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AP photo - Panjwai, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, March 11, 2012 ... US Soldier Held for Shooting Afghan Civilians (March 11, 2012 ) ...item 2.. US soldier kills 16 Afghan civilians – video ...item 3.. Mail Online - 12 March 2012 ...
Image by marsmet511 Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, could offer only a few details about the shooting that took place in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar Province. "What we know so far is that, in the very early morning hours of this morning, under the hours of darkness, a U.S. soldier left a forward operating base in the Panjwai area in the west of Kandahar. He went into the nearby village and shot innocent civilians under circumstances which still have to be investigated, then returned to the base and handed himself in, and he is in U.S. custody at the moment," he said. . ........***** All images are copyrighted by their respective authors ........ . ............................................................................................................................................................................................ . .....item 1).... Voice of America ... www.voanews.com/english/news ... News RSS Feed March 11, 2012 US Soldier Held for Shooting Afghan Civilians Brian Padden | Islamabad www.voanews.com/english/news/US-Soldier-Held-for-Shooting... . .................................................. img code photo ... media.voanews.com/images/480*334/reuters_afghanistan_us_k... Afghan National Army soldiers keep watch as Afghans gather outside a U.S. base in Panjwai district Kandahar province, March 11, 2012. Photo: Reuters .................................................. . In Afghanistan, a U.S. soldier has been detained after shooting Afghan civilians Sunday. Afghan officials report at least 16 dead. Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, could offer only a few details about the shooting that took place in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar Province. "What we know so far is that, in the very early morning hours of this morning, under the hours of darkness, a U.S. soldier left a forward operating base in the Panjwai area in the west of Kandahar. He went into the nearby village and shot innocent civilians under circumstances which still have to be investigated, then returned to the base and handed himself in, and he is in U.S. custody at the moment," he said. Jacobson could not confirm the number of casualties, nor the motivation behind the attack but said a full investigation would soon be underway. Asadullah Khalid, the Afghan minister of border and tribal affairs, says the U.S. soldier went on an unprovoked killing spree in the nearby villages. -----11 people killed in one home . ............................................................ img code photo ... media.voanews.com/images/230*230/ap_afghan_shooting_230_1... An elderly Afghan man sits in a minivan next to the covered body of a person allegedly shot dead by a U.S. service member in Panjwai, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, March 11, 2012. AP ............................................................ . He says a number of people were martyred in a few houses, in one house 11 people were martyred and in another house many people were wounded and one was martyred. Both ISAF and Afghan officials have condemned the incident and expressed concern for the victims and their families. The Panjwai district in Kandahar had been considered a Taliban stronghold in the recent past. In 2010 it was the scene of heavy fighting between U.S. forces and the Taliban. General Jacobson says the military is concerned that this incident could jeopardize progress made to stabilize the region. "ISAF has made great progress in recent weeks and months in stabilizing an area that was once very much hardcore land of the Taliban," he said. "So we are looking at this incident also from the perspective, does it do any damage to what we are doing, to the work that is done there in the hand-over process of responsibility to Afghan national security forces." -----Concerns over anti-American sentiment There is concern that this shooting could further increase anti-American sentiment in Afghanistan. Relations between the two countries have been tense since U.S. soldiers inadvertently burned Qurans at an American military base in February. That incident sparked a week of violent protests nationwide and a number of deadly attacks against U.S. soldiers. The U.S. military has temporarily recalled staff from Afghan ministries. An official military inquiry into the Quran burnings is still pending and American soldiers involved in the incident could face disciplinary actions. Andrew Wilder, director of Afghanistan and Pakistan programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace says this attack against Afghan civilians will fuel more anger against the U.S. but it will probably not significantly alter the complicated relationship between the two countries. "Afghans are very ambivalent about the presence of international forces in Afghanistan," said Wilder. "I think primarily because they are not perceived to have brought security that is probably the biggest cause of resentment. However, they also fear the rapid withdraw of international forces as they fear that would be very destabilizing. So even despite these kinds of incidents rightfully anger Afghans, I don't think that necessarily translates to the majority of Afghans wanting international forces rushing to the exits." As late as Friday, relations seemed to be mending as the two countries agreed to transfer full control of an American detention facility to Afghanistan in six months. The agreement removed a major obstacle in developing a strategic partnership that will define a U.S. role in Afghanistan after the U.S. withdraws most of its 98,000 combat soldiers in 2014. Related Articles Americans Believe Afghan War Not Worth Costs, New Poll Finds Survey finds 54 percent of all Americans want the US to withdraw, even if the Afghan army is not adequately trained ...US Service Member Kills At Least 16 Afghan Civilians ...Afghanistan Blast Kills Six British Soldiers ...Karzai: US-Afghan Strategic Deal Makes Progress . . ............................................................................................................................................................................................... . .....item 2).... the guardian ... www.guardian.co.uk/world ... News ... World news Afghanistan guardian.co.uk, Monday 12 March 2012 www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/mar/12/us-soldier-kil... US soldier kills 16 Afghan civilians – videoAn American member of the Nato force in Afghanistan has left his base in Zangabad, Kandahar province, and shot dead 16 civilians including children in an adjoining village. The soldier was later arrested. The case adds to tensions between the US and Afghanistan over the continued foreign military presence and the deaths of civilians in drone strikes and other attacks Source: Reuters . . ............................................................................................................................................................................................... . .....item 3).... Mail Online ... www.dailymail.co.uk ... Taliban vows revenge after U.S. Sergeant on SEAL team 'shoots dead nine sleeping Afghan children before burning their bodies' in deadly rampage that killed 16 ...U.S. and British officials warn of reprisals against troops after massacre ...Taliban vows to avenge deaths, saying more than one soldier involved ...Shooter identified as Army staff sergeant from Fort Lewis, Washington ...Base regarded as 'most troubled in the military' with history of killings ...'Entered three homes, shot 16 dead after suffering mental breakdown' ...Nine children and three women among those reported dead ...Relative: He 'poured chemicals over their dead bodies and burned them' By BETH STEBNER and THOMAS DURANTE PUBLISHED: 08:54 EST, 11 March 2012 | UPDATED: 04:22 EST, 12 March 2012 www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2113410/US-soldier-kills... NATO troops in Afghanistan are on high alert after the Taliban vowed to avenge the deaths of 16 innocent civilians - including nine children and three women - who were shot and killed by a rogue U.S. soldier who opened fire after suffering a 'mental breakdown' early Sunday morning. The Army staff sergeant, stationed at a U.S. base in Kandahar, entered three Afghan family's homes at 3am and began the vicious killing spree. Relatives of the dead said he then 'poured chemicals over their dead bodies and burned them.' The shooter is an Army staff sergeant from Fort Lewis-McChord in Washington state, and was believed to have acted alone. Military officials are investigating the incident and working to discover what made the soldier - believed to be a father of three - snap to such extremes that he would embark on a killing mission. With tensions rising in the region, U.S. and British officials said they were now braced for a backlash as the Taliban claimed the killings were the work of 'more than one soldier'. Militants condemned the 'blood-soaked and inhumane crime' by 'sick-minded American savages' on its website and vowed to take revenge 'for every single martyr with the help of Allah'. -----Scroll down for videos WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT . .......................................... img code photo ... i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/11/article-2113410-121F04... Disbelief: Two grief-stricken Afghan men look into the van where the body of a badly burned child lays, wrapped in a blue blanket EPA .......................................... . .......................................... img code photo .. i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/11/article-2113410-121EB6... Horrific: The bodies of an elderly Afghan man and a child killed in the Alkozai village of Panjwayi district are shown wrapped in blankets AFP / Getty Images .......................................... . .......................................... img code photo .. Joint Base Lewis-McChord ... Fort Lewis, Washington State i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/12/article-2113410-122067... Station: The shooter was identified by U.S. officials as an Army staff sergeant from Fort Lewis, Washington, which has troubling history AP .......................................... . Initial reports indicated the gunman returned to his base after the shooting, calmly turned himself in and was taken into custody at a NATO base in Afghanistan. In a statement, Afghan President Hamid Karzai left open the possibility of more than one shooter. He initially spoke of a single U.S. gunman, then referred to 'American forces' entering houses. More... ...U.S. military 'killed 18 Al Qaeda terrorists in four airstrikes in Yemen' ...Bin Laden was 'betrayed by one of his jealous wives' who revealed location of his secret Pakistan compound ...Stoned to death for being an emo: NINETY Iraqi students killed for having 'strange hair and tight clothes' ...'They laid down their lives, both of them, so that others could live': Anguish of family who lost two sons in Afghanistan The statement quoted a 15-year-old survivor named Rafiullah, shot in the leg, as telling Karzai in a phone call that 'soldiers' broke into his house, woke up his family and began shooting them. Mr Karzai condemned the attacks as 'an assassination' and furiously demanded an explanation from the U.S. . ................................................... img code photo ... i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/12/article-2113410-121FC2... High alert: American soldiers keep watch at the entrance of a military base near Alkozai village following the shooting of Afghan civilians, after which the Afghan Taliban vowed revenge AFP / Getty Images ................................................... . Little is known about the soldier who committed the atrocities, including his name, but a U.S. official said he is married with three children, and served three separate tours in Iraq. He was assigned to support a special operations unit of either Green Berets or Navy SEALs engaged in a village stability operation. Such operations are among NATO's best hopes for transitioning out of Afghanistan, pairing special operations troops with villagers chosen by village elders to become essentially a sanctioned, armed neighbourhood watch. He has reportedly been stationed in Afghanistan