I have said for almost three years that everything is going to be made very transparent. That everything- all the corruption, the fraud, etc...- needs to be made completely visible to the world....
In the past month, the "Visibility" has reached a whole new level. The question is: WILL PEOPLE PAY ATTENTION?
I said on the Oct 5th One People's Roundtable Discussion that the line has been very clearly drawn in the sand. That, in my opinion, there are very clearly now two separate groups of people on this planet: Those who are awake, waking up, or about to waken. And those that will not.
I know that sounds extremely harsh and "judgmental" , but in the conversations I have been witnessing and taking part in, the over whelming data is that there are huge groups of people who are, seemingly, incapable of SEEING or COMPREHENDING what is going on around them. They literally will not LOOK at ANYTHING that is not in their paradigm of belief- they physically will turn away, their eyes glaze over, and they will radically change the subject or walk away.
I
honestly think that we could use just this one point- this one topic-
as a litmus test for humanity. The complete absurdity of the "Climate
Change" rhetoric and agendas is so completely asinine, in that THEIR OWN
STATEMENTS contradict themselves- this is the perfect barometer to look
at whether people have any chance of shaking the mind numbing koolaid
out of their brains and actually use them to logically deduce the
bullshit that the "Climate Change" Schtic is.
THIS is yet another Litmus Test. If people can read these next articles and can NOT SEE, NOT COMPREHEND what has, and is, being done right now- right in front of them......
.... then they are in the "forever asleep" group on this planet.
d
US Rejects Hospital Bombing Investigation, Instead Smashes into Hospital in Tank, Destroying Evidence
After changing its story many times, the US now admits that
it intentionally threw bombs, for more than an hour, at the now famous
Doctors Without Borders hospital, proving accurate the assessment of DWB
staffer Meinie Nicolai, who said the US attack was “a premeditated massacre.”
Since initial US claims that the protected DWB hospital was a
“Taliban stronghold” and so forth have been debunked as stupid, the US
now claims it targeted the hospital because one man, a “Pakistan
Inter-Services Intelligence spy”, was inside.
However, Glenn Greenwald points out that the US puppet government in
Afghanistan has had it out for DWB for some time because they treat
patients indiscriminately, whereas US allies like Israel,
for example, discriminate between patients, treating Al Qaeda fighters
while targeting members of the UN-recognized Syrian government: “Israel
has opened its borders with Syria in order to provide medical treatment
to Nusra Front and al-Qaida fighters wounded in the ongoing civil war,
according to The Wall Street Journal.”
On October 14th, an “international panel” announced that
it was “ready to investigate the deadly US [hospital] bombing”, but
would need “assurances from Barack Obama and the Afghan president,
Ashraf Ghani, that their governments [would] comply.”
The US rejected the initiative for the investigation, and instead, on October 15th, sent soldiers to smash up the bombed hospital with a tank, “destroy[ing] potential evidence” for the war crimes investigation.
To explain this, the US announced that the tank was carrying the US’s own “investigators”.
In the mean time, a whistle-blower has released classified documents on
Obama’s global assassination ring that illustrate gross recklessness
and confirm that almost one hundred percent of the people being killed
are not actual targets – though targeting people and executing them is
also criminal.
US tank enters ruined Afghan hospital putting 'war crime' evidence at risk
MSF says ‘forced entry’ by military vehicle – later said to be
carrying investigators into the US airstrike that killed 22 patients and
staff – caused stress and fear
Doctors of MSF and citizens move the debris of the hospital in Kunduz damaged by the US airstrike on Thursday.
Photograph: Waqif Nasirahmad/Demotix/Corbis
A US tank has forced its way into the shell of the Afghanistan
hospital destroyed in an airstrike 11 days ago, prompting warnings that
the US military may have destroyed evidence in a potential war crimes investigation.
The 3 October attack on the Médécins sans Frontières (MSF) hospital
in Kunduz killed 10 patients and 12 staff members of the group.
