Kissinger’s Killing Fields
Interviews with 75+ witnesses and survivors of U.S. attacks and an exclusive archive of documents show that Henry Kissinger is responsible for more civilian deaths in Cambodia than was previously known. My latest
@theintercept
I wrote a 1200-page dissertation on US atrocities in Vietnam but didn't understand the horror of the war until I went to Vietnam, traveled through the countryside, and talked to people about what it was like to live for years under bombs, artillery shells & helicopter gunships🧵
Just think about
@nickturse
seminal “ kill anything that moves “ and you will never see Nixon or Kissinger again without thinking of senseless extermination of 3 million lives
So many Cambodians -- maybe 150,000 -- didn't live to read this guide due to Henry Kissinger. That should have been the first bit of advice from David: Don't be Cambodian while my dad was in the White House.
During this, no doubt fleeting, moment when Americans seem to care desperately about Afghan lives, it’s a good time to look back on some earlier coverage that some may have missed…. 🧵
Napalm? Yep, napalm.
Lonnie Coffman, 70, an Alabama grandfather drove to Washington to attend Trump’s “Save America Rally” in a pickup packed with an assault rifle, three handguns and 11 Mason jars filled with homemade napalm, according to court filings.
Every bit of this is pure gold...
“An Australian astrophysicist has been admitted to hospital after getting four magnets stuck up his nose in an attempt to invent a device that stops people touching their faces during the coronavirus outbreak.”
The U.S. Army’s 1st Special Forces Command is investigating Capt. Emily Rainey’s involvement in the Wednesday rally. The 30-year-old psy ops officer told the AP she led 100 members of Moore County Citizens for Freedom who traveled to Washington to “stand against election fraud”
In U.S. Military, Sexual Assault Against Men Is Vastly Under-Reported. An average of 45 male service members are sexually assaulted every day, according to Pentagon statistics. My latest
@theintercept
The U.S. is at war in Syria -- but Congress never declared it.
@RandPaul
wants to end it -- and he's forcing fellow members of Congress to choose between forever war and bringing the troops home.
Full story
@theintercept
Under such circumstances, your existence became an endless series of risk assessments. I came to realize that this was the essence of the war and that the scale of suffering and resulting trauma was almost beyond imagining.
In the first seven months of 2020, the Trump administration conducted more air strikes in Somalia than were carried out during the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, combined. My latest for
@TIME
How British colonialism killed 100 million Indians in 40 years.
Between 1880 to 1920, British colonial policies in India claimed more lives than all famines in the Soviet Union, Maoist China and North Korea combined. via
@AJEnglish
While the wars in Ukraine and Gaza dominate the news, the U.S. forever war in Niger grinds on.
Since the U.S. began counterterrorism efforts in the region, terrorist violence has jumped 30,000% (not a typo!)
This summer U.S.-trained officers overthrew the government.
The US has conducted almost 400 military interventions since 1776 -- half of them between 1950 and 2019, according to new, blockbuster report by
@SiditaKushi
and
@monicaduffytoft
. More than 25% of them have occurred in the post-Cold War era!
Villagers told me what it was like to negotiate every aspect of their lives around the “American War,” as they called it. They explained that life became an exercise in playing the percentages. Just how long did you stay in your subterranean bomb shelter?
“The Taliban is not the… North Vietnamese army… There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy… of the United States from Afghanistan" - President Joe Biden, July 8, 2021
Saigon, 1975 Kabul, 2021
A secret US task force killed an innocent woman and her 4-year-old daughter as they ran from the site of a drone strike. The Americans got even the most basic facts wrong but said that the rules of engagement were not violated. My latest
@theintercept
🧵
A Texas sheriff announced that one of his lieutenants,
Lt. Roxanne Mathai, attended the rally; she posted on social media: “Not gonna lie... aside from my kids, this was, indeed, the best day of my life. And it’s not over yet.”
“We are not taking any chances,” said Amir Avivi, former deputy commander of the Gaza Division of Israel’s military. “When our soldiers are manoeuvring we are doing this with massive artillery, with 50 aeroplanes overhead destroying anything that moves.”
