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Azmat Khan
@AzmatZahra
Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter
@NYTimes
&
@NYTmag
| Birch Professor & Li Center Director
@ColumbiaJourn
| ✍️ PRECISION STRIKE
@RandomHouse
AzmatZahra.comJoined September 2008
7,240 Following
84.4K Followers

Azmat Khan’s Tweets

Azmat Khan Retweeted
Haley Willis
@heytherehaley
Immensely grateful for this opportunity — overjoyed to be working with
@AzmatZahra
(and also using this as a chance to learn from her myself!).
Quote Tweet
Azmat Khan
@AzmatZahra
Thrilled to kick off the semester at @columbiajourn with my Conflict & OSINT Reporting course, but am especially excited to have the wonderful @heytherehaley joining as an adjunct professor! Here’s to the great journalism ahead 🎉
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Azmat Khan Retweeted
Siobhán O'Grady
@siobhan_ogrady
Since Ukraine retook Kherson, Russia has hit several hospitals in the city. This week they destroyed a maternity ward’s bunker. A day old baby was upstairs. The staff, so used to shelling, hid in hallways rather than the basement, which likely saved them.
washingtonpost.com
Ukraine liberated Kherson city. Now, Russia is destroying it.
After fleeing the regional capital, Russian forces have bombed hospitals, a market and homes, putting a lie to the Kremlin's claims that it invaded to protect citizens.
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Azmat Khan Retweeted
Carol Rosenberg
@carolrosenberg
Twenty-one years ago today the Bush administration opened the military prison at Guantanamo Bay. Thirty-five men remain there. We caught up with two former prisoners whose Supreme Court cases reshaped the legal landscape of the war on terrorism.
nytimes.com
They Won Guantánamo’s Supreme Court Cases. Where Are They Now?
The three former Guantánamo prisoners who defeated George W. Bush at the Supreme Court in landmark cases are ensconced in family life. We caught up with two of them. One is a home-heating serviceman...
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Azmat Khan Retweeted
Hend Amry
@LibyaLiberty
Oh no. This is a gut punch. Blake Hounshell was one of the most dedicated journalists covering the Arab Spring. It’s how we met (virtually) & worked together on a few projects. But we never got the chance to meet in person. And now never will. My heart breaks for his family.
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Liam Stack
@liamstack
I am so shocked and so sad to hear about the tragic death of Blake Hounshell (@NYTBlake @blakehounshell.) I met him in Cairo when I was 22, on the day I got my very first newspaper job. I was excited when he joined The Times and wish I’d spent more time hanging out with him here.
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Azmat Khan Retweeted
Peter Baker
@peterbakernyt
US military initially said it had "no indications" of civilian deaths in drone strike. But in fact analysts reported within minutes that civilians may have been killed and knew within three hours that at least three children were dead. ⁦
@AzmatZahra
⁩
nytimes.com
Military Investigation Reveals How the U.S. Botched a Drone Strike in Kabul
Documents obtained through a lawsuit reveal how biases led to the deadly August 2021 blunder, and that officials made misleading statements concealing their assessment of civilian casualties.
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Azmat Khan Retweeted
Emal Ahmadi
@EmalAhm34516078
This is Emal Ahmadi.last year on August 29 /2021 by drone strike of US I lost 10 members of our family in Kabul Afghanistan including my elder brother Engineer Zemarai Ahmadi and my small daughter Malika 3 years old . Finally we arrived at USA last week
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Azmat Khan
@AzmatZahra
None of aid worker Zemari Ahmadi's relatives have received $ from the U.S. His brother, Emal, whose toddler Malika was also killed in the strike, arrived in the U.S. last week. “I thought the U.S. government would welcome us, meet with us,” he said. “We are waiting for them.”
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Azmat Khan
@AzmatZahra
This AR 15-6 investigation was completed a week and a half after the strike & still concluded it hit a legitimate ISIS target... That likely would have remained the military's conclusion if not for
@mattaikins
,
@ckoettl
& visual investigation team's work:
youtube.com
How a U.S. Drone Strike Killed the Wrong Person in Afghanistan |...
A week after a New York Times visual investigation, the U.S. military admitted to a “tragic mistake” in a drone strike in Kabul last month that killed 10 civ...
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Azmat Khan
@AzmatZahra
Unlike leaked documents, the ones I obtained include redactions. An ex. of what's missing: The document cites a non-military drone tracking the vehicle but does not reveal what it observed. The Times confirmed it was operated by the CIA & observed children moments before impact.
