the big story (late edition)

Gen. McChrystal: We've Shot 'An Amazing Number Of People' Who Were Not Threats

Today's shocking admission by the general in charge of the Afghan War is virtually unmentioned on mainstream news

In a stark assessment of shootings of locals by US troops at checkpoints in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal said in little-noticed comments last month that during his time as commander there, "We've shot an amazing number of people and killed a number and, to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the force."

The comments came during a virtual town hall with troops in Afghanistan after one asked McChrystal to comment on the "escalation of force" problem. The general responded that, in the nine months he had been in charge, none of the cases in which "we have engaged in an escalation of force incident and hurt someone has it turned out that the vehicle had a suicide bomb or weapons in it."

In many cases, he added, families were in the vehicles that were fired on.

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earlier:

Afghanistan President Blasts US and Foreign Presence

Accuses West of engineering voter fraud

KABUL -- President Hamid Karzai on Thursday delivered one of his most stinging criticisms to date of the foreign presence in Afghanistan, accusing the West and the United Nations of wanting a "puppet government" and of orchestrating fraud in last year's election.

Karzai's comments come just five days after President Obama, in his first visit to Afghanistan as commander in chief, pushed the Afghan president hard in a tense exchange to crack down on his government's pervasive corruption, ensure independently monitored elections and draw up a clear plan for how to reintegrate defecting Taliban foot soldiers into Afghan society.

Karzai's criticism provides a new indication of the depth of suspicion and mistrust between the Afghan president and his Western partners, at a time when 30,000 new U.S. troops are flooding into Afghanistan to join the 100,000 foreign troops already there, and the Obama administration is depending on Karzai to help fend off the growing Taliban insurgency. U.S. officials have long been skeptical about his ability to be a reliable partner, and the first four months of his second term have provided little reason for encouragement.

His comments were directed at a vote Wednesday by the lower house of the Afghan parliament, which rejected a decree he signed in February to give him more power over the commission that investigates election fraud.

"We have our own national interest in the country," Karzai told a gathering of Afghan election officials in Kabul. "What the foreigners want, and what our national interest is, we have to balance those. If not, our national interests are undermined."

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