New Snowden Docs Reveal Wider Net of NATO 'Kill List' Targets | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community
Newly revealed documents show that NATO's "kill list" for Afghanistan
operations included not just senior Taliban leaders but those suspected
of being low- and mid-level operatives as well as drug traffickers, Der Spiegel has reported.
Some of the secret documents, which are from 2009 to 2011, are from
the trove released by Edward Snowden, the German paper states.
"The documents show that the deadly missions were not just viewed as a
last resort to prevent attacks, but were in fact part of everyday life
in the guerrilla war in Afghanistan," Der Spiegel reports.
As part of a strategy the White House called "escalate and exit" that
started in 2009, NATO troops would start with a "cleansing"
phase—killing insurgents. The paper cites Michael T. Flynn, the head of
ISAF intelligence in Afghanistan, as saying during a briefing: "The only
good Talib is a dead Talib."