In a statement on Thursday, the medical charity, also known as
Doctors Without Borders, said they were informed after Thursday’s
“intrusion” that the tank was carrying investigators from a
US-Nato-Afghan team which is investigating the attack.
“Their unannounced and forced entry damaged property, destroyed potential evidence and caused stress and fear,” MSF said.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on
the reported intrusion, which came as new evidence emerged that US
forces operating in the area at the time of the attack knew that the
facility was a hospital.
US special operations analysts were gathering intelligence on the
hospital days before the attack, because they believed a Pakistani
operative was using it as his base, according to areport by the
Associated Press citing an unnamed former intelligence official.
The analysts had mapped the area and drawn a circle around the
hospital, the official was quoted as saying. The Pakistani man,
described both as a Taliban suspect and as a worker for the Pakistani
Inter-Service Intelligence directorate, was killed in the attack, the
official told the AP.
Of the nearly 200 patients and staff inside the hospital at the time of the attack, more than three dozen were wounded, said
MSF, which has called the attack a violation of the Geneva Conventions
and a war crime. The group has said some patients burned to death in
their beds.
Several investigations of the attack are considering whether the
separate American teams involved – special operations analysts,
intelligence community officers, the military command that ordered the
strike – knew the facility was a hospital, whether they gave warning of a
strike and what was happening on the ground at the time.
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It
is unclear whether the analysts’ knowledge that the facility was a
hospital was shared by the command that launched the attack. MSF said
GPS coordinates identifying the hospital had been shared with US,
coalition and Afghan military officers and civilian officials “as
recently as Tuesday 29 September”.
Michael Newton, a West Point graduate and an expert on conduct of
hostilities issues at Vanderbilt Law School, listed questions a Defense
Department investigation would seek to answer.
“There’s somebody in some part of the force that knows that’s a
prohibited target,” Newton said. “The question then is, what are the
fire control measures over that place?
“If they were followed, were they adequate? If they weren’t followed,
why weren’t they followed? And underneath that, there’s two things.
Either, one – they were misapplied. Or, two, there was an exception.”
An example of an exception would be a case of self-defense, Newton said.
The Pentagon originally said the hospital was struck in the course of
a firefight involving US troops. General John Campbell, the top US
officer in Afghanistan, later said the strike on the hospital was a mistake.
The Pentagon declined further comment on Thursday, citing ongoing investigations.
The Defense Department, Nato and the Afghan government are conducting parallel investigations of the attack, while MSF has called
for an inquiry by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding
Commission, or IHFFC, a never-before-used investigative commission under
the Geneva conventions.
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“It
is impossible to expect the parties involved in the conflict to carry
out independent and impartial investigations of acts in which they
themselves are implicated,” said MSF in the statement on Thursday. “The
preservation of health facilities as neutral, protected spaces depends
on [an independent investigation].”
US and Afghan consent is needed for the IHFFC investigation to proceed. MSF launched an online petition on Thursday calling on President Barack Obama to consent.
The White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, said on Thursday that he was
“not aware” of the Associated Press report. He declined comment on who
gave the order for the strike on the hospital or the motivation for the
attack.
“All of those are questions that will be considered by the ongoing
Defense Department investigation,” Earnest said. “The president’s
expectation is that he will see a full accounting of these facts in
context.”
Newton said the Pentagon investigation would be drawing on a wealth of evidence.
“There’s a limited time frame here, it’s a discrete incident, there
would be radio logs or at least handwritten notes of radio traffic – I
think they’ll absolutely get every relevant fact,” he said.
Newton said the White House silence on the issue of whether the attack could constitute a war crime was appropriate.
“People say, ‘Why won’t the president just call it a war crime, why
won’t the secretary of defense just call it a war crime, let’s be
honest, that’s what it was’,” said Newton. “The answer is, because in
the US military it is a separate offense – unlawful command influence –
if higher-level political officials or military officials prejudge a
case and start talking about it in public.”
