Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2001 9:16 PM
Subject: MFD List - Where the Bodies Are

(The unfortunate victims in all of this are, as usual, the innocent
citizens. Some may say that the citizens of Afghanistan are not innocent
because they allow a terrorist regime to rule their nation, but the argument
can be reversed, saying that American citizens are not innocent because they
allow governments to attack and interfere in these other countries.
Regardless of the validity and justification of the attacks that incited the
animosity that led to this, it is not reasonable in either case to blame,
and punish, innocent civilians for the actions of their government. Most
people are just trying to get by, to make a living, to feed their loved
ones. Right now in Afghanistan civilians are being killed, while they are
sleeping in their beds, trying to work to buy food, and sometimes trying to
help others. This 'collateral damage' will almost certainly incite more
animosity and add fuel to the fire of the terrorists propaganda, possible
having serious repercussion down the line for us. But ignoring the
consequences, these are people, and they are being killed. There is no way
to tell for sure the validity of these accounts, but given the nature of the
attacks and the weapons used, it is likely that a lot of civilian life has
been and will be lost. I would like to see the US try to alleviate the
suffering of the civilians more. There is not much information being let
out about the military operations in the middle east, so it is difficult to
speak intelligently about what could be done. But given the number of
people that have been and will be displaced by these attacks, which are,
purpotedly, against terrorism and not the people of afghanastan, would it
not be reasonable for the US to set up and maintain refugee camps for the
victims and homeless. Providing basic sustinence, and, most importantly,
safety from bombs, this would significantly impact the morale and attitude
of the citizens unfortunate to live in these areas. In addition, efforts
should be made to rebuild the economy and domestic infrastructure in afghans
tan following these campaigns, much like the efforts made following World
War II in Germany and Japan. - Mike)

Where the bodies are
----------
AlterNet
by Geov Parrish
"[T]he scope of the civilian destruction the U.S. is creating
(in Afghanistan) is only starting to become clear. ... [T]he
stories are leaking out, mostly in the Islamic press but also
in Europe -- but, notably, not in the United States." (10/23/01)

http://www.free-market.net/rd/317500290.html

Where the Bodies Are
Geov Parrish, WorkingForChange.com
October 23, 2001
Viewed on October 24, 2001

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Last week, when President Bush traveled to Shanghai for an APEC meeting, his
first venture outside the country since Sep. 11, a few American reporters
noted that some Chinese are skeptical of the current U.S. bombing campaign
in Afghanistan because of the "mistaken" U.S. strike of the Chinese Embassy
in Belgrade two years ago. The U.S. claimed it had relied on outdated
information.

But what virtually nobody -- at least in the United States -- has reported
is that in the two most publicized instances of civilian death in the
two-week-old Afghanistan campaign, the exact same thing appears to have
happened. And that's only the tip of the iceberg. As survivors and refugees,
and their stories, have begun to trickle into Pakistan, the scope of the
civilian destruction the U.S. is creating is only starting to become clear.

In the first abominable incident, four men died when the offices of a United
Nations agency, the Afghan Technical Consultants in Kabul, were bombed on
October 9. The Pentagon has said that the ATC was near a military radio
tower, but U.N. officials say the tower was a defunct and abandoned medium
and short wave radio station that hadn't been in operation for over a
decade. The ATC had even given its address to higher-up U.N. officials to
pass on to the U.S. military, so that it would be spared. One of the
victims, Abdul Saboor, had arrived only two hours before after volunteering
to make the perilous trip from Pakistan into Afghanistan on foot to deliver
much-needed cash salaries to U.N. employees so that they could eat. The cash
was incinerated along with the offices.

The second incident of mistaken identity was far worse. Independent
witnesses have now confirmed that in the northern village of Karam, between
100 and 200 people -- mostly women, children, and old people -- were killed
when bombers made repeated passes and flattened the village during early
evening prayers. This time, the Pentagon said that Karam was once a training
camp for Al-Qaeda. In fact, the site was used to train mujahideen during the
1980s and was run by Sadiq Bacha to train members of the Hezb-i-Islami
faction, with CIA support. Some of those men later joined the Taliban, but
the base was never used by Al-Qaeda. It was closed and abandoned in 1992,
before bin Laden moved to Afghanistan. In the 1990s, families moved in and
built mud and rock houses on the site. During the winter, nomads also made
Karam their temporary home.

Karam is now gone. It's impossible to know how many other villages have
shared its fate, since the Taliban have expelled all western reporters and
Pakistan has closed its border with Afghanistan, making it hard for
reporters to get into the country. Both the U.S. and the Taliban have
incentives to understate casualties. Pakistani border guards are beating
Afghani refugees with sticks and firing guns at them to keep them from
crossing into Pakistan, where their eyewitness accounts may further enrage
the Pakistani populace.

But a few are making it in, and the stories are leaking out, mostly in the
Islamic press but also in Europe -- but, notably, not in the United States.
Here is a small collection of the civilian deaths told to reporters so far.
None of these accounts come from Taliban sources; all are from refugees and
Western or Pakistani reporters.

In Jalalabad, the Sultanpur Mosque was hit by a bomb during prayers, with 17
people caught inside. Neighbors rushed into the rubble to help pull out the
injured, but as the rescue effort got under way, another bomb fell, killing
at least 120 people.

