America's Shadow State in Pakistan: An Eye Opener about CIA's Secret War (Daily Beast 5 Dec 2011e)

Courtesy: "The Daily Beast, USA", 05 Dec 2011 
America's Shadow State in Pakistan
By El Lake   

U.S.-Pakistani relations may be on the rocks, but the CIA’s secret friends in the country fight on in units, prisons, and bases the United States has been building up since 9/11 to counter the pro-Taliban side of Pakistan’s military and intelligence services. Eli Lake reports exclusively.
Officially, America’s relations Pakistan’s military and intelligence services were in a tailspin in August.
Furious at having been kept in the dark ahead of the Americans’ May 2 raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, Pakistan’s military had kept U.S. investigators out of the place until it was scrubbed for evidence and had refused them access to bin Laden’s wives for some time. And the Pakistanis had outed the CIA’s Islamabad station chief, putting his life at risk. Meanwhile, back in America, fears were rising over possible al Qaeda attacks on the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11.
But in the shadows, far from the public rancor, Pakistani-U.S. cooperation quietly continued. In Quetta, the Taliban’s capital in exile, U.S. intelligence was monitoring the cellphone of the presumed planner of any Qaeda anniversary attacks, Younis al-Mauritani, the group’s newly named external operations chief. The Americans’ tracking data—signals intelligence, or sigint, as it’s known in the profession—was being shared in real time with the local branch of Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier Corps. When his exact location was discovered, the Pakistanis smashed through the doors of his safe house and grabbed him along with two deputies.
Soon he was hundreds of miles away, at a special detention center in Punjab province, under intensive interrogation by a pro-U.S. faction of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence directorate. The Americans began getting regular reports on potential threats connected to the anniversary. CIA officials were even given an “unofficial” visit to question Mauritani directly.
Many in the U.S. government regarded the capture as a crowning achievement of a decade-long, multibillion-dollar effort to build a secret network of Pakistani security forces, intelligence operatives, counterterrorism fighters, and detention centers. Its objective had been to create a friendlier, more trustworthy alternative to Pakistan’s military and intelligence services.

Libya after Gaddafi: A dangerous precedent?

Courtesy: "Aljazeera English", 22 Oct 2011

Libya after Gaddafi: A dangerous precedent?

The death of a dictator is being celebrated, but foreign intervention could prove problematic in the long-term. By Richard Falk

The fall and death of the despised and despotic leader who had ruled for 42 years naturally produced celebrations throughout Libya, especially in the main cities. Although his end was bloody and vindictive, warning that a violent aftermath could further spoil the outcome of the struggle, we should remember that Gaddafi’s early rants against his own people invited a harsh popular response if their turn came.
Recalling WH Auden’s famous line, “Those to whom evil is done/ do evil in return,” it is almost inevitable that when a leader refers to his opponents as "rats" and pledges to hunt them down house by house the stage is set for the kind of violent drama that played out a few days ago in the dictator’s last stand at Sirte.
At this time, there seems to be a leadership vacuum in Libya that is not likely to be filled very soon. It is difficult to discern whether tribal loyalties will provide primary political identities now that the unifying effect of hostility to the Gaddafi regime can no longer suppress diverse goals and ambitions. Much of the fighting in the last stages of the struggle was under the semi-autonomous control of militia-like commanders such as Abdel Hakim Belhadj who led the attack on Tripoli or Fawzi Bukatef who seemed to command the assaults on those places where Gaddafi loyalists gathered for their last stand.
Such commanders do not usually submit to civilian control, presenting an immediate threat to national coherence. The Transitional National Council has seemed mainly successful so far in lending international credibility to the anti-Gaddafi forces. We will soon learn whether it can also represent the collective will of the Libyan people sufficiently to manage the interim process that will be needed before the establishment of an elected government can be arranged.

