WHEN A MEMBER OF OUR MILITARY WALKED INTO A ROOM LIKE THE ONE PICTURED BELOW, CAUGHT AFGHAN POLICE WITH YOUNG BOYS IN BED WITH THEM, HE WAS SUPPOSED TO "IGNORE IT"?
WHY?
WHY?
WHY WERE TWO DECORATED GREEN BERETS PUNISHED FOR STOPPING THE REPEATED RAPE OF A 9 YEAR-OLD BOY?
RECENTLY, The New York Times reported that U.S. soldiers serving in Afghanistan were instructed by their commanders to ignore child sexual abuse being carried out by Afghan security forces, except "when rape is being used as a weapon of war."
American soldiers have been instructed not to intervene — in some cases, not even when their Afghan allies have abused boys on military bases, according to interviews and court records.
But the U.S. soldiers have been increasingly troubled that instead of weeding out pedophiles, the US military was arming them against the Taliban and placing them as the police commanders of villages — and doing little when they began abusing children.
GREEN BERETS CHARGED FOR STOPPING SEXUAL ASSAULTS ON CHAINED BOY
The two U.S. soldiers say they used physical force to drive home their message to the Afghan police commander who had been sexually abusing a boy.
"I picked him up, threw him to the ground multiple times and Charles did the same thing," Dan Quinn, who was a U.S. Army captain at the time, told CNN. "We basically had to make sure that he fully understood that if he ever went near that boy or his mother again, there was going to be hell to pay."
The actions of Quinn and the other soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland, against the American-backed police commander displeased their superiors in the U.S. military.
Quinn says he and Martland were relieved of their duties shortly afterward. Quinn has since left the military and Martland is now being involuntarily separated from the Army.
The abuse of boys by powerful Afghan men has been reported by CNN and other international news organizations in the past."
The abuse of boys by powerful Afghan men has been reported by CNN and other international news organizations in the past."
ALLOW RAPE TO KEEP RAPPORT?
“They put their team’s life at risk by doing what they did, by risking catastrophic loss of rapport” with local Afghan officials, Col. Steve Johnson, who was an Army Special Forces battalion commander, told The Daily Beast. Johnson said Sgt. First Class Charles Martland and Capt. Dan Quinn, who picked up and threw the police official after discovering he had chained the boy to a bed and pressed him into sexual slavery, had jeopardized the U.S. mission of helping the fledgling Afghan government get on its feet.
Johnson’s comments are some of the strongest to date against the two Special Forces members, who have become central figures in the growing scandal over child sex abuse in Afghanistan and the U.S. military’s alleged acquiescence by encouraging soldiers and Marines not to report rape cases, which are seen as “cultural” issues and not matters for law enforcement.
TheNew York Times reported this week on the military’s sexual assault policy in Afghanistan and on cases of U.S. service members who say they were retaliated against after standing up to Afghan child rapists.
But after Martland and Quinn acted against the Afghan police officer, the two faced disciplinary action that effectively ended their Army careers. The men weren’t court-martialed, but they faced administrative punishment that meant neither would ever be promoted again.
TheNew York Times reported this week on the military’s sexual assault policy in Afghanistan and on cases of U.S. service members who say they were retaliated against after standing up to Afghan child rapists.
But after Martland and Quinn acted against the Afghan police officer, the two faced disciplinary action that effectively ended their Army careers. The men weren’t court-martialed, but they faced administrative punishment that meant neither would ever be promoted again.
The 20 or so soldiers stationed at the remote base in northern Kunduz Province, where the fight took place, “were out there alone with minimal protection and relied on local Afghan police and their relationship with the district governor,” whom Johnson said was “very upset that [the soldiers] did this.”
But a former Marine and U.S. congressmen called Johnson’s conclusions “totally inane and wrong.”
“That exemplifies the problem with the Army,” Rep. Duncan Hunter, a member of the House Armed Services Committee who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, told The Daily Beast.
“To say that you’ve got to be nice to the child rapist because otherwise the other child rapists might not like you is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard.”
Excused as "common practice", our military there were told to "look the other way" when the boys' screams at night made them go to their commanders to complain.
"Ignore it," they were told.
How does one ignore the screams of a child?
During the Taliban's rule (1994-2001), bacha bazi carried the death penalty.