“What actually happened on the ground? That’s the unanswered question.”
By Claire Bernish of AntiMedia
Had the President of Nobel Peace Prize-winning Doctors Without
Borders not warned us of the “imminent threat to global health” posed by
the TPP, would these 22 doctors and patients have lost their lives
early Saturday? “I don’t know exactly how long, but it was maybe half an hour
afterwards that they stopped bombing. I went out with the project
coordinator to see what had happened. What we saw was the hospital destroyed, burning,” describednurse Lajos Zoltan Jecs of the U.S. bombardment of a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan.
Harsh criticism and skepticism surround what is being labeled an
errant U.S. bombardment of a hospital in Kunduz that left 22 people dead
— many of them volunteers with Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders, the humanitarian aid agency) — but doubt lingers about the vague official story for a reason. Doctors Without Borders Calls Airstrike a War Crime
“Why did they have to blow up the whole hospital?” pleaded Nasratullah,
whose 25-year-old cousin Akbar was among doctors killed in the
bombing.“We know that the Americans are very clever. If they can target a
single person in a car from their planes, why did they have to blow up
the whole building?”
The ostensible explanation according to rumor centered on reports
Taliban forces had entered the location and were using the cover of the
hospital to fire on coalition forces.
Christopher Stokes, MSF General Director, irately stated, “Not
a single member of our staff reported fighting inside the MSF hospital
compound prior to the U.S. airstrike Saturday morning. The hospital was
full of MSF staff, patients, and their caretakers. It is 12 MSF staff
members and ten patients, including three children, who were killed in
the attack.”
Is something being overlooked?
“U.S. forces conducted an airstrike in Kunduz City at 2:15 am
[local time] on 3 October against individuals threatening the force. The
strike may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical
facility. This incident is under investigation,” stated international coalition spokesperson, Col. Brian Tribus.
“This attack is abhorrent and a grave violation of international humanitarian law,” declared MSF President, Meinie Nicolai. “We
demand total transparency from coalition forces. We cannot accept that
this horrific loss of life will simply be dismissed as ‘collateral
damage.’”
Reports from the scene indicate MSF had not only notified all warring
parties in the region of the exact GPS coordinates for the hospital and
its outlying buildings, but that doctors immediately notified forces
the moment the hospital came under fire from a U.S. airstrike — and,
even then, the attack continued for a full 30 minutes.
Stokes found that suggestion wholly inadequate, adding:
“Under clear presumption that a war crime has been committed, MSF
demands that a full and transparent investigation into the event be
conducted by an independent international body. Relying only on an
internal investigation by a party to the conflict would be wholly
insufficient.”
So why did the attack continue, much less happen in the first place? Doctors Without Borders Vocally Opposes the TPP
If circumstances of any incident appear not to add up, it’s pertinent
to thoroughly examine the current narrative for signs the State is
attempting to mold public opinion — because it is there you will find
the truth that you’re not being told.
In the case of MSF, a massive treaty cum trade deal involving U.S.
interests in another part of the world from the tragedy in Kunduz can
offer, perhaps, insight which might otherwise seem unrelated. As
it turns out, MSF have been particularly vocal critics of the impending
Trans-Pacific Partnership — and their criticism hasn’t gone unnoticed.
As reported in the National Journal in May: “It’s not usual business for us, and the reason is because we’re very worried,” explained Judit Rius Sanjuan, whooversees Doctors Without Borders drug access campaign, in a phone interview. “We are doing anything we can to make sure the public is aware.”
Though the Nobel Prize-winning group has actively but reservedly
opposed the massive TPP deal for years, recent letters to President
Obama and a campaign of subway ads on the D.C. Metro show a more urgent,
public push. Sanjuan admitted such a robust effort “is not usual
practice for us.”
What is so pressing for the public to know that it led the group to abandon its typically subdued tone?
Simply, drug costs. Specifically, the intellectual property and patent laws that will favor drug companies should the TPP take effect.
