Latest developments in Hager & Stephenson NZ war crime allegations
Things just got very serious for the NZ Government with the announcement that Human Rights Lawyer Deborah Manning and QC Dr Rodney Harrison will launch legal proceedings against the Government.
Both are well known for taking the State to Court and winning, they are heavyweight legal minds and the move means there is real injustice behind the claims Hager and Stephenson have made.
The NZDF have replied claiming there are ‘inaccuracies’ in the story, however this is the fourth version of events the NZDF have attempted to con NZers with.
Hager and Stephenson have doubled down countering the NZDF’s latest statement as a bald faced lie and have released 16 questions the NZ Army must answer…
1. Does he accept a large SAS contingent went to the Tirgiran valley in two Chinook transport helicopters on 22 August 2010?
2. Does he deny that the two helicopters and the SAS troops went to two different small villages that night?
3. Does he deny that they found none of the insurgents they were looking for in either village?
4. Does he confirm that nine insurgents were killed in Operation Burnham (refer NZDF Media Release 20 April 2011, page 136 Hit and Run?)?
5. If NZDF confirms that nine insurgents were killed in Operation Burnham, what were their names?
6. Did SAS snipers shoot people that night?
7. Does he deny that the SAS members and their allies destroyed a dozen houses that night?
8. Does he deny that the NZDF received a video from an informer just days after the raid showing all the insurgents alive at the funerals on the day following the raid?
9. Does he deny the six civilian deaths reported by UNAMA, New York Times and local Afghan media followingwere part of Operation Burnham?
10. Does he deny that the book’s sources had revealed the SAS raid was called Operation Burnham and that this name was recorded in the book, before the NZDF confirmed that name in its statement last night?
11. Does he expect New Zealanders to believe that there were two different raids called Operation Burnham to the same valley on the same night, one that killed civilians and one that did not?
12. Is he claiming Khak Khuday Dad villagers, including 3 year old Fatima did not die as part of Operation Burnham?
13. Does he deny that the SAS went back to the valley for a second raid about ten days later?
14. Why has Tim Keating said nothing about other revelations in the book, such as the beating and torture of a prisoner?
15. Does he deny that the SAS captured the prisoner Qari Miraj and transferred him to the secret police where he was tortured?
16. Is he prepared to resign if it is confirmed that civilians died in the SAS-led raid in Baghlan province on 22 August 2010?
…the simple truth is that John Key signed off on an SAS revenge attack that was woefully wrong in its intelligence and we have ended up killing and maiming 21 civilians, purposely destroying a dozen homes and we have handed over prisoners to known torture units and received back intelligence using that torture.
The NZDF and the Government know they are screwed and are just hoping their redneck supporters who are waging a defamation war online against Hager and Stephenson is enough to keep middle NZ distracted until after the election.
I heard the N.Z.D.F. give it;s explanation this morning that the SAS attack was on another village, somewhere else.
Really?
Maybe it was on another alternative Earth as well. That way the SAS have 100% deniability. Honestly, the N.Z.D.F. must think we’re morons to take them at their word with this fantasy story they’ve come up with!!
The NZDF statement is a massive “Fuck off and fuck you, we’re untouchable. Let’s play hardball and see who wins.” Well, they would, that’s their style and while they front foot it the PM and Defence Minister can hide behind them. But it’s a much higher stakes game now.
The “my country right or wrong” brigade will back the NZDF so it’s up to the rest of us to ensure that justice prevails.
Well someone has to act on behalf of the victims. Good for Deborah Manning and Dr Rodney Harrison. I thank them both. Many thanks too to Martyn and TDB for keeping the issue alive.
This is not something that can be swept easily aside, as though it’s of no consequence.
It really beats me how a government can possibly cover up something as horrendous as these events.
I have said this in another post on this site. I’d like to see little Fatima’s image appear on every media site, including TV, until some justifiable outcome has been reached through a thorough independent inquiry. Just a few words could accompany Fatima’s photo “… This is 3 year old Fatima. She was killed by the NZDF in Afghanistan, courtesy of the NZ government.”
Let the high ranking decision makers in this government see what they have done, what they have taken away. If that doesn’t rock their rotten consciences to the core, then nothing will!
I STAND FOR FINDING THE REAL STORY ALRIGHT MARTYN.
THIS GOVERNMENT AND IT’S AGENCIES ARE ALL UNDER THEIR CONTROL SO GETTING TRUTH OUT OF THEM WILL NEVER HAPPEN.
“Things just got very serious for the NZ Government with the announcement that Human Rights Lawyer Deborah Manning and QC Dr Rodney Harrison will launch legal proceedings against the Government.”
A small step could be to change all our social media avatars to Fatima until an enquiry is commissioned.
+100 MARY…and there must be an independent inquiry!…so the NZDF is held accountable
…and I expect the many proud upstanding good New Zealand soldiers will wish for one too!…so they can be exonerated and can continue to be held in high esteem and work for a NZDF which is accountable
It really wasn’t the time to have a PM who is thinks only up to the next internal poll and was comfortable with everything expressed in shoulder shrugs.
Did he wonder why our forces were withdrawn in about 2005 or care?
U.S. Inc and NZ Inc are illegal corporations! Neither country was invited into Iraq or Afghanistan and both countries used power and might to elbow their way in. I have read through this Intel document https://www.scribd.com/document/343016791/ROGUE-SABRE-1-Final-Report-XXX-Harvested# and it needs a wiser brain than mine to apply it to our “NZ Inc’ s thieves thugs and liars”. What is clear is that our Military is not serving legal or lawful commands but that they are, to all intents, simply mercenaries for their Masters who are the profiteers.
I have admittedly not read the book ‘Hit and Run’ (yet), but going by what I have read in extracts and heard about it, also confirmed by commentators who have read it, there are very serious allegations made against the NZ SIS and US forces that were involved.
It appears now, that the NZDF and also the government are attempting to use the same approach as they did towards the ‘Dirty Politics’ book by Nicky Hager three years ago.
They seem to have found some small, actually somewhat irrelevant “inaccuracies” or discrepancies, like names of villages being quoted wrongly, or being confused.
So this needs clarification also, but I believe that the core allegations, the actual issues that matter, they stand, and need to be responded to. Distracting from that, by pointing to some minor detail about other matters, that is just not addressing this.
But as the PM and his Ministers know, as the NZDF know, many in the public have a dim view of Nicky Hager, because he does not fit the casual prototype for a character that most Kiwis have. They do not like people who are detail focused and analytical and have complex minds. The government is hoping that this will work, that people will buy their propaganda, claiming there is “no substance” to the allegations, because some picked up details may contain some “inaccuracies” or “discrepancies”.
In the meantime it is dragged out, and wait another week or so, and most will tire, and drop the ball and move on, as they will think, ah, the same like with ‘Dirty Politics’, nothing much to see, move on.
Reading the letters to the editor in Granny Herald, today, was very depressing-such unthinking venom directed at Hager.
To use Key’s argument, If they’ve nothing to hide, they’ve nothing to fear (from a formal, independent investigation.)