U.S. Military Relied On Oliver North To Dispute Afghanistan Civilian Deaths
U.S. Military Relied On Oliver North To Dispute Afghanistan Civilian Deaths
For weeks, the U.S. military has denied charges that its Aug. 22 attack on Azizabad, Afghanistan killed scores of civilians, despite the fact that Afghan witnesses, the United Nations, and other human rights and international officials all say roughly 90 villagers were killed. Yesterday, the military reversed course and requested an investigation into the strike in light of “emerging evidence.” Part of that evidence is cellphone images showing “at least 11 dead children,” according to the New York Times.
As Firedoglake points out, the Times of London revealed that the U.S. had been relying on accounts from an embedded journalist: Fox News’s Oliver North:
The US military said that its findings were corroborated by an independent journalist embedded with the US force. He was named as the Fox News correspondent Oliver North, who came to prominence in the 1980s Iran-Contra affair, when he was an army colonel.
Relying on North for a “fair and balanced” view is a major mistake. Even leaving aside his past as a central figure in the Iran-Contra scandal under President Reagan, North routinely makes biased and unsourced claims:
– “There is no such thing as an Islamic moderate.” [LINK]
– “Every terrorist out there is hoping John Kerry Is the next president of the United States.” [LINK]
– Politicians who raise the issue of Abu Ghraib “have blood on their hands.” [LINK]
– Abuse of Iraqi prisoners is “the kind of thing that you might find on any college campus.” [LINK]
Dismissing accounts about the attack from witnesses, such as a village doctor who “said he counted 50 to 60 bodies of civilians, most of them women and children,” the U.S. military repeatedly “accused the villagers of spreading Taliban propaganda.”
Today, Human Rights Watch warned that by continuing air strikes and killing civilians, the U.S. risked a public backlash in Afghanistan. Seeming to codify the report, Azizabad’s district chief told the Times, “If they continue like this, they will lose the people’s confidence in the government and the coalition forces.”
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Ollie! You’re back! Maybe if John McCain is elected he will make you Secretary of State! Geeeezzz ….
September 8th, 2008 at 1:38 pmThe US military said that its findings were corroborated by an independent journalist embedded with the US force.
A lying sack of crap that was part of the criminal Ronnie Retard administration as well as a shill for the garbage Chimpy administration is about as “independent” as Iraq currently is……….
September 8th, 2008 at 1:38 pmLook at Ollie’s picture closely. Would you REALLY buy a used car from this (ahem) man?
September 8th, 2008 at 1:40 pmFor crying out loud! This guy is a convicted obstructer of justice. Why is the GOP so full of guys like him and G. Gordon Liddy? When Abramoff gets out of jail, I’m sure he’;ll get his own show on Fox too.
John McCain NOPE T-Shirts & Stickers
September 8th, 2008 at 1:41 pmso as far as MSM is concerned, Ollie is credible, but Olbermann & Mathews are not?
goddamn librul media!
September 8th, 2008 at 1:43 pmWhat an incredible cabal Fox has amassed under the veil of journalism! North is a criminal and not a patriot nor, especially, a journalist unless that term be extended to minclude “hack”.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:45 pmOh, dear. Our military relied on that traitor Oliver North to give them accurate information? Now that is scary and foolish.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:46 pm… said the spider to the fly
September 8th, 2008 at 1:48 pmKucla, Fran & Ollie would have more credibility.
North cornered the market on lying sacks of shit.
Raygun may be gone, but his dark legacy lives on…
September 8th, 2008 at 1:48 pmGive me a break. The reason why they have Oliver North there as an embedded “journalist” (when did he go to Journalism School?) is so that he can give false accounts of what went on.
Why do they do these things. Do they really think they will be able to get away with lying about things like this? The lie and attempted cover-up must makes things worse.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:51 pmOllie??? Now there’s a bastion of truth!
September 8th, 2008 at 1:54 pmA lying war criminal administration (Der Boosh) hiring a lying convicted criminal (O. North) to excuse and cover up and deny the lying war criminal (Der Boosh) administration’s war crimes and murdering of Afghani citizens.