Protecting Profit vs. Saving Lives
“It would force them to change the law of many of these countries
that are currently negotiating to create new intellectual property
protections for pharmaceutical drugs, including but not limited to
patents,” Sanjuan explained about the deal as exposed by WikiLeaks in 2013. “The effects of these new obligations would limit generic competition and therefore increase the cost of medicine.”
This has put Médecins sans Frontières “at odds with the White House,” as the National Journal delicately described. A recent letter to Obama from MSF clearly alluded to the humanitarian nature of the group’s opposition to the trade deal:
“MSF believes this is essential to closing the gap in
access to medicines to millions of people around the world. The TPP
could be an opportunity to make significant progress toward these goals.
Instead, in its current state, the TPP is a threat to the health of
millions.”
As evidenced in the Kunduz hospital bombing and numerous military
campaigns in the Middle East and elsewhere, the human toll likely isn’t
the priority first called to mind by the U.S. government.
Profit, on the other hand, must be protected no matter the human cost.
After this attack, MSF decided to pull its operations from Kunduz for the foreseeable future. As Jecs lamented, “The hospital, it has been my workplace and home for several
months. Yes, it is just a building. But it is so much more than that. It
is healthcare for Kunduz. Now it is gone. What is the benefit of this?
Destroying a hospital and so many lives, for nothing. I cannot find
words for this.”
With the number of questions being raised, we will continue to look into the incident further.
* * *
Doctors Without Borders released a statement following the conclusion of TPP negotiations in Atlanta: “Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) expresses
its dismay that TPP countries have agreed to United States government
and multinational drug company demands that will raise the price of
medicines for millions by unnecessarily extending monopolies and further
delaying price-lowering generic competition. The big losers in the TPP
are patients and treatment providers in developing countries. Although
the text has improved over the initial demands, the TPP will still go
down in history as the worst trade agreement for access to medicines in
developing countries, which will be forced to change their laws to
incorporate abusive intellectual property protections for pharmaceutical
companies.”
I believe that a year from now, we will look back and see this week as the definitive marker that shows us the radical shift in the political alliances and the turning of the Tides against the American Empire.
The Air Strike by the US, against a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, has struck a never before seen chord in the International Community. Never before have we witnessed this type of response to what in reality is commonplace: ie, the US bombing (whether "by accident" or on purpose) of a Civilian building in the war zones of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, or Syria.
The outcry by international organizations, Countries, and The United Nations was almost instantaneous, AND the response of US military commanders in the area which show very clearly that they KNEW what they had done AND understood the ramifications, has played out so quickly that my head was literally spinning yesterday.
As I posted on Facebook:
THIS IS A MAJOR PIECE. This is the FIRST time the US has EVER
admitted to this type of action, THIS fast. Something MAJOR has happened and the Shift in Politics is PRONOUNCED.
The head of UN human Rights- a Jordanian PRINCE-has said:
‘Inexcusable, possibly even criminal’: UN rights chief says Kunduz
bombing may be war crime
A WAR CRIME!!!!!!!
The political shift is Vastly Visible when a Jordanian Prince (Jordan being, albeit unofficially, a vassal creation of the US), in his official position of United Nations Human Rights Chief, uses the words "Criminal" and "War Crimes" to describe the bombing of the hospital:
"This deeply shocking event should be promptly, thoroughly and
independently investigated and the results should be made public," al-Hussein said in a statement. "The seriousness of the incident is underlined by the fact that,
if established as deliberate in a court of law, an airstrike on a
hospital may amount to a war crime."
More reports and information coming to light about this attack leaves some very big questions Unanswered:
"All parties to the conflict, including in Kabul and Washington, were
clearly informed of the precise location (GPS coordinates) of the MSF
facilities," the statement added.
MSF said the aerial raid hit the
main hospital building housing the intensive care unit and emergency
rooms, while the surrounding buildings were left untouched.