NOW, THE PRACTICE IS ON THE RISE ACROSS THE MIDDLE EAST.
Perhaps because the pedophiles know that NOW they won't be killed for it?
Many are killed. No one tells. No one knows how many.
Bacha bazi is "an old Afghan tradition" of taking young boys, dressing them up like girls, and making them perform for older men in tea rooms, weddings, and other private venues.
The boys are "owned" by single or married men who trade or keep the boys as "CONCUBINES".
According to reports, the boys’ ages range from eight to 19, when they "age out" of the practice and are released...OR SIMPLY KILLED.
Other reports describe bacha bazi as an increasingly lucrative business, in which the boy slaves are seen as important status symbols of the elite.
"Everyone tries to have the best, most handsome, and good-looking boy," a former mujahedin commander told Reuters back in 2007.
"As the United States deepens its commitment to Afghanistan, FRONTLINE takes viewers inside the war-torn nation to reveal a disturbing practice that is once again flourishing in the country: the organized sexual abuse of adolescent boys.
In The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan, Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi (Behind Taliban Lines) returns to his native land to expose an ancient practice that has been brought back by powerful warlords, former military commanders and wealthy businessmen.
Known as "bacha bazi" (literal translation: "boy play"), this illegal practice exploits street orphans and poor boys whose parents are paid to give over their sons to their new "masters."
The men dress the boys in women's clothes and train them to sing and dance for the entertainment of themselves and their friends. According to experts, the dancing boys are used sexually by these powerful men.
In detailed conversations with several bacha bazi masters in northern Afghanistan and with the dancing boys they own, reporter Quraishi reveals a culture where wealthy Afghan men openly exploit some of the poorest, most vulnerable members of their society.
"What was so unnerving about the men I had met was not just their lack of concern for the damage their abuse was doing to the boys," Quraishi says. "It was also their casualness with which they operated and the pride with which they showed me their boys, their friends, their world. They clearly believed that nothing they were doing was wrong."
In detailed conversations with several bacha bazi masters in northern Afghanistan and with the dancing boys they own, reporter Quraishi reveals a culture where wealthy Afghan men openly exploit some of the poorest, most vulnerable members of their society.
"What was so unnerving about the men I had met was not just their lack of concern for the damage their abuse was doing to the boys," Quraishi says. "It was also their casualness with which they operated and the pride with which they showed me their boys, their friends, their world. They clearly believed that nothing they were doing was wrong."
BUT IT ISN'T JUST AFGHANISTAN.
MANY PAKISTANI MEN ARE ALSO GUILTY AND MANY THERE ALSO CONDONE THIS AS A "TRADITION".
The documentary (above) alleges that 9 out of 10 children in Peshawar province have been victims of pedophilia.
A number of Western travellers through Central Asia have long reported on the phenomenon of the bachá.
Visiting Turkestan in 1872 to 1873, Eugene Schuyler observed that, "here boys and youths specially trained take the place of the dancing-girls of other countries.
The moral tone of the society of Central Asia is scarcely improved by the change".
His opinion was that the dances "were by no means indecent, though they were
often very lascivious."
U.S.GOVERNMENT CONTRACTOR DYNCORP ALSO GUILTY OF HIRING BACHA BAZI...NO PUNISHMENT AND THEY ARE STILL A TOP CONTRACTOR FOR THE U.S. OVERSEAS.
In December 2010, a cable made public by WikiLeaks revealed that foreign contractors from DynCorp had spent money on bacha bazi in northern Afghanistan.
Afghan Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar requested that the US military assume control over DynCorp training centers in response, but the US embassy claimed that this was not "legally possible under the DynCorp contract"
In the documentary titled "This Is What Winning Looks Like", British independent film-maker Ben Anderson describes the systematic kidnapping, sexual enslavement and murder of young men and boys by local security forces in the Afghan city of Sangin.
The film depicts several scenes of Anderson along with American military personal describing how difficult it is to work with the Afghan police considering the blatant molestation and rape of local youth.
The documentary also contains footage of an American military advisor confronting the then acting Police Chief on the abuse after a young boy is shot in the leg after trying to escape a police barrack.