BREAKING: Henry Kissinger dies at 100.
#Kissinger
helped to prolong the Vietnam War and expand that conflict into neutral Cambodia. He had the blood of at least three million people on his hands, according to his biographer
@GregGrandin
Also arrested at the Capitol was William Arthur Leary. He complained that he was held for 24-plus hours & had his cell phone seized. “They treated us like animals,” he said. “They took all our phones.”
Brad Rukstales, a Republican political donor and CEO of Cogensia, a Chicago-based data analytics firm, was arrested with a group of a half-dozen Trump supporters who clashed with officers Wednesday inside the Capitol. He was fired Friday
Long enough to avoid the artillery, of course, but not so long that you were still there when the Americans and their grenades arrived. If you left the shelter’s confines too soon, some helicopter’s machine gun might open up on you as you emerged...
After at least 15 officers who benefitted from U.S. security assistance conducted 12 coups in West Africa and the greater Sahel,
@RepMattGaetz
demands the military tell Congress about trainees who “broke bad.” Full story
@theintercept
An instant too late could mean death, but a second too early was potentially no less lethal. Guess wrong and your family might be wiped out. And such calculations went on for years on end, shaping every decision to leave the confines of a shelter, day or night...
to get water or relieve oneself or work in the rice paddies or gather vegetables for a hungry family. Life could be measured by calculating the distance from the rice paddy to the bunker against the altitude of a jet or the speed of a helicopter...
"A new Israeli tactic: warning civilians to leave certain areas & then hitting those areas with unprecedented intensity....If these airstrikes continue, Gaza’s civilians will have fewer & fewer places to shelter as more neighborhoods become uninhabitable."
Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Larry Rendall Brock Jr. of Texas was charged in federal court after he was identified in photos showing him standing in the well of the Senate, wearing a military-style helmet & body armor while holding zip-tie handcuffs.
Nicholas Ochs, founder of a Proud Boys chapter
was arrested after returning home. Ochs posted a photo of himself inside the Capitol, grinning broadly. The FBI matched photos from the riot to photos taken when Ochs campaigned for a seat in the Hawaii statehouse
Cleveland Meredith Jr., a Georgia man texted friends: “Headed to DC with a (s—-) ton of 5.56 armor-piercing ammo." The following day, he texted: “Thinking about heading over to Pelosi (C——’s) speech and putting a bullet in her noggin on Live TV.”
or you could get caught in a cross fire between withdrawing guerrillas and onrushing American troops. If you waited too long, those grenades might begin rolling in. Every second mattered immensely.
"At least 25 people are under investigation for terrorism related to Wednesday's siege at the Capitol, according to a Defense official and a member of Congress... The official said some troops – active and reserve duty – may have been involved in the riot"
Jake Chansley, the “QAnon Shaman” who took part in the riot shirtless with his face painted and wearing a fur hat with horns (pictured below), surrendered to the FBI field office in Phoenix on Saturday.
Experts say Kissinger bears significant responsibility for attacks in Cambodia that killed as many as 150,000 civilians — six times more noncombatants than the United States has killed in airstrikes since 9/11.
So far, at least 90 people have been arrested on charges ranging from misdemeanor curfew violations to felonies related to assaults on police officers, possessing illegal weapons and making death threats against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif
The strike killed Zemari Ahmadi, three of his sons — Zamir, 20, Faisal, 16, and Farzad, 11; three children of his brother Romal — Arween, 7, Binyamin, 6 and Ayat, 2; Malika, 3, the daughter of another brother, and a cousin’s infant daughter, Sumaiya
BREAKING: A Pentagon review concludes that the U.S. drone strike that killed innocent Kabul civilians and children in the final days of the Afghanistan war was not caused by misconduct or negligence, and doesn't recommend disciplinary action,
@AP
learns.