NATO
conceded US forces may have been behind the strike on MSF, which has
long treated the war-wounded from all sides of the conflict.....
"There was a pause, and then more bombs hit. This happened again and
again. Those people that could had moved quickly to the building's two
bunkers to seek safety. But patients who were unable to escape burned to
death as they lay in their beds."
The soot-blackened building was filled with the smell of burning flesh and some bodies were charred beyond recognition
“The Taliban are taking and evacuating their wounded fighters to the
hospital for treatment,” said Laghmani, who said the militant group
still controls most of the city. “It was the only advanced hospital” in
the area.
....Sultan Arab, a local police commander in Kunduz,
said the hospital came under an airstrike “because the Taliban had
shifted their command center inside the hospital.”
Ahhhhhhh! Of course the American's Spin doctor the story as "Terrorists" being INSIDE the hospital, using it as a command outpost.... Which is pure bullshit, and has been vehemently denied by Doctors Without Borders, who ran the hospital. But the greater question that immediately came to my mind, based on all the information that has been put out in the past two days......
MSF’s hospital is the only facility of its kind in the whole
northeastern region of Afghanistan, providing free life- and limb-saving
trauma care. MSF doctors treat all people according to their medical
needs and do not make distinctions based on a patient’s ethnicity,
religious beliefs or political affiliation.
Question: who was being treated in that hospital at the time of the bombing?
Only the ICU and Emergency Rooms were hit... over and over again. .....the rest of the hospital was left virtually untouched. THIS was not "Accidental".
I will be watching this VERY closely.....
d
Suspected US airstrike hits hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan
Live updates
A hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz has been hit and
partially destroyed in an overnight “aerial attack” that killed at least
12 Medecins Sans Frontieres staff. NATO has admitted a US airstrike may
have caused accidental “collateral damage.”
04 October 2015
07:38 GMT
MSF has left Kunduz, according to the group’s
communications manager, Kate Stegeman, following Saturday’s deadly
airstrike. She added that that some of the medical charity’s staff had
been working in other health facilities in the city.
00:02 GMT
In a brief statement released by the White House, President Obama has extended his “deepest condolences” to the victims of the “tragic incident at a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz.” “The Department of Defense has launched a full investigation, and
we will await the results of that inquiry before making a definitive
judgment as to the circumstances of this tragedy,” read the statement, notably not featuring the terms “airstrike” or “attack” anywhere in the text.
While the US President expects a full account of the facts and circumstances surrounding the “incident,” he expressed Washington’s intention to continue to “work closely” with the Afghan government as they “work to secure their country.”
03 October 2015
21:25 GMT
Ivan Eland from the Center on Peace and Liberty
at The Independent Institute told RT that the tragedy in Kanduz should
show the US that it needs to pull out all its troops from Afghanistan “once and for all.”
20:25 GMT
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly
condemned the airstrikes in Kunduz that resulted in the death and injury
of medical workers and patients at a MSF hospital. He called for a
thorough and impartial investigation into the attack in order to ensure
accountability. “The Secretary-General recalls that hospitals and medical
personnel are explicitly protected under international humanitarian law,” the statement attributed to Ban said.
He commended the courageous and dedicated staff of the organization
and extended his deepest sympathies to the families of the victims.
19:56 GMT
The World Health Organization (WHO) released a
statement extending condolences to the families and colleges of those
killed and injured in the bombing.
19:25 GMT
The US military said in a statement on Saturday that its air forces conducted a strike “in the vicinity” of a Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital in Kunduz. “US forces conducted an air strike in Kunduz city at 2:15am
[local time], Oct 3, against insurgents who were directly firing upon US
servicemembers advising and assisting Afghan Security Forces in the
city of Kunduz. The strike was conducted in the vicinity of a Doctors
Without Borders medical facility,” said Gen. John F Campbell, commander of US forces in Afghanistan. “I am aware of an incident that occurred at a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz city today,” he added.