When the marine suggests that the barracks be searched for children, and that any policeman found to be engaged in pedophilia be arrested and jailed, the high-ranking officer insists what occurs between the security forces and the boys is consensual,.
[WHAT THE AFGHAN SUGGESTS AFTER THAT IS NOT PRINTABLE HERE.]
Reuters, Nov 18, 2007
In a society where the sexes are strictly segregated, it is common for men to dance for other men at weddings in Afghanistan.
But in northern Afghanistan, former warlords and mujahideen commanders have taken that a step further with competitions for their dancing boys.
"Every boy tries to be the first. They are dressed in women's clothes, have bells on their feet and have artificial breasts," said Mohammad Yawar, a former mujahideen fighter against the Taliban and resident of the northern town of Pul-e Khumri.
A 42-year-old landowner in Baghlan province named Enayatullah told Reuters, "I was married to a woman 20 years ago, she left me because of my boy. …
I was playing with my boy every night and was away from home, eventually my wife decided to leave me.
I am happy with my decision because I am used to sleeping and entertaining with my young boy."
I am happy with my decision because I am used to sleeping and entertaining with my young boy."
"I very much enjoy hugging a boy. His smell and fragrance kills me," said Yawar.
The 38-year-old businessman said he recruited a 15-year-old boy three years ago to help him with his work.
"I have had him for at least three years, since he was only 15. He was looking for a job and I gave him somewhere to stay," said Yawar, showing the boy's picture.
"I don't have a wife. He is like my wife. I dress him in women's clothes and have him sleep beside me. I enjoy him and he is my everything," he said, kissing the photograph.
Ahmad Jawad, aged 17, has been with a wealthy landowner for the past two years.
"I am used to it. I love my lord. I love to dance and act like a woman and play with my owner," he said.
Asked what he would do when he got older, he said: "Once I grow up, I will be an owner and I will have my own boys."
But Shir Mohammad, at 24, was already getting too old to be a dancing boy. "I am grown up now and do not have the beauty of former years. So, I proposed to marry my lord's daughter and he has agreed to it."
"If only these people were punished, this kind of thing wouldn’t happen.
Whoever commits these crimes doesn’t get punished. Power is power."
Whoever commits these crimes doesn’t get punished. Power is power."
STILL HAPPENING!
Jul 27th, 2015
"A deadly gunfight broke out at an Afghan wedding over a Bacha Baazi dancing boy.
The provincial governor Sultan Mohammad Ebadi said preliminary reports indicate that irresponsible armed individuals started an argument over a young boy which led to gun battle between the two groups.
Ebadi further added that the young boy was also killed during the gun battle between the two sides along with 20 others.
Ebadi had earlier confirmed that two young boys aged below 18 years were among those killed during the clash.
This comes as the Independent Human Rights Commission of Afghanistan (AIHRC) released its report on ‘Bacha Bazi’ – sexual abuse of teenage boys in Afghanistan last year."
AS FOR THE GREEN BERET STILL FIGHTING HIS PUNISHMENT...
Hunter said the men and their colleagues were highly trained soldiers who didn’t depend on Afghan officials for protection. “These Special Forces guys can take care of themselves,” he said.
Hunter questioned whether Johnson was qualified to weigh in on the incident, as he has previously in one newspaper account and in a social media thread debating the case with current and former Special Forces members.
“On a human level Charles Martland did right,” said one unidentified commenter. “On a professional level, he did the right thing. De Opresso Liber… is this our creed or just talk?” The Latin phrase, which is the motto of the Special Forces, means “to liberate the oppressed.”
“If Martland loses his [Special Forces] tab and his career… you can have mine too,” said another anonymous commenter, responding to a post from Johnson saying the men had erred. “I encourage you to pick up a phone and talk to these men about their perceived short comings as opposed to putting this stuff on blast and social media to see,” said the commenter.
“Martland can't respond to this and I’m positive you are aware of that, just as I’m positive he is aware of the overwhelming support from his brothers.”
LIKE THE MAN SAID....
LIKE THE MAN SAID....
“To say that you’ve got to be nice to the child rapist because otherwise the other child rapists might not like you is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard.”
SOMEBODY NEEDS TO CHANGE POLICY OR GET THE U.S. THE HELL OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST SO OUR FIGHTING MEN DON'T HAVE TO "IGNORE THAT"!
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