Veteran War Reporter Flames U.S. on Twitter for Backing a Torturer
If you want to know what's happening in Afghanistan, read Matthieu Aikins. If you want to know what torturous executing enforcer the U.S. military is working with to keep the peace in Afghanistan, follow Matthieu Aikins on Twitter.
This morning, a new report in the New York Times detailed how the force led by that torturer, Kandahar police chief Gen. Abdul Raziq, likely killed and desecrated a 23-year-old man over the weekend, the latest in his three-year campaign to brutalize perceived and suspected terrorists.
Raziq's reign is a subject near and dear to Aikins' heart; the Polk Award-winning journalist profiled him critically in 2011 linking the chief to mass murder. Yet since then, Raziq has gotten more power and prestige from the U.S. military.
So after reading the Times piece, Aikins vented his righteous, informative frustration in a 12-part "Twitter essay":
1. Who is this man and why does the US military like him so much? Time for a Twitter essay on torture in Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/hM8fwjgyfx
— Matthieu Aikins (@mattaikins) May 13, 2014
2. In 2011, I wrote on police chief Abdul Raziq's involvement in torture, executions, and an outright massacre. http://t.co/vvVg9KT773
— Matthieu Aikins (@mattaikins) May 13, 2014
3. I provided photos and eyewitness testimony. For example, I met a young man who had been electrocuted by his toes. pic.twitter.com/G1XmJLgwV5
— Matthieu Aikins (@mattaikins) May 13, 2014
4. Result? Thanks to US military support, he's a Major General. Here he is cuddling with the #2 US general in Feb. pic.twitter.com/hM8fwjgyfx
— Matthieu Aikins (@mattaikins) May 13, 2014
5. Mealy-mouthed reporting hasn't helped. In March, WSJ referred to Raziq's abuses as "sometimes unorthodox methods". http://t.co/owwD0LtFHg
— Matthieu Aikins (@mattaikins) May 13, 2014
6. Under the Leahy Amendment, it's illegal for the US to fund human rights abusers. Kandahar police salaries are mostly paid for by the US.
— Matthieu Aikins (@mattaikins) May 13, 2014
7. UN reported in-depth on torture in Afghan prisons and cites "a persistent lack of accountability" as the problem. http://t.co/owgwvyibtu
— Matthieu Aikins (@mattaikins) May 13, 2014
8. Even State lists "torture and abuse of detainees" first as significant rights problem in Afghan country report. http://t.co/QVgsxu3ajN
— Matthieu Aikins (@mattaikins) May 13, 2014
9. In 2012, I caught NDS and police torturing school girls into false confessions. Yep, torturing school girls. http://t.co/fjEEJB2v7N
— Matthieu Aikins (@mattaikins) May 13, 2014
10. In summary, the NYT piece is just the latest on an extremely ugly problem we’re leaving to the Afghans. http://t.co/gP17vrRQnq
— Matthieu Aikins (@mattaikins) May 13, 2014
11. Any questions?
— Matthieu Aikins (@mattaikins) May 13, 2014
12. Oh, PS: Kandahar's second-most-prolific torturer ended up in a nice house in California, and no one will say how. http://t.co/4XilELcuEP
— Matthieu Aikins (@mattaikins) May 13, 2014
This is a good genre for smart rants. Here's hoping Aikins and more journalists use it.
As for Raziq, our dependence on men like him in Iraq and Afghanistan puts the lie to every jingoist knucklehead's simplistic old saw that we're over there fighting for freedom and right. We may very well may be, but freedom and right don't look quite as free and right as advertised to the American public that sanctions those fights.