18:42 GMT
MSF said in a statement that the hospital was
bombed by a series of aerial raids at approximately 15 minute intervals.
The bombs “very precisely” and “repeatedly” hit the main central hospital building, housing the intensive care unit, emergency rooms, and physiotherapy ward, it added.
“The bombs hit and then we heard the plane circle round,” said Heman Nagarathnam, MSF’s head of programs in northern Afghanistan.“There
was a pause, and then more bombs hit. This happened again and again.
When I made it out from the office, the main hospital building was
engulfed in flames. “Those people that could had moved quickly to the building’s two
bunkers to seek safety. But patients who were unable to escape burned to
death as they lay in their beds.”
18:24 GMT
NATO’s Secretary General has expressed his condolences to all those affected by the bombing of the hospital in Kunduz. “I am deeply saddened by the tragic incident involving a Doctors without Borders hospital in Kunduz,” Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement on Saturday. “I
extend my condolences to all those affected.A US investigation into
this tragic incident is underway in coordination with the Afghan
government.”
18:24 GMT
NATO’s Secretary General has expressed his condolences to all those affected by the bombing of the hospital in Kunduz. “I am deeply saddened by the tragic incident involving a Doctors without Borders hospital in Kunduz,” Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement on Saturday. “I
extend my condolences to all those affected. A US investigation into
this tragic incident is underway in coordination with the Afghan
government.”
18:03 GMT
The head of the US-led forces in Afghanistan,
General John Campbell, has offered his condolences to Afghan President
Mohammad Ashraf Ghani after the bombing of the hospital in Kunduz, the
Afghan president’s office has reported, as cited by Reuters. Reuters previously reported that Campbell had apologized to Ghani. However, it later corrected the statement.
16:37 GMT
MSF said “all indications” suggest US-led forces carried out the bombing. "All indications currently point to the bombing being carried out by international Coalition forces," it said in a statement. "MSF
demands a full and transparent account from the Coalition regarding its
aerial bombing activities over Kunduz on Saturday morning."
16:30 GMT
The International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) said two of its medical staff had been helping at the MSF
facility in Kunduz, but they weren’t harmed in the bombing.
16:17 GMT
MSF said the death toll in the bombing has risen
to 12 staff members and at least 7 patients. It added that 37 people
were injured, including 19 staff members.
15:35 GMT
The US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter says
Washington is still trying to determine what happened in the airstrike
that hit the Afghan hospital. "A full investigation into the tragic incident is under way in coordination with the Afghan government," Carter said in a statement.
He said the area around the hospital had been the scene of intense
fighting in recent days with US forces supporting Afghan Security Forces
against Taliban fighters.
15:33 GMT
Eltaf Najafizada, a freelance journalist for RT,
found out about the death of his friend Aminullah Salarzai on social
media. He had worked at the hospital as a doctor.
“It’s a
really sad moment concerning the death of my friend. He was in his 20’s
and was engaged. He worked as a physician at the Doctors Without Borders
hospital. He was loved by all those around him. I really miss him.”
15:29 GMT
TheUN Human Rights chief, Zeid Raad al-Hussein says the bombing of the hospital in Kunduz was “utterly tragic, inexcusable and possibly even criminal.” He has called for an investigation into the incident, Reuters reports. "This deeply shocking event should be promptly, thoroughly and
independently investigated and the results should be made public," al-Hussein said in a statement. "The seriousness of the incident is underlined by the fact that,
if established as deliberate in a court of law, an airstrike on a
hospital may amount to a war crime."
14:43 GMT
Medecins Sans Frontieres has tweeted that 16
people were killed: nine staff members, seven patients, and three
children. The medical charity adds that 37 people have suffered
injuries, including 19 staff members of whom five are in a critical
condition.
14:42 GMT
The head of the US-led forces in Afghanistan,
General John Campbell, has apologized to the Afghan President Mohammad
Ashraf Ghani after the bombing of the hospital in Kunduz, the Afghan
president’s office has reported, as cited by Reuters.
