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THE STANS
Afghan air strike wreaks more havoc in Germany

German defense minister refuses to quit
Berlin (UPI) Dec 14, 2009 - German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is refusing to resign over his role in handling a deadly NATO air raid in Afghanistan. Guttenberg has been accused of wrongly forcing the resignation of two top military officials and of not disclosing early on what he really knew about the Sept. 4 airstrike that killed an estimated 142 people, many of them civilians. "Even if it gets really stormy, I will stay right where I am," Guttenberg told RTL television on Sunday. "That's the way I was brought up and that's the way I'm going to deal with it." He also vowed that he did not withhold any information about the bombing from the public. Instead, he said that Gen. Wolfgang Schneiderhahn and Deputy Defense Minister Peter Wichert failed to pass on to him crucial details about the airstrike. Schneiderhahn and Wichert have since had to resign. Schneiderhahn has contested that version, saying in a TV interview that all relevant information had been in a NATO report Guttenberg accessed after entering into office. Allegations of a coverup already cost his predecessor in office, Franz Josef Jung, his job in German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Cabinet. Guttenberg has admitted that the raid, executed by a pair of U.S. F-15 bombers on the order of a German colonel, was a "mistake."

The strike targeted two fuel trucks stuck in a riverbank some 5 miles outside a German base. The trucks had been seized by Taliban insurgents, and the German colonel feared they could be used to attack his base. He had previously defended the move, calling it "militarily appropriate" but since had to backtrack when it surfaced that many civilians were killed. Guttenberg has vowed to compensate victims of the airstrike that targeted two fuel trucks seized by the Taliban but injured and killed many civilians also present at the site. Members of opposition parties have called for a parliamentary inquiry. Recently, rumors surfaced that a German commando unit in Afghanistan, the elite KSK, might have been involved in the planning of the airstrike. Germany has some 4,250 troops in Afghanistan and is facing calls to send more to go along with a greater NATO surge. However, the mission is increasingly unpopular in Germany, with the recent bombing campaign fueling calls for German troops to be pulled out of Afghanistan. Instead, Germany has promised to boost its police training in Afghanistan and may send more troops after an Afghanistan conference early next year.
by Staff Writers
 Berlin (AFP) Dec 14, 2009
 Pressure is growing on Chancellor Angela Merkel over a deadly air strike in Afghanistan in September that has already claimed the scalp of Germany's top general and the defence minister at the time.

Weekend media reports said that the German commander who called in the strike, Colonel Georg Klein, did so in order to "destroy" Taliban militants, not just two stolen fuel trucks he feared would be used to attack his troops.

Opposition politicians said that if this was the case, this breached the terms of the parliamentary mandate for Germany's 4,300 troops in Afghanistan.

They called on Merkel to make a statement in parliament to shed light on the incident.

"On September 4 at 0150 I decided to destroy with air power two fuel tankers stolen on September 3 as well as INS (insurgents) at the vehicles," Spiegel magazine cited a two-page report by Klein as saying.

Another report, by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), cited in German newspapers went further: "He wanted to attack the people, not the vehicles."

"It is difficult to determine why the focus of ... (Klein) was on the Taliban in the target area and not just on the stolen tankers, which posed the greater danger to the PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team) forces," it said.

The strike killed more than 100 people, including between 60 and 80 insurgents, newspapers cited the classified ISAF report as saying.

"It is high time that the government makes a government statement this week. We want to know: are the media reports right? Parliament is entitled to having the government clear this up," said Sigmar Gabriel, head of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).

Wolfgang Neskovic from the far-left Die Linke party said: "Targeted killing of Afghan Taliban is like a death sentence without a trial. It breaches our national constitution and international law."

Media reports also turned up the heat on Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, who last month forced the German military's top general, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, and a senior defence ministry official to quit over the affair.

Franz Josef Jung, who had been defence minister at the time of the attack, also stepped down from his new post of labour minister following intense political pressure.

Guttenberg at first said the air strike was "military appropriate" and then changed his mind, he says, after receiving additional information.

He reiterated to the Bild am Sonntag on Sunday that the two men "took responsibility" because "relevant documents were withheld from me."

But newspapers said that Guttenberg already had the ISAF report, which contained enough information for him to be able to determine that the air strike was questionable.

There are also conflicting accounts of his dealings with Schneiderhan and the official, Peter Wichert, suggesting that Guttenberg's account is not accurate, Spiegel said.

"If this is correct, then the chancellor should compel him to resign, like his predecessor," Gabriel said.

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THE STANS
Taliban stall key Afghan project: report
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