Swanson writes: "There is video and audio. It exists. The Pentagon says it's
critically important. Congress has asked for it and been refused. WikiLeaks
is offering $50,000 to the next brave soul willing to be punished for a good
deed in the manner of Chelsea Manning, Thomas Drake, Edward Snowden, and so
many others."
The burned Doctors Without Borders hospital is seen after explosions in the
northern Afghan city of Kunduz, on Saturday. Doctors Without Borders says 12
staff members and 10 patients were killed in the attack and 37 others
wounded. (photo: AP)
ALSO SEE: Wikileaks Offering $50,000 For Kunduz Hospital Footage
Pentagon Refuses Video and Audio of Pilots Who Bombed Hospital
By David Swanson, Let's Try Democracy
11 October 15
There is video and audio. It exists. The Pentagon says it's critically
important. Congress has asked for it and been refused. WikiLeaks is offering
$50,000 to the next brave soul willing to be punished for a good deed in the
manner of Chelsea Manning, Thomas Drake, Edward Snowden, and so many others.
You can petition the White House to hand it over here.
The entire world thinks the U.S. military intentionally attacked a hospital
because it considered some of the patients enemies, didn't give a damn about
the others, and has zero respect for the rule of law in the course of waging
an illegal war. Even Congress members think this. All the Pentagon would
have to do to exonerate itself would be to hand over the audio and video of
the pilots talking with each other and with their co-conspirators on the
ground during the commission of the crime -- that is, if there is something
exculpatory on the tapes, such as, "Hey, John, you're sure they evacuated
all the patients last week, right?"
All Congress would have to do to settle the matter would be to take the
following steps one-at-a-time until one of them succeeds: publicly demand
the recordings; send a subpoena for the recordings and the appearance of the
Secretary of "Defense" from any committee or subcommittee in either house;
exercise the long dormant power of inherent contempt by locking up said
Secretary until he complies; open impeachment hearings against both the same
Secretary and his Commander in Chief; impeach them; try them; convict them.
A serious threat of this series of steps would make most or all of the steps
unnecessary.
Since the Pentagon won't act and Congress won't act and the President won't
act (except by apologizing for having attacked a location containing white
people with access to means of communication), and since we have numerous
similar past incidents to base our analysis on, we are left to assume that
it is highly unlikely that the hidden recordings include any exculpatory
comments, but more likely conversation resembling that recorded in the
collateral murder video ("Well it's their fault for bringing their kids into
a battle.")
There isn't actually any question that the U.S. military intentionally
targeted what it knew to be a hospital. The only mystery is really how
colorful, blood-thirsty, and racist the language was in the cockpit. Left in
the dark, we will tend to assume the worst, since past revelations have
usually measured up to that standard.
For those of you working to compel police officers in the United States to
wear body cameras, it's worth noting that the U.S. military already has
them. The planes record their acts of murder. Even the unmanned planes, the
drones, record video of their victims before, during, and after murdering
them. These videos are not turned over to any grand juries or legislators or
the people of the "democracy" for which so many people and places are being
blown into little bits.
Law professors that measure up to the standards of Congressional hearings on
kill lists never seem to ask for the videos; they always ask for the legal
memos that make the drone murders around the world part of a war and
therefore acceptable. Because in wars, they imply, all is fair. Doctors
Without Borders, on the other hand, declares that even in wars there are
rules. Actually, in life there are rules, and one of them is that war is a
crime. It's a crime under the U.N. Charter and under the Kellogg-Briand
Pact, and when one mass-murder out of millions makes the news, we ought to
seize that opportunity to draw attention, outrage, and criminal prosecution
to all the others.
I don't want the video and audio recordings of the hospital bombing. I want
the video and audio recordings of every bombing of the past 14 years. I want
Youtube and Facebook and Twitter full, not just of racist cops murdering
black men for walking or chewing gum, but also of racist pilots (and drone
"pilots") murdering dark-skinned men, women, and children for living in the
wrong countries. Exposing that material would be a healing act beyond
national prejudice and truly worthy of honoring Doctors Without Borders.
<HTML><META HTTP-EQUIV="content-type"
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</DIV></DIV><p class="contentpaneopen artp"><p class="art02"><P
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burned Doctors Without Borders hospital is seen after explosions in the
northern Afghan city of Kunduz, on Saturday. Doctors Without Borders says 12
staff members and 10 patients were killed in the attack and 37 others
wounded. (photo: AP)" style="border: 0px currentColor;" alt="The burned
Doctors Without Borders hospital is seen after explosions in the northern
Afghan city of Kunduz, on Saturday. Doctors Without Borders says 12 staff
members and 10 patients were killed in the attack and 37 others wounded.
