interdict Taliban and Al-Qaeda; it's to terrorize the population against supporting them -- even when they're not doing so.
The sooner the US leaves Afghans to settle their differences, the sooner they themselves will take care of unwelcome international threats like the small units of Al-Qaeda and Taliban in their country.
6
@Nick Wright: Sorry, in the last sentence I meant "small units of Al-Qaeda and ISIS", not "Taliban".
3
Terrorism begets terrorism. Left alone the people of the middle east would fight each other in religious wars (sunni against shiite) until perhaps one day, like Europe, they stopped. Inserting Western troops just makes Westerners another target. And then there's the illegal drone bombing. The CIA uses its 'intel' to target homes where apparently a 'bad guy' lives; killing family and neighbors into the bargain. Turning the survivors into terrorists.
2
It saddens me to read a few comments blaming the victims of the CIA's crimes. I've seen things claiming they're "uncivilized" or that we need more context in order to understand what "truly" happened here (and we should keep in mind that demands for more context are only made when crimes that we, as American taxpayers, are partly responsible for are exposed). This is why understanding history is important. Anyone who thinks this is in any way out of character for the CIA should read about the School of the Americas and the atrocities the CIA committed throughout the Cold War and after. A good starting point would be William Blum's book "Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions Since World War II"
6
Where have we seen this before? "We had to destroy the village in order to save it."
But this time it was different, I know. "We will be welcomed as liberators."
"When will [we] ever learn?..." Maybe as soon as we free ourselves from servitude to the energy oligarchs. They've only been running the US for more than a century now...
8
Never should have spent TRILLIONS on a war in Afghanistan! Never! The Republicans were so upset about President Obama wanting to pull out Troops. Seventeen years IS TOO long!
End the endless war! Cut the military budget in half and fund universal healthcare for all Americans!
4
This sounds really terrible, but it also sounds like the standard for Afghanistan. This is how things have always been there, under the Taliban before '01, under the Russians, under the British, under various Khanates going back as far as history goes.
Sorry for pointing this out, but Afghanistan has always been a place of vast brutality, vicious killing of innocents and children, massive misogyny, and zero accountability. This 02 strike force is behaving in the usual murderous manner, the only difference here is that they're backed by the CIA. I'd guess that the CIA puts up with it because they're pragmatic, they realize this is how things are done locally, and they don't particularly care about civilian casualties.
The U.S. is aiming to pack up and leave before too long, either under Trump or the next president. As soon as we go, this sort of chaotic killing is going to be widespread and constant, just like it always was. I guess we could tell the CIA to make an effort to reign in their strike force, but it won't make any difference in the long run, either way.
3
Unfortunate. Reaping the results of another lie to have an excuse to invade another country. We didn't learn from the Vietnam war; same mistake in this middle east forever war. What next?
4
If the forces we're backing commit atrocities including murdering children, why are we supporting them? It doesn't sound like the government we're putting in place is any better than the Taliban. Why are our tax dollars paying for this?
I disagree with Trump's reckless announcement to pull troops out, but after 17 years, why are we still in Afghanistan? We may have gotten our revenge for 9/11, but we are not supporting democracy, we're supporting yet another corrupt and violent regime, in an endless forever war that has no clear endgame in sight. This isn't a problem the U.S military or CIA can fix. Time to give up on the myth that American military power can somehow completely transform centuries of political, cultural, and religious conflict to remake Afghanistan in our own image. And definitely time to stop killing innocent civilians in our name.
3
I wish there was some way to make every American sit down in front of a t.v. and be made too watch the Academy award nominated documentary 'Dirty Wars' by Jeremy Scahill. This Times article is simply a timely echo of Scahill's brutally honest exposure of the immoral and reprehensible acts perpetrated by the cowardly CIA and secretive American special forces units that commit war crimes with impunity. As an American who served 3 hours in a combat zone, and also spent 3 months in Palestine witnessing the the same vile actions of the Israeli occupation forces, I am ashamed and angry at our government, and by extension the American people, for allowing these atrocities to be committed in our name.
3
@Rodney sorry, meant 3 tour combat veteran, not 3 hours
3
Barbaric beyond words, and it takes UN reports and NY Times investigation to bring these civilian tragedies and deaths to light. As this article reports: United Nations reports have expressed concern about civilian deaths and “consistent, credible accounts of intentional destruction of civilian property, illegal detention, and other abuses” by the units. The United Nations said the forces in Khost, in particular, operated outside the Afghan government’s structure “with an absence of transparency and ongoing impunity.”
Who's in charge? Who's granting the CIA cover to enable this?
18
Trump is right to leave these areas ASAP. They are just uncivilized and we can’t change morals. After ww2, we got stuck policing the world and we cannot afford to do it anymore. They don’t want us there.
7
@steph,
If you recall they did not ask us to be there.
We originally went there after 9/11 as Al Qaeda was based from there to attack us here.
So it’s a little more complicated than the US simply not being a policeman.
By the way NATO stood by us in Afghanistan. Only time in history NATO has invoked its treaty obligations to defend a member.
Maybe the other NATO countries should be questioning why they stood by us.
7
teaching them morals ? the US needs to leave and with it the immoral henchmen of the CIA ! how dare you talk about civil behaviour if the US is directly trainig and supporting criminal killers as described in the article.
6
@Steph Cabrera: "THEY are uncivilized"???? Who trains and supervises the men responsible for these many atrocities? Who protects them when they run amok and kill innocents indiscriminately? Who runs such a loose, chaotic shop that these barbaric methods became commonplace? Nobody is denying that its the CIA - a 100% American organization. Who then, is the most "uncivilized"??
7
No reason the US is facing a colossal and humiliating loss after a trillion dollars spend and countless lives lost. Ultimately the rule will revert back to Taliban.
11
Read up on the Savak or the Phoenix program
5
@dc But...but...we're the Exceptional Nation!
2
Since it was found legal to not participate in selling a cake to a gay couple citing religious beliefs, I will not be paying my federal taxes as my religious beliefs make torture and the burning to death of women and children, immoral. I am humiliated to be an American, again. I don't see how "fighting the war on terror" with terror is a rational idea. And tell me again, why are we in Afghanistan?????? Bin Laden is dead and the Taliban only grows stronger as we, Americans, alienate the Afghan people.
19
This would be the top story on the nightly news if it occurred 50 years ago. Now, with most reporting on CNN and other networks focusing on Tweets by Trump, it will be lucky to be mentioned once.
12
During the US Civil War, frontal charges against entrenched positions were observed by European military attaches. 50 years later nothing had been learned, the insanity of useless mass slaughter was only multiplied geometrically in WWI. At at least it ended, until chapter two, which included the Holocaust, but that ended, and for a while, lessons were learned. Now Fascist ideas are popular again.
The British could not change the culture of Afghanistan in the 19th century and their attempt to make their empire safer from Russia and protect India ended in total disaster. We never learn. Phoenix program tactics did not win the Vietnam War, and the Taliban, as long as they are financed by Russia and Pakistan, will never give up, just like the N. Vietnamese.
