From
AP via AOL News
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (May 31) - They fed them well. The Pakistani tribesmen slaughtered a sheep in honor of their guests, Arabs and Chinese Muslims famished from fleeing U.S. bombing in the Afghan mountains. But their hosts had ulterior motives: to sell them to the Americans, said the men who are now prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
Bounties ranged from $3,000 to $25,000, the detainees testified during military tribunals, according to transcripts the U.S. government gave The Associated Press to comply with a Freedom of Information lawsuit.
Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. Over.
Okay, now, lets give the benefit of the doubt to Bush Admin for just a moment, and say that these are uncorroborated stories by "people who hate America".
Except...they're backed up by an ex-CIA guy who was in the thick of it and has a book published on the CIA's work in Afghanistan.
A former CIA intelligence officer who helped lead the search for Osama bin Laden told AP the accounts sounded legitimate because U.S. allies regularly got money to help catch Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. Gary Schroen said he took a suitcase of $3 million in cash into Afghanistan himself to help supply and win over warlords to fight for U.S. Special Forces.
"It wouldn't surprise me if we paid rewards,'' said Schroen, who retired after 32 years in the CIA soon after the fall of Kabul in late 2001. He recently published the book "First In: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan.''
Schroen said Afghan warlords like Gen. Rashid Dostum were among those who received bundles of notes. "It may be that we were giving rewards to people like Dostum because his guys were capturing a lot of Taliban and al-Qaida,'' he said.
It's also backed up by previous AP reports!
In March 2002, the AP reported that Afghan intelligence offered rewards for the capture of al-Qaida fighters - the day after a five-hour meeting with U.S. Special Forces. Intelligence officers refused to say if the two events were linked and if the United States was paying the offered reward of 150 million Afghanis, then equivalent to $4,000 a head.
That day, leaflets and loudspeaker announcements promised "the big prize'' to those who turned in al-Qaida fighters.
Said one leaflet: "You can receive millions of dollars.
This is enough to take care of your family, your village, your tribe for the rest of your life - pay for livestock and doctors and school books and housing for all your people.''
Helicopters broadcast similar announcements over the Afghan mountains, enticing people to "Hand over the Arabs and feed your families for a lifetime,'' said Najeeb al-Nauimi, a former Qatar justice minister and leader of a group of Arab lawyers representing nearly 100 detainees.
So obviously, these aren't just baseless claims by "people who hate America." And if these aren't baseless, I'm starting to become more inclined to believe the ones saying they were abused, as well.
And meanwhile, Bush and Cheney keep calling allegations absurd, and refuse to have open, public investigations of these human rights abuses and allegations.
How can we expect to gain and keep the respect of the world when we employ the same tactics as the countries we condemn?