SAN DIEGO: The U.S. military, led by General Mark Milley and Joe Biden, launched a Hellfire missile into a Kabul neighborhood. The target was a white Toyota and Zemari Ahmadi. The strike, these leaders claimed, was aimed at a car suspected of being loaded with explosives for use in a suicide attack.
In Honor of Zemari Ahmadi
We are saddened that Zemari Ahmadi, NEI’s Technical Engineer, was wrongly killed along with nine family members by a US drone strike outside his Kabul home on August 29. NEI hired Zemari in 2006 to oversee the development, testing, and production of a variety of nutritious soy-based foods for the Afghan people. He was an excellent engineer who applied his talent and expertise to help establish 11 soy processing factories throughout Afghanistan. Zemari was well respected by his colleagues and compassionate towards the poor and needy.
We are grateful for the New York Times investigative reporting on September 10, 2021, and CNN investigative reporting on September 14, 2021, that accurately describes the series of events leading up to Zemari’s untimely death.
Visit the NEI website, and in honor of those killed, donate. If every person sent just one dollar (but make it ten), it would be an effective apology from Americans who care. More than a hollow apology and promise to “investigate.” Biden promised “we will hunt you down and make you pay” to the suicide bomber at the Karzai airport. Instead Ahmadi, his colleague and children paid – all innocents.
How did our intelligence agencies not know who this man was?
With no knowledge of the man and misreading surveillance, Milley labeled him an “imminent threat” and sent in an MQ-9 Reaper Drone. However, Ahmadi traveled the streets of Kabul, not as a terrorist, but as a rescuer bringing food and water to Afghan victims of the war.
As the drone team followed Ahmadi during the day, he spent time at the NEI offices in Kabul. The military could not ID that building? A call to the NEI foundation Ahmadi worked for from the strike operations center may have cleared things up before sending the missile.
Isn’t targeting a missile on innocent civilians in a sovereign country an act of war? The War Powers Resolution requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to military action. The Authorization for Use of Military Force(AUMF) grants the President the authority to use all “necessary and appropriate force” against those whom he determined “planned, authorized, committed or aided” the September 11 attacks, or who harbored said persons or groups.
This wasn’t 9/11 and Biden surrendered to the enemy and agreed to withdraw.
By what authority did he launch a warlike attack on Afghanistan civilians? We had no diplomatic presence there. Just masses of frightened people trying to leave. Was Congress in on it? Did any of them think how this would look to the majority of the Muslim world who are not terrorists? Making innocent Muslims pay for terrorist crimes?
Five members of the Ahmadi family. Three children. Ten in total. And they were taken too soon because the U.S. failed in its due diligence choosing a kneejerk retaliation.
Zemari Ahmadi and some of the boys in his family killed by the U.S. NYT Video Screenshot
Milley double-downed in his defense of the bombing.
Standing at the podium adorned with the military emblems of the United States, he lied. First, insisting Ahmadi was a terrorist. As well as the Toyota was full of explosives. Neither is true.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III confirms in a press release, apologizing for America:
“…Mr. Ahmadi was just as innocent a victim as were the others tragically killed. We apologize, and we will endeavor to learn from this horrible mistake.”
This is the leadership we have, chosen by Americans. However, we should be beyond “learning” how, where, and who to use lethal drones on by now. How to responsibly protect America at home and abroad. Sorry is hardly enough for the Ahmadis. Two weeks prior to their deaths – the Ahmadi family applied for SIVs to come to America to escape terror. Instead, an act akin to terror found them first.
Zemari Ahmadi delivering food to the hungry in Kabul – NYT video screenshot
They picked the wrong man in Zemari Ahmadi.
They said Ahmadi was a facilitator for the Islamic state, and they assumed the car was full of explosives. When you see the images of the men carrying plastic containers to their car in the NYT video, it is obvious they are not filled with – anything – until later they fill them with a water hose. Milley trusts the Taliban with a known history of violent persecution against Muslims, Shiite Hazaras, Christians and those of other faiths. How can Milley so easily condemn a non-threatening Muslim bringing water to families?
The NYT provides security camera footage from Zemari Ahmadi’s office, showing his work with NEI.
“What was interpreted as a suspicious move for a terrorist appears to be just an average day in Ahmadi’s life. What the military saw him loading into his car were water canisters he was bringing home to his family,” says NYT while showing surveillance footage tracking Ahmadi.
Romal Ahmadi saying “All victims were part of my family – my brother, my nephews, my children.”
The Pentagon claimed for days after that the missile set off additional explosions, and this “likely killed the civilians in the courtyard.”
“Significant secondary explosions in the targeted vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material,” states Maj. William Taylor.
Three Weapons experts who later examined the scene of the drone blast tell a different story concurring it was indicative of a hellfire missile. Saying there is no evidence of a large secondary explosion. No collapsing or blown-out walls. Including next to the trunk allegedly carrying explosives, says NYT.
No signs that a second car in the courtyard was overturned by an explosion. No destroyed vegetation. At the very least, a second explosion would have melted the water canisters on the porch above the Toyota.
Screenshot from NYT Video of Zemari Ahmadi bombing showing that there was no secondary explosion. Courtesy NYT
Present in the wreckage were containers identical to those Ahmadi and his colleagues filled with water. Even though the Pentagon said the drone team watched the car all day, a senior official said, “They weren’t aware of any of water containers.” How is that possible?
A single Hellfire missile imploded the car. In the NYT video, you can see the hole in the earth where it drove through the car into the ground. It was not an explosion.
How could Milley be so un-American military?
The shocking actions of Gen. Milley, State Dept. Secretary Blinken and Biden are starkly uncharacteristic of former presidents and military leadership. Bagram Air Base was operational as long as several thousand troops and other Americans remained in-country. Milley abandoned the base, leaving behind untold billions in military equipment, buildings, and supplies. Including food that was not provided to the people but taken by the Taliban. ($800B scrapyards: Bagram Air Base pillaged after US troops abandon it – slideshow)
Biden chose to do things different than Trump, whose plan was to remove people and equipment first, then the troops. A conditions-based order of business. No one could have predicted what came next with Biden at the helm,
“The Biden Administration is signaling the possibility of future cooperation with the Taliban. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said the United States would consider sharing intelligence with the Taliban to target Islamic State fighters,” says Center for Security Policy.
Our Government wants us to believe the Taliban jihad regime (Aka government) will work for the benefit of America. From the article Taliban name ex-Guantanamo detainees and wanted man to new caretaker government:
“Two senior members of the Haqqani network, a US-designated terror group aligned with the Taliban and al Qaeda, will also be in the interim government. Both have been sanctioned by the UN and the US.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, the network’s leader, will be the acting interior minister. Haqqani has been one of two deputy leaders of the Taliban since 2016. A member of the FBI’s “most-wanted” list, he has a $10 million bounty on his head.”
The Taliban network needs no help or money from the U.S. However, they will receive more pallets of cash from Biden. (Biden to Send $64M to Taliban Before Getting All Americans Out –FrontPage magazine)
Why did it take NYT journalists to bring out the truth first as Biden, Milley, Blinken, Maj. Taylor, continued to lie about the strike?
Let us all hope that the press, including the ‘Old Grey Lady’ of the New York Times, will continue to question this Administration. Will stand up for Americans. The NYT investigation team has done an admirable job of returning the fourth estate into being truth seekers.
Previous CDN reporting contributed to this article.