We must decide. Stay forever or just let Afghans live in a way we find primitive. The real enemy is Saudi religion, exported. Our "leaders" are selling us down the river to keep getting oil. Is it worth destroying the planet to prop up an industry that must be retired as a source of energy? We need brand new thinkers. Washington is a hamster spinning on a wheel.
15
@David Shapireau
What I see happening is the awareness of the Taliban in refusing to deal with the installed Afghan officials and to insist on dealing directly with the US figures which they correctly view as having the power. As this interferes with the standard military mind set of installing figure heads to be the gate keepers and to keep the actual power figures from being approached, they have been subjected to extermination. The US does not tolerate being approached as an equal in any zone, war or peace. Is this a war crime, Yes. Is the UN going to do anything about it , No.
3
Yet some Americans still wonder why many in the Middle East and around the world hate us?
28
Alienation of the local populace results from these kind of extra-judicial raids. It is not surprising to me--a former U.S. diplomat who worked primarily in the Middle East--that under the CIA sponsorship these forces have been unleashed. If the American people ever knew a tenth of what the CIA does abroad, they would be aghast that these travesties are committed under a U.S. flag. The founding fathers never dreamed that a U.S. entity (the CIA) would promote torture but around the world everyone knows to get out of the way when an American force rolls in. Chances of survival drop considerably if you come in contact with them.
7
@Michael V.
I already am aghast and nothing will be done. Most specifically because what goes on at the top does indeed trickle down to the local areas where we see cops stealing homes from their neighbors with the silent collaboration of the gov figures.
1
So the controlling variable is terrorizing the population?
One word. Taliban.
3
Americans indulge in the same conceit of all "would-be conquerors" or "superpowers." They believe everyone in the world embraces our (democratic) values and that they see the world the way we do. The reason Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires is that the Afghans are some of the most virulently tribal people in history. They don't care about what we want. They don't want or need our values. And, rightly so, they are under no obligation to embrace us. Many have crashed against their world and failed, and the U.S. is no different. And just look at us at home. We seem to have lost our own way, so why should anyone want our help?
22
CIA has always used brutal tactics. Church
(senator Frank Church) commission held
hearings on CIA abuses and tried to circumscribe
its unaccountable opaque activities with
oversight. With war on terror the oversight
has been removed. No wonder Taliban hasn't
been defeated. President Trump is right to
want to withdraw the troops. At one time US
had 100,000 troops and NATO other partners
another 60,000. With 160,000 troops Taliban
were not brought to the knees. There is no
hope that 14,000 troops and assorted contractors can make Taliban cry uncle.
There is no reason to stay in Afghanistan.
With strong vigilance and intelligence there is
no chance of any terrorist attack here. 9/11
was one off with our guards down. Let
Afghans sort out their problems themselves.
We can't solve any one's problems while our
own problems mount right here.
18
@s.khan
We can't solve our own problems, either.
5
The CIA's tactics are not rooted in counterinsurgency. The CIA's tactics in Afghanistan are practice for future domestic resistance to corporate rule at home.
6
@idimalink
Its scary that I agree with you. Nothing is more dangerous to a public than its distance from its military.
No local bases, no local familiarity, no local exchanges mean no commitment or recognition of commonality.
You might ask yourself what is being gained by having 1000 non combatant US military bases around the world.
Certainly we gain multi-lingual power brokers for the future, but we lose a military that sees itself as neighbors. Thats as dangerous as it gets.
3
Maybe we are looking at this from the wrong angle.
Maybe the real Tribalism is in the C.I.A...
The organization seams to do the same thing over and over again. Generations of C.I.A. operatives never seem to change their behavior It must be in the genes... Tribalism at its best We should start looking closer to home.
Wake up America before it is Too Late...
7
This is nothing new. Read Directoate S by Steve Coll for a chilling account of US actions since October, 2001. There has never been a coherent strategy and the various attempts to create one have often been counterproductive or made the situation much worse. The CIA is only one part of a much larger campaign that has destroyed our credibility, not only with Afghans, but with many others as well. At this point I don’t have an answer for “success” in Afghanistan, but neither have any of our leaders (the experts) made any real progress in 17 years.
17
@MrJ
I think the strategy is to not have a strategy that can be foiled by Russia, but to be a continuing crisis with no solution.
Could the actual goal be to be provocative, try to incur incidents with the long range goal of dismembering Russia?
@katesisco
Not with this President.
We will never win any war when the soldiers of the waring nations are allowed to kill and torture their countrymen and women . When our US soldiers take it upon their selves to assault the civilians there to is unforgivable and must be met with serious jail time. I support laws that put the American soldiers on trial also in the war torn country and severe jail time. You do the crime you do the time. Don't blame it on alcohol abuse either.
8
Check out the book, " The Killing of Uncle Sam'. Interesting history of the CIA which explains why there is no oversight when it comes to their clandestine operations throughout the world.
4
Enhancing the recruitment success of jihadist terrorists has always seemed to be on the agenda of the US military and intelligence services.
6
God help us when these people come home from the war to live among us.
11
These specific people in the strike force won't. They're Afghans, they'll stay there when we leave, and keep on murdering as they please.
1
@Dan Stackhouse I was talking about the people who trained them and endorsed the brutality.
2
Thanks for clarifying Jim, and I didn't mean to be too snarky there either. But the people who trained them probably aren't that brutal themselves. I doubt they trained them to shoot little children, that's just the natives doing what they're used to doing.
Thank you for this reporting!
8
A Depression-era bank-robber was once asked by a reporter, why did he rob banks?
And he replied, "Because that's where the money is!"
Well, now the money is in the Pentagon and the Military Industrial Complex.
Today, only small-time crooks rob banks.
If you are big time, you rob the Pentagon.
It's a simple system: First, you rob the ones who pay taxes.
Increasingly, that's becoming a wayyyy smaller group.
It's Joe Blow and Jane Smoe, but it's not the OnePercenter's or the corporations, it's not the religo/charities, it's not the university trust conglomerates, it's not the NRA or lobbyists.
It's just the ones at the SS cut-off, the ones who make less than $124,600 (and, boy! are you in for a surprise come April 15th!)
The Pentagon's budget is almost up to a TRILLION, and though we are in deep doo-doo on debt, the Pentagon will get it's trillion long before a child living in a car will get a home.
Grown men who want guns take precedent over any desperate child in this nation.
What is it... 63% of all discretionary money?
Well, the CIA is an old-time pro on robbing the Pentagon.
And, was it just last year that trump came up with the bizzarro idea of handing Afghanistan over to Eric Prince, to run the whole she-bang for a cool $10,000,000 (ten billion) dollars..... and that was just Eric's paycheck.
Why does the CIA rob the Pentagon?
Why, because that's where the money is!
..... their second choice is putting kids in cages......
24
@rosa
Yup: THIS is TEN BILLION. $10,000,000,000.
I left off those 3 zeros that make all the difference in the world!
6
@rosa This sound as what President Ike Eisenhower said so many years ago: it is the industrial-military complex, isn't it?
2
@samuel a alvarez
It is, Sam. But Ike was no trump or Mitch McConnell. Ike, a Republican, taxed HIS rich at over 90%, thereby being able to build our super-highway system AND all of the schools needed for the population explosion after WW2. But the Republicans today not only give $1.5+ "tax cuts" to the richest, but our infrastructure that Ike built is about 2 decades beyond its shelf life. Moreover, the Republicans of today are determined to rid this world of any form of reproductive choice for either females OR males. What an ignorant bunch. They are not fit to wipe Ike's shoes.