since December. Fort Lewis-McChord is about 45 miles south of Seattle and home to about 100,000 military and civilian personnel. A former soldier out of Fort Lewis shot and injured a Salt Lake City police officer in 2010, and on January 1, a 24-year-old Iraq War veteran shot and killed a Mount Rainier National Park ranger. . ..................................................... img code photo ... i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/12/article-2113410-12200F... Watchful eye: Afghan soldiers stand guard outside the houses where 16 civilians were shot dead by a U.S. soldier KeystoneUSA-ZUMA / Rex features ..................................................... . ..................................................... img code photo ... i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/12/article-2113410-12200F... Tragedy: Locals people gather outside the houses where 17 civilians were murdered by a U.S. soldier in a horrific house-to-house killing spree KeystoneUSA-ZUMA / Rex featues ..................................................... . Four Lewis-McChord soldiers were convicted in the deliberate thrill killings of three Afghan civilians in 2010. The military newspaper Stars and Stripes called it 'the most troubled base in the military' that year. The attack is sure to further tarnish relations between Afghanistan and the U.S., as it comes weeks after NATO soldiers burned copies of the Koran - the Muslim holy book - sparking a violent protest that has left some 30 people dead. And the former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Kemp, said British troops could now be targeted in revenge and that the massacre would also erode the vital trust allied forces have built up with Afghan civilians over the course of the war. He told ITV's Daybreak: 'I think every soldier in Afghanistan, British, American and other allies, will be sickened by a person wearing their own uniform literally going door to door and killing people as they sleep in their houses. 'These are the very people that this soldier and his comrades are supposed to be in Afghanistan to protect not kill. 'You would have to make a very persuasive case that these actions were due to mental stress, that's not to say that the stress isn't there for every soldier in Afghanistan.' Neighbours said they had awoken to crackling gunfire from American soldiers, who they described as laughing and drunk. 'They were all drunk and shooting all over the place,' said Agha Lala, who visited one of the homes where killings took place. 'Their [the victims'] bodies were riddled with bullets.' A senior U.S. defence official in Washington rejected witness accounts that several apparently drunk soldiers were involved. 'Based on the preliminary information we have this account is flatly wrong,' the official said. 'We believe one U.S. service member acted alone, not a group of U.S. soldiers.' . . .................................................. TALIBAN DOUBTS 'BLOOD-SOAKED' CRIME WORK OF ONE SOLDIER The Taliban posted on its website today that 'American savages' committed the 'blood-soaked and inhumane crime'. It also expressed doubt that a single soldier could have carried out the shootings in houses over a mile apart. Villagers told Afghan officials they heard shots being fired from several directions. Abdul Rahim Ayubi, a lawmaker from Kandahar province, said the distance between the houses raised questions about how a single soldier could have carried out all of the shootings. He said: 'It is not possible for only one American soldier to come out of his base, kill a number of people far away, burn the bodies, go to another house and kill civilians there, then walk at least 2 kilometers and enter another house, kill civilians and burn them.' Abdul Ghani, a local councilman in Panjwai district, said local villagers reported seeing two groups of soldiers. He said: 'The villagers said they were hearing machine gun fire and pistol fire from different directions.' But a spokesman for U.S.-led forces, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings, said that their reports still indicate a single soldier carried out the attacks. ........................................................................ . . ............................................... img code photo ... i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/11/article-2113410-121EF9... Tears of grief: An Afghan youth mourns for his relatives, who were allegedly killed by the U.S. service member AP ............................................... . ............................................... img code photo ... i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/12/article-2113410-12200E... Aftermath: Families gather in the Panjwayi district hours after the rogue U.S. soldier opened fire on innocents in three houses, killing 16 people, including nine children KeystoneUSA-ZUMA / Rex features ................................................ . An AP photographer reported that he saw 15 bodies of Afghans - some of them burned and some covered with blankets - in the villages of Alkozai and Balandi in Kandahar province's Panjwai district. One man told the AFP news agency of his great loss. 'Eleven members of my family are dead. They are all dead,' Haji Samad said. 'They [Americans] poured chemicals over their dead bodies and burned them,' a weeping Mr Samad told Reuters at the scene. According to Al Jazeera, the soldier went into three separate houses at 3am local time when it was pitch black and shot the civilians, who were sleeping in their beds. . ................................................ img code photo ... i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/12/article-2113410-12200E... Bloody Sunday: Afghan soldiers and villagers congregate outside the houses where 17 civilians were killed by a U.S. soldier KeystoneUSA-ZUMA / Rex features ................................................ . ................................................ img code photo ... i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/11/article-2113410-121EC2... Perched: An elderly Afghan man sits next to the covered body of a person who was killed early today by a U.S. service member AP ................................................ . ................................................ img code photo ... i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/11/article-0-121EC3BA0000... Scene of the crime: Afghan men investigate at the site of an shooting incident in Kandahar province ................................................ . ................................................ img code photo ... i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/11/article-2113410-121F0C... In shock: Relatives sat in shock in a van also carrying the bodies of their kin wrapped in blankets EPA ................................................ . ................................................ img code photo .. i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/11/article-2113410-121F90... Beyond tears: A grieving Afghan sits in a van next to one of the bodies (left) while another man sits in a truck bed keeping watch over the body of a young boy AP ................................................. . ................................................. img code photo .. i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/11/article-2113410-121F77... Beyond tears: A grieving Afghan sits in a van next to one of the bodies (left) while another man sits in a truck bed keeping watch over the body of a young boy AP ................................................. . A resident of Alkozai, where the shootings took place, said 16 people were killed as the U.S. service member went into three different houses and started shooting. The villager, Abdul Baqi, said he had not seen the bodies himself, but had talked to the family members of the dead. 'When it was happening in the middle of the night we were inside our houses. I heard gunshots and then silence and then gunshots again,' Mr Baqi said. 'Eleven members of my family are dead. They are all dead.' -Haji Samad Reports say that 15 members from two Afghan families were slaughtered, as well as an unidentified sixteenth person. Mr Karzai also said that five people were wounded. Their conditions are unknown. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta called the Afghan president to express 'profound regret' and assure him that 'this terrible incident does not reflect our shared values or the progress we have made together,' his office said in a statement. He concluded: 'We will bring those responsible to justice.' Maj Jason Waggoner, another spokesman for ISAF said: 'The civilian casualties were not the result of any operations. The soldier was acting on his own. After the incident, he returned to the compound and turned himself in.' . ........................................... img code photo ... President Obama i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/11/article-2113410-12203F... 'Deeply saddened': President Obama talks with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai from the back of his vehicle in Chevy Chase, Maryland Reuters ........................................... . ........................................... img code photo ... Afghan President Hamid Karzai i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/11/article-2113410-121E00... Demanding answers: Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the shootings as an 'assassination' and said it 'cannot be forgiven' AFP / Getty Images ........................................... . NATO-led International Security Assistance Force deputy commander Lt Gen Andrian Bradshaw would not speculate the reasoning behind the seemingly random attack. Mr Karzai said in a statement that he was sending high-level authorities to investigate the shooting and deliver a full report. NATO officials, too, are conducting an inquiry. 'This is an assassination, an intentional killing of innocent civilians and cannot be forgiven,' Mr Karzai said in a statement, adding that he has repeatedly called for the U.S. to stop killing Afghan citizens. President Obama issued a statement this afternoon saying he is 'deeply saddened' by the 'tragic and shocking' killing of Afghan civilians by a U.S. soldier. He said: 'This incident is tragic and shocking and does not represent the exceptional character of our military and the respect that the United States has for the people of Afghanistan.' The White House said that Mr Obama phoned Mr Karzai to personally express his regret. The president also vowed to 'get the facts as quickly as possible and to hold accountable anyone responsible.' On Sunday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement: 'We are deeply concerned by the initial reports of this incident, and are monitoring the situation closely.' There are precious few details on the alleged shooter. Officials have only said that he was an Army staff sergeant who was acting alone. On CBS' Face the Nation, Newt Gingrich commented on the escalating tensions in Afghanistan and elsewhere, saying: 'I think that we have to reassess the entire region,' noting Washington's tumultuous relationship with neighbouring Pakistan as well. Twelve of the dead were from Balandi, said Samad Khan, a farmer who lost all 11 members of his family, including women and children. Mr Khan was away from the village when the incident occurred and returned to find his family members shot dead and burned. One of his neighbours was also killed, he said. It was unclear how or why the bodies were set ablaze. To prove that the bodies had been set on fire, Afghan villagers brought out badly burned blankets, the New York Times reported. More than 300 people came out to protest the senseless violence. An AP photo showed the bloodstained corner of a house next to a large black area that was charred by fire. The charred area appeared to be remnants of blankets and possibly bodies that had been set on fire. Villagers packed inside the minibus looked on with concern as a woman spoke to reporters. She pulled back a blanket to reveal the body of a smaller child wearing what appeared to be red pajamas. A third dead child lay in a pile of green blankets in the bed of a truck. . .......................................... img code photo ... i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/11/article-2113410-121EDF... Response: U.S. armoured vehicles parked outside the a U.S. base in Panjwai district Kandahar province following the attacks as Afghan citizens looked on Reuters .......................................... . .......................................... img code photo ... i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/11/article-2113410-121EEF... Standing guard: Afghan National Army soldiers keep watch inside the base after the brutal attacks Reuters .......................................... . .......................................... img code photo ... i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/11/article-2113410-121F01... East meets west: A U.S. soldier, part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force the military base and passes a stone-faced Afghan man AP .......................................... . .......................................... img code photo ... Eagle eyes i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/11/article-2113410-121F90... Eagle eyes: U.S. Army and Afghan soldiers were perched in a guard tower at their base in Panjwai following the deadly shootings AP .......................................... . 