TV2DAY - Bush blocked probe into Afghan prisoner killings

The Bush administration repeatedly sought to block investigations into alleged killings of up to 2,000 Taliban prisoners by a US-backed Afghan warlord in 2001, The New York Times hs reported.

Top US officials discouraged separate probes by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the State Department and the Pentagon into the mass killings because it was conducted by the forces of General Abdul Rashid Dostam, a warlord then on the Central Intelligence Agency's payroll, the Times said on its website.

Dostam's militia had worked closely with US Special Forces during the US-led invasion and was part of the Northern Alliance, which helped the United States topple the Taliban.

Washington was later concerned that an investigation could hurt Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who had the support of George W. Bush's administration, because Dostam served as a defense official in the fledgling government.

"At the White House, nobody said 'no' to an investigation, but nobody ever said 'yes, either," former US war crimes ambassador Pierre-Richard Prosper told the newspaper. "The first reaction of everybody there was 'Oh, this is a sensitive issue. This is a touchy issue politically.'"

The new US administration has maintained frostier relations with Karzai, whose government is seen as corrupt and unpopular, although Obama has dispatched 21,000 fresh troops to fight a mounting Taliban-led insurgency ahead of August elections.