Ike was right back then - and he is still right!
2
So, what is the objective or goal of the US fighting in Afghanistan? Having an objective makes it easier to determine if continued war is necessary. And by the way, the care and feeding of mercenaries is not an objective worthy of public support.
5
@Cap’n Dan Mathews
As I said above, there is no strategy as that would enable Russia to thwart said strategy. It is continuing crises to stop the self organization of opposition.
@katesisco
Well, "keeping our options open" isn't much of a strategy either, but is right in line with the concept of perpetual war.
Taliban 2.0
Here’s a crazy idea: Maybe the CIA should spend some of their considerable budget on some Dale Carnegie books and a little less on training future enemies for our military to have to fight and defend us against?
6
The CIA has merely dusted off the blueprints of the Phoenix program in Vietnam which used undisciplined terror and assignation as their calling cards
17
Announcing withdrawal of troops has hurt people and may have endangered some .
President Trump could be less political and more discreet with changes that affect lives .
But then he has to Twitter , important information ... ego!
1
Afghanistan is called the “Graveyard of Empires”
6
I commend the Times for this article. It is evident that the reporters who build these stories risk life and limb by being on the scene especially mere hours after the atrocities are committed. A special thanks to these brave women and men. Nothing surprising about the CIA though. They were always a bloodthirsty lot. I recommend reading 'The Brothers' which is a wonderful recounting of the way the CIA (Capitalism's Invisible Army) was used in the early days on behalf of corporations like the United Fruit Company and other firms on foreign lands. John Foster Dulles at State and Allen Dulles heading the CIA made sure that America's name was mud by the time they both finished their careers. Since the end of the cold war it seems the CIA has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Neocon-Military Industrial complex. Specifically in the Afghan context, a wonderful read is Steve Coll's Ghost Wars and 'The Directorate S' - a two volume work on America's disastrous bumbling around in Afghanistan. Coll's work is researched like a PhD thesis and includes many accounts of CIA legerdemain. It is high time we completely got rid of this extra legal organization. It serves no one save itself, the Military Industrial Complex and the forever war Neocon parasite lobby in DC.
10
Read the old boys also.
1
Get the CIA and other troops back. We have no reason to be in Afghanistan. Let Taliban and the government force duke it out between themselves.
6
it really is time to leave... Afghans have never let occupying forces make decisions for them
4
Duh! The "graveyard of empires" continues to add new corpses. And it all followed our having funded the Taliban while the Russians (Soviets) were there--and before they even had to pull out from *next door* (at the time). Sheesh. Those people will be fighting each other that way long after we're gone, having spent so much in lives, money, and reputation. Yep, other than being crazy about all of this mess, somebody has been making a lot of blood money. Appalling, especially given that I've unwillingly contributed through my taxes.
3
@akhenaten2
The Russians and the Americans haven't lost any "empires" there. USSR/US are doing quit well actually.
Although I see no redeeming resources or qualities there to use American forces.
What has become of us?
3
And to make matters worse, Betsy Devos’ brother, Erik Prince, wants to privatize and monetize these atrocities.
5
Does not quite ring true with my experience with OGA forces in AFG when I was last there 07-08, especially the boys at Camp Chapman, the US air and staging base outside of Jalalabad known as JAF, and various OGA outposts stretching NE along the Kunar river and Pakistan frontier. At that time US forces had liasion teams attached to them. Back then they were a gypsy mishmash of everything from Tajiks, local Pashtu, former Northern Alliance anti-Taliban militiamen, to ex French Legionaires led by OGA Ground Branch Officers who struck me as being very professional and experienced. But there were always lingering questions about methods and practices. Like everything else in AFG, one had but a vague awareness of what was going on outside of a given unit's very small and narrowly focused world.
3
History repeats itself. One of those villagers who survived a raid but got to see his whole family killed is the next osama bin landen.
5
We learned absolutely nothing from Vietnam, and nor did we intend too. These wars are rooted in evil, ultimately driven forward, on and on, by the U.S. Military-Industrial Complex. Why else would we fight wars for nationals over and over who refuse to rally for their own cause and defense to combat tyranny on their own soil? Eisenhower understood the GREED that is placed above sacrificing the lives of our soldiers who die fighting wars that will not, and cannot, be won.
24
Keep in mind one thing, the terrorists would not thinkntwice before killing anyone of us. For that reason this a never ending war because the enemy does not conduct itself according to civilized standards. If the US leaves Afghanistan, China will fill the void, and since China is merciless in war, they may actually subdue the terrorists, but I doubt that would happen. Also Trump is not the problem. Thank you.
2
Are you saying war CAN be civilized? Interesting.
4
@Southern Boy
I suppose you think that the US conducts itself according to civilized standards.
China is smart and has concluded that getting along is generally more efficient in achieving its goals.
3
This Afghan war is a slow and tedious torture to our tax dollars. All the soldiers, equipment, contractors, operation expenses, and supplies cost a lot. While we negotiate nickel-and-dime on our domestic expenses, the real budget killer is in oversea costs. Until we put a stop to this kind of waste, we will never reach a balance budget in our life time. And our education, research & development, infrastructure and healthcare will be in perpetual decline.
23
These wars make for strange bedfellows... Not mentioned in the article, but Abdul Raziq Achakzai, killed by an insider attack last October, was named a Lieutenant General in the Afghan National Police, despite numerous allegations of being involved in extra judicial killings, torture, extortion, and drug smuggling. We claim to be liberating the people from these sorts of behaviors as perpetrated by the Taliban, yet, it seems that they remain perfectly permissible so long as an individual is not a member of the Taliban.
Raziq's brother has since assumed his position, despite having no military experience whatsoever.
Glad to see more reporting generally on the various engagements in the Middle East these last few months. They seemed to slip outside the public view for a while, but we need to be looking at our involvement, who we ally ourselves with, and what exactly our goals are in these endeavors with a more critical eye.
8
@Adam . Most of the leaders of the varied militias in Afghanistan were and are long time warriors and killers. That's what Afghanistan is. It's not a budding western Democracy. Several thousand years of history back that up.
3
@Ernest Montague, why are we there?
No Afghan was involved in 9/11 and
even now they pose no threat to
our security. Let them alone and
do things their own way.
5
@Ernest Montague
Not arguing that one bit. Also not suggesting that we have any business trying to make it a western democracy, or that such a thing would even be possible. Just pointing out that sometimes there is much less distinction between who we call the "good guys" and the "bad guys" (either label is often too loaded or naive to be meaning), and there is often not a lot of transparency on that.
The Democrat-Republican Pro-War Party is converging to block the withdrawal of troops from Syria and Afghanistan.
8
These abuses are symptomatic of a flawed war. There is no good reason for us to still be Afghanistan after seventeen years. We are close to the point where the troops fighting there will not even have been born when 911 occurred. It is time to end the war.
5
No one has a solution for Afghanistan.