Gaddafi's children in exile, on the run, or dead

Courtesy: "Reuters", 21 Oct 2011
Gaddafi's children in exile, on the run, or dead
By David Stamp and Giles Elgood

(Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi's eight children, whose pampered lives ranged from security chief and U.N. goodwill ambassador to playboy and professional footballer, earned reputations for extravagance, violence and bizarre behavior almost equaling their father's.
Amid the chaos of war, three now appear to be dead like the deposed Libyan leader himself, four are scattered in exile and one remains on the run, their lives of privilege disrupted or ended by the collapse of Gaddafi senior's 42-year rule.
Jealousy and greed long poisoned relations within the family but when rebellion broke out in February, Gaddafi's seven sons and one daughter closed ranks around their father, breaking off lives that in many cases had been lived abroad.
A leaked U.S. diplomatic report from 2009 noted that "internecine strife is nothing new for the famously fractious family." Several Libyan officials lost their jobs or were forced into exile after falling foul of family members.
Perhaps the best internationally known son, Saif al-Islam, is also the most elusive. A senior official of the National Transitional Council (NTC) said on Friday that he was fleeing south from the last Gaddafi stronghold of Sirte toward Libya's border with Niger, where another son has already taken refuge.
Al Arabiya TV quoted NTC officials as saying Saif al-Islam had been captured near Misrata but this was unconfirmed.

Gaddafi: Death of an era, dawn of an era - By Robert Grenier (in Aljazeera English)

Courtesy: "Aljazeera English", 21 Oct 2011

Gaddafi: Death of an era, dawn of an era

Gaddafi's death is symbolic of the death of an old paradigm that no longer has a place in today's world.

By Robert Grenier

First accounts are almost never correct, but if the circumstances of Libyan Col. Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi's death prove to be as reported, they will provide yet another, final irony in a life replete with them. The man whose success relied upon a combination of great-power manipulation and the ability to sustain the fantasy that he embodied the aspirations of his people succumbed in the end to a combination of great-power military intervention and the genuine aspiration of his people for a future free of his vicious domination.

Battle for Libya: Key moments: Timeline of decisive battles and political developments in Libya's uprising against Muammar Gaddafi.

Courtesy: "Aljazeera English", 20 Oct 2011

Battle for Libya: Key moments

Timeline of decisive battles and political developments in Libya's uprising against Muammar Gaddafi.

Gaddafi has been killed and Sirte, Muammar Gaddafi's hometown, has finally been seized by fighters of the National Transitional Council (NTC) after weeks of heavy fighting.
On Thursday, NTC commanders said they had wrested the toppled leader's last remaining stronghold, thereby liberating the entire country.

It is a watershed moment for Libya that has been swept by turmoil over the past several months.
Al Jazeera looks back at some of the key developments since the uprising against Gaddafi began.

February 17: The Day of Revolt. The first major protests and violent clashes in Libya actually began two days before this, on February 15, mostly in Benghazi. Hundreds gathered outside the police station, and a number of protesters were killed.
But February 17 was the official "day of revolt," an effort to bring thousands of protesters into the streets. Major demonstrations were reported in Benghazi, Ajdabiya, Darnah and Zintan, among others; Gaddafi forces responded by firing live ammunition at the crowds. More than a dozen demonstrators were killed.
Gaddafi reportedly released dozens of prisoners from jail and paid them to fight against the protesters.
The "day of revolt" coincided with the fifth anniversary of a major anti-Gaddafi protest in Benghazi.
Protests continued to escalate after February 17, and there were widespread reports that Gaddafi had hired mercenaries to supplement his security forces and suppress the demonstrations.

Muammar Gaddafi killed as Sirte falls

Courtesy: "Aljazeera English", 21 Oct 2011

Muammar Gaddafi killed as Sirte falls

Former Libyan leader killed in apparent attempt to flee last bastion, but circumstances of his death remain unclear

Muammar Gaddafi has been killed after National Transitional Council fighters overran loyalist defences in the toppled Libyan leader's hometown and final stronghold of Sirte.

But questions remained on Thursday over the circumstances of Gaddafi's death as footage appeared to show he had been captured alive, following an apparent attempt to flee the besieged coastal city in a convoy which came under fire from French warplanes and a US drone aircraft.



Other footage showed Gaddafi's lifeless and bloodied body being dragged along a road.
"We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Muammar Gaddafi has been killed," Mahmoud Jibril, the de facto Libyan prime minister, told reporters on Thursday in Tripoli, the capital.
Asked what would be done with Gaddafi's body, he said: "It doesn't make any difference, as long as he disappears".