14:23 GMT
An MSF doctor, as cited by the Guardian, is
reporting that 20 members of the medical charity have been killed. The
doctor told the publication that eight nurses, three doctors, six
security guards, two cleaners and a pharmacist were among those killed.
14:22 GMT
Amnesty International has condemned the bombing
of the hospital in Kunduz, saying the loss of life was “deplorable” and
that the matter needed to be “urgently and impartially investigated. “This bombing of the MSF hospital in Kunduz marks a dark day for
humanitarianism. It is sickening to think that doctors and other staff
have had to pay with their lives while trying to save others. Hospitals
are places of sanctity under international law governing conflict,” said Horia Mosadiq, Afghanistan Researcher at Amnesty International. “There must be a full, independent and transparent investigation
into how and why this bombing took place. The US military should not be
jumping to conclusions without first fully getting to the bottom of how
this happened.”
12:59 GMT
A Medecins Sans Frontiere official has stated the
medical charity was frantically trying to phone NATO as Washington
bombed the medical hospital for almost an hour, Reuters has reported. The official, who asked not to be identified, said the first bomb
landed at 2:10am and MSF staff called NATO officials in Kabul at 2:19am
and military officials in Washington a few minutes later. The bombing
continued until 3:13am. The organization said they would release a statement shortly.
12:16 GMT
A Middle East expert, Willy van Damme, has called
on the US to own up to their mistake of allegedly firing a missile at
the hospital, saying that no one else could have been responsible. “They knew the coordinates very well as they were communicated
several times to the US and NATO by Medecins Sans Frontieres. If I was a
US General or Barack Obama, I would admit to what has happened and not
say ‘we are investigating.’ There is only one air force operating over
there. There is no Chinese Air Force or Taliban Air Force,” he told RT.
11:59 GMT
RT’s London correspondent Eisa Ali has been
looking into what the reliance on US airstrikes could mean for the
future of Afghanistan, with the country still struggling to hold its own
against the Taliban. “It was around this time last year that we saw, with much pomp
and ceremony, the withdrawal of UK involvement in Afghanistan. After
more than a decade of war in Afghanistan, it had been heralded as a
so-called victory in nation building. Yet we have now seen a militant
group able to take a city of around 300,000 people, while the Afghan
forces are only able to push them out with air support. “The US are scheduled to leave in 2016, but it raises many
concerns amongst observers that if we have situations like this, what
will the future be for Afghan forces and will they be able to hold the
country together in the face of an organized Taliban onslaught.”
11:16 GMT
RT’s video agency Ruptly has footage of the
hospital, which was allegedly struck by a US airstrike, in which nine
members of Medecins Sans Frontieres were killed.
11:12 GMT
Susan Harrington, a public affairs officer with the United States Air Force, has told RT: “It would be inappropriate for us to comment at this time as we do not want to jeopardize the integrity of the investigation.”
This followed a questioned posed to NATO from RT, which wanted to
know whether the alliance had indeed received the hospital’s GPS
location or any other details from MSF before the attack took place, as
the agency had claimed.
10:47 GMT
Fighting has been taking place around Kunduz
in the north of Afghanistan for the last week, after Taliban militants
seized control of the city, which is seen as their biggest victory since
the insurgency began 14 years ago.
Government forces said they have managed to regain control of parts of the city, while the Taliban have sought refuge in local residents’ homes.
10:42 GMT
The UN’s special representative in Afghanistan, Nicholas Haysom, has condemned the “tragic and devastating airstrike” on the hospital, calling on all parties to “respect and protect medical and humanitarian personnel and facilities.” “Hospitals accommodating patients and medical personnel may never
be the object of attack, and international humanitarian law also
prohibits the use of medical facilities for military purposes. I commend
Medecins sans Frontieres for their work. Our condolences are with them,
their patients, family and friends,” he said.
