The Dasht-e-Leili mass grave case is garnering increased media attention, after more than seven years of investigation and advocacy by Physicians for Human Rights. A large part of the credit for the media coverage goes to early and significant coverage and analysis by blogs, many of whom are named below as part of this media round-up.
The significant new information in the case is that, according to The New York Times, the Bush Administration impeded at least three federal probes into alleged war crimes and that recent analysis of satellite images by the American Association for the Advancement of Science indicates evidence-tampering at the site where bodies are suspected to be buried in a mass grave.
In response -- and on the same weekend that The New York Times revealed what its reporter James Risen has since characterized on "Democracy Now!" as the Bush Administration's cover-up -- President Obama has ordered his national security team to collect all the facts about the Dasht-e-Leili case and report back to him.
This past weekend, Afghan warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum made a public statement denouncing front-page coverage by The New York Times as well as an August 2002 cover story on the case by Newsweek Magazine. Dostum in turn was refuted by spokespeople from Amnesty International and Physicians for Human Rights.
Sam Zarifi, the Asia-Pacific Director for Amnesty International, stated:
Dostum seems eager to head off an investigation into the events of November 2001 using a variety of arguments. One is that the U.S. military and the Northern Alliance have already looked at the allegations and rejected them. Of course, part of any proper probe would be an examination of whether any forces involved knowingly concealed information pertaining to a possible war crime, for doing so could be a violation of international law.
If, as Dostum asserts, there were investigations by the Afghan and U.S. governments, they should be made public. If their findings were accurate, Dostum should have nothing to fear from a reexamination of the facts. But the facts currently available indicate very strongly that many detainees -- possibly hundreds -- died while in the custody of Dostum's forces in November 2001 and their bodies were dumped in the nearby desert of Dasht-e Leili (adding to the numerous bodies unceremoniously deposited there by various warring factions over the past three decades).
Dostum asserts that "it is impossible that Taliban or Al-Qaeda prisoners could have been abused." In fact, preliminary investigations carried out shortly after the alleged killings by highly experienced and respected forensic analysts from Physicians for Human Rights established the presence of recently deceased human remains at Dasht-e Leili and suggested that they were the victims of homicide....
On several occasions between 2002 and 2005, I personally raised the issue of the need for investigations into this and other possible serious human rights violations with high officials of the Afghan government, the United Nations mission to Afghanistan, and the U.S. government. The consistent call at these meetings was for (1) a public statement of political will to investigate and address the serious human rights violations that have occurred in Afghanistan over the past three decades, and (2) a demonstration of practical support for such an endeavor, for instance by deploying security around suspected mass-grave sites and facilitating the work of forensic investigators.
In each case, I was told quite plainly that such investigations would not be pursued because they were not politically expedient, and because the relevant actors would not and could not guarantee the security of any investigation. Thus, even when the UN agreed in principle to allow PHR to conduct investigations in the area, security conditions prevented them from doing so.
With U.S. President Barack Obama’s announcement about an investigation, this situation might improve.
In April 2002, Physicians for Human Rights forensic experts dug a test trench as part of a preliminary investigation for the UN at the Dasht-e-Leili mass grave site near Sheberghan, Afghanistan, and exposed 15 bodies. (Physicians for Human Rights)
Since The New York Times published its dramatic investigation of a cover-up by the Bush Administration and a photo of the mass grave discovered in 2002 by Physicians for Human Rights on its front page, there has been a torrent of news stories.
Four New York Times Pieces in One Week
Four times in one week, The New York times highlighted the Dasht-e-Leili mass grave case, in pieces republished by the International Herald Tribune:
• A front-page piece by Pulitzer Prize-winner James Risen on July 11 ("US Said to Have Averted Inquiry into ‘01 Afghan Killings"), quoting Physicians for Human Rights throughout and featuring a page 1 photo of the mass grave credited to Physicians for Human Rights and made public for the first time;
• A July 13 front-page news analysis by Scott Shane ("Obama Faces a New Push to Look Back");
• A July 14 editorial citing Physicians for Human Rights ("The Truth about Dasht-i-Leili"); and
• A July 18 follow-up piece by Richard Oppel ("Afghan Warlord Denies Links to ’01 Killings").
Three Editorials in One Day
On July 14, three editorials on the Dasht-e-Leili case ran simultaneously in the pages of The New York Times, the Boston Globe ("Truth about Unsavory Allies"), and the San Francisco Chronicle ("Dirty Secrets"). Air America’s Thom Hartmann also penned an editorial ("Time to restore accountability").
Other major print coverage includes news stories published by Harper’s Magazine ("The Ghosts of Dasht-e-Leili"), the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Miami Herald. The New Yorker also highlighted the case on July 13 ("Close Read: New Crimes for Old").
The Eyes of the World and the Ear of the President
The interview of President Obama by CNN’s Anderson Cooper – in which Obama responded to Physicians for Human Rights’ call for action on the Afghan mass grave case by ordering his national security team to gather all the facts and report back to him -- was the top story on CNN.com for Sunday evening, July 12, and was also a top story on Google News and an AOL Top News story. CNN promoted the clip of Obama’s response ("Obama orders review of alleged Afghan mass grave," July 12) numerous times over three days before airing the full interview in two parts on the evenings of July 13 and 14.