11
The CIA made exactly the same mistakes in Afghanistan in the 1980s: win the battle and lose the war. Their British MI6 colleagues were routinely shocked at the CIA's highly counterproductive tactics.
24
@Martin Exactly. Do these people learn nothing? It seems they cannot even remember their own blunders in recent history. If you want to drive a population into the arms of your enemy, just call in the CIA! It's almost as if they *want* the US to be thrown out of Afghanistan...
7
Should have just left Afghanistan to the Communists. Say what you want about the tenets of Marxism-Leninism at least it’s not the ideology of Salafist Sunni Islam.
6
@Martin
President Carter's national security advisor "Zbig" Brzezinski bragged on PBS Charlie Rose that he enticed the Soviets into Afghanistan to give them their Vietnam.
Hah! The US then armed and encouraged Bin Ladin and friends to fight the Russians.
Comical, the results so many years on...
Be assured the US cares absolutely nothing about Iraqis, Afghans, Libyans, Syrians, Nigerians...
The US view these people and their countries as nothing more than obstacles in its maintaining world dominance.
Terrorism is simply a reasonable response to US military action when you are on the receiving end of its vicious brutality.
I doubt that morality, decency or sanity can ever trump US citizens worship of military action.
9
This is murder. Trump, through the CIA is committing murder. This must be stopped!
3
As much as I can’t stand Trump, these policies started far before his tenure.
7
Its been 17 years. Time to go. If Afghistan falls apart who care. If the Taliban or Al Quaeda get in control we can always bomb the back to the stone age. To me the important think is to end this folly and forget national building . Our troops should just get out and come home.
4
Blackwater and the DeVos family are the problems. Nobody in the current corrupt US Government wants to admit it.
22
Many don’t know the connection to Betsy ,her brother and the wars.
1
Thank you NYT for reporting on these ongoing crimes by our own country. I’m saddened and horrified by what these men are doing with US training and support. Get all US troops and “advisors” out of Afghanistan now. Trump has this one right. 17 years is wayyy too long to be fighting this unnecessary and tragic fight. Let’s come home and leave Afghanistan to the Afghans.
10
@Tam Hunt
So true. Culture over there is different and will remain so. Afghan civilians, from the article, have to be prepared to give hospitality to whichever marauding army smashes down the dior6 on any given day and killed family members. Supervising CIA ppl have not changed the culture of brutality endemic over there and will not. The Russians were smart enough to give up, but Americans, apparently, take 17 years to learn the lesson. In the meantime, Afghanis think we are as cruel as Taliban. Why shouldn't they? We brought water-boarding to torture intel out of them. If Trump shuts us down over there without getting any of our ppl killed, he will have accomplished one more thing no one else before him did. That expensive industrial-military complex that shifts money from our taxpayers to pockets of war companies's owners is really the only reason we went in the first place and why we stayed so long.
3
Nothing good ever comes from law of war violations. They are a force divider and lead only to shame and defeat. I hope and pray this is not true. The US needs to stand for international law and human rights. There is no place for this kind of conduct. It will destroy us, not the enemy.
11
This is similar to what happened during the American Civil War, and was openly sanctioned by the US government. General Sherman, occupied Atlanta for 10 weeks. When he decided he needed to March to Savannah, he burned the city. During the March he allowed the troops to confiscate livestock & crops from the farms and poisoned some of the wells after they took everything. Finally when Sherman's army was crossing Ebenezer Creek, Sherman decided it was best to leave the black freed slaves on the other side of the creek (i.e., I guess he did not want to feed them). So the union army removed the platoon bridge to leave the black freeman at the mercy of the confederate cavalry. I guess it depends on the circumstances when total war is morally correct. Not much has changed in 150 years.
9
“...their brutal tactics are terrorizing the public and undermining the U.S. mission.”
The underlying problem is that we have no mission other than to bribe corrupt officials to ”like” us and try not to get killed while shooting off as much bombs and ammo as we can on the hostiles.
Trump can’t come up with a description of what our mission in Afghanistan is because nobody that has been pushing it for the past twenty years has any idea. For most of the bureaucrats, wasting money was assumed to be the goal - but they can’t actually say that to the public.
There is no mission statement they could come up with that would have the majority of Americans’ support.
And that is why he must withdraw the troops.
15
@Ken It’s the Israeli doctrine. Former Head of the Shin Bet, Avraham Shalom summed it up best in The Gatekeepers - No Strategy, just Tactics.
1
We built a road of a hundred some miles for hundreds of millions there that the
Chinese use to extract trillions of dollars in rare earth minerals. The President is right ,the Chinese are eating our lunch at US expense. We are chasing phantoms and killing thousands of innocent civilians while doing so.Its also happening in Yemen and Syria and years of Iraq.Nothing has been accomplished ,the region is in ruins.They have thousands of years to fight the religious and civil wars that a thousand years has never changed . Do we have a thousand years to do this ? That is the question.
12
@Alan Einstoss To answer your question: the MICC (add Congressional) surely hopes we can stretch out our wars for thousands of years.
5
@Alan EinstossSo our president is right and our hero? I'm very sorry, but he is currently the Commander in Chief and has his name on the abuses described in this article. He can't blame that on Obama. If he cared about it, he would have stopped it.
1
We’re in Afghanistan, why? So that nobody from there tries to get into an airplane and smash it into a skyscraper here? How about just keeping them off of airplanes in the first place, which we did only to torture ourselves here so now all that’s left is trying to make them all over there love us by constantly raiding their houses and killing them. Brilliant strategy. What’s not to go wrong?
6
Nobody from there ever did that, although some foreigners did have training camps there. If we want to apply your solution we need to keep Saudi Arabians from boarding airplanes.
2
@John Doe
Perhaps you should brush up on fairly recent US history. There were no Afghans among the 9/11 hijackers. And do keep in mind that Afghans are NOT Arabs, don't speak the same language or have the same customs.
Great reporting. Horrific events and policy.
4
So, basically the C.I.A. has hired assassins to terrorize those who they've deemed to be militant?
But, are these same Afghan citizens simply being portrayed as "militant" because they're rightfully pushing back at the United States for occupying their sovereign nation for almost 18 uninterrupted years?
18
Why are we in Afghanistan?
Afghanistan is a medieval and corrupt country, and will remain so in my lifetime and in my children's lifetime.
Pouring American blood, money, and energy into this violent and horrible area of the world will not prevent another 9-11. That just weakens America.
Instead, of wasting tremendous resources on Afghanistan, we should be devoting them to America for education, job training, and health care to make our country stronger.
Strength, determination, and vigilance will help prevent another 9-11; we should not have ignored warnings to the FBI that a group of Arabs were learning to fly super airliners but were not interested in learning how to take-off or land the planes which could be used as weapons.
We don't owe Afghanistan anything. Too much of America has been squandered there in America's longest war.
It is time to get out!
31
@Michael Richter
And whoever challenges Trump needs to speak to our bloated military budget and military "presence" around the world. We can't afford guns and butter both.
2
@Michael Richter - Good Goddess, man! They did not invite us to come there. We invaded them! We are occupying their country! We have done no favors for the Afghans.
