“America’s Monster”: How a U.S. Ally Kidnapped, Killed & Tortured Hundreds in Afghanistan

this news is funded by viewers like you please support our work at democracynow.org this is democracy Now democracynow.org The War and Peace report I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez we end Today's Show on the US war in Afghanistan major investigation by the New York Times into the role of one of America's most important allies in the war against the Taliban a man named Abdul razak the times writes quote for years American Military leader lionized aak as a model partner in Afghanistan their if only Ally in the battle against the Taliban if only everyone fought like aak we might actually win this war American commanders often said he ruled over the crucial battleground of Kandahar during a period when the US had more troops on the ground than in any other chapter of the war ultimately rising to Lieutenant General thanks to the backing of the United States American General cycling through Afghanistan made Regular pilgrimages to visit him praising his courage as ferocious War fighting and the Loyalty he commanded from his men who were trained armed and paid by the United States and its allies the New York Times continues quote but to countless Afghan civilians under his Reign razak was something else entirely America's monster unquote according to the times investigation razak who was assassinated in 2018 built a success on years of torture extrajudicial killing and abduction he was responsible for the largest known campaign of forc disappearances during America's 20-year war in Afghanistan New York Times journalists Matthew Akin and Asam Ahmed spent more than a year on the investigation traveling across Afghanistan going through thousands of documents their article headlined America's monster have the us back kidnapping torture and murder in Afghanistan Matthew Akens joins us now from Cambridge Massachusetts contributing writer for the New York Times magazine and a fellow at tip Media Center who is covering conflicts in Afghanistan in the Middle East since 2008 his second piece on Abdul razak in the New York Times magazine is titled America's monsters who was Abdul razak uh Matthew welcome back to democracy now well why don't we start there who was this man what is his record and why did the US back him well I first encountered Abdul rozik in 2009 when I was just a young freelance journalist newly arrived in the region and I was in the Border Lands between Afghanistan and Pakistan I by chance met some drug traffickers who introduced me to rozik he wasn't much older than I was he was barely 30 but he was already the commander of the Border Police there he um and his tribal militia were fighting fiercely against the Taliban but also their tribal enemies and had gotten the backing of the United States so that's how he began that's how he got his start as the leader of a militia on the border but by 2011 um as the US surged the thousands of extra troops ordered by Barack Obama um arrived in country rosik was appointed police chief of Kandahar province which is a very strategic province in southern Afghanistan um focus of the Surge and so he became a key partner of the United States um at the centerpiece of this strategy and he ruled over not just that Province but eventually became uh the most powerful man in the South one of the most powerful in the entire country became very popular to those who hated the Taliban um and he was finally assassinated in 2018 by a Taliban undercover uh Hitman and when that happened he was standing next to the top US general in the country General uh Austin Scott Miller who lauded him afterward as a great friend and Patriot and and you note that uh despite uh or be in spite of or because of his brutal methods he was also effective in so uh in pacifying or or controlling uh a significant portion of the territory that he was in charge of you talk about that absolutely this is a paradox that I want to investigate with my stories we want to show the extent of his crimes you know that this happened at this scale which we did but I also want to understand why because you know the US Military um they had this hearts and Minds strategy where they were supposed to win over the population because this wasn't this war against the Taliban a gorilla War wasn't a battle between armies for terrain it was a war over population right so the idea was that they had to win over Afghan heart and minds but to support someone like rosik who committed such brutality would seem to fly in the face of that it seems like a paradox but what I discovered is actually this is very often how these wars are waged whether they're by you know brutal dictatorships like Syria or by the French and Algeria the US and Vietnam these counterinsurgencies these small Wars often involve tremendous violence against civilians because they Wars over for control of the population where both sides you know they they threaten people they they murder them they tortured them in order to get them to cooperate or at least not support the enemy the Taliban did that they committed violence against civilians and so did rozik and in many ways he did the Dirty Work that the US couldn't allow itself to do couldn't Adit to itself it was doing um but that was nevertheless effective and so this violence this brutality it had a logic it had a reason um it it benefited certain people and that's one thing I really wanted to show with this piece and also you obtained new documents through the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit and other sources what did they reveal about how much the US government knew about the atrocities that were being Comm committed by rosik I mean they showed that the US was aware of his uh drug trafficking and his involvement in massacres going back to at least 2006 and there were repeated instances where these kinds of abuses came to the US's attention so we got documents that showed that but I also spoke to uh the top us officials in the country General John Allen fourstar General Ambassador Ryan Crocker they both told me they've been aware of these allegations against rosik General