Stories from 2002-01-27

"Afghans have challenged U.S. accounts of a firefight, claiming U.S. Special Forces soldiers killed the wrong people ó sleeping in a school ó during a raid in which the Pentagon said a Taliban weapons cache was destroyed and about 15 people killed." [more]

"Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai is starting a visit to the United States amid growing controversy over the continuing American-led military campaign. Villagers in eastern Afghanistan have been protesting at the US bombing, which they say is killing not Taleban fighters, but ordinary civilians. They want Mr Karzai to call for the raids to stop while he is in Washington." [more]

"By December ... when the war in Afghanistan was well under way, the share of factual coverage overall had fallen to 63 percent — a level 'lower than those seen in the middle of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal,' according to [a] study. Analysis, speculation and outright opinion picked up the slack." [more]

"Breaking with other cabinet officials, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has asked President Bush to declare that the United States is bound by the Geneva Conventions in its treatment of the captives in Afghanistan and at Guant·namo Bay, Cuba, administration officials said today. Seeking a review of a presidential decision made nine days ago, when the administration determined that the captured fighters were not prisoners of war and hence not fully protected by the Geneva Conventions, Mr. Powell and his lawyers at the State Department urged Mr. Bush to affirm that the international law of war does govern the United States' treatment of all captives of the Taliban military and the terrorist network Al Qaeda." [more]

"Interestingly, while Walker is being provided a trial in the United States, hundreds of his comrades in arms have been denied any such 'luxury'. Many across the world should have been relieved to see Walker enter the courtroom without handcuffs or fetters. No one, however, seems to be concerned about the fate of hundreds of al Qaeda and Taliban captives being kept in Cuba precisely so they cannot approach a court of law." [more]