Afghan Prosecutor Issues Arrest Warrant for US Officer for Murder

It is alleged that a special forces officer in Kandahar authorized a militia that he armed and trained to break some of their compatriots out of jail, and in the process, they murdered the police chief of Kandahar, Matiullah Qateh:

The militia, which Ranjbar claimed is armed and trained by US special forces, also allegedly killed Kandahar's head of criminal investigations and two other officers, when they attempted to free one of their members from a courthouse.

"We lost one this country's best law enforcement officers for the [attempted] release of a mercenary," said Ranjbar, interviewed for a film to be shown on Channel 4 News tomorrow.

He accused American officials of refusing to hand over evidence or to permit his investigators to interview the special forces commander, known to Afghans only as "John or Johnny", who he alleges sanctioned the raid.

If the facts are as alleged, the charge would be felony murder under most statutes, though, under the status of forces agreement, this officer would be subject to trial and sentencing by a US court martial, where, I am sure justice would sought with the same vigor that was applied to the Calavese cable car disaster of 1998.^*

It gets even more complex, because this militia is also tied to the corrupt, drug running brother of the Afghan President, Ahmed Wali Karzai, is also tied to the militia, and is publicly calling for amnesty for the shooting.

This is a natural, and foreseeable, consequence of employing mercenaries as a matter of course in a war zone.

^*A 6 month sentence for negligently killing 20 people.^†
†Actually, the pilot was acquitted, despite flying lower and faster than regulations required. They eventually got him on obstruction of justice for wiping the video tapes at the end of the flight.