More than 70 TV News Broadcasts
More than 70 TV news broadcasts have mentioned the Afghan mass grave case. Broadcast coverage to date includes ABC News, CNN, BBC ("The Afghan ship-container massacre" and "Obama ‘examining Afghan killings’"), Fox News Channel, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Voice of America, Sky News Australia, and Al Jazeera. Pacifica broadcast an hour-long segment of its nationally-syndicated "Democracy Now!" on July 13 with host Amy Goodman interviewing PHR Deputy Director Susannah Sirkin and James Risen of The New York Times.
On July 13, ABC White House Correspondent Jake Tapper featured the Dasht-e-Leili case in his bellwether blog ("President Obama orders national security team to review 2001 Afghanistan massacre"), and even posted Physicians for Human Rights’ video, "War Crimes and the White House: The Bush Administration’s Cover-Up of the Dasht-e-Leili Massacre".
The Hub – a global platform for human rights media and action, created by Witness – also featured PHR’s video on its front page as its Editor’s Pick.
Major Wire Stories
Physicians for Human Rights spokespeople were quoted in wire stories by CNN Wire, Agence France-Presse (AFP) ("Obama orders probe of killings in Afghanistan"), Associated Press (AP), Global Post ("Hero on horseback or mass murderer?", Inter Press Service ("DOJ urged to probe why Bush White House blocked Afghan massacre investigation"), Thai News Service, and Pajwhok Afghan News.
PHR is also named in major international wire stories in Italian, Spanish, German, and French.
Prominent Online Coverage
Blog coverage includes three posts that topped the Recommended List on Daily Kos on three successive days ("Bush Admin. covered up Afghan massacre"), plus prominent coverage on The Agonist ("Bush Admin covered up war crimes in Afghanistan"), FireDogLake ("Obama on the Afghan massacre"), The Huffington Post ("War crimes in Afghanistan, Or: What you don’t learn in science class"), Balkinization ("Bush Administration covered up war crimes by Afghani allies"), Bitch Ph.D. ("Bush Administration strangled investigations of mass murder in Afghanistan"), Circling the Lion’s Den ("Will the truth about Dostum’s massacre finally come out?"), and Hullabaloo ("Even in War").
Other major online coverage includes New York Times-Online, Forbes-Online, The Guardian-Online, Fox News.com, MSNBC-Online, ABC News-Online, USA Today-Online, Washington Post-Online, Washington Times-Online, and France 24-Online.
In the 9 days following the July 11, 2009 front-page New York Times piece, at least 380 news stories mentioned Physicians for Human Rights’ forensic work and advocacy on the mass grave in Dasht-e-Leili, Afghanistan, according to the Vocus PR database. This does not count the hundreds of wire stories reprinted in newspapers and web sites across the globe.
What's New in The New York Times?
Significant new information about possible war crimes and a reported cover-up by the Bush Administration -- as well as a commitment by President Obama to get to the bottom of it all -- has come out in the Dasht-e-Leili investigation in the past nine days. For example, in its follow-up piece dated July 18, The Times notes:
In a column on the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Web site, General Dostum wrote that the Northern Alliance had investigated and determined that there was no "intentional massacre" of prisoners of war.
"I had given very clear orders for all of our troops in the Northern United Front to treat prisoners well," General Dostum wrote. He added: "The massacre of prisoners of war to the extent that has been claimed is against the principles of intelligence gathering and security. From a military point of view, it is unimaginable."
The column drew sharp criticism from human rights groups who have investigated the mass deaths. Physicians for Human Rights, the Boston group that in 2002 discovered the site of the mass grave where the prisoners’ bodies were said to have been buried, accused General Dostum of trying to distract from the "substantial documentation" of the mass deaths.
The group described "clear indications of evidence tampering" at the mass grave site and said that at least four witnesses had been killed, tortured, or had disappeared. The group called for a full investigation into both the mass deaths and evidence the Bush administration squelched efforts to investigate the episode.
The Times article emphasized that accounts of the killings had been previously reported. The mass deaths occurred in November 2001, after thousands of Taliban fighters surrendered to General Dostum’s forces in Kunduz and were transported to a prison run by his forces near Shibarghan.
Survivors and witnesses later told The Times and Newsweek that prisoners were stuffed into closed metal shipping containers and suffocated, or were killed when guards shot into the containers.
The focus of The Times article was new revelations that even though officials from the F.B.I., the State Department, the Red Cross and human rights groups sought an investigation, Bush administration officials discouraged the inquiry because General Dostum worked closely with the C.I.A. and American Special Operations forces and was a member of Mr. Karzai’s American-backed government.
This is just the media round-up to date. Thank you again to all of Physicians for Human Rights' supporters for helping us make this leading-edge work possible. To learn more and take action, visit http://afghanmassgrave.org.