Obituary: Muammar Gaddafi: One of the world's most eccentric and unpredictable leaders, Gaddafi dominated the world stage for decades

Courtesy: "Aljazeera English", 22 Oct 2011

Obituary: Muammar Gaddafi

One of the world's most eccentric and unpredictable leaders, Gaddafi dominated the world stage for decades

After 42 years at the helm of his sparsely populated, oil-rich nation, Muammar Gaddafi - the Arab world's longest-ruling leader - lost his grip on power after a six-month uprising.
Since he lead a successful military coup in 1969, Gaddafi styled himself as Libya's "brother leader" and the "guide of the revolution", as an almost paternal figure looking after Libya's six million inhabitants.
His relationship with the rest of the world was erratic. For years, Gaddafi was known in the West as a pariah, blamed for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people. After years of denial, Libya acknowledged responsibility and agreed to pay up to $10m to relatives of victims; Gaddafi also declared he would dismantle all weapons of mass destruction.
Those moves eased him back into the international community.
In February, only weeks after street protests brought down the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt, a rebellion against Gaddafi's rule started in the country's east.

UN calls for probe into Gaddafi's death: UN Special Rapporteur Christof Heyns warns the killing could be a war crime

Courtesy: "Aljazeera English", 22 Oct 2011

UN calls for probe into Gaddafi's death

Special Rapporteur warns the manner of the deposed Libyan leader's killing could be a war crime

The UN has called for an international investigation into the death of Muammar Gaddafi, the deposed Libyan leader, saying it could well have been a war crime.

Christof Heyns, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, told Al Jazeera on Friday that a proper investigation into the exact events surrounding Gaddafi’s death was a key test for Libya’s future as a democratic and accountable state.

“The Geneva conventions are very clear that when prisoners are taken they may not be executed willfully and if that was the case then we are dealing with a war crime, something that should be tried.”

“It’s important that the new government will be placed on a solid basis where there is accountability for illegal actions.  I think it would be good if there was international investigation into this as well, and it’s not simply Mr Gaddafi  but also there’s the dangers of reprisals against others as well and that is where it is important to draw the line to say that  new system in place  one of  accountability.”

Heir to Saudi throne and Defence Minister Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, 83, dies - By Aljazeera English (22 Oct 2011)

Courtesy: "Aljazeera English", 22 Oct 2011

Heir to Saudi throne Crown Prince Sultan dies

Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, 83-year-old defence minister, has died "outside the kingdom following an illness"

Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, the 83-year-old defence minister and first in line of succession to become king of Saudi Arabia, has died.
"With deep sorrow and sadness ... King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz mourns the death of his brother and his Crown Prince Sultan who died at dawn this morning Saturday outside the kingdom following an illness," the Saudi state press agency said.
Prince Sultan's funeral will be held on Tuesday, the statement said.
He was an "important and influential senior prince" who played a key role in relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council, particularly Yemen, said Hussein Shobokshi, a columnist for the Asharq Alawsat newspaper.
"He was always in favour of stability and has always been in touch with various sectors of Yemeni society, tribal, governmental, and he was keen on having ... a smooth political climate that does not affect the kingdom," Shobokshi said.
Analysts believed he had been suffering from a form of dementia, and a March 2009 US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks said he was "for all intents and purposes incapacitated".
He received a diagnosis of colon cancer in 2004.
A changing kingdom?
With Prince Sultan's death, his brother Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz, the longtime minister of interior, becomes the most likely candidate to be next in line to rule after King Abdullah.
In 2006, the king formed an Allegiance Council meant to help oversee succession issues. The king has ultimate authority to choose the next crown prince and heir, and it remains unclear how exactly the council will interact with him.
Khaled al-Maeena, editor in chief of the Arab News newspaper in the Saudi capital Riyadh, said that whomever was chosen to succeed Abdullah would need to take into account "new faces" and a changing kingdom.
"It is very important for those who follow now, and the leaders of Saudi Arabia, to take into account, not because of Arab springs or Arab winters, but to take into account that there is a young constituency with different wishes and goals," he said.
His official birthday in the kingdom is January 5, 1928, but some Western analysts believe he was actually born in 1924.
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George Galloway redicules "Iran bomb plot" - Absurd US allegation about "Iranian plot to Kill Saudi Ambassador to Washington"

