Dirty Wars Page #2

They killed my innocent sons,

daughter, and daughter-in-law.

They had committed no

sin and had no enemies.

As we prepared to leave,

Daoud's granddaughter

spoke to us,

but only later would I know

the meaning of her words.

Daoud's family told

me it was time to go.

The sun sets early

in the mountains,

and the night belongs

to the Taliban.

The gunfire continued,

and it was now obvious

how dangerous,

maybe even reckless

the trip had been.

Mm-hmm.

NATO wasted no time

issuing a report.

They claimed that the

women killed in Gardez

were the victims of a

Taliban honor killing,

bound and gagged

by their own murderous families.

You saw the U.S. Forces

take the bullets

out of the body?

I believed the family,

but that wasn't enough

for me or anyone else.

[Speaking indistinctly]

Who were these men that

stormed into Daoud's home?

And why would they go to

such horrifying lengths

to cover up their actions?

Tamana.

Who did the Americans kill?

They killed my grandfather...

...and Gulalai.

And they killed Agha Abdulnoor.

All right.

Ready? Yeah.

One, two, three.

Good morning.

The subcommittee

will come to order.

The subject is

national security.

HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

WASHINGTON, DC

If my esteemed friend,

the gentleman from Michigan,

wishes to continue

with this hearing,

I think that's fine.

He is the chairman.

But next year,

when this committee is

under new management,

we won't be looking

at the calendar

of last year or two years ago.

Thank you.

Far from discussing

the distant past,

I'd like to share

with this committee

part of my investigation into

deadly U.S. night raids...

Sensenbrenner walked out,

but no one else even

bothered to show up...

Just Chairman Conyers

and his staffers.

In closing, Mr. Ohairman,

I told these families

that I'd bring their cases

before the U.S. Congress

and ask that they

be investigated

and that those responsible

be held accountable.

On behalf of those families...

It didn't surprise me

that Washington wasn't

interested in Gardez.

As an investigative reporter,

you rarely have

people's attention.

More often than not,

you work alone,

and the stories you labor

over fall on deaf ears.

But sometimes a story

strikes a nerve,

and you're thrown into

the public arena.

It happened to me once before.

During its time in Iraq,

Blackwater has regularly

engaged in firefights

and other deadly incidents...

It was 2007,

and I was reporting

on Blackwater,

a shadowy mercenary company,

and suddenly it was

front-page news.

A frequent contributor

to The Nation magazine,

his new book is

called Blackwater.

Jeremy Scahill, who authored

the book Blackwater...

Who's come to us from London...

Joining me now is

Jeremy Scahill.

I quickly discovered

that the world of

talk show television

is less a meeting

place for ideas

and more like a boxing ring.

That is hooey.

$700 million

for a colonial

fortress in Pakistan.

The whole thing

feels like a game.

But every time you

step into the ring,

there's a chance your

story can have an impact.

Journalists have done nothing

to hold the White House

accountable now,

Chuck, or under Bush.

Let me get to the story-

- Why are you still alive?

Are you paranoid?

No, I'm serious. I'm serious.

I mean, it's an amazing

book that you've written,

and I'm curious that-

"Oh, that guy had a"-

"Remember that guy

we did Maher with?"

"Oh, he's dead. "

"What happened?"

"He had an

accident. " I mean...

And here are the-

Residents are being

picked up, abducted...

Congress wasn't going

to investigate

the raid in Gardez.

And my Freedom of

Information requests

were bounced all

over the military,

ending up in an unnamed

agency awaiting review.

I reached out to everyone

I could in Washington-

the CIA, State Department,

former military officials-

but no one would speak

openly about Gardez...

Until I met with

General Hugh Shelton,

Chairman of the Joint

Chiefs on 9/11.

GEN. HUGH SHELTON

CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF

One incident that I looked

into in Afghanistan,

where an Afghan police commander

and two pregnant

women were killed-

but the question I

wanted to ask you is,

in that kind of case-

let's say that's true-

how would something

like that be handled

or investigated or reviewed?

If they go flying in

and meet any kind of

resistance at all-

I mean, shots are fired-

then I'm sorry if

they got killed,

but they're in the wrong

place at the wrong time,

and I don't think it ought

to be investigated.

I think you write it off

as one of those

damn acts of war.

But one of the victims was

a senior police commander

who had been trained

by the U.S.

And two of them were

pregnant women.

Now, just 'cause

he's a police chief-

he could've been a

terrorist as well.

You know, he could've

been working both sides,

so that piece of it,

although it sounds bad-

but two pregnant women?

The fact that they were pregnant

is very, very unfortunate,

but it's also unfortunate

that they were women.

But on the other hand,

I've been shot at

by women myself,

so that doesn't-

And I mean shot at.

That doesn't excuse 'em.

They die just like men do

if they shoot at us, so...

Congress wasn't interested.

I was being stonewalled

by the military.

And General Shelton told me

there should be

no investigation.

KAIA AIRPOR KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

And back in Afghanistan,

the reporter who first

broke the Gardez story

had been publicly

attacked by NATO.

JEROME STARKEY:

TIMES OF LONDON:

Yeah, we went to

print on a Saturday.

By Saturday afternoon,

I was getting information

from other journalists in

Kabul who are my friends

that NATO was

briefing against me.

NATO was trying to discredit me,

trying to say that the

story was inaccurate,

and effectively trying

to kill it dead.

To my knowledge, that

was the only time

that they've named a journalist

and sort of singled out a

journalist so specifically

in a denial.

NATO accused Starkey of lying.

It could have been enough to

end a journalist's career.

But information about

Gardez kept leaking out.

A secret UN

investigation confirmed

many of the details the

family had told us,

and an Afghan police

inquiry was under way.

MOHAMMED DAOUD:

I didn't realize what the

family was showing me.

It was just a grainy

cell phone video

from the morning

after the attack...

[indistinct conversation]

Until the voices began.

When I get to here...

Two Americans,

their hands visible for a moment

filming the corpses

while they piece

together their version

of that night's killings.

NATO phoned me up,

and they said,

"Jerome, we're just

calling to let you know

"we're about to put

out a press release.

We are changing our

version of events. "

They admitted that

they were responsible

for killing the three women

and that the men they

said were Taliban

were not, in fact, Taliban.

They admitted they'd

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