'This is an anti-human and anti-Islamic act,' said Mr Khan. 'Nobody is allowed in any religion in the world to kill children and women.' Mr Khan demanded that Karzai punish the American shooter. 'Otherwise we will make a decision,' said Mr Khan. 'He should be handed over to us,' he told the Associated Press. 'I cannot explain the motivation behind such callous acts, but they were in no way part of authorised ISAF military activity,' he said in a statement. There were reports of protests in Panjwai following the shooting and the U.S. embassy warned travellers in Kandahar province to 'exercise caution.' The Afghan Taliban would take revenge for the deaths, the group said in an e-mailed statement to media. 'The so-called American peacekeepers have once again quenched their thirst with the blood of innocent Afghan civilians in Kandahar province,' the Taliban's statement read. The shooting comes after weeks of tense relations between U.S. forces and their Afghan hosts following the burning of Korans and other religious materials at an American base. Though U.S. officials apologised and said the burning was purely accidental, the incident sparked violent protests and attacks that killed some 30 people and a host of anti-American protests. Six U.S. troops have been killed in attacks by their Afghan colleagues since news of the Koran burnings came to light. . . ............................................................... OBAMA 'DEEPLY SADDENED' BY 'SHOCKING' AFGHAN SHOOTING . ....................................... img code photo ... President Obama i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/11/article-2113410-120DFC... AP ....................................... . President Obama issued a statement Sunday saying he is 'deeply saddened' by the 'tragic and shocking' killing of Afghan civilians by a U.S. soldier. He said: 'This incident is tragic and shocking and does not represent the exceptional character of our military and the respect that the United States has for the people of Afghanistan.' The president also vowed to 'get the facts as quickly as possible and to hold accountable anyone responsible.' ............................................................... . . ............................................ img code photo ... i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/11/article-2113410-121F10... Age of innocence: Afghan boys sit on the ground near the scene where Afghans were killed by a U.S. service member AP ............................................ . ............................................ img code photo ... i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/11/article-2113410-121F91... Furious: Afghan civilians gathered outside the military base today; tensions between the U.S. and Afghanistan have been tense at best for the past decade AP ............................................ . In the capital, meanwhile, Mr Karzai said the government still expects to sign a strategic partnership agreement with the United States by the time a NATO summit convenes in Chicago in May. The agreement would formalize the U.S.-Afghan relationship and the role of U.S. forces in Afghanistan after NATO's scheduled transfer of security responsibility to the Afghan government at the end of 2014. 'The so-called American peacekeepers have once again quenched their thirst with the blood of innocent Afghan civilians in Kandahar province.' -Afghan Taliban But Mr Karzai stressed the importance of foreign forces leaving Afghanistan to preserve the country's national sovereignty. Any international forces that remain after 2014 would have to operate under strict guidelines governing their responsibilities and when they could leave their bases, he said. 'We have a strong army and police, so it is to our benefit to have good relations with the international community, not have international troops in our country,' Mr Karzai said at a public event in Kabul. . ....................................... img code photo ... i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/11/article-2113410-1219E4... Retaliation: The political and religious party Jamat-e-Islami burn an effigy of President Obama in response to Koran burnings last month at a NATO base, heightening tensions Reuters ....................................... . The president has demanded that international forces stop night raids on the homes of suspected militants as a condition to signing the strategic partnership agreement. The raids have caused widespread anger among Afghans. All foreign combat troops are slated to withdraw by end of 2014 from a costly war that has become increasingly unpopular. . ........................................ img code photo ... Prominent Afghan women's rights activist Malalai Joya i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/11/article-2113410-121F27... Assassination attempt: Prominent Afghan women's rights activist Malalai Joya said a gunman tried to take her life Sunday AFP / Getty Images ........................................ . Also Sunday, a prominent Afghan women's rights activist said gunmen attacked her office in a western province in an apparent assassination attempt. Malalai Joya, a former Afghan lawmaker and vocal critic of both the Taliban and of criminality in the Afghan government, said the attack on her office in Farah province was the sixth attempt on her life to date. Armed men tried to storm the compound before dawn on Saturday, she said. The attackers did not get into the building but two of her guards were seriously injured and are currently in the hospital. Ms Joya said she was in Kabul at the time but had planned a trip to Farah soon and news of that may have leaked out. She said she believes the attackers thought she was in the building. The shooting spree took place in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province this morning. Captain Justin Brockhoff, Nato spokesman confirmed a U.S. service member had been detained following the attack. The wounded are receiving treatment at a medical base and U.S. forces are investigating the shooting with Afghan authorities. . . ............................................................................................................................................................................................. . .