Iran dismisses US murder-plot claim: terms it "childish, amateur game" - By Aljazeera English, 12 Oct 2011

By George Galloway (MP of British Parliament)
October 12 2011
"It reads like a Hollywood film script" said the FBI Director Robert Mueller at the podium on the breakfast news unveiling what might be an Oscar-Winner at least in the "Wag the Dog" category.
Iran it seems, at least in the script, planned to blow up the Saudi Ambassador to Washington in a restaurant frequented by American senators and scores of other diners. And it contracted, through an Iranian- American citizen ( who appears to have been convicted long before his presumably forthcoming trial) guided by a named "member of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard", a Mexican Drug Cartel to do the job for a price of $1.5 million. Only the hired assassin was in fact an FBI operative, turned by them from his drug-dealing past into a sting operator. Thus the $100,000 down payment the Iranian-American allegedly paid into the agent's bank account goes to the US Treasury to reduce President Obama's deficit. Which may of course be where it came from in the first place.

Iran dismisses US murder-plot claim: terms it "childish, amateur game".- By Aljazeera English, 12 Oct 2011

Courtesy: "Aljazeera English", 12 Oct 2011

Iran dismisses US murder-plot claim

Allegation of involvement in bid to kill Saudi ambassador to Washington termed "childish, amateur game".

Iran has vigorously rejected US allegations that it had backed a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador, with a senior official describing them as a "childish, amateur game".
Ali Larijani, the parliament speaker, said on Wednesday the "fabricated allegations" aimed to divert attention from Arab uprisings that Iran says are inspired by its own Islamic revolution that toppled the Shah in 1979.
The primary evidence linking Iran to the alleged conspiracy is that the arrested suspect is said to have told US law-enforcement agents that he had been recruited and directed by men he understood were senior Quds Force officials.
The Quds Force is an unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

Five lessons learned from Palestinian UN bid - By Aljazeera English, 30 Sep 2011

Courtesy: "Aljazeera English", 30 Sep 2011

Five lessons learned from Palestinian UN bid

The statehood bid didn't change the occupation, but it did force international players to show their cards. By Yousef Munayyer

Editor's note: In light of the recent show-down at the UN, analyst Yousef Munayyer makes some observations on the state of the Palestinian struggle.
1. Washington is broken and won't be fixed any time soon
The Palestinians came to the United Nations in the hopes of putting forward a membership application because they had come to understand that domestic dynamics in the United States made it impossible for Washington to be an even-handed broker. If the Obama administration can't get Netanyahu's right-wing government to halt settlement expansion - an Israeli obligation under international law and the US-initiated Road Map for Peace - how could they possibly press Netanyahu to dismantle settlements, divide Jerusalem and admit refugees when the time came to get serious?
The United States is an exceptional place and it is a country that believes in its exceptionalism. Washington likes to believe it can do anything, and it can do and has done many things. But there is one thing it simply cannot do and that is even-handedly broker a deal between Israel and Palestinians. This has to do almost entirely with US domestic politics. Whether you blame the Israel lobby or accept the narrative that Americans en masse have a special connection with Israel, there is no doubt that America is solidly in Israel's corner.

US President Reagan declared Afghan Mujahideen (including Haqqani) the "Moral equivalents of America's founding fathers"

US President Reagan declared Afghan Mujahideen (including Haqqani) the "Moral equivalents of America's founding fathers"

Once hailed by President Ronald Reagan as "moral equivalents of America's founding fathers" and described by US Congressman Charlie Wilson as “goodness personified”, the Haqqanis of Afghanistan are now bedeviling the US military efforts in Afghanistan and straining US-Pakistan alliance as never before. In addition to echoing and justifying the latest American allegations against Pakistani spy agency ISI of supporting the "Haqqani network", USA is calling the same as "the Brutal Haqqani Crime Clan".

