Propaganda: NYT Justifies US Afghan Hospital Bombing

by Stephen Lendman

Almost daily, The Times finds new ways to disgrace itself. Instead of full and accurate reporting, it fronts for imperial lawlessness – making it complicit with high crimes of war and against humanity.

Its administration and Pentagon press release “journalism” is an open cesspool of misinformation, distortion and Big Lies – all propaganda all the time on issues mattering most.

Its latest willful deception headlines “Hospital Attack Fueled by Units New to Kunduz,” saying:

“The American airstrike against a Doctors Without Borders hospital in northern Afghanistan…was approved by American Special Operations Forces normally assigned to other parts of Asia.”

“The Afghan commandos who requested the strike had been rushed from another part of the country to help quell the Taliban attack. And the AC-130 gunship that unleashed the fire had not worked with either group before.”

“Military investigators have not yet reached any final conclusions about how the Oct. 3 attack in Kunduz occurred, but an emerging focus of investigators is how the lack of familiarity of American and Afghan forces with the area and their lack of experience in working together may have directly contributed to the series of mistaken decisions that led to the attack, American officials said.”

“They attributed those problems, in part, to the withdrawal of American forces from northern Afghanistan that has been part of the gradual drawdown of United States forces in the country.”

No legitimate editor would publish this type rubbish – willful distortion of facts, ignoring clear evidence of a premeditated war crime, horrific by any standard, a vicious bandit act carried out by a rogue state, authorized at the highest levels, contemptuous of human lives and welfare, continuing over 14 years of naked aggression against a nation threatening no one.

Fact: US warplanes knowingly and deliberately bombed what they knew was a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital – treating sick and wounded Afghans, not involved in fighting.

Fact: High-ranking US and Afghan officials in Washington and Kabul had precise coordinates of the facility – identified as a hospital, not a military outpost or refuge.

Fact: Multiple US attacks continued for over an hour – ignoring MSF’s frantic plea to stop, moments after the first strike, telling Pentagon and Afghan authorities a hospital was being hit, medical personnel and patients alone inside.

Fact: Attacking the facility was a well-planned, premeditated, willful act of mass murder – 24 victims, medical staff and patients only, some burned alive in their beds, 37 others injured.

The only medical facility available for thousands of Afghans was destroyed. They have nowhere to go for treatment, assuring many will die and suffer grievously because of Washington’s act of savagery.

The Times report mocks them, ignoring 14 years of US Afghan war crimes. Post-9/11, millions of Afghans died from war-related violence, untreated diseases, starvation, exposure to freezing cold in winter and overall deprivation – deliberate premeditated genocide, the highest of all high crimes.

An unnamed MSF nurse called what happened “absolutely terrifying.” People were screaming for help while the hospital was being destroyed, turned to rubble and set ablaze by US airstrikes.

“We tried to take a look into one of the burning buildings,” said the nurse. “I cannot describe what was inside. There are no words for how terrible it was. In the Intensive Care Unit, six patients were burning in their beds.”

“We looked for some staff that were supposed to be in the operating theater. It was awful. A patient there on the operating table, dead, in the middle of the destruction. We couldn’t find our staff.”

Wounded patients were “crying out, everywhere.” Surviving doctors had to operate on their colleagues, trying to save them. Many died.

“Some of my colleagues were in too much shock, crying and crying.” The horror was too much to bear. Doctors, nurses and other medical staff worked tirelessly for months, at times non-stop, treating patients urgently needing care.

They hadn’t been home for months. Many are now dead – murdered by US imperialism, humanity’s greatest scourge, ISIS and other takfiri terrorists pale in comparison.

“I cannot find words for this,” said the nurse. He survived. Many of his colleagues died. MSF demands a full independent investigation, conducted by the Geneva-based International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC) – the only permanent body established to investigate international humanitarian law violations.

It rejects Washington, NATO and Afghan authorities investigating themselves – assuring whitewash, not truth and full disclosure of what happened.

It called on Obama and Afghan officials to permit it, a requirement for it to proceed, so far not gotten. Last week, MSF reported a US armored vehicle forced its way through the closed wrecked hospital’s gate unannounced – destroying and/or damaging evidence of the malicious attack.

MSF press officer Tim Shenk explained it, saying “(t)heir unannounced and forced entry damaged property, destroyed potential evidence and caused stress and fear for the team.”

Photographs show charred human remains, damaged or destroyed medical equipment, and a facility largely in ruins.

With or without an independent investigation, the whole world knows what happened. Washington knowingly and willfully committed a grievous war crime, mass murdering noncombatant civilians, the way all US wars are waged – without mercy, violating fundamental international law, civilian men, women and children suffering most.

The Times is complicit with Washington’s coverup – publishing Pentagon propaganda, suppressing vital truths.

A Final Comment

On July 3, 2015, MSF reported the following:

“On Wednesday 1 July at 14:07, heavily armed men from Afghan Special Forces entered the MSF hospital compound, cordoned off the facility and began shooting in the air.”

“The armed men physically assaulted three MSF staff members and entered the hospital with weapons. They then proceeded to arrest three patients.”

“Hospital staff tried their best to ensure continued medical care for the three patients, and in the process, one MSF staff member was threatened at gunpoint by two armed men.”

“After approximately one hour, the armed men released the three patients and left the hospital compound.”

“We are shocked by this incident,” MSF director of operations Dr. Bart Janssens said at the time. “Since it opened in 2011, Kunduz Trauma Centre has been a place where all patients can receive free medical and surgical care safely. This serious event puts at risk the lives of thousands of people who rely on the centre for urgent care.”

MSF called what happened “an unacceptable (serious) breach of international humanitarian law, which protects medical services from attacks” – this one carried out with full knowledge and likely authorization of US officials, running everything in Afghanistan, its puppet regime subservient to US rule.

 

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.

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