Since November, 2001, allegations have been swirling that almost 2,000 Taliban troops were killed while being transported after surrendering.  According to witnesses, US-backed Northern Alliance forces loaded the captives into sealed cargo containers for a two day journey that was to end with their incarceration at Sheberghan Prison.  Allegedly, the majority of them suffocated while in transit, and their bodies were bulldozed into mass graves.

On Friday, they became news again, when the New York Times website ran a report quoting human rights advocates who accuse Bush of refusing to look into the deaths of thousands of prisoners.  Unfortunately, it looks like their cause won’t be getting any help from the Obama administration because, like their predecessors, they’re claiming the US has no grounds to investigate the matter.

When asked about the report, Pentagon spokesman David Lapan claimed that US military wasn’t involved with the killings, so there is nothing for the defense department to investigate.  “There is no indication that U.S. military forces were there, or involved, or had any knowledge of this,” he said. “So there was not a full investigation conducted because there was no evidence that there was anything from a DoD (Department of Defense) perspective to investigate.”

Similarly, an unnamed Justice Department official said that the FBI has no jurisdiction in the matter, Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller declined to comment, and a spokesman for former President George Bush refused to go on the record.

Still, human rights groups continue to push for an inquiry and Physicians for Human Rights deputy director Susannah Sirkin has taken another tack, calling upon the Justice Department to investigate whether the US government blocked inquires into the deaths.  “For U.S. government officials to claim that there is no legal basis to investigate this well-documented mass atrocity is absurd,” she said Friday evening.

 A US-backed Northern Alliance general, Rashid Dostum, who human rights groups have accused of ordering the mass killing, has gone on record denying the allegations.

It is well documented that Dostum was on the CIA payroll and that his soldiers were working with US Special Forces at the time of the incident.  Pierre Prosper, a former U.S. ambassador who dealt specifically with war crimes, has told the New York Times that the Bush white house refused to investigate the deaths despite those facts.

Well, Pierre?  Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. 

-Robert Laurie