Gabrielle Giffords moves to the Animal Farm
Image by SS&SS Animal Farm Comes to Arizona By Jeffrey Lord on 1.25.11 @ 6:08AM "At Memorial Hermann, it means not being satisfied with the current state of medicine. It means doing all we can to save more lives and improve clinical outcomes." --Statement from Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston where Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has been transferred for treatment "I don't think that we can make judgments based on peoples' spirit. That would be a pretty subjective decision to be making. I think we have to have rules…" -- President Obama on ObamaCare "Some animals are more equal than others." -- George Orwell in Animal Farm Talk about irony. For the most unexpected of reasons, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a supporter of Obamacare, may well become a popular symbol of the reason to repeal it. Outside of a lone, extremely disturbed man in a Tucson jail cell, there is no one who doesn't wish Congresswoman Giffords well in her fight to recover from a gunshot wound to the head. But there's something else that is, however uncomfortable, necessary for the rest of America to discuss. Thatsomething has nothing to do with talk radio, Fox News, Rush, Sean, Mark, Glenn, O'Reilly, Sheriff Dupnik, civility or gun control. The issue at hand is the reality of Obamacare in practice. More plainly put: Animal Farm has come to Arizona. Animal Farm, the classic 1945 George Orwell best seller as the Cold War fight against Communism and socialism dawned, was the allegorical novel of animals (the socialists of the piece) capturing Manor Farm from the "drunken incompetent farmer" -- men were the capitalists in the story. An old boar named Major gathers the animals together to tell of a dream in which all animals live together equally without human oppression, and his dream is codified after he dies into a set of principles called "Animalism." A revolution ensues, the farmer is driven off, and Manor Farm is renamed by the revolutionaries who now run the place "Animal Farm." It was a thinly disguised story of the Soviet Union, the battle between capitalism and socialism described in the day as "a brilliant satire…a frightening view of the future." After the death of Major, the animal revolution is led by younger pigs named Snowball, and Napoleon (the animal versions of Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin) who have "gained control of the revolution." Then, as actually happened in the struggles for control of the real life Soviet "workers paradise" the animals "fought each other for the mastery" of the great animal (socialist) revolution. Eventually the story has certain of the animal revolution leadership becoming more like men -- the pigs begin walking upright, wearing clothes, brandishing whips and drinking alcohol. They begin plotting with their human counterparts and eventually the rank-and-file animals are shocked to realize all of their "commandments" about animal equality are vanishing. They learn the hard way that all the wonderful socialistic rhetoric of animal equality aside, in fact the reality of socialism comes down to one iron reality: "Some animals are more equal than others." The story wound up being a precise foreshadowing of what lay ahead for the Communist and socialist world and why, by 1991, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the nations that composed what Ronald Reagan termed "an evil empire" collapsed. The principle illustrated in the Orwell tale, coincidentally, is exactly the main topic following the new GOP-controlled House repeal of ObamaCare -- and the Senate's refusal to even discuss the issue. Here's a very cold fact. The announcement by the Congresswoman's family that they were moving her from Tucson to the TIRR (The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research) Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston this past Friday raises the obvious question about the Ruling Class medicine that is Obamacare. Indeed, the very optimistic hospital bulletins that the Congresswoman is responding well to treatment -- one MSNBC story from news wire reports said that Giffords' attempts to give husband Mark Kelly a neck massage demonstrated "that his wife is improving and that her spirit and their personal bond remain strong…" doesn't just raise a question, it begs the question. That question? If Gabrielle Giffords were not part of the governing elite -- the Ruling Class -- with this serious of a wound, a gunshot to the brain -- under ObamaCare would she be receiving this kind of A-triple plus treatment? Or, would she instead be receiving the treatment President Obama himself insisted must be required for average Americans when he said: "I don't think that we can make judgments based on peoples' spirit. That would be a pretty subjective decision to be making. I think we have to have rules…" Rules. Government rules. And it is precisely Gabby Giffords' "spirit" that is being cited in news stories as evidence of her progress. A clear violation of the President's insistence that medical decisions can't be "based on peoples' spirit…we have to have rules." Unless, apparently, one is Gabby Giffords -- or, in fairness to Giffords -- Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Member of the Ruling Class Gabby Giffords. So let's ask the question that is at the moment too challenging for some.. The question that went straight to the heart of Orwell's