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Azmat Khan
@AzmatZahra
For those who don't know, Daniel Hale is a former intelligence contractor who disclosed details of the American drone warfare program to a reporter, and in July 2021 was sentenced to nearly four years in prison as a result. The resulting journalism: theintercept.com/drone-papers/
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Daniel Hale Support Team
@TeamDanielHale
This is precisely what Daniel is locked up for attempting to tell the world. Grateful to @AzmatZahra for continued exceptional reporting. We won’t stop telling the truth. twitter.com/AzmatZahra/sta…
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Azmat Khan Retweeted
Hajer Naili
@H_NAILI
Contrary to initial claims by US military, a new
@nytimes
piece by
@AzmatZahra
reveals US military knew within minutes that civilians may have been killed in the Kabul drone strike in Aug 2021. A US investigation also shows biases led to the deadly strike.
nytimes.com
Military Investigation Reveals How the U.S. Botched a Drone Strike in Kabul
Documents obtained through a lawsuit reveal how biases led to the deadly August 2021 blunder, and that officials made misleading statements concealing their assessment of civilian casualties.
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Azmat Khan Retweeted
Brian Finucane
@BCFinucane
More important reporting from
@AzmatZahra
in
@nytimes
on the 29 August 2021 US drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 civilians. Once again, this incident raises the question of how many other strikes over the two decades of the US war on terror involved target misidentification.
Quote Tweet
Azmat Khan
@AzmatZahra
NEW: A U.S. Central Command investigation into the botched August 2021 drone strike in Kabul reveals how biases and assumptions led to the deadly blunder, and that military analysts saw possible civilian casualties within minutes of the strike: nytimes.com/2023/01/06/us/ #FOIA
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Azmat Khan Retweeted
Joanna Naples-Mitchell
@joanna_nm
"Emal Ahmadi, whose toddler Malika was also killed in the strike, arrived in the United States last week." "'I thought the U.S. government would welcome us, meet with us,' he said. 'We are waiting for them.'” Another must-read from
@AzmatZahra
.
nytimes.com
Military Investigation Reveals How the U.S. Botched a Drone Strike in Kabul
Documents obtained through a lawsuit reveal how biases led to the deadly August 2021 blunder, and that officials made misleading statements concealing their assessment of civilian casualties.
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Azmat Khan
@AzmatZahra
The investigation refers to an additional surveillance drone not under military control that was also tracking the vehicle. The Times confirmed that the drone was operated by the C.I.A. and observed children, possibly in the car, moments before impact...
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Azmat Khan
@AzmatZahra
Later that day, CentCom said they were “assessing the possibilities of civilian casualties” but had “no indications at this time.” An update hours later said subsequent explosions may have caused civilian casualties, but didn't mention analysts already assessed 3 children killed
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Azmat Khan
@AzmatZahra
Within 20 minutes, multiple military officials and strike team members knew that analysts had seen possible civilian casualties in video feeds. Within two to three hours, analysts assessed three children killed. An officer then shared that with two top commanders in Afghanistan.
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Azmat Khan
@AzmatZahra
A man who opened a gate for the car was also involved in the ISIS plot because he “immediately” closed it behind the vehicle The courtyard was an ISIS “staging location” for the same reason... The documents, obtained through a lawsuit against Central Command, also show...
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Azmat Khan
@AzmatZahra
Among the everyday activities of an Afghan aid worker that were misconstrued as the moves of an ISIS attacker: A package contained explosives because of its “careful handling and size” The driver’s “erratic route” was evidence he was trying to evade surveillance...
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Azmat Khan Retweeted
Brian Finucane
@BCFinucane
Impressive work by
@RollingStone
. This photo is one of the reasons I wound up in Bosnia helping investigate war crimes.
@VukusicIva
: “There is a reason why [these] unit members don’t go to trial...the state keeps protecting itself.” Read the article.
investigation.rollingstone.com
The DJ and the War Crimes
Thirty years after a death squad massacred civilians in Bosnia, none of the infamous Arkan’s Tigers have stood trial for their alleged part in those crimes.
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Azmat Khan
@AzmatZahra
Extraordinary reporting: Across Bosnia & Herzegovina, people accused of war crimes walk the same streets as their victims. One perpetrator — depicted in one of the most famous images of the Bosnia war — now DJs in clubs across Europe.
@Sophia_MJones
set out to investigate...
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Sophia Jones
@Sophia_MJones
A year ago, I set out to investigate a series of 30-year-old war crimes with the remarkable @AhNidzara and @MMPantovic. This week, we published our deep-dive investigation. Please read & share. Reach out. We hope this reporting will lead to accountability. investigation.rollingstone.com/dj-photo-war-c
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Azmat Khan Retweeted
Joanna Naples-Mitchell
@joanna_nm
On
@just_security
today, I am publishing for the first time the 2021 letters
@CJTFOIR
sent two Iraqi families bombed by the U.S.-led Coalition. The families requested condolence payments for loved ones injured and killed. The Coalition said no.
justsecurity.org
Under the Pentagon’s New Civilian Harm Action Plan, Addressing Credible Cases is a Moral Imperative
If the new CHMR-AP is to have a meaningful impact, it must address families making requests of the Pentagon now.
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Azmat Khan
@AzmatZahra
It's also about advocates who stepped up when no one else would
@basimrazzo
realized he was the only person he knew in Mosul who'd been made a payment offer, so he helped victims fill out paperwork When
@joanna_nm
realized no one was representing victims, she took it on herself
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