(photo: AP)"
src="/images/stories/article_imgs18/018251-dunduz-hospital-bombing-100515.jp
g" border="0"> <BR>The burned Doctors Without Borders hospital is seen after
explosions in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, on Saturday. Doctors
Without Borders says 12 staff members and 10 patients were killed in the
attack and 37 others wounded. (photo: AP)</P><P class="noslink"><A
href="http://davidswanson.org/node/4940"; target="_blank"></A><IMG title="go
to original article" alt="go to original article"
src="/images/stories/rsn_gotoarticle.jpg" border="0"><A
href="http://davidswanson.org/node/4940"; target="_blank"></A></P><p
class="txtimg"><BR><P style="text-align: right;"><SPAN style="font-size:
9pt;"><STRONG>ALSO SEE: </STRONG></SPAN><A
href="https://www.popularresistance.org/wikileaks-offering-50000-for-kunduz-
hospital-footage/?can_id=&source=email-video-and-audio-of-pilots-who-bom
bed-hospital&email_referrer=video-and-audio-of-pilots-who-bombed-hospita
l&email_subject=video-and-audio-of-pilots-who-bombed-hospital"
target="_blank"><SPAN style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-size:
9pt;">Wikileaks Offering $50,000 For Kunduz Hospital
Footage</SPAN></A></P><H1 class="txttitle">Pentagon Refuses Video and Audio
of Pilots Who Bombed Hospital</H1><P class="txtauthor">By David Swanson,
Let's Try Democracy</P><P class="date">11 October 15</P><P> </P><P><IMG
src="/images/stories/alphabet/rsn-T.jpg" border="0">here is video and audio.
It exists. The Pentagon says it's critically important. Congress has asked
for it and been refused. WikiLeaks is offering $50,000 to the next brave
soul willing to be punished for a good deed in the manner of Chelsea
Manning, Thomas Drake, Edward Snowden, and so many others. You can petition
the White House to hand it over <A
href="https://www.popularresistance.org/wikileaks-offering-50000-for-kunduz-
hospital-footage" target="_blank">here</A>.</P><P class="indent">The entire
world thinks the U.S. military intentionally attacked a hospital because it
considered some of the patients enemies, didn't give a damn about the
others, and has zero respect for the rule of law in the course of waging an
illegal war. Even Congress members think this. All the Pentagon would have
to do to exonerate itself would be to hand over the audio and video of the
pilots talking with each other and with their co-conspirators on the ground
during the commission of the crime -- that is, if there is something
exculpatory on the tapes, such as, "Hey, John, you're sure they evacuated
all the patients last week, right?"</P><P class="indent">All Congress would
have to do to settle the matter would be to take the following steps
one-at-a-time until one of them succeeds: publicly demand the recordings;
send a subpoena for the recordings and the appearance of the Secretary of
"Defense" from any committee or subcommittee in either house; exercise the
long dormant power of inherent contempt by locking up said Secretary until
he complies; open impeachment hearings against both the same Secretary and
his Commander in Chief; impeach them; try them; convict them. A serious
threat of this series of steps would make most or all of the steps
unnecessary.</P><P class="indent">Since the Pentagon won't act and Congress
won't act and the President won't act (except by apologizing for having
attacked a location containing white people with access to means of
communication), and since we have numerous similar past incidents to base
our analysis on, we are left to assume that it is highly unlikely that the
hidden recordings include any exculpatory comments, but more likely
conversation resembling that recorded in the <A
href="https://collateralmurder.wikileaks.org/en/transcript.html";
target="_blank">collateral murder video</A> ("Well it's their fault for
bringing their kids into a battle.")</P><P class="indent">There isn't
actually any question that the U.S. military intentionally targeted what it
knew to be a hospital. The only mystery is really how colorful,
blood-thirsty, and racist the language was in the cockpit. Left in the dark,
we will tend to assume the worst, since past revelations have usually
measured up to that standard.</P><P class="indent">For those of you working
to compel police officers in the United States to wear body cameras, it's
worth noting that the U.S. military already has them. The planes record
their acts of murder. Even the unmanned planes, the drones, record video of
their victims before, during, and after murdering them. These videos are not
turned over to any grand juries or legislators or the people of the
"democracy" for which so many people and places are being blown into little
bits.</P><P class="indent">Law professors that measure up to the standards
of Congressional hearings on kill lists never seem to ask for the videos;
they always ask for the legal memos that make the drone murders around the
world part of a war and therefore acceptable. Because in wars, they imply,
all is fair. Doctors Without Borders, on the other hand, declares that even
in wars there are rules. Actually, in life there are rules, and one of them
is that war is a crime. It's a crime under the U.N. Charter and under the
Kellogg-Briand Pact, and when one mass-murder out of millions makes the
news, we ought to seize that opportunity to draw attention, outrage, and
criminal prosecution to all the others.</P><P class="indent">I don't want
the video and audio recordings of the hospital bombing. I want the video and
audio recordings of every bombing of the past 14 years. I want Youtube and
Facebook and Twitter full, not just of racist cops murdering black men for
walking or chewing gum, but also of racist pilots (and drone "pilots")
murdering dark-skinned men, women, and children for living in the wrong
countries. Exposing that material would be a healing act beyond national
prejudice and truly worthy of honoring Doctors Without
Borders.</P><BR></DIV><p style="text-align: right; display: none;"><A
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