10:40 GMT
MSF has stated that the bombing at the hospital continued 30 minutes after Kabul and Washington were “clearly informed of the precise location” of the organization’s facilities. The agency added that the precise locations had been communicated to all parties “on multiple occasions” over the past months, with the latest update being on September 29. “The bombing continued for more than 30 minutes after American
and Afghan military officials in Kabul and Washington were first
informed. MSF urgently seeks clarity on exactly what took place and how
this terrible event could have happened,” a statement from MSF read.
10:26 GMT
Meanwhile Neha Thakkar, a media officer for the International Red Cross, has spoken to RT. “This is a grave violation of humanitarian law and of course it
is going to impact our ability. The MSF and IRC have the ability to
reach out to the people of Afghanistan who really need medical
attention, especially in Kunduz where of course the crossfire is still
ongoing,” she said. “If hospitals are being targeted then it makes our work practically impossible,” Thakkar added.
09:43 GMT
MSF has issued a statement, saying, “It is
with deep sadness that we confirm so far the death of nine MSF staff
during the bombing last night of MSF’s hospital in Kunduz.” “Latest update is that 37 people were seriously wounded during the bombing, of whom 19 are MSF staff,” the organization added. “There are many patients and staff who remain unaccounted for.
The numbers keep growing as we develop a clearer picture of the
aftermath of this horrific bombing,” MSF concluded.
09:17 GMT
MSF medical staff are continuing their work, performing emergency surgery on the wounded.
09:03 GMT
Dominik Stillhart, director of operations at the
International Committee of the Red Cross, has expressed his condolences
for those who died and suffered in the strike.
08:42 GMT
Wahidullah Mayar, spokesman for the Afghan
Ministry of Public Health, has posted details on those wounded in the
strike on his Twitter account.
07:47 GMT
The US formally wrapped up its combat mission in
Afghanistan at the end 2014, but some 10,000 US troops stay in the
country. American forces are supposed to leave Afghanistan by the end of
2016.
Talat Masood, a retired lieutenant-general of the Pakistan Army,
thinks there's a good chance U.S. soldiers will end up staying for
longer.
06:34 GMT
At least sixty people were killed and around 400
wounded in the fighting in Kunduz since Monday, the spokesman for the
Ministry of Public Health, Wahidullah Mayar, wrote on his Twitter
account. The government says 200 Taliban fighters were killed.
05:53 GMT
Dr Masood Nasim, who was leading the MSF medical
team at trauma hospital in Kunduz, said on Thursday that his facility
has been at the front line since the hostilities began on September 28. “Early on Monday morning, I came to MSF’s hospital here in Kunduz
after hearing the sound of shells falling. By midday our hospital was
on the frontline, with fighting right outside the gate. You could hear
the sound of shelling, rockets and airplanes. Some bullets have come
into the hospital, some even through the roof of the intensive care
unit,” Nasim said.
05:40 GMT
Adil Akbar, a doctor at the hospital who was on
duty at the time, told AP that the operating theater, emergency room and
other parts of the hospital complex had been struck in the bombing. "I managed to escape after attack but I know that most of the staff and even some of the patients are missing," he said.
05:36 GMT
At the time of the attack, there were over 80
personnel, both local and international, inside the building, threating
over 105 patients. “We do not yet have the final casualty figures, but our medical
team are providing first aid and treating the injured patients and MSF
personnel and accounting for the deceased,” MSF said.
05:23 GMT
Three MSF staff have been confirmed dead, while
more than 30 are unaccounted for, according to the organization’s
official statement.
05:07 GMT
Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said they were “deeply shocked by the attack, the killing of our staff and patients and the heavy toll it has inflicted on healthcare in Kunduz”.
05:00 GMT
The airstrike happened in Kunduz at 2:15am on Saturday, according to NATO coalition spokesman Colonel Brian Tribus. “The strike may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility,” he said. “This incident is under investigation.”
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/06/2015 13:53 -0400