Doug Jensen was arrested by the FBI. During the riot, he was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a large Q & the phrase “Trust The Plan,” a reference to QAnon. Video seems to show Jensen pursuing a police officer up a flight of stairs as a mob trails behind
The FBI has opened a murder probe into the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher, according to law enforcement officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity
“It’s an order, it’s to be done. Anything that flies on anything that moves. You got that?” -- Henry Kissinger.
Experts say that Kissinger may be responsible for as many as 150,000 Cambodian deaths.
According to
@RepJasonCrow
: Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy "indicated that DoD is aware of further possible threats posed by would-be terrorists in the days up to and including Inauguration Day”
On of the great highlights of my professional life is this generous blurb that Dan gave me for my book, Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam. It’s difficult to imagine higher praise for such such a history. I’ll always cherish these words.
"Kissinger never paid a price for the many American misdeeds that he led, and the pattern of impunity in the national security establishment has persisted since," writes
@lizzyshackelfor
in
@chicagotribune
(w/ a very kind nod to my reporting on HK)
Henry Kissinger is responsible for more civilian deaths in Cambodia than was previously known, according to an exclusive archive of U.S. military documents and groundbreaking interviews with Cambodian survivors and American witnesses
USG: "The basic function of the Freedom of Information Act is to ensure informed citizens, vital to the functioning of a democratic society."
DoD: "We received your request on December 31, 2012... We regret the delay in completing your request."
#FOIA
#FOIAfail
"The U.S. is committed to... accountability for atrocities."
Is this only for Nazi atrocities,
@SecBlinken
? Or is this satire?
I've spent my professional life chronicling U.S. efforts to buck accountability for atrocities and civilian harm.
🧵below...
Eighty-two years ago, Nazis murdered 34,000 Jews at Babyn Yar. Soviets buried this history, which today Putin's government manipulates to provide cover for Russia's abuses in Ukraine. The U.S. is committed to justice for Holocaust survivors and accountability for atrocities.
Trump supporters who died in the riot were Kevin D. Greeson, 55, of Athens, Alabama; Benjamin Philips, 50, of Ringtown, Pennsylvania; Ashli Babbitt, 35, of San Diego; and Rosanne Boyland, 34, of Kennesaw, Georgia
“You can trace a line from the bombing of Cambodia to the present,”
@GregGrandin
told
@theintercept
. “The covert justifications for illegally bombing Cambodia became the framework for the justifications of drone strikes and forever war.”
“The
@POTUS
Administration and the
@StateDept
are engaged in a massive cover-up,”
@RepMattGaetz
told
@theintercept
. “They are hiding the true conditions on the ground of U.S. diplomatic relations in Niger and are effectively abandoning our troops... with no help in sight.”
When asked about the coup and the coup-makers,
@USAfricaCommand
spokesperson Kelly Cahalan told
@theintercept
: "We’re following the reports and do not have anything to provide you right now."
It happened again last night.
Mauritania
Mali
Burkina Faso
Gambia
Chad
Guinea
Niger
Now Gabon.
Under
@SecDef
Lloyd Austin’s abysmal tenure we’ve gotten 7 coups in
@USAfricaCommand
alone.
Each overthrow connected to people trained by US Taxpayer funds.
Wanna know where
The Washington Post laid off almost 10% of its staff after posting a $100 million loss. Last week, owner Jeff Bezos gave a $100 million charity grant to celebrity Admiral William McRaven and actress Eva Longoria.
So much of what we know about Henry Kissinger's many misdeeds we owe to the incredible reporting of Seymour Hersh, the impeccable research of
@GregGrandin
and the dogged efforts of
@NSArchive
In more than a dozen Cambodian villages, I met still-traumatized survivors who told me about the lethal toll of American attacks from 1969 to 1973.
The chief architect of their agony was Henry Kissinger.
My latest for
@nytopinion
“The extent to which America nuked itself is not completely appreciated still, to this day, by most Americans, especially younger Americans,” Alex Wellerstein said.
The archive offers previously unpublished, unreported, and underappreciated evidence of hundreds of civilian casualties that were kept secret during the war and remain almost entirely unknown to the American people.