2
It soon will be the time for the Chump-in-Chief to take no responsibility whatsoever for these C.I.A. war crimes, and throw Director Haspel under his well-employed presidential "bus". What did Trump/Bolton know about these self-defeating covert operations and when did they know it, in addition to his Joint Chiefs? This shameful episode repeats the saga of Vietnam era atrocities. We will never learn.
8
This article - although excellent and needed - was difficult to read.
9
One word: Vietnam. America never seems to learn.
8
Should anyone wish, read Michael Slackman’s twitter tweet this morning. He’s right.
And, I can help the investigative... with names. They call. From Kabul. One brought his family of four children, a wife, and moved in. Uninvited.
Seven months on, five off. Dulles to Jordan’s Amman, to fuel. No health insurance, no ID, they can part your hair.
SEALs and Rangers, $150,000 per year. Hushed. They often come home in a box.
Ashamed of themselves. Tears when they tell.
And tell they do. Right here.
Farms are a place to tell. And hope.
1
A reminder to those who gnash their teeth over Trump's ignoring the advice of the intelligence community when that community's collective fingers are pointed at the Russians for interfering in our elections.
There is a long, rich history of sordid violence committed by the CIA and its operatives. The FBI also is not immune from extra-judicial forays and assaults on US citizens.
Trump is, in my estimation and experience, the worst and least prepared president in our history. But even a blind pig finds an acorn or two over time.
We, citizens, have nothing to gain with a perpetual war in Afghanistan. The only ones profiting are the usual suspects in the military-industrial- private contractor-congressional complex who can afford to look the other way while our infrastructure rots and we descend further into the third world.
21
Those folks who look away belong to the same low life community as the man baby in White House. If it’s making them money, the love it.
4
There will always be collateral damage in the fog of war. This is why Trump wants out. It is a dirty war. The people in this part of the world have different rules of engagement. They are not ours. They will never change. The hatred is endemic.
4
@Steve Nope, it is not people there who have different rules of engagement. It is American soldiers who believe they are dealing with inferior people and behave accordingly. This used to be called the colonial mentality.
4
And thats is why the US and NATO has lost most of its local support except in Kabul and Talibans have already won this war as they always avoided civilian casualty. War cannot be won with technology without support of locals.
4
Confirmation of my repeated posts that we are incompetent ineffectual and in the end intractably evil. Hearts and minds indeed!
6
The ease with which the human animal falls from the loftiest heights of discourse about morals, ethics, reason, justice, are not stunning. It is one behavior humans do well. When we decry brutal acts as animalistic, we do not realize the rightness of our horror. We are animals without an animal's limits.
4
Is there room for any more DISGUST with the Trump regime?
I thank the Times for your truthful reporting. But I must admit my ABHORRENCE meter is off the charts.
May the investigations bear fruit! We cannot long endure our current BADministration in DC.
5
@TheraP. Pssssst. Trump is the one who thinks we should get out. Perhaps your meter is just stuck after being in the same place for so long.
@John Doe
I am disgusted with Trump and wars to be honest.
Not sure what meter you’re talking about. But it’s only stuck on the Constitution. And torture or punishing the innocent is against it.
1
Once again, CIA mission creep has produced ...creepy missions.
4
Mr. Zazai said. “But there is absolutely no justice.”.
If you want peace, pray for justice.
1
Under the current administration, coordinating traditional armed forces and the CIA would be impossible...
... stunning lack of leadership plays out in ways like this article illustrates.
2
We should have never tried nation building in such an undeserving and pathetic country. There is no such thing as good guys and bad guys in war, only death and destruction. Unfortunately, if the US departs, the cleansing of the anti Taliban population will result in a blood bath unseen in this century. I don't see any solutions proposed by the authors of this story anymore than the man on the street.
4
@Pepperman - Yeah, well the Afghans never asked for US "nation building" help in the first place. We accomplish nothing by maintaining our foreign presence in their country.
Whose the terrorists?
4
The immorality of the US military all over the world is incredible.We are the worlds no. 1 terrorist organization.
13
The Bush (both)- Cheney crowd made and makes a lot of money off these wars, the more brutal the better. The CIA is s way out of control - has been for years. If I weren't such an old lady I would be afraid to even write this.
The CIA would be an excellent place to begin the deep and significant amend your paper still needs to make concerning its role in fabricating reasons to invade Iraq - a key play in structuring the on-going Middle East wars. Do it. Now.
11
The CIA trained Oama bin Laden, too.
10
@bnc and all the other extremists. what's in a name? they are all the same.
1
In the early 1840's My Lord Auckland declared : We don't intend to occupy Afghanistan but protect her from outside interference and fractious opposition...well we all know what happened to the Army of the Indus: she was evicted from Cabul, as Kabul was known in those days...My Lordship was found prostrate on the verdant lawns of Govt. House Calcutta...verdant indeed
3
As a former senior DOD intelligence officer who served in Afghanistan for 1.5 years, I would make the following two comments in relation to this article. First, I would be wary of accepting anything an Afghan villager said about the events. (And it would take a couple of pages to explain precisely why.) Not because I don't believe these paramilitary units did what they did, but there's almost always a confusing and convoluted back story. Second, in addition to operating outside Afghan government authority, these units also operate outside any real supervision from the US government. And there in lies the biggest problem and an all-too-expected situation of abuses.
95
@KCF This is what I was wondering about as i read this horrible story. What is the supervision? The CIA has a director. Brennan is is a public commentator. What are his thoughts on this story? What does the CIA have to say for itself about this?
6
@KCF What concerns me, and many U.S. politicians and citizens, is the growing dependence of CIA and all branches of U.S. military on "mercenaries". There's nothing new about this, nor are such relationships confined to the U.S. Such relationships can in vital when "domestic" military or intelligence services have inadequate staffing to handle unanticipated situations. The real problem is that control of and accountability of PMC's (private military companies) is generally insufficient. A 2011 bipartisan "Commission on Wartime Contracting" concluded that over $31 billion of taxpayer's money was squandered on waste, fraud and abuse in Afghanistan and Iraq. There are currently more than 14 such PMC's based in the U.S. including Academi, formerly "Blackwater" founded by Erik Prnce, Betsy DeVos's brother. But the most disturbing aspect of CIA's current activities in Afghanistan is that ILLEGAL acts, such as torture, are being committed. Congress must act to curb such abuses!
11
I trust journalists more than past or present DOD or CIA personnel to give us an accurate account. That's been true since M
17
The gain in indigenous support for the Taliban is from Afghan fatigue of the USs occupation. This non stop clap trap by neo cons and their media allies denouncing the reduction of US troops in various countries the US has no business being is beyond foolish. The local opposition to their presence does not register with Washington's lobbyist driven national security mindset.
13
CIA special ops stains everything it touches. It employs war criminals.
I saw contractors in Afghanistan, and they were better armed than we US military personnel. Make no mistake, this is a capitalist war, and Afghan civilians are the casualties.
We need to get out now. Not half out, but all the way OUT.
After 17 years, it's time to leave Afghanistan to the Afghans.
104
@Citizen, but as General Mattis said, after 17 years we’re only just 6 months away from complete closure. Only a moron would be skeptical of a claim like that, which he was but only went half way. So now he’s a tepid moron.
