In February, Hamid Karzai tried to expel U.S. Special Forces from Wardak province.
In today's [weekly] national security council meeting, Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered the ministry of defence to kick out the US special forces from Wardak ... within two weeks," Faizi said.
Faizi said "misconduct" by people linked to the US special forces in Wardak included the beheading of a student and the capture of nine missing locals.
Karzai expels US forces from Afghan province, Al Jazeera
This was over allegation of killings, disappearances, torture, and abuse by joint U.S. Special Forces/Afghan militia operations.
Two days after masked men burst in to Bibi Shereen's house and took her son away, villagers found his corpse - half-eaten by dogs - under a bridge in Afghanistan's volatile Wardak province.
"His fingers were cut off, he was badly beaten. His hands were swollen, his throat was slit," she told Reuters in her small mudbrick house.
"Why is the government not listening to our voices - why are they not stopping Americans from doing such things."
Afghan move against U.S. special forces tied to abuse allegations, Reuters
Going back to 2010, the U.S. had set up a local militia program in Wardak. The local militia programs are theoretically done with the cooperation of village and tribal elders, and in cooperation with Afghan security officials. But no one in Wardak wanted to go along with the idea.
Thomas said ISAF special operations forces in Nerkh never had a unified Afghan partner there to work with. While they had Afghan allies on the ground, including Afghan local police and sometimes Afghan special forces, Thomas said those groups never had any unified oversight on the Afghan side.
“What we did suffer from is that we were in Wardak almost by ourselves,” he said. “There was no overarching Afghan security official in charge, and we suffered from that.”
Local political tensions have negative impact on special ops in Afghan district, Stars and Stripes
So to lead the militia in Wardak, the United States settled on a former Guantanamo prisoner, and his former Taliban brother. To be able to deal financially with the brother, the United States got the United Nations to take the brother off the Taliban sanctions list.
Ghulam Mohammad and his brother Haji Musa Hotak are significant local figures with strong Jihadi credentials, having previously been involved with the Taliban and the Islamist party Harakat-i-Inqilab-iIslami. Ghulam Mohammad was detained by US Forces in 2004 and spent two years in the US military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. Haji Musa Hotak was a commander of Harakat-i-Inqilab-iIslami, a deputy minister in the Taliban government, and a member of parliament for Wardak province from 2005-2010. Hotak was delisted from the UN’s sanction list in January 2010.
Just Don't Call It a Militia, Human Rights Watch
Complaints of abuse from the militia started almost immediately.
Elders interviewed from Wardak had made a number of complaints, which they said had little impact. Ajmal B., described the activities of three commanders in his village, which included theft of money, clothing, and mobile phones at checkpoints:
We went to complain to the government. We went to the chief of police. We told them they were looting. But they said bring us evidence. I told them I didn’t have any way to film this. Ten or fifteen elders went to see them. We said this is the evidence, you should trust us.
Just Don't Call It a Militia, Human Rights Watch
The Governor of Wardak at the time was a hand-picked U.S. selection. He had
strong shadow war connections. The repeated complaints to the government, about the abuse by the joint U.S./Afghan operations, went nowhere.
Going back even further, to 2002, the United States had set up joint CIA/Special Forces/Afghan militias at Mullah Omar's old house in Kandahar, called Camp Gecko. On the Afghan side, Ahmed Wali Karzai, current National Directorate of Security head Asadullah Khalid, and our "mad dog on a leash", Abdul Raziq Achakzai, operated there. The joint operations out of Camp Gecko have been the source of the frequent torture allegations, from 2002 up to now.
Last fall, heavy fighting broke out in Wardak province. The United Sates sent up a Special Forces A team from Camp Gecko. With them came what the New York Times styles as "Mr. Kandahari".
Afghan officials have been unable to determine the complete function of the American base while it was operating, and believe that a C.I.A. team may have been responsible for Mr. Kandahari. Mr. Kandahari had been transferred to Nerkh from Camp Gecko in Kandahar, which is a C.I.A. substation.
Suspect in Torture Is Arrested in Afghanistan, New York Times
At the center of the Afghans’ accusations is an American Special Forces A Team that had been based in the Nerkh district until recently. An A Team is an elite unit of 12 American soldiers who work with extra resources that the military calls “enablers,” making it possible for the team to have the effect of a much larger unit. Those resources can include specialized equipment, air support and Afghan partner troops or interpreters. The American official said Mr. Kandahari had been an interpreter working for the team in the Nerkh district without pay in exchange for being allowed to live on the base.