USA out of Afghanistan, Georgia, Iraq and Pakistan. End US war crimes now.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:54 pmFox so-called-news has corrupted this country in more ways than one can count.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:56 pmWith what we’re seeing lately, I’m thinking that calling North a member of the media is actually staining North’s name rather than the other way around
September 8th, 2008 at 1:58 pmPart of that evidence is cellphone images showing “at least 11 dead children
Okay my Pro-Life extreme antagonists.
Time to fess up!
What part of Thou Shall Not Kill don’t you understand????
How you get overly stressed from the termination of a bunch of unorganized cells is beyond me.
How you continue to ignore the deaths of others because their foreigners, baffles the hell out of me.
How you continue to support this current murderous regime pi$$es me off to no end!
Put up, or shut the fck up!
(Thank you, I’ll step down from my soap box now)
September 8th, 2008 at 1:58 pm– Politicians who raise the issue of Abu Ghraib “have blood on their hands.”
______
And what about pundits who negotiated the sale of several thousand antitank missiles to Iran to pay for right-wing paramilitaries in Nicaragua? Do they have blood on their hands, too?
September 8th, 2008 at 2:04 pmSaint Peter is Waiting for Ollie.
He will just laugh at Ollie when he gets to the pearly gates.
Then he will pull the lever that sends this fascist piece of shit to hell.
Him and all Rethugs.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:07 pmIt’s not just Ollie North (fuçk him, anyway), the Pentagon does this sh¡t all the time.
¶ AIO
September 8th, 2008 at 2:07 pmCaption:
“I’m a lying POS” !!
_fjb_
September 8th, 2008 at 2:15 pmOh, crap. We can’t trust a tool like Ollie North to do anything but cover up and CYA. Please, America, elect Barack Obama so we can start fixing some of this weak shit.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:19 pmThe US military said that its findings were corroborated by an independent journalist embedded with the US force. He was named as the Fox News correspondent Oliver North, who came to prominence in the 1980s Iran-Contra affair, when he was an army colonel.
_____________________________________________________
“Independent”??? That’s about as laughable as referring to Karl Rove as politically neutral.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:20 pmFaux News is a reliable source? Only in the sense that a well fed cow is a reliable source of shit. The scariest part is that these right wing fcks have done an excellent job of recreating the Pravda and 40% of Americans lap it up.
Lobotomy at the speed of light.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:23 pmThis is one of the real issues with the use of embedded reporters. Even clean reporters will develop a sense of unit identity with the soldiers of the unit clouding their independence and judgment.
North provides a very, very special example of the conservative network protecting their own. Few would expect that a person who committed illegal acts, lied to Congress and was openly unrepentant for those acts would ever be rewarded by becoming a reporter where honesty and credibility are all important.
Should we take power, increasingly less likely since Democrats do not know how to fight, then there needs to be a full investigation of the administration’s illegal actions along with clear and crushing sentences (and I include death sentences for those authorizing crimes against humanity) against the perpetrators.
North should be hounded off TV.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:26 pm.
The same wrecking crew is still in charge of the USA…
Until there are legal charges and the Elite Oligarch’s in charge of the 5th Estate are exposed… The majority of Americans will never be the wiser.
… Oh, forgot. North did his time behind bars and this gives his credibility… just how?
.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:27 pmbackup says the republicans don’t have a monopoly on lying. I think they pretty well have it sewed up though.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:28 pmIf a young black male were to be convicted of a crime in Florida, he would lose the right to vote for a lifetime. Yet this “patriot” ran a secret government operation in violation of US AND international laws, lied to Congress (and therefore to the American people),was convicted of crimes, was freed from his well-deserved prison sentence on a technicality, and found a home on the “fair and balanced” network.
Ollie North has the same relationship to the truth as Bill O’Reilly – the only time they tell the truth is when they can’t get a lie to fit. I’d sooner believe Pat Robberson’s tales of talks with God.
o
September 8th, 2008 at 2:29 pm.
T.P. reprts:
Why should the Government change it’s ways now?