6
What are these "American contractors"? Are they mercenaries that are even more free to unleash their savage impulses (through their Afghan forces) than are the actual CIA agents?
Why is an intelligence service ever allowed to operate a military force, anyway? This has made the CIA a blot upon humanity. It goes back at least as far as Eisenhower, who used a CIA-sponsored military force to overthrow the elected government of Guatemala and initiated the CIA-sponsored invasion of Cuba that took place at the Bay of Pigs under Kennedy.
That's two crimes against humanity our government is sponsoring. 1. Private mercenaries, not subject to military standards of training and responsibility. 2. A covert public military, also not subject to military standards.
111
@Thomas Zaslavsky: You adequately described the problem, CIA trained assassination squads acting on their own against Taliban suspects, but what is your solution?In a series of articles years ago by Jeremy Scahill , author documented extra judicial killings approved by Obama of Americans abroad designated as dangerous, and that included moderate cleric, Anwar Al Walaki and his children., killed in Yemen.Death squad was Seal Team 6 headed by Adm. McGraven, now retired.In an interview with a still active member of Seal Team 6, whose voice is muffled and his face hidden to protect him, Scahill revealed his interlocutor's claim that Obama endorsed vigorously actions of Seal Team 6, moreso than his predecessor, George W. Bush! We live in a country in which a former v.p. was accused of conspiring to assassinate JFK in order to become president himself. Read Jim Marr, Summers,Fletcher Praty among others, and don't miss reading McBird, play about LBJ's ALLEGED role in the regicide in Dallas. Playwright declared that if LBJ HAD REALLY BEEN involved, that was the least of his crimes for which SHE COULD NOT FORGIVE HIM!0ur government does not always do nice things. Perhaps it's better not to know. College friend of mine from 1950's worked for the Agency, allegedly linked to Townley and Larios, "oui dires,"Dina field agents behind car bombing of Letelier in D,C. in 1976--see my video." A la guerre comme a la guerre!"
1
I think this article answered its own questions in the 7th paragraph. Forces that are constrained by "rules of engagement" and the like are being killed in record numbers, while forces not so constrained are holding the line against the most brutal militant groups. This is war, and the enemy has no such constraints. I don't personally think we should be in Afghanistan at all, but the only way to defeat brutal Islamic militants is with brutal force in response. I think we should get out of Afghanistan now, but any force that has to be constrained by rules of engagement against those that don't is not going to be the victor.
8
@nexttsar: Except that they aren’t “holding the line”, they’re making things worse. This reminds me of the Vietnam War era “we had to destroy the village to save it” thinking. The Afghan people won’t fight to support a government that tortured and kills civilians with impunity. Small wonder that the Taliban are poised for success if the CIA is encouraging death squad-style tactics.
5
The CIA trains locals to commit war crimes and terror for them. How clever.
39
If you think the CIA's tactics in Afghanistan are something new then think again. All you have to do is look at the nature of the United states interventions and tactics in Central and South America going back to the 1950's. Destabilizing and helping to overthrow democratically elected governments, propping up authoritarian governments, engaging in numerous dirty wars and training their troops to engage in the very same actions the Afghans are as written in this article.
91
@Wilco
Iran has been the victim of covert and overt regime change acts of war by America and it's British and Israeli "allies" for decades.
6
“Units have also operated unconstrained by battlefield rules designed to protect civilians, conducting night raids, torture and killings with near impunity” is but the repeat of every US military engagement abroad. It’s ridiculous to talk as if is happening exceptionally at Afghanistan.
“During World War II, some members of the United States military mutilated dead Japanese service personnel in the Pacific theater of operations. The mutilation of Japanese service personnel included the taking of body parts as "war souvenirs" and "war trophies". Teeth and skulls were the most commonly taken "trophies", although other body parts were also collected”.
The No Gun Ri Massacre, an incident of mass killing of an undetermined number of South Korean refugees by U.S. soldiers of the 7th Cavalry Regiment
My Lai Massacre: The My Lai Massacre was the mass murder of 347 to 504 unarmed citizens in South Vietnam, almost entirely civilians, most of them women and children, conducted by U.S. on 16 March 1968.
Don’t forget the U.S. Government, which strongly opposes the International Criminal Court treaty, believing it is seriously flawed, does not accept ICC jurisdiction over its nationals.
50
@N.G. Krishnan The NY Times does the same thing with its Israel coverage, preposterously claiming their reign of terror and massacre is nothing more than rare, isolated incidents.
Grotesque.
3
Is there no end to our naivety or in this case, total obliviousness? We cannot, shall we say, drop a bomb, and then complain that it caused damage, some of which was unintentional and quite a bit of it unfortunate.
What is the matter with us? We send troops abroad while shouting that we want them back. We arm them heavily and direct them to kill people, but scream when we have casualties on our side. We bomb countries and depose governments and then complain we are not embraced and loved. We send our covert agencies to produce results and then worry that others don't like it. It is not the CIA, it is us.
We are using a blast furnace to melt a corrupted bit of Afghan steel, and complaining that it burns our pizza. Afghanistan's GDP comes from warfare, their chief industry is terrorism, killing, looting, protection, heroine, poppy, and opium. Did anyone here think that sending a plane load of librarians and kindergarten teachers with coexist stickers would turn things around and transform them into a democracy? CIA will not either, but at least it is taking care of some really bad guys who want to kill us. Or so I hope.
For that matter, are readers clear that the CIA is not our diplomatic service? Should we expect the next article to ponder over how and why our diplomatic services are engaged mostly in talking to people in foreign countries without actually making them do or not do what we want them to do or not do?
12
@Kalidan: These tactics are creating a generation of angry people who will want revenge. The CIA overthrew The democratically elected government of Iran in the 1950s and installed the Shah. It worked for a while- until a generation of angry Iranians who hated the US overthrew the Shah, leading to Ayatollah Khomeni’s rise to power.
When the Taliban regain power in Afghanistan, it’ll be in large part because the CIA’s tactics made it inevitable. They’ll want revenge - and there’ll be lots of angry Afghans seeking revenge for their relatives killed by the CIA’s forces.
The CIA’s tactics are like a oyster man cutting the arms off a starfish and throwing it back in the water. All it does is create more starfish.
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@John M
It is not possible, in nature, to take action (particularly military action) that produces no response or reaction. A lot of civilians are killed, collateral damage occurs. It is the law of nature. We cannot take action, if we absolutely must, and then fret that it produces consequences we do not like. Are we not in Afghanistan to avenge 9/11? We left them alone prior to that, didn't we? Did we not go into Iraq to avenge Saddam's plot against Bush the Elder? We were pretty sanguine leaving him to torture and kill prior to Bush the Younger (and his cabinet) decided to get rid of him.
We suffer from the insane desire to take action without reaction - in about all of our private and public life. We want opiates, but no hangover. We want free this and that, without anyone every paying. We want a clean environment while using plastic and driving big cars.
CIA does what it does (and I don't really want to know what they do). If you are that serious, support a candidate who will dissolve the military and all our covert agencies. If not, let them do their job.
I.e., let us not become complete gutless hypocrites.
1
Coming from a country where most people think nothing can happen properly without violence.