Allen actually stopped handing over prisoners to rosik in 2011 after he saw evidence that um rosik had and his forces had murdered and tortured prisoners but the US contined to work with him General Allen's subordinates continued to work with rzx side by side because he was just so effective in the war um that they thought they didn't have any other choice and so they they worked with him despite knowing about these abuses Matthew you met with survivors of torture inside Ric's prisons visited morgs uh where corpses had been exhumed from Desert Graves one caption on a photo accompanying your New York Times investigation reads quote Mass Graves have been discovered in Kandahar but under us pressure the international criminal court has deprioritized investigations into abuses committed by forces like rzx uh can you explain further well you mentioned earlier in your segment you know the targeting you know of ICC officials by the Israeli government that we now are hearing about well let's not forget that President Trump also imposed sanctions against the ICC prosecutor Fatu B suda and that was mostly in response to the threat that the ICC would investigate war crimes uh committed by US forces and by us-backed Afghan government forces in Afghanistan and so when the new prosecutor came in Kim Khan he said that he was going to deprioritize that he was going to focus on the Taliban um who of course have committed their own uh war crimes against civilians and the same thing is happening now with the UN I think there's this um eagerness to turn the page and and you know close this chapter this shameful chapter um in American history among a number of parties and to to focus on the Taliban but I think it's a tremendous mistake not to learn from the lessons the hard lessons of America's longest war um because there are some very troubling Revelations not just that these crimes were committed but as I said because they're committed for a reason because these kind of things work in this kind of war that there are reasons why um you know militaries historically commit violence against civilians in these kinds of irregular conflicts and of course we live in an Agee of ir regular Warfare most conflicts that happen worldwide are not between armies on battlefields but are you know Guerilla Wars or in you know internal Civil Wars so it's absolutely vital that we have a Reckoning with the past in my opinion and that's what we've been trying to do we've been going back now because there is a lack of fighting in the country there's relative peace we're able to get out on the ground and travel to areas that were hard to access before and get to the bottom of what really happened these last 20 years and you're also right that Ric's brutality was uh according to you quote stirred such enmity in parts of the population that the Taliban turned his cruelty into a recruiting tool broadcasting it to attract new Fighters obviously against the US occupation could you elaborate well rosik was basically the poster child for uh brutality by the us back government um for the Taliban right he was famous he he was it was a civil war so you know he was beloved by one side and hated by the other and um the you know that was undoubtedly an important recruiting tool for the Taliban but we have to remember the Taliban they won right and they were incredibly brutal towards civilians so there is this assumption I think a comforting one a belief that we have that brutality backfires that it won't work and so brutality doesn't work then then it then the discussion is over right there's no temptation to use it um but as a matter of fact it does work in some circumstances there is a temptation to use it and it's clear that the Taliban brutality did not prevent them from taking over Afghanistan so we're really trying to take a deeper look at what really happened and why the US backed rosik why he succeeded why ultimately the Republic failed um but I think one important reason why the Republic collapsed is because of a kind of dishonesty and criminality that was attached to this sort of brutality so the Taliban were open about their brutality they Justified it you know in terms of resistance against a um foreign occupation and in terms of nationalism and religion whereas because Afghanistan was supposed to be a democracy that respected human rights what rosic was doing um had to be hidden it had to be carried out by criminals it bred a deeper criminality and it also bred a kind of wishful thinking and self- delusion on the part of the United States I spoke to a lot of us officers who worked with rosik and Well on one hand they knew what was going on like everyone knew what was going on on the other hand they found excuses and ways to say that it wasn't happening under their watch or they weren't sure and that kind of self- delusion and Wishful Thinking on a larger scale on many issues I think is part of the reason why um the US failed in Afghanistan despite spending 20 years there and so many hundreds of billions of dollars I mean that is really the key point that you take away and the whole issue of what it means when the US backs a kidnapper a well-known murderer you're talking about hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of victims in Afghanistan your final thoughts in this last 30 seconds we have as you conclude that it is part of why the US lost the war in Afghanistan well I think that it's time to have a Frank Reckoning with our history and I hope that we'll continue to do this this isn't the last story we're working on a series and we're going to be speaking with people who want to to speak about the truth because I think it has a lot to say about the other Wars that are happening right now around the world and so we need to take those lessons um from our own democracy Now is funded by viewers like you please give to today at 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Channel: Democracy Now!

Views: 126,797

Keywords: Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, News, Politics, democracynow, Independent Media, Breaking News, World News

Id: FoIQuXea4os

Length: 13min 3sec (783 seconds)

Published: Wed May 29 2024