 

مولوی جلال الدین حقانی سوویت فوجیوںکے افغانستان پر قابض ہونے کے بعد ایک نڈر فائٹر کے طور پر سامنے آئے۔ جلال الدین حقانی شروع میں حزب اسلامی میں شامل تھے لیکن وہ گلبدین حکمت یار کے مقابلے میں مولوی یونس خالص کے دھڑے سے وابستہ ہو گئے۔ جلال الدین حقانی حزب اسلامی کے مولوی یونس خالص دھڑے کی طرف سے افغانستان میں کمانڈر کے طور پر سوویت فورسز کیخلاف برسر پیکار رہے۔ اس دوران سی آئی اے اور آئی ایس آئی نے جلال الدین حقانی اور ان کی ملیشیا تنظیم کی بھرپور مدد کی۔ اسّی کی دہائی میں سی آئی اے کے حقانی گروپ سے گہرے رابطے تھے۔ جلال الدین حقانی فکری طور پر مصرکی تنظیم اخوان المسلمون سے متاثر ہیں
برطانوی میڈیا نے کہا ہے کہ امریکی حکام تسلیم کرتے ہیں کہ جلال الدین حقانی اس وقت
سی آئی اے کا قیمتی اثاثہ تھے جب وہ روس کے خلاف جہاد کر رہے تھے۔ برطانوی نشریاتی ادارے کے مطابق سی آئی اے کی حمایت سے روس مخالف تشکیل پانے والا حقانی نیٹ ورک اب خطے میں مغربی ممالک کے لئے سب سے زیادہ خطرناک جنگجوگروپ بن چکا ہے۔

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Dalai Lama visit blocked by South Africa to please China, says opposition - Guardian, 28 Sep 2011

Courtesy: "Guardian, UK", 28 Sep 2011  
Dalai Lama visit blocked by South Africa to please China, says opposition

Government denies being put under pressure to stop Tibetan spiritual leader attending Desmond Tutu's 80th birthday

Xan Rice in Nairobi and Associated Press

The South African government is considering blocking the Dalai Lama from attending the 80th birthday of fellow Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu so as not to offend China, according to opposition politicians.
Tutu has invited the Tibetan spiritual leader to give a lecture as part of his birthday celebrations in Cape Town on 8 October. Officials from the former archbishop's office started the visa application process in June, but have yet to get approval for the Dalai Lama's visit and fear it may not come.
The Dalai Lama was refused entry to South Africa in 2009, a move that conflicted with the country's progressive human rights policies and was widely criticised at home.

US tries to block release of Osama bin Laden's graphic images - (Aljazeera English, 28 Sep 2011)

Courtesy: "Aljazeera English", 28 Sep 2011

US tries to block release of bin Laden images

Obama administration contends release would harm national security in response to freedom of information request.

Public disclosure of graphic photos and video taken of Osama bin Laden after US commandos killed him would damage national security and lead to attacks on US property and personnel, the Obama administration contends in a court documents.
In a response late on Monday to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group seeking the imagery, Justice Department lawyers said the CIA found 52 photographs and video recordings of the May 1 operation in Pakistan.
They argued that the images of the deceased bin Laden were classified and were being withheld from the public to avoid inciting violence against US citizens overseas and compromising secret systems and techniques used by the CIA and the military.
The Justice Department has asked the court to dismiss Judicial Watch's lawsuit because the records the group wants are "wholly exempt from disclosure", according to the filing.

Turkey, Flotilla, MV Marmara and Israeli "Security Regime": Israel will lose by 'winning' - By Aljazeera English (10 Sep 2011)

Courtesy: "Aljazeera English", 10 Sep 2011

Israel will lose by 'winning'

After last year's aid flotilla massacre, Israel wrongly believed it could continue operating under a 'legal umbrella'.  Taha Ozhan

The "top secret" UN report on Mavi Marmara was leaked by the New York Times the day prior to its official release. Whether this leak happened because the UN panel had internal conflict in adopting the report or it was simply aimed at aiding the pro-Israeli propaganda is uncertain. In any case, the usual Israeli public diplomacy machinery undertook a full-court press as soon as the text made it to the public. The Palmer Report didn't satisfy Turkey as was expected. In contrast, as the Israeli representative Itzhar noted in the appendix, the report "satisfied to a great extent the expectations of Israel".
The report declares that Israel "failed to give a satisfying explanation on the deaths" and concludes that the "Israeli raid was legal but excessive". This is, in fact, the exact summary of how Israel sees itself regardless of the bloody Flotilla raid. Israel gave itself to the victimhood of this vicious circle a long time ago. In a virtually schisophrenic world, Israel seems to swing between the "legal" and the "excessive", resulting in a certain "security fetishism".