In the village of Darunta near Jalalabad, a U.S. bomb fell on another
mosque. Two people were killed and dozens--perhaps as many as 150
people--were injured. Many of those injured are languishing without medical
care in the Sehat-e-Ama hospital in Jalabad, which lacks resources to treat
the wounded.

More civilian deaths are being reported in the villages of Torghar and
Farmada, north and west of Jalalabad. At least 28 civilians had died in
Farmada, which has an abandoned Al-Qaeda training camp nearby.

In Argandab, north of Kandahar, 10 civilians have died from the bombing and
several houses have been destroyed. The same has happened in Karaga, north
of Kabul.

A five-year-old child was killed while sleeping in his family's home outside
Kandahar when two bombs fell on a munitions storage area half a mile away.
The explosion threw shells and rockets in all directions and one of those
shells smashed through the mud-brick wall of his bedroom, slicing open young
Taj Muhammed's abdomen and burning his six-year-old sister, Kambibi. Taj
suffered for 12 hours at a nearby hospital before he died.

On Oct. 7, the first night of the bombing, at least one private residence in
Kabul suffered a direct hit and others were damaged. The U.S. also destroyed
the Hotel Continental in the city's center. On the same night, bombs were
dropped on the houses of Taliban leaders in Kandahar. Two civilian relatives
of Mullah Muhammad Omar were killed: his aged stepfather and his 10-year-old
son.

On Oct. 8, the second night of the bombing, three missiles were aimed at the
airport in Jalalabad, but only one hit the target. The other two went astray
and exploded nearby, killing one civilian, and injuring a second so severely
that he was driven to a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, to have shrapnel
removed from a deep wound in his neck and his spinal injuries treated. He's
not expected to survive. A third 16-year-old boy injured in the same attack
was also taken to a hospital in Peshawar; he lost his leg and two fingers,
and he says that many more people were injured and may have died in the same
incident.

On Oct. 11, a bomb aimed at the Kabul airport went astray and hit
Qala-e-Chaman, a village one mile away, destroying several houses and
killing a 12-year-old child. On the same night, another missile hit a house
near the Kabul customs building, killing 10 civilians.

As of Oct. 12, the U.N. had independently reported at least 20 civilian
deaths in Mazar-i-Sharif and 10 civilian deaths in Kandahar.

On Oct. 13, Khushkam Bhat, a residential district between Jalalabad airport
and a nearby military area, was accidentally bombed by U.S. planes trying to
down a Taliban helicopter. More than 100 houses were flattened. At least 160
people were pulled from the rubble and taken to hospitals. In Kabul,
witnesses described a huge fireball over the Kabul airport, indicating
either the possible use of fuel-air bombs, which can cause destruction over
a wide area, or the bombing of an enormous fuel storage facility which can
have the same effect. Casualties are not yet known.

On Oct. 16, two bombs fell on two Red Cross warehouses in the center of
Kabul. The warehouses, bombed in full daylight, were clearly marked with red
crosses on their roofs. U.S. spokesmen claim that the warehouses were hit
because there were military vehicles parked nearby. They were Red Cross
transport trucks.

On Oct. 17, a bomb scored a "direct hit" on a boy's school in Kabul, but
fortunately didn't explode. A U.S. plane, however, dropped a bomb at Mudad
Chowk, a residential area of Kandahar, which did explode, destroying two
houses and several shops, and killing at least seven people. In Kabul, four
bombs fell near the city center; casualties are still unknown.

On Oct. 18, a bomb killed four members of a family in the eastern suburb of
Qalaye Zaman Khan when it demolished two homes. A half mile away, another
bomb exploded in a housing complex, killing a 16-year-old girl. The U.N.
reported that Kandahar had fallen into a state of "pre-Taliban lawlessness,"
with gangs taking over homes and looting shops. By the next day, according
to the U.N., at least 80 percent of Kandahar's residents had left the city
to escape the bombing. They are swamping the surrounding villages, where
there are no resources to care for them. Some have moved on to the border
and crossed into Pakistan. One refugee said that there are bodies littering
the streets of Kandahar and people are dying in the hospitals for lack of
drugs. "We know we will lead a miserable life in Pakistan, in tents," he
said. "We have come here just to save our children."

The civilian death toll is probably in the thousands, and sure to rise with
two new developments. U.S. Air Force pilots may now fire "at will" -- at
anything they desire, without pre-authorization from strategists peering at
satellite and surveillance photos. In fact, there are now regions of the
country that have been designated "kill boxes," reminiscent of Vietnam's
"free-fire zones" but without benefit of advance warning to Afghanis. Kill
boxes are patrolled night and day by low-flying aircraft with the mission to
shoot anything that moves within the area.

American planes are also now dropping cluster bombs, an anti-personnel
weapon that disperses small bomblets over a wide area -- essentially,
hundreds of flying landmines, slicing through people, cars, trucks, and even
certain types of buildings. About 8-12 percent of the brightly-colored
bomblets don't explode on impact, leaving behind attractive but deadly toys
for children to play with later.

Or, maybe the United States will drop a food packet on top of one. With
winter coming on and an estimated seven million at risk of starvation,
there's not much time left to kill civilians before they start dying on
their own.

Thanks once more for the special Sunday research help from my Eat the State!
co-editor, Maria Tomchick.