U.S. Officers Executed Iraqis, Statements Say

This is an article written in the NY Times by PAUL VON ZIELBAUER.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/world/middleeast/27abuse.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

And for the record. I completely agree and support the executions of those 4 detainees.

It's unfortunate the three men were put in that position.

In March or April 2007, three noncommissioned United States Army officers, including a first sergeant, a platoon sergeant and a senior medic, killed four Iraqi prisoners with pistol shots to the head as the men stood handcuffed and blindfolded beside a Baghdad canal, two of the soldiers said in sworn statements.


After the killings, the first sergeant — the senior noncommissioned officer of his Army company — told the other two to remove the men’s bloody blindfolds and plastic handcuffs, according to the statements made to Army investigators, which were obtained by The New York Times.

The statements and other court documents were provided by a person close to one of the soldiers in the unit who insisted on anonymity and who has an interest in the outcome of the legal proceedings.

After removing the blindfolds and handcuffs, the three soldiers shoved the four bodies into the canal, rejoined other members of their unit waiting in nearby vehicles and drove back to their combat outpost in southwest Baghdad, the statements said.

The soldiers, all from Company D, First Battalion, Second Infantry, 172nd Infantry Brigade, have not been charged with a crime. However, lawyers representing other members of the platoon who said they witnessed or heard the shootings, which were said to have occurred on a combat patrol west of Baghdad, said all three would probably be charged with murder.

The accounts of and confessions to the killings, by Sgt. First Class Joseph P. Mayo, the platoon sergeant, and Sgt. Michael P. Leahy Jr., Company D’s senior medic and an acting squad leader, were made in January in signed statements to Army investigators in Schweinfurt, Germany.

In their statements, Sergeants Mayo and Leahy each described killing at least one of the Iraqi detainees on instructions from First Sgt. John E. Hatley, who the soldiers said killed two of the detainees with pistol shots to the back of their heads. Sergeant Hatley’s civilian lawyer in Germany, David Court, did not respond to phone calls and e-mail messages Tuesday.

Last month, four other soldiers from Sergeant Hatley’s unit were charged with murder conspiracy for agreeing to go along with the plan to kill the four prisoners, in violation of military laws that forbid harming enemy combatants once they are disarmed and in custody.

In an Army evidentiary hearing on Tuesday in Vilseck, Germany, two of those soldiers — Specialists Steven A. Ribordy and Belmor G. Ramos — invoked their right against self-incrimination. Reached by telephone, James D. Culp, a civilian lawyer for one of the other two soldiers charged, Staff Sgt. Jess C. Cunningham, declined to comment. A lawyer for the fourth soldier, Sgt. Charles P. Quigley, could not be reached.

In their sworn statements, Sergeants Mayo and Leahy described the events that preceded the shooting of the Iraqi men, who apparently were Shiite fighters linked to the Mahdi Army militia, which controlled the West Rashid area of southwest Baghdad.

After taking small-arms fire, the patrol chased some men into a building, arresting them and finding several automatic weapons, grenades and a sniper rifle, they said. On the way to their combat outpost, Sergeant Hatley’s convoy was informed by Army superiors that the evidence to detain the Iraqis was insufficient, Sergeant Leahy said in his statement. The unit was told to release the men, according to the statement.

“First Sergeant Hatley then made the call to take the detainees to a canal and kill them,” Sergeant Leahy said, as retribution for the deaths of two soldiers from the unit: Staff Sgt. Karl O. Soto-Pinedo, who died from a sniper’s bullet, and Specialist Marieo Guerrero, killed by a roadside bomb.

“So the patrol went to the canal, and First Sergeant, Sgt. First Class Mayo and I took the detainees out of the back of the Bradley, lined them up and shot them,” Sergeant Leahy said, referring to a Bradley fighting vehicle. “We then pushed the bodies into the canal and left.”

Sergeant Mayo, in his statement, attributed his decision to kill the men to “anger,” apparently at the recent deaths of his two comrades.

Sergeant Leahy, in his statement, said, “I’m ashamed of what I’ve done,” later adding: “When I did it, I thought I was doing it for my family. Now I realize that I’m hurting my family more now than if I wouldn’t have done it.”

Good ole Religion

My mother's Buddhist and my Pop's a Jew, I was raised Buddhist but had a yarmulke as a kid. I don't know what the hell I am, and I'm quite content with that.

I tend to not believe in any of Man's version of God. I know there's something there, something we can't grasp, but not the daily sermons that's being shoved down our throats wherever we look.

I personally follow a loose path of maintaining good karma, and so far so good.

But the majority of mass-Joel Olsteen-type Christians back in the states? Sheer Hypocrisy. Ultimate form of do as I say but not as I do.

Well if everyone is saying but no one's doing, what will be the end result of the religion at the end game?

If the god people speak of allows a kid no older than 3 get his jaw blown off where his tongue is just loosely hanging out, and his left arm shot up to the point where its only the skin keeping his forearm attached....

Almost tempted to say that that's no deity that I wish to follow

Now don't go labeling me as an atheistic Christianity hating guy.

I always like chatting it up with my more religious guys here, and I like to ask the question:

God granted us free will. But god is omnipresent. He is the Alpha and Omega. He knows what you've done, what you're doing, and what you're going to do.

If he knows that, is there really free will? or just the illusion of free will?

According to your beliefs then, can we really be held accountable then, for our actions?

If he already knows what you're going to do, then how is it possible for us to be judged for our sins and/or whether or not we believed JC died for our sins and blah blah blah so that we can get into heaven.

Can the female suicide bomber who killed an Iraqi Army Captain a few months back be held accountable for her murder?