Download 1500-page Menifesto: 2083 - A European Declaration of Independence and Video of Norway's Christian Mass Killer, Anders Behring Breivik

2083 - A European Declaration of Independence; 1500 Page Menifesto By Norway's Extremist Christian Mass Killer, Anders Behring Breivik
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Dowload the document here:

2083 - A European Declaration of Independence - 1500-page Menifesto By Norwegian Mass Killer, Anders Behring Breivik
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Video purportedly made by the gunman
Knights Templar 2083 Movie Trailor- By Norwegian Mass Killer, Anders Behring Breivik

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Note: All info is shared here "in good faith" and after all thorough research possible. However, "FATA Awareness Initiative" Team may not be held responsible for any discrepancy in the info that may explicitly and/or implicitly damage anybody's interests. Corrections will, however, be made if any errors in the info are pointed out.
....................

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2083 - A European Declaration of Independence; By Norway's Christian Mass Killer, Anders Behring Breivik

Courtesy: "Key Info Blog", 24 Jul 2011 
2083 - A European Declaration of Independence - What does it mean? The effects of it 
By Gabriel K.
So according to the mainstream media Anders Behring Breivik who conducted the bombings and shootings in Oslo this friday sent out a 1500 pages compendium of his views on the western civilization and the Muslims impact on it to politicians in Norway, this was said to be sent out before the bombing started.
You can download the document here (pdf) 7mb
Or just google it 2083 – a european declaration of independence
Anyways I have skimmed through the text a bit and I can tell you that there is no doubt that this was written to sparkle a debate and get people busy for something that might not even mean anything in the end.
The text is mostly history about wars between Muslims and Christians with refferenses to Templar knights and plans to what one should do to stop the Muslims from taking over Europe. He also mentions Marxism and multiculturalism a lot as being the problem of todays society and as a threat to Europeans freedom.

UNICEF discloses vaccine prices charged by Drugmakers for 1st time (Associated Press, 28 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Associated Press (AP)", 28 May 2011

UNICEF discloses vaccine prices for 1st time

By LINDA A. JOHNSON

UNICEF is for the first time publicizing what drugmakers charge it for vaccines, as the world's biggest buyer of lifesaving immunizations aims to spark price competition in the face of rising costs.

On Friday, UNICEF posted on its website the actual prices that it has paid individual drugmakers for 16 vaccines purchased over the last decade. It's a move that a few Western pharmaceutical companies don't support. Novartis AG and Merck & Co., which only sells one of its many children's vaccines to UNICEF, both declined to have their prices published.

UNICEF said it will continue to disclose pricing of future vaccine deals, with the hope that the transparency will push drugmakers to cut prices and thus allow the organization to vaccinate more children and save more lives.

Afghanistan: Shameful NATO airstrike kills 14 Women and Children in Helmand (Associated Press, 29 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Associated Press (AP)", 29 May 2011

Afghan official: NATO airstrike kills 14

By SOLOMON MOORE and MIRWAIS KHAN

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A NATO airstrike targeting insurgents inadvertently hit two civilian homes in the volatile southwestern Helmand province, killing 14 women and children, an Afghan government official said Sunday.

Dawood Ahmadi, a spokesman for the provincial government, said the alliance launched the airstrike late on Saturday in retaliation for an attack earlier in the day on a U.S. Marine base in Helmand's northwest district of Nawzad. He said NATO hit two civilian houses, killing five girls, seven boys, and two women.

NATO spokesman Maj. Tim James said a joint coalition and Afghan delegation was traveling Sunday to the site to investigate. He didn't confirm the aistrike and provided no details about it or the attack on the Marines.

Civilian deaths are an ongoing source of tension between NATO and Afghan officials.