By IRNA,
London : British techniques, strategies and propaganda employed in the Afghan war, as exposed by Wikileaks, are “not exceptional,” says Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams.
“They fit a pattern which will be familiar to people who watched or reported on the war in Ireland,” Adams said, referring to the British army’s role in killing innocent civilians in Northern Ireland.
“Lies were told and a cover-up concocted and the British establishment closed ranks to defend the actions of its army. That lie persisted for decades,” he said, specifically mentioning the killing of 14 civil rights demonstrators on Bloody Sunday in 1972.
In an article for the Guardian Monday, the leader of the Irish Republican Party recalled that it was often said Northern Ireland was “the British state’s training ground for its military and intelligence system.”
“The truth of that is evident in the revelations contained in some of the 90,000 US military files that have been posted on the WikiLeaks website,” he said about the disclosure of Nato’s failed strategy in Afghanistan that has not been evident in the media.
Examples included British troops killing civilians in Afghanistan while firing warning shots, calling in helicopter gunships and in carrying out air strike.
“These files bring to light what’s been a consistent trend by US and Nato forces: the concealment of civilian deaths,” Adams said, adding that they also uncovered the existence of Task Force 373 – a covert operations unit whose task is to “remove” the enemy.