13
We need to get the CIA out of certain businesses, like the arms and drug trades: Everywhere they go, both flourish, and they, the CIA, contractors and their backers, profit.
They seem to be the main cheerleaders and sales force for the Arms Conglomerate, to be able to sell off old stock to third world Nations so that there is still some profit while a bang is to be made.
And the Afghan Poppy and heroin trade is flourishing these days with direct protection from those very militias now so well armed, there is a goodly flow if income, but the farmers and the region never really sees it as it is just paying off the loans for the arms and ammo already received. More ammo requires more product.
The CIA knows it has a ready market through it's existing structures shares with the other world Intelligence Agencies, and is their way of assuring themselves a job and making a profit at the same time.
Dark Forces, Dark Money and Dark Alignments with our own government Dark Forces in charge we need to make drastic changes and hold those responsible for these travesties of Justice as War Criminals, even if Americans, if we cannot Police our Own, then we can police nobody else.
It has to start at home, we cannot allow our name and power to be used for the enrichment of a few to the detriment, death, destruction and continual war for the rest.
Our monies could be much better spent, and if they are using illegal money to operate, that makes them criminals, not heroes.
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One thing for sure the NY Times would never have published this story when Obama was the president, it would have made him look bad.
7
War is hell.
4
It is unfair to the Afghan forces to the standards of civilization.
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Tell me again why we need to be in Afghanistan. Terrorism is rife throughout the world, especially in the U.S. there's little particular about Afghanistan on that front. Nation building ? We, and others have not had great success in those endeavors. I have no answers, only questions. Tell me again the causes and effects. Haven't we learned yet a list of acts that don't work ?
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@eclectico we're there because of iran and the pipelines. we also provide security service to Chinese mining company, gratis.
@eclectico
And why are we all so helpless in the face of it? Does it make us all complicit? Doesn't seem to matter which party is in power - the war machine runs on its own steam.
2
It's an insurrection in an Islamic country with many factions, several of which use terrorist tactics. It's been going on for centuries and been really hot since the Russians invaded in 1979--- forty years ago. In that kind of war, he with the most guns and the least conscience wins. Most of the Afghans involved have never known a life without war. Furthermore, is you want to know what current government forces are fighting, review the atrocities of the Taliban while they were in power. American-trained fighters are positively humane compared to what went before.
I would also question whether the Times investigators know the full stories of those who are claiming to be victims. Do they know for certain that they are not being duped by Taliban sympathizers?
The rules of war are always optional in every war and are subject to revision when conditions require it. I've lately been reading books on both the American Civil War and World War II. Victory, or avoiding imminent defeat, often requires stretching the rules. We did it. They all do it.
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@Dougal E Here's another way to do it. In World War II we took German prisoners and held strict to the Geneva Convention. Many of those POWs who were imprisoned in the US chose to stay here and make a life after the war. It was not bullets or torture that convinced them, but decency and adherence to the rule of law.
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@Dougal E So you're saying it's okay to murder civilians in cold blood without a trial, burn their houses, and shoot their children because they might be "Taliban sympathizers"? Let's say they are Taliban sympathizers - so what? It doesn't sound like the forces we're supporting via the CIA are exactly morally superior to the Taliban. If Afghanistan is going to be run by lawless, murdering warlords, it shouldn't matter to Americans who those warlords are, and none of it should be on our dime.
6
"The C.I.A. needs to fight its wars in the shadows”.
Says who? If the CIA were doing its job correctly we wouldn't need hot wars. We'd know who was funding the bad guys and we'd cut off the funding. We certainly wouldn't be flooding these areas with weaponry. Next stop Yemen where we'll be setting up shop to fight militia groups armed with equipment we sold to Saudi Arabia. How stupid is that?
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@Johnny
Seems to me there are more shadows non the White House right now! Train the CIA on them.
1
in Afghanistan, who are the good guys? the feckless supposed government we lavishly subsidize? what good are they, to Afghans or to us? it seems anybody can dupe the USA into giving them endless money, most of which vanishes and the rest disappers in a vain effort to prop up kleptocrats who quickly learn to claim they opose the same domestic forces we oppose. Afghanistan is a forsaken place and has been for centuries. there are no good guys. they do not want nor have an actuak national gobernment because they are tribal. Americans do not understand why we are there, what we hope to accomplish, or how we would know if we succeeded. as far as anyone can see, it spells only death and horror for our military people who are wasted on a pointless mission. the original lie was we needed to gain control of Taliban Afghanistan because they gave safe harbor to bin Laden. he is now dead, and terrorist groups can form or establish themselves almost anyplace and move kn if the climate gets uncomfortable. Afghanistan is nothing special in that regard. is there another reason we hang on there year after year? is it heroin? is it mineral wealth we want to keep from the Chinese? yet another quagmire we've been driven into by our own military industrial complex.
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@Purity of - Do you think that the MIC arms we're shoveling into the ME are also a factor?
Yikes, it's on Fire! Bring more gasoline!
2
It saddens me that this is happening at the direction of part of our government. What saddens me even more is that this article will most likely not have nearly the affect on readers that it should have. The US has come a long way in the last 17 years, and we haven't ended up in a good place.
41
All's fair in love and war.
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@Southern Boy
Of course. That's why here in the North we believe that Sherman should have left no survivors.
4
“Everyone we spoke to said they would swear on the innocence of the victims.”
I swear on the innocence of the three-year old child who suffered an atrocious death.
25
Wanton retribution in Iraq with the Shiite militias brutalizing the now beleaguered Sunni tribes because of their anger against ISIS; wanton retribution in Afghanistan with CIA & NDS militias brutalizing the already beleaguered tribal people in Afghanistan because of their anger against the Taliban; wanton retribution in Syria with Assad's forces brutalizing the Sunnis because of their anger against ISIS & the rebels..
See the pattern? ISIS in Iraq & Syria is underground continuing their campaign as they rebuild, the Taliban is stronger than ever and is on the verge of either a military stalemate or a political victory. The brutalization is only going to fuel the global jihadist movement, don't people understand? This is what jihadist movements thrive off of. The butchery in these regions has accomplished little but set the stage for the next jihadist group to rise. Bigger, badder and angrier than ever. Any gains made are short-term and tactical, in the long-term all you've really accomplished is inspiring the next Bin Laden, or Haqqani or Zarqawi.
See you guys 15 years from now for the next installment of articles which ponder why the world can't seem to overcome the global jihadist movement. Happy New Year!
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"Game of Thrones" in the 21st Century.
2
I want every American soldier, contractor, dollar, ship, plane, missile, drone, rifle and bullet..and every penny and dollar out of the Middle East. Out of Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Afghanistan. Not 1 cent.
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@George Jackson
Sorry, George W Bush and The American People broke the Middle East, now we own it.
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@George Jackson
That is exactly what America did in Afghanistan.
How did that work out on September 11, 2001?
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@Ronny
it was HWB who broke the Middle East.
12
The Afghan Civil War is an ethnic sectarian maelstrom that has defeated the Soviet and American empires. While the ethnic Pashtun are a plurality of Afghans, a majority of them live in Pakistan where they are a mere 15% of Pakistanis.
