KABUL // The Pentagon apologised on Monday after Rolling Stone magazine published 17 photos showing graphic scenes of US soldiers abusing the bloodied corpses of Afghan civilians they are charged with killing.
"The photos published by Rolling Stone are disturbing and in striking contrast to the standards and values of the United States Army," said a statement from the Pentagon.
The latest photos, posted on the magazine's website yesterday, are the second set of pictures showing the same US soldiers with dead Afghans.
The photos run alongside a long story detailing the allegations against the US soldiers involving events last year.
Three similar photos ran in the German magazine Der Spiegel on March 21, but there the faces of the dead Afghans were blurred out.
Five soldiers of the 3rd platoon of 5th Stryker Brigade's Bravo Company are charged by a US military court in Seattle, Washington with the murder of innocent Afghan civilians.
One of the unit's soldiers, Cpl Jeremy Morlock, was sentenced last week to 24 years in prison for three random murders, after striking a plea bargain to give evidence against the alleged ringleader, Staff Sgt Calvin Gibbs.
The soldiers are alleged to have killed a number innocent Afghans in remote areas of Kandahar province and then orchestrated make-believe battles and planted weapons on the bodies to make the victims look like combatants.
They severed fingers from the bodies to keep as trophies, allegations say.
The article reports that the platoon, having had little success in its mission to root out the Taliban , who blended easily with the local population. The platoon was "bored, shell-shocked and angry" when it decided to lash out at innocent civilians.
"By the time Gibbs arrived, morale in the Stryker Brigade had hit rock bottom," the report says. "The members of Bravo Company began to talk incessantly about killing Afghans as they went about their daily chores."
The murders were discovered only after one of the unit's soldiers, Pvt First Class Justin Stoner, revealed to army investigators that the 3rd platoon had "killed a lot of innocent people", the article reports.
One US military adviser who frequently works in Kandahar, but who wished to remain anonymous, accused Rolling Stone of irresponsibly publishing the photos when a record number of US troops are in Afghanistan fighting Taliban insurgents.
"One year after the killings and they publish the photos? It's to increase violence," the military adviser said.
In yesterday's statement the US Department of Defence said the army will "relentlessly pursue the truth, no matter where it leads, both in and out of court, no matter how unpleasant it may be, no matter how long it takes".
Even so, killings by Nato troops provoke particular animosity among ordinary Afghans, who have watched security deteriorate to its worst levels since the US invasion in 2001.
Najibullah, a resident of Kabul who, like many Afghans, has only one name. "I would join the Taliban even if they did not pay me."
A series of deadly airstrikes in the first few months of 2011 has already provoked outrage from both the government of the Afghan president Hamid Karzai and Afghan public.
Analysts in Kabul say Afghans once supportive of Nato troops are growing increasingly impatient with the foreign presence in the country.
"This will most certainly add to the growing scepticism and disillusion among the population of the presence of international forces here," said Stephen Carter, an independent policy analyst based in Kabul.
"The idea that the Americans are not really here to help Afghanistan has been gaining ground for some time, and this [the publication of the photos] will feed into that. It will make people very angry."
Last year was the deadliest of the 10-year war so far, with 2,777 civilians killed, according to a United Nations report released earlier this month.
Nato and Afghan government forces were responsible for 440 civilian deaths last year, the report said.
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Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