Animal Farm warning. If Congresswoman Giffords were not a 41-year-old Ruling Class Member of Congress but, say, an 81-year-old unknown middle-class woman in otherwise good health living in the Bronx and hit by the same gunshot wound to the head in a robbery, would she not be at risk of facing what Sarah Palin calls the "death panels" of Obamacare? Which is to say, government rationing? Instead of being transferred on an Air Force jet to Houston, accompanied by her surgeon, for decidedly expensive treatment (not to mention the transfer itself and the care already received) under Obamacare, wouldn't she or her family be facing the decision that is implicit in President Obama's own words that, well, there have to be rules about this kind of thing? Instead of Obamacare, Giffords is being whisked to a facility that the Washington Post describes thusly. Giffords will have a private room "in the most private wing of the hospital." Yet, in decided Animal Farm fashion, this is presented as the only "VIP" treatment she will receive. "We don't have VIP here" says Gerard Francisco, whom the Post describes as "the rehabilitation center's chief medical officer." Then, without the slightest sense of irony, not unlike Animal Farm's Squealer presenting the latest propaganda from his Comrade boss Napoleon, the Post reports on what is to come for Giffords. She was flown to Houston from Tucson, than taken by helicopter to the hospital. Upon arrival she received a check-up to see if she suffered any trauma during the trip. Once settled, Gifford will be working out in a specially designed gym (one of a half-dozen available in the facility.) There she will have full access to what Francisco proudly called his "toys -- a bevy of high-tech exercise equipment, muscle stimulators and robotic devices designed to help patients regain muscle control, coordination and cognition." The Post kept going, writing glowingly of "the therapeutic pool, which includes a hydraulic lift to help injured patients into the water. There is a body-weight treadmill, on which patients are strapped to a harness that supports them while they walk (hospital staffers also provide assistance). There are special recumbent stationary bikes that pulse electrodes into patients to stimulate muscles. And there is a tilting table, to which patients who have trouble standing are strapped so they can slowly be adjusted into a standing position." In sum, happily burbled Washington's Ruling Class ObamaCare-supporting paper: "the atmosphere was not unlike that of a typical neighborhood health club." Well. Added to all this is another, related news story out of the House. Freshman Representative Joe Walsh of Illinois -- a Tea Party enthusiast who upset the GOP Establishment to win both the primary and a general election victory over Democrat incumbent Melissa Bean -- has announced that he has refused the cushy health care coverage given to members of Congress. Presumably the same plan or variation thereof that is now benefiting Congresswoman Giffords in her Animal Farmish stay at the Houston rehab hospital. Walsh, decidedly not wealthy and with a wife who has a pre-existing health condition, went out and bought his own plan -- and also turned down the congressional pension plan. Said he: "I don't think congressmen should get pensions or cushy health care plans," In concert with the treatment of Congresswoman Giffords, this will surely raise the question of why Members of Congress get fancy health coverage paid for by taxpayers in the first place. Being elected to Congress was never designed as a "job" in the sense that everyone else has employment (if that is, they have it in this rule by Obamanomics with its almost 10% unemployment rate). Giffords' husband's job as an astronaut and therefore as a NASA employee is easily considered a federal employee -- a job. Hers, decidedly, is not. So the Walsh announcement raises a pointed question for his Republican colleagues -- and especially his fellow freshman. When will they force Members of Congress to buy their own health plans as is Walsh? How strong is the tea in the Tea Party? Will there be a demand to throw Animal Farm-style health care for Members over the side of the ship as the original Boston Tea Party did with the literal tea of the day? Again, everyone wishes the Congresswoman and her family well. But as the shock of this brutal episode recedes her treatment is already certain to make of her a poster child for the political abuses that will inevitably occur when politicians instead of doctors and patients are in charge of health care. Not to mention when the patient in question is herself a member of the political elite -- the Ruling Class. Under these circumstances, every new bulletin about Congresswoman Giffords -- just as the amazingly unself-conscious story about her rehabilitation in the Post demonstrates in spades -- will be capable of unleashing charges of Ruling Class favoritism and elitism. Undermining the frantic attempts of the Obama administration and its congressional allies to keep the deeply unpopular program in place. Cases in point? At the other end of the scale in Arizona recently were two decidedly non-Ruling Class men, Francisco Felix and Mark Price, both denied government-financed procedures under the state's Medicaid program for cost purposes. Felix needed a liver transplant, Price a bone marrow operation. The government -- in this case the state of Arizona -- had to ration care for cost purposes. Precisely the death panel argument Sarah Palin has been mocked for making about Obamacare. So -- with the government in charge of rationing care -- the two men died. There was no fancy transit to a fancy hospital (non-VIP, but of course) somewhere else in America for Francisco or Felix. No "typical neighborhood health club" atmosphere designed to assist. No. What faced Francisco and Felix was death by government bureaucrat, a shocked Felix's wife saying: "How does one person have the right to decide who's going to live and who's not?" On Animal Farm, the elites have exactly that right. Would the results have been different for Arizonans Francisco Felix and Mark Price if they were Washington and Arizona Ruling Class favorite Gabrielle Gifford? What do you think? In point of fact, even in the private health care system politicians have no