The Americans have now taken yet another leaf out of the Israel manual on how to conduct oneself! The Israelis take into custody Palestinian youths in their early teens for throwing stones. You see the 4th strongest military in the world (even armed with nuclear weapons) and an IDF with all manner of weapons at its disposal can't cope with kids throwing rocks!
The Americans are taking into custody Afghan kids aged 12 or 13. Great PR of course - and truly humane, decent and a way to win the hearts and minds of the local populace.
"The US military has detained more than 200 Afghan teenagers who were captured in the war for about a year at a time at a military prison next to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, the United States has told the United Nations.
The State Department characterized the detainees held since 2008 as "enemy combatants" in a report sent every four years to the United Nations in Geneva updating US compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The US military had held them "to prevent a combatant from returning to the battlefield", the report said.
A few are still confined at the detention facility in Parwan, which will be turned over to the Afghan government, it said. "Many of them have been released or transferred to the Afghan government," said the report, distributed this week.
Most of the juvenile Afghan detainees were about 16 years old, but their age was not usually determined until after capture, the US report said.
If the average age is 16, "This means it is highly likely that some children were as young as 14 or 13 years old when they were detained by US forces," Jamil Dakwar, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's human rights program, said Friday.
"I've represented children as young as 11 or 12 who have been at Bagram," said Tina M Foster, executive director of the International Justice Network, which represents adult and juvenile Bagram detainees."
The Americans are taking into custody Afghan kids aged 12 or 13. Great PR of course - and truly humane, decent and a way to win the hearts and minds of the local populace.
"The US military has detained more than 200 Afghan teenagers who were captured in the war for about a year at a time at a military prison next to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, the United States has told the United Nations.
The State Department characterized the detainees held since 2008 as "enemy combatants" in a report sent every four years to the United Nations in Geneva updating US compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The US military had held them "to prevent a combatant from returning to the battlefield", the report said.
A few are still confined at the detention facility in Parwan, which will be turned over to the Afghan government, it said. "Many of them have been released or transferred to the Afghan government," said the report, distributed this week.
Most of the juvenile Afghan detainees were about 16 years old, but their age was not usually determined until after capture, the US report said.
If the average age is 16, "This means it is highly likely that some children were as young as 14 or 13 years old when they were detained by US forces," Jamil Dakwar, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's human rights program, said Friday.
"I've represented children as young as 11 or 12 who have been at Bagram," said Tina M Foster, executive director of the International Justice Network, which represents adult and juvenile Bagram detainees."
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