Pakistan’s military is facing growing international concern over the harsh tactics used in its various US-demanded military offensives against tribal areas, after a video emerged today showing soldiers executing six blindfolded civilians in the Swat Valley.
The video is said to particularly be causing tension with the US military, though that tension was obviously already on the rise after NATO helicopters attacked a Pakistani base earlier in the day, killing three soldiers.
US officials say that the video appeared to be authentic, and that there are “things you can’t fake” in the video, which was released by a group called Pashtuns International Association.
Pakistan’s military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, insisted that the video was part of a “propaganda campaign” against the nation’s army, but it is hardly the first time the military’s dicey human rights record has come into question. It is just the first time the video evidence has been staring everyone in the face.
The amazing hypocracy which is part of this story doesn't get nearly enough attention. While the video/execution is deplorable – that Americans should even dare to express 'concern' let alone 'outrage' is itself outragous.
This is the country which has given us targeted killing , drone strikes , assasination squads "Killteams' ….it would be nice if for once they would set a 'good' example , shut up and go home.
The US is alarmed by this but could care less that Israelis were filmed Summarily Executing a US Citizen. Double standards and treachery.
As I always predict CIA anbd FBI,s presence has ruined our country and they must be killed. We have also to kill all blackwater personnal to save our national integrity other wise they will send suicide bombers with the help of Afghan, India and CIA.
Uh…yes?
War implies people with guns kill people without guns.
Nonobvious only to the well-retarded.
Authoritative sources, known only to the Empire's intelligence agencies, also have proof that these Pakistani soldiers ripped babies off of incubators prior to these executions.
And those global corporate Empire fuel trucks that were attacked last night had just rounded the corner of Tonkin Pass when rouge Pakistani troops were seen on radar preparing the attack —- unfortunately, the tapes of those radar images were accidentally erased.
Word also has it that April Gillespie, in a meeting with Pakistani General Kayani, said there would be "no opinion" from Washington on whether his troops took action against any foreign forces in the country.
Is this a set-up for expanding the war into Pakistan based on ugly human rights issues, phony attacks, and guilefully deceptive mis-advice??
You betcha!
Justin is right, —- Pakistan is the next target for this ruling-elite global corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE that hides behind the facade of its novel TWO-Party Vichy sham of faux-democratic government in the US headquarters of the global EMPIRE.
Alan MacDonald
Let's apply our own standards to this event if , in fact, it is real and not 'faked'. It's pretty simple: are the prisoners criminals or prisoners of war (since there's no legal classification of 'enemy combatant', we'll dispense with that bit of political subterfuge)? If they are criminals, they should be arrested and tried in a civil court of law (according to the law of the land, whatever that may be); if they are prisoners of war, summary execution is illegal and the prisoners have certain rights (assuming the detaining nation is a signatory to the Geneva Conventions). Wait- these are the ideal standards, not the ones the US is using for our own prisoners. My bad.
On the other hand, it's hard to be a good soldier in a rotten war- and that applies to soldiers on both sides of the conflict. We play our games, they play theirs- and each side's game is just as dirty as the other.
the us army is "alarmed" at the execution of pakistani civilians? we use drones every day to execute suspected militants (and their families; women, children, neighbors). the us reserves the right to apprehend and detain suspected militants anywhere in the world regardless of borders and to fly them illegally to "black sites" anywhere in the world for interrogations. the obama white house has extended and strengthened the state's right to assassinate american citizens suspected anywhere in the world without congressional or court review.
our president, our military spokesmen, the state department always say the right things and then do whatever they deem necessary and expedient. the us is a totalitarian state that goes through the motions of a being real republic. the us has no right to judge a pakistan which has been forced into an untenable position as an ally of the us to war on its own population.