hesitation in trying to skirt the existing rules. In October 2008, Fred Baron, the "King of Toxic Torts," was told he had days to live. Struggling with a multiple myeloma since 2002, Baron also had connections -- he was a considerable fundraiser for Democrats. in fact, it would be revealed that it was Baron who supplied cash to Rielle Hunter, the mistress of Baron's friend John Edwards, allegedly to keep the then-pregnant mother of Edwards' love-child quiet. With time running out, no less than Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi pressured the drug company Biogen to give Baron a drug not used for bone cancer -- Tysbari -- which doctors thought might help. The rules said no. But with Pelosi calling, the FDA is said to have pressured Biogen to reverse course. Baron got his drug, quantities of which were in small supply, but it didn't help. He passed on anyway. But Pelosi's call and her results were a graphic illustration that in the world of Ruling Class medicine, some animals are more equal than others. This is precisely the socialist philosophy so effectively illustrated by Orwell in Animal Farm -- "some animals are more equal than others." It is the American health care version of the old Soviet system where dachas -- country houses -- were doled out to the Soviet ruling elite, the nomenklatura, favorites who were senior bureaucrats, scientists, writers and so on. Were you part of the Soviet elite the government provided you with everything from a larger apartment to better clothes, food, drink and transportation. If you were unfortunate enough to be part of "the masses" -- the Felix's and Price's of the Soviet Union -- too bad. It was the reality of life in a hard core socialist system, a system graphically portrayed in Animal Farm. As has been recently documented in minute detail by journalist Stanley Kurtz in his book Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism, what else could any reasonable American expect from an Obama health care plan? The President has spent his adult lifetime repeatedly associating himself with the intellectual underpinnings and the accompanying activists of the socialist world. Whether attending Socialist Scholars Conferences or Jeremiah Wright's Black Liberation-style church, whether befriending the radical Bill Ayers or representing ACORN, whether he was reading Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward or sitting on the board of the far-left Woods Charitable Fund, the President's devotion to the world described in Animal Farm is unquestionable. Not for nothing has Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann called Obamacare "the crown jewel of socialism." So it is not surprising that Obamacare is already taking America down the socialist road to a place where Gabby Giffords gets to live because she's a well-known, well-connected politician of the Ruling Class -- while Francisco Felix and Mark Price, average Americans with no political clout -- had to die. And they died because the government -- in this case the state of Arizona -- did what all governments will do: it rationed care for budgetary reasons. Is there any wonder Americans want Obamacare repealed? They are not simply requesting but demanding a free market health care system that provides high quality health care at a reasonable cost? Filled with competition, the ability to buy insurance across state lines, tort reform, letting states innovate as they see fit and the rest. The same system that they know has provided the abundant wealth of everything else in the country. They are all too acutely aware that they could be the next Felix or Price -- trapped and dying in a suffocating set of government rules that cannot possibly have any other result than the cold, uncaring results provided, Animal Farm-style, to these two badly treated Arizona men. George Orwell, of course, was British. As socialism was beginning to take over Britain at the end of the war, he wrote with urgency because he understood what was coming. Lest one think this increasing resemblance to Animal Farm is some peculiarity of Arizona, it is worth recalling yet again the saga of the British Linda O'Boyle. O'Boyle's encounter -- her fatal encounter -- with the famously socialist Ruling Class-designed British health care service that had Orwell so concerned has been headlined in Britain if not, alas, here in America. As with Arizona's Felix and Price, O'Boyle was denied a particular treatment by the government for cost purposes. So she scraped up her savings and bought the drug anyway -- at which point the government agency, furious, denied her any further "free treatment" -- and she died. The rules of Animalism had been broken, you see, and a British government bureaucrat somewhere was humiliated. So -- hasta la vista, Linda O'Boyle. On January 19, by a vote of 245-189 (as opposed to the 7 vote passage of 219-212), the new House of Representatives did what their voters had instructed them -- in a not inconsiderable fury -- to do. Repeal Obamacare. The horrifying shooting in Tucson has, in a fashion that could not be anticipated, shone the spotlight on Arizona and three traumatic cases that foreshadow the reality of Obamacare. Through no fault of her own, Gabrielle Giffords' every minutely recorded moment of treatment will add to the pressure for repeal. The most ironic of all: the better she does in the recovery process the more Obamacare's flaws will show. Said the New York Times in 1945 -- the New York Times of 1945 was considerably different than the leftist propaganda machine of today -- Animal Farm provided "a devastating attack on the pig-headed, gluttonous and avaricious rulers in an imaginary totalitarian state." No one is remotely suggesting Gabby Giffords is a wannabe Napoleon. The heart of a nation goes out to her and to her family, wishing her a speedy recovery. But it is a fact that the devastating attack that so gravely wounded her and so many others is now going to shine a fierce spotlight on the gross deficiencies inherent in the Ruling Class medicine that is Obamacare. And as every day goes by it will become increasingly clear that Gabby Giffords isn't from Arizona at all. She moved to Animal Farm. Where the rest of us are supposed to join her. No thanks. spectator.org/

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