Missing perspective on call for Afghan investigation

CNN:

President Obama has ordered national security officials to look into allegations that the Bush administration resisted efforts to investigate a CIA-backed Afghan warlord over the killings of hundreds of Taliban prisoners in 2001.

"The indications that this had not been properly investigated just recently was brought to my attention," Obama told CNN's Anderson Cooper in an exclusive interview during the president's visit to Ghana. The full interview will air 10 p.m. Monday.

"So what I've asked my national security team to do is to collect the facts for me that are known, and we'll probably make a decision in terms of how to approach it once we have all of the facts gathered up," Obama said.

The inquiry stems from the deaths of at least 1,000 Taliban prisoners who had surrendered to the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance in late 2001.

The fighters were in the custody of troops led by Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, a prominent Afghan warlord who has served as chief of staff of the country's post-Taliban army.

Dostum, a former communist union boss and militia leader who fought against the U.S.-backed mujahedeen in the 1980s, is known for switching sides as Afghanistan's political conflict has evolved. When the United States invaded Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, Dostum sided with the Americans and received military and CIA support to battle the Taliban.

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Remember Mike Spann? He was the CIA officer who was one of several casualties when the Taliban faked a surrender and attacked Northern Alliance forces in a fortress where they were held by Gen. Dotsum. I am sure this bad faith surrender had an impact on the subsequent treatment of Taliban prisoners and the low tolerance for any resistance. What is surprising is the short memory of the media and the Obama administration.

They can read about the Taliban bad faith and the terrific fight against them in Doug Stanton's Horse Soldier. I think that battle says a lot about the subsequent treatment of Taliban prisoners. The defeat of the Taliban was keyed by their loss to Dotsum's forces in Northern Iraq. There is little wonder that we were not eager to stab him in the back.