I thought they claimed Iraq a “success”. Isn’t this why they’re preparing for the “SURGE pt2″, Deeper, Longer, Harder into abyss known as Afghanistan.
.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:32 pmOops… [/snark]
September 8th, 2008 at 2:33 pmAlthough I disagree with you about the death sentences…..(I’m against capital punishment because I don’t trust any system to be thorough or justice oriented enough to make this call.) I do agree that there is no reason for them to stop doing what they are doing if there are no consequenses.
Why should they stop? It’s working and no one seems to be able to do anything about it. Where are America’s patriots?
September 8th, 2008 at 2:37 pmI’m reprinting this comment from the Mother Jones article about Palin refusing to give up some emails:
“the record for shredding goes to oliver north and fawn hall who used up 2 shredding machines and had started shredding on a 3rd when they were covering up for Reagan….plus Fawn testified that she smuggled out hundreds of documents in her underwear.
A little history lesson.”
(Thank you for reminding us Joy)
September 8th, 2008 at 2:56 pmIt is a shame that our country has been reduced to this sort of blatant propaganda and most of our fellow citizens are not informed enough to call them out on it….some of my relatives will believe anything that the ReichWings throw out there without even questioning any part of it.
FAUX – Far from Balanced
*got a criminal record supporting the repuke mafia, give your resume to Faux, they need loyal liars.
September 8th, 2008 at 3:01 pmTP — small mix-up. North was a Marine Lieutenant Colonel, not
September 8th, 2008 at 3:05 pma Army Colonel.
Zelig? Rasputin?
September 8th, 2008 at 3:06 pmNot Ollie North, the Keating five, and a repeat of the S & L crisis? That must mean some dude with Alzheimer’s is in charge. Oh? That’s coming.
Right in front of us, it sours…
September 8th, 2008 at 3:11 pmThis is truly despicable. Shame on USA.
September 8th, 2008 at 3:14 pmNorth is employed by Fox News which is owned by Ruppert Murdoch who also owns the Times of London. Coincidence??? This is all part of a concerted effort to keep to the White House’s message.
It is wrong, it is amoral, but look who we are dealing with…..North should have gone to jail for the entire Iran/Contra mess.
He is a total nutcase and fits right in with all of the rest of his fundie friends.
September 8th, 2008 at 4:15 pmGood old traitor Ollie. May he roast in hell.
September 8th, 2008 at 4:32 pmOliver North, traitor & perpetrator of criminal activity? Why does Fox rely on people like Rove, North, and so many others who demean the Constitution, thumb their noses at Congress, and lie, lie, lie? Those points must be on the Fox list of qualifications, because they continue to hire such negative people who seem to hold all voters in their contempt. They have nothing to offer but attacks, smears, & falsehoods. It’s really despicable that the military would listen to a traitor like North. Don’t they have any memory at all?
September 8th, 2008 at 6:34 pmOliver North’s loyalties should very much be questioned. Despite being a United States Marine Corps Officer, sworn to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic (as all people who work for the government are required to do), he violated that oath by deliberately and purposefully giving false and misleading testimony to Congress. He put loyalty to his president above loyalty to his country, and that was wrong for every reason. He ought to be and deserves to be vilified at every chance.
September 8th, 2008 at 7:23 pmhttp://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB113/
Hey Think Progress..can you please use these Ollie pics instead.
September 8th, 2008 at 7:59 pmNo matter what the actual facts, or number of casualties, over the civilians killed in this airstrike, the U.S. has already lost the “propaganda war” in Afghanistan.
And the idea that anyone would trust Ollie North, or any evaluation by him, is laughable.
September 8th, 2008 at 8:52 pmFox News’s correspondent is a coke-smuggling, gun-running, ayatollah-arming, lying supporter of death squads. I didn’t think Fox and Rupert Murdoch could go much lower, but they’ve really outdone themselves. Semper Fi, Rupert?
September 9th, 2008 at 12:00 amOliver North, together with Negroponte, should be behind barrs, and acording to the US own terrorist law, they should be executed for supporting and helping financing terrorist groups in Nicaragua! Criminals!!!!!!!!!!!
September 9th, 2008 at 1:19 am