Her husband was our Number 1 bad guy, and we killed him, so she retaliated. According to her beliefs on Islam, she killed herself, no, martyred herself for God, Islam.

Islam, Judaism, Christianity. The same god. In the Koran it states, "We are all sons of Abraham" So we worship the same god. If the same just god knew she would do that, then can one really put the blame on her?

Oh and saying "Just have faith" when a question can't be answered by religion is a cop-out.

American mainstream Christianity seems more and more of a farce, a single serving, Sam's club sized, bowl of crap, that people eat down graciously so they can feel good about being self-righteous.

Oh, let's go build houses in S. America so and spread Christianity, and so I can feel good about myself. But let's honestly not give a real shit about changing the situation of the favellas. Let's still go on voting republican because they love jesus, even though the same country we just built the home in is getting ass-raped with no lube because of economic bullying by Washington.

(It's very weird how I start off pretty docile, only to get worked up and end up a wee bit pissed off.)

Ever now and then, when it just feels like the right moment, I'll bow my head and close my eyes and talk to god, or whomever. Because I do believe in something. But not what we've created.

an unimportant yet significant day

So today was like any other day here in Iraq. Hot. Humid. Boring.

No missions, no nothing.

Just another day closer to going home.

Then around 9 at night, there's a huge firefight out in the distance.

It's not any of us, but ended up being that a local leader, a sheik, just got whacked.

What's worse was that his whole family was wasted along with him.

I mean, really. Where's the humanity.

We've met this sheik before, we've met his family. We've sat down with him and drank tea. We played around with the kids, speaking bad arabic and joking around.

Turns out some insurgents deemed him an enemy, and so they killed him while him and his family were sitting out in their lawn preparing for bed.

Here in Iraq, since it's obviously extremely hot, and there's obviously no such thing as central heating in these simple iraqi households, alot of families go outside and lay out blankets and pillows and sleep outside, it's their culture. Hell, I'd sleep on the roof of our Patrol Base if I could.

After the incident a young boy, no more than 3, and another familiy member was brought into our patrol base, to be treated by our medics.

The man was pretty much DOA, so we put outside on the stretcher he came in on and put a blanket over him body.

That was my first legitimate close up dead body, and what stood out to me was how fast; from the time he time, to the time I saw him on the stretcher, that his face looks so glossed over, like rubber or clay, it was weird.

Mind you, it's not like this is a PTSD moment or nothing, I got enough bombs from last deployment for that. But it was just weird.

The little boy we Air medivac'd him out. He was deteriorating fast and my platoon medic, "DOC" said his chances of living were slim. He just lost to much blood.

Just a few minutes ago DOC and I were on the patio, smoking and bullshitting, and we got to talking about the kid, and the overall feeling was just frustration.

That ya, we get it, the Sheik was friendly to us, so it makes sense a the enemy to kill him off.

But the kid?

the women?

It's mindblowing how a human being can do that.

I wonder what goes on the mind of the insurgents, the moments before the decide to open fire on the whole family, unarmed, unaware.

The little boy messed my DOC up a little bit I think. This is his first deployment, but he was an EMT for a few years before joining up, but it still messed with him.

I think it's because of the circumstances.

Then we got to thinking about another Sheik and his whole family. This sheik we've been seeing throughout the whole deployment, forging strong professional relationships, we help him out with economic needs, and he gives us word on cache's and rumors of bad guys.

It's counter-insurgency 101, and it works.

We've come to know his sons, his nephews and nieces, and when DOC and I wondered "what if" they did the same thing to Him and his family.

I said flat out, "I'd be furious, I'd find the motherfuckers and give them a slow death".

My response came out so fast that it caught me off guard.

I mean...

They're not my friends.

I don't REALLY know them.

and then we both kind saw eye to eye on the situation.

There truly isn't a word out there that can describe the strange "bond" between us and the locals that we help.

I hope we find the insurgents, and I'll tell you what, I hope they receive a slow death, and if it wasn't for the pussy ass arm chair quarterback motherfuckers back home who whine about war, I'd join in and torture the shit out those insurgents.

Those fucking people who blab ignorantly about torture and war are goddamn piece of shits who sleep safely at night who have no idea what the hell goes on here.

You get your news about from CNN and FoxNews. Hell, they don't even report it anymore.

Now?

It's barely a FUCKING TICKER on the bottom of the screen.

And yet there's some stupid random bitch that'll blog about how sad it is that Heath Ledger was stupid as fuck and OD'd off his meds.

9 soldiers died recently in Afghnistan in an ambush. A fucking ambush.

And I barely see it on the news on the TV downstairs.

They were pulling an OP when they got whacked.

I've been pulling OP's outta my ass this whole deployment, for something like that to happen is monumental. It's THAT serious.

And yet...

What's funny is, I'm the liberal one here, I'm the one that loves pissing my fellow republican soldiers off by telling them Obama '08

Who knows....

Seriously....

And all that I support the troops crap. Most of us soldiers here, we're tired of hearing it. Why?

Because you'll send candy and shit as long as we don't shoot people.

Most assholes back home want a "nice" war.

Where only the "bad" guys get killed, but oh, no, you don't want to hear about it of course.

You fucking morons.

It's war. People die. ALL people, not just grown men. Women, Children.

A 6 month old Pregnant woman

A 13 year old girl walking home from school.

A soldier who just came back from leave.

A father who's son got killed in a suicide attack.

But who cares, it's only a blip on the bottom of the screen, and you probably don't even see it because you just found out that Morgan Freeman is in the hospital from a car wreck...

Buncha Assholes y'all are.