AFRICOM conducted a secret investigation of a Nigerian airstrike that killed 160+ civilians. Why did they investigate a Nigerian attack? Why was it never made public? What did they discover? Why won't they talk about it? My latest
@theintercept
New:
@FBI
now reports in a bulletin "Armed protests are being planned at all 50 state capitols from 16 January through at least 20 January, and at the US Capitol from 17 January through 20 January,”
@AaronKatersky
reports.
Previously unpublished interviews with more than 75 Cambodian witnesses and survivors of U.S. military attacks reveal new details of the long-term trauma borne by survivors of the American war.
The planning for the January 16 and 17 militia events in DC is quite specific. They want at least 15k people and if they achieve that they plan to block Democrats from entering the Capitol, allowing only Republicans through. Here’s where they plan to meet
Ever since I helped expose torture at drone base in Cameroon for
@theintercept
,
@USAfricaCommand
's strategy has been to hang up on me. It backfired when they put me on speakerphone instead and I listened in on their candid conversations about Niger
Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who resigned, said supervisors were reluctant to take steps to put the National Guard on call even as intel suggested that the crowd President Trump called to Washington would be much larger than earlier demonstrations
Senayit was tied to a tree and raped by Eritrean soldiers. At one point she awoke to find her son dead at her feet. “I never buried him,” she screams, between sobs. Powerful reporting on the war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region by
@lynseyaddario
&
@rhshea
“This is a war, maybe a genocide, in Ethiopia,” one Voice of America reporter said. “We have access to a lot of information — on the ground — that could be reported, but we’re hampered at every turn." My latest
@theintercept
One of the great highlights of my professional life is this generous blurb that Dan gave me for my book, Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam. It’s difficult to imagine higher praise for such a book. I’ll always cherish these words from a true American hero.
RIP Daniel Ellsberg. When asked if he was afraid about spending his entire life in prison for leaking the Pentagon Papers and exposing the genocidal war criminals behind the Vietnam War, this was his response:
"The Houthi campaign has led to a 90 percent decline in shipping activity through the Red Sea, according to a report from the Defense Intelligence Agency, and shows little sign of stopping, even though two U.S. aircraft carriers are now deployed in the region."
For more than two decades, the United States has been at war in Yemen. Despite the U.S. rhetoric of fostering peace and stability, the Yemeni people have suffered immensely.
Only the Pentagon could call its drone base in Agadez, Niger - the largest “airman-built” project in Air Force history - a “low-cost” facility. So far, it has cost US taxpayers around a quarter-billion dollars. Full story
@theintercept
82 printers worth $412 apiece listed as being worth $1.1 million each in the Army’s databases. 17 refrigerators worth $24,170 each at $652,606 per unit. A simulator for the base fire department worth $499,950 was listed at $36.3 million.
If you needed further evidence that the
#FOIA
process is broken -- and makes a mockery of law -- here's the final response to one of my requests. It was just released today. It's from 2014!
If you needed further evidence that the
#FOIA
process is broken -- and makes a mockery of law -- here's the final response to one of my requests. It was just released today. It's from 2014!
I get this a lot from people who haven't read Kill Anything That Moves. The book is heavily based on the testimony of Vietnam veterans. This is the war as they lived it, as they fought it. It's their own testimony -- both to me and under oath to Army criminal investigators
My article on the U.S.-trained officers who have attempted at least nine coups (and succeeded in at least eight) across five West African countries -- Burkina Faso (three times), Guinea, Mali (three times), Mauritania, and the Gambia -- since 2008
The war in Gaza has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, the territory’s Health Ministry says. Gaza groans under the weight of the dead, as families flee airstrikes to bury their dead wherever possible.
“Glass is all over the place.” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi shows Lesley Stahl the destruction in her office after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, some of them in search of Speaker Pelosi.
“This is way more intense than what I saw in Afghanistan,” said Brian, a former U.S. Army paratrooper, who did not want his last name used for security reasons. “This is combat, combat.”