Afghans Say an American Tortured Civilians, New York Times
He is an Afghan/American translator for U.S. Special Forces, and seems to have had humanitarian
He was ostensibly part of a team of Afghans working for a mine-clearing aid group, which was a cover for paramilitary activity.
Suspect in Torture Is Arrested in Afghanistan, New York Times
mine clearing cover.
Our translator/enabler/humanitarian mine clearer took to riding around Wardak, hunting insurgents from ATVs
Afghan officials give a different account of his role. They say he and others working with the team wore American-style military uniforms, but had long beards and often, bizarrely, rode motorized four-wheeled bikes on hunts for insurgents. The Afghan officials said Mr. Kandahari appeared to be in a leadership position in the unit.
Afghans Say an American Tortured Civilians, New York Times
The inquiry found that up to eight Afghan translators for American troops were operating in the northern Nerkh district of Wardak, wearing the uniforms of Afghan commandos in the national army. People had complained about abusive treatment by the group, the report said.
Afghan officials say NATO ignored complaints of abuses by U.S. Special Operations forces, Washington Post
and
Two days after masked men burst in to Bibi Shereen's house and took her son away, villagers found his corpse - half-eaten by dogs - under a bridge in Afghanistan's volatile Wardak province.
Afghan move against U.S. special forces tied to abuse allegations, Reuters
The footless corpse of an Afghan man missing since November was found on Tuesday near the former American Special Forces base to which he was last seen being taken, according to Afghan officials and victims’ representatives.
Torture Victim’s Body Is Found Near U.S. Base, Afghans Say, New York Times
dumping bodies.
Last September, Hamid Karzai sacked five of the most American-connected Governors, and replaced them with Governors more friendly to himself. The American-picked Governor of Wardak, with the shadow war connections, was among the sacked. Complaints about U.S. connected abuse in Wardak were now less likely to be ignored.
Afghan officials got ahold of a videotape of an interrogation session.
Allegedly, there’s a videotape in Afghan government hands showing a man named Zakaria Kandahari presiding over the torture of an Afghan civilian who, along with 15 others, recently disappeared from Wardak Province.
Afghans Claim to Have Video of U.S. Special Forces Guy Torturing Civilians, Wired
Leading back to the top of this diary, that in February, Hamid Karzai tried to expel U.S. Special Forces from Wardak province.
The United States took the torture allegations against itself "seriously"
Afghan officials ... said they had tried for weeks to get the coalition to cooperate with an investigation into claims that civilians had been killed, abducted or tortured by Afghans working for American Special Operations forces in Maidan Wardak. But the coalition was not responsive, they said.
Afghanistan Bars Elite U.S. Troops From a Key Province, New York Times
and assisted in getting to the bottom of the story.
Afghan officials are seeking Mr. Kandahari’s arrest on murder, torture and abuse of prisoner charges, and accuse the American military of shielding him from capture.
American military officials have insisted they do not have Mr. Kandahari and do not know where he is;
Torture Victim’s Body Is Found Near U.S. Base, Afghans Say, New York Times
An Afghan defense official now says that Zakaria Kandahari is in Afghan custody.
The arrest of Mr. Kandahari, who was sought on charges of murder, torture and abuse of prisoners, was confirmed by Maj. Gen. Manan Farahi, the head of intelligence for the Afghan Defense Ministry. He said Mr. Kandahari, who escaped from an American base in January after President Hamid Karzai demanded his arrest, was captured in Kandahar by the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan intelligence service.
Suspect in Torture Is Arrested in Afghanistan, New York Times
"Everybody knows and you should know that Zakaria Kandahari and these people with him were there with the Americans and were working for the Americans," Farahi said. "Whether they killed people on their own or were directed by the Americans to kill people, it needs extensive investigation. Now that Mr. Kandahari is in custody most of these things will become clear."
Afghanistan-American translator arrested for alleged slayings, UPI
The U.S.-connected torture suspect is now in the hands of the U.S. created and funded National Directorate of Security. I sincerely hope he is being treated humanely. But we have created, in Afghanistan, some pretty ugly things.