And they don't call this land " The Graveyard of Empires" for nothing. Beginning with Macedonian Alexander the Great through Mongol Genghis Khan through Russian Czars and British Queen Victoria these fierce mountain warriors have been repeatedly humbling and humiliating the high and the mighty.
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@Blackmamba
Alexander was successful. He was followed by a Greek-Afghan kingdom of Bactria, in northwestern Afghantistan, that was highly civilized for centuries.
8
yet, into the Valley of death ride the 400, over and over again. WHY?
6
@Blackmamba Contrary to your assertion, the Mongols controlled what is now Afghanistan for over a century beginning in 1219. They invaded with an army of over 200,00. They maintained control through exceptionally brutal tactics including killing all men in cities, raping the women and enslaving the children. They only lost control with the general collapse of the Yuan Dynasty in the 1300's. Afghanistan can certainly be conquered and the Mongol Empire did not fall as a result of that conquest. It simply takes methods much harsher those than employed by these modern mercenaries.
5
We are in a never ending war in the middle east. We can not defeat Goat Farmers in the middle east. It is on and on.
8
Over the years, CIA operations have been suspect to rules of engagement for the US. Fighting insurgents is needed, murdering innocents via training of militias that have tribalism mentality, vendettas appears to have accelerated again under Pompeo and Trump who have little regard for others. Bet if they got their cut of moneys, they might be praising their great work.
Hope is now, Congressional oversight will reign in the CIA again. Intelligence work was its mission, covert operations included but not illegal activities against innocents.
13
The story only touches on the root issue that in the Eastern regions of Afghanistan, the Taliban and more radical islamic forces have the support of the bulk of the population. Definitely the defeat of the democratic government in Kabul will come from and through that region, but should the US continue to keep a finger in the dike.... particularly as that now means relying on these mercenary militias that have succeeded with" eye for an eye" tactics. In the end, if Afghanistan after a decade of treasure and training is not yet ready to defend its democracy than the US should focus solely on keeping some capacity near Afghanistan to strike terrorist training centers and other Al Qaeda style terrorist camps that threaten the existence of the US.
2
The CIA should not be engaged in any paramilitary operations. It should confine itself to the gathering of information to produce intelligence ONLY.
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@Lou Candell
Produce intelligence - through humane menthods only.
3
@Lou Candell
9/11 may not have happened had they been informed.
1
@Lou Candell
I doubt that the CIA is controllable and this is a real problem.
9
Khost Province has always been a contentious area because of its location..adjacent to the Pakistan tribal areas and because of its weather in winter.
Having been thru Khost a number of time including the foreboding Khost-Gardez Hiway..no one knows really who is "good or bad". In this area of Afghanistan, the anti-government sentiment is very high.
What constitutes a "bad guy"..what metric constitutes a reason ti kill the person? This is the question..and in hopes the reason for the raid was based on validated information that the target was totally justified.
Who makes this decision? Certainly, the relatives of those killed in the raid will never be aligned with the government.
The article did not mention this..but, this program of select killing is a reminder of the Phoenix Program used in Vietnam.
Lastly, nothing good will result from these action..once said.."you can't kill'em all.."
Gardez/Khost Provinces 2003-4
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But isn't this the neo-colonists handbook--train native fighters in the "art of war"---and, then, let them loose on other native residents. I know the NYT must report these stories, but, whether it was Vietnam or Iraq, the same story repeats itself.
58
Shame shame shame. These acts do nothing for US security or to improve life in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has always been a tribal society. No one will unite it as a country and these acts will only add to the growth of Islamic militancy. Remember that Al Qaeda was midwifed by the US.
68
@Trumpette, you raise a good point but then dismiss it with your next argument. History is clear...there would be no France, no Germany, no China or any nation state without a bloody authoritarian ripping apart the tribal and other opposition and taking control of a war-weary new country. The EU was once seen as a possible exception, could a nation be born by pen and not sword, but Brexit and the knee-jerk reactions to protect sovereignty suggest it will fail at least while the region is at peace. The lesson for Afghanistan is that if we are not willing to break many eggs to form a nation state than we need to get out of the kitchen. Let the countries war lords butcher each other for another decade and then return to deal with the victor and make clear our terms of keeping out the terrorist bases if they want peace. Of course that decade will be filled with NYTimes articles asking how we can stay on the sidelines while thousands of children and civilians die in the new civil war there.
6
@DoctorRPP The Italian and German unifications were almost bloodless.
The problem of the US is that it has the colonial mentality. It wants total control and want its pawns to have that too. But in any normal country power is spread and nobody has absolute power. Karzai understood that better than his successors - and that was why the US wanted to get rid of him.
3
@DoctorRPP - We have no more right to invade and occupy Afghanistan than they do to invade and occupy Florida. We've been mucking around in the ME for over 200 years and have only created/worsened problems there.
2
And as a country we thought that we had learned our lesson in Vietnam. Burning down hamlets and killing villagers isn’t going to win you friends. It’s a losing strategy in addition to everything else.
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@Golflaw
Yes but what else are we going to do with our nearly $ 700 billion military-industrial complex?
27
@Blackmamba
Surely we can put the uberweapons budget toward universal healthcare! (I’d call that DEFENSE in the most positive way.)
11
If you do research it is closer to one trillion , there is 300 billion that is allocated to the MI complex that does not have to be appoved by congress ,part of that is Obama's 30 year one trillion dollar new nulcear weapon building plan no one change for 29 more years without an act of congress and that will never happen as long as the majority of both parties are owned by the deep state.
@Blackmamba
12
Shades of Vietnam and Iraq.
Why is it that we PREACH freedom, democracy and country-building yet PRACTICE atrocity and thuggery?
There are definitely times when the United States does not hold the high ground of morality. These actions only breed greater contempt amongst the indigenous peoples whose lands we inhabit. Is there any wonder that ISIS, Taliban, Hezbullah, etc. are thriving in the Middle East (in spite of what the ignorant Dotard says)?
Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it! Trump is the poster moron for this.
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@RealTRUTH
"Trump is the poster moron for this."
There's nothing in this article that says Trump is behind these examples of atrocity.
Though now that this article has been published he'll see this information and hopefully figure out a way to stop this immediately.
I do wonder why this keeps happening, that soldiers spin out of control. Is it inevitable?
5
@RealTRUTH
In the 2016 election Hillary Clinton, not Donald Trump was the warmonger, backed by the neocons.
Trump campaigned on bringing the troops home.
And now most of the Democrats are screaming "bring back the generals" and "leave the troops in Syria and Afghanistan".
It was that sweet democrat Hillary who claimed during one debate that Libya was an excellent example of the use of smart power.
Relative to foreign policy, Trump has some good instincts, more so than the usual elected democrat, or unelected, in the case of Hillary
4
@Dov Todd I am afraid I can't agree. No one, aside from Americans, notices any difference between one American and another,,and tragically they're correct. The closest thing to a US Republican is a US Democrat.
These CIA trained goons and Trump himself is merely another example of American culture. Until you all see that, nothing will change.
8
Afghans know what works with other Afghans.
And far better than any of us.
3
@Objectivist
Had you read the article you would have noticed a certain other presence.
The bodyshop shop called, your Charger is done.
6