Vietnamese victims of the defoliant Agent Orange play at a social sponsorship center in Da Nang City June 26, 2009. US warplanes dropped about 18 million gallons of the defoliant on southern Vietnam for most of the 1960s.
The following is a letter sent to Michelle Obama by Secretary of the Britain-Vietnam Friendship Association Len Aldis, who has worked for years to spread awareness of Agent Orange victims’ plight.
August 2 marks the beginning of Orange Week, a government program to create Agent Orange awareness through various programs nationwide. Orange Week ends on August 10, 48 years to the day since the US military begin spraying the defoliant on Vietnam.
“AGENT ORANGE: 30 YEARS LATER” is a drama-documentary about the victims of Agent Orange 30 years after the Viet Nam War.
The goal of this documentary is to make the viewers aware of the impact of dioxin on the environment and the people. The film also underscores the need for compassion and heightens a sense of responsibility for our actions towards each other as stewards of the planet without regard for political differences.....>>>>>Much More Here
Justice for Victims of Agent Orange
I put this together when the Vietnamesse Reps were attempting to get the U.S. Courts to rule on Compensation for Defoliant Victims that still plague that country today.
The Vietnamese government says this has left more than 3 million people disabled. Please Visit The Following Links
Armed with the latest study from the Institute of Medicine, Vietnam Veterans of America is petitioning Veterans Administration Secretary Eric Shinseki to add three illnesses -- including high blood pressure -- to the long list of deadly or debilitating ailments that have been linked to Agent Orange exposure.
The outreach is the latest in a long fight between some Vietnam veterans’ organizations and the U.S. government to connect a wider range of ailments to the chemical defoliant used throughout the conflict to strip away the enemy’s jungle sanctuaries.............
An Australian search team has found the remains of the country's last two missing Vietnam War servicemen, 39 years after their aircraft crashed into a thick jungle, officials said Thursday............
I uncovered that letter and two others, each unsigned or signed only "Concerned Sergeant," in the National Archives in 2002, in a collection of files about the sergeant's case that had been declassified but forgotten, launching what became a years-long investigation. Records show that his allegations--of helicopter gunships mowing down noncombatants, of airstrikes on villages, of farmers gunned down in their fields while commanders pressed relentlessly for high body counts--were a source of high-level concern. A review of the letter by a Pentagon expert found his claims to be extremely plausible, and military officials tentatively identified the letter writer as George Lewis, a Purple Heart recipient who served with the Ninth Division in the Delta from June 1968 through May 1969. Yet there is no record that investigators ever contacted him. Now, through my own investigation--using material from four major collections of archival and personal papers, including confidential letters, accounts of secret Pentagon briefings, unpublished interviews with Vietnamese survivors and military officials conducted in the 1970s by Newsweek reporters, as well as fresh interviews with Ninth Division officers and enlisted personnel--I have been able to corroborate the sergeant's horrific claims. The investigation paints a disturbing picture of civilian slaughter on a scale that indeed dwarfs My Lai, and of a cover-up at the Army's highest levels. The killings were no accident or aberration. They were instead the result of command policies that turned wide swaths of the Mekong Delta into "free-fire zones" in a relentless effort to achieve a high body count. While the carnage in the Delta did not begin or end with Speedy Express, the operation provides a harsh new snapshot of the abject slaughter that typified US actions during the Vietnam War.
Eight Marines were charged in the case, but in the intervening years, criminal charges have been dismissed against six. A seventh Marine was acquitted. The residents of Haditha, after being told they could depend on U.S. justice, feel betrayed.
"We put our hopes in the law and in the courts and one after another they are found innocent," said Yousef Aid Ahmed, the lone surviving brother in the family. "This is an organized crime."
If nothing is brought into a Court of Accountibility, with evidence layed out for all to see, Guilt or Innocence means nothing, Hatreds and Blowback are created, Creating More 'Enemies' not Justice! That is Not bringing 'Freedom' and 'Democracy', it adds to the Destruction already created!
A soldier who had survived two tours in Iraq and had been sent home after suffering traumatic brain injury was murdered in December in Colorado Springs near Fort Carson, Colo. Army Spc. Kevin Shields was killed, according to police, by three fellow soldiers who had served with him in Iraq.
Army Spc. Kevin Shields was laid to rest on Dec. 15th. 2007
If you do a search of the names you'll find more information.
But at the above link you'll be able to read, and listen to, this mornings report.
You'll also find much more, like their MySpace page links, discussed in the report, as well as other information.
My first question was, especially after hearing one statement:
The AK-47 is not issued by the U.S. military, but it is commonly used by Iraqi insurgents. "This is a weapon that should have been turned over to higher commanders and stored," De Yoanna said.
Relating to 'Real Life'
Defendant Bastien told police that he saw Eastridge fire at Iraqi civilians with an AK-47 to make it seem like enemy fire. The Army's Criminal Investigative Division has investigated and so far has not been able to substantiate that charge. Eastridge earned a Purple Heart while in Iraq.
was, how many innocent Iraqi's did he, and or the others Kill for no reason, if statement is true, i.e. Atrosities, with little or no concern for their fellow soldiers lives, from the Blowback, thus getting one or more killed or maimed!
Experiance from 'Nam, as any Combat/Theater Vet from any conflict can tell you, Atrosities happen, and some are Intentional!
March 13-16 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans will gather in Washington DC to witness and tell their stories and experiences about U.S. foreign policy in both countries. The nation will hear directly from those who have been there on the ground. This gathering will be in the tradition of the 1971 Winter Soldier investigations held by Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Not since that original event has the American public had such an important opportunity to hear the truth about the brutality of war and the nature of U.S. foreign policy.
After Janabi's 17-year-old son, Mustafa, discovered them and was briefly detained by the sniper unit, Hensley said he decided he had no choice but to kill Janabi.
He described the decision on May 11 as one of many hard choices in a counterinsurgency campaign in Jarf Sakhr, 35 miles southwest of Baghdad.
But they let the Son go, think on that, as to their reasoning for killing the father.
Hensley said he had planted an AK-47 assault rifle on the body after Vela had shot Janabi, which he described as a common procedure.
James Culp, Vela's civilian defense attorney, said this was the third case he had been involved with in which soldiers had planted weapons on bodies to boost their cases for "kills" in Iraq.
To all those who've joined the ranks of us Combat/Theater Veterans Atrosities Happen some are even policy from the top of the chain, some are intentional by one or more individuals, most are accidental.
But they do happen and when they do they endanger the rest in possible 'Blowback', that's War.
They only happen because of the actions of the Few but they are perceived by the Invaded and Occupied as Acts Of Murder and other Human Rights Crimes and Retaliated as such, and the Invaded Populace Perception is the only one that matters!
We Condemn others for the same and if we don't prosecute, right to the Top, we loose our Morality as a Nation and People!
Waterboarding, as Torture, is now front and center, but what other forms are we Condoning and Practising!
We are now the Face of Terrorism, as a Nation, for we are Terrorizing Millions!
And what is Extremely Dangerous and Much more than simple Sad, we have Many, here in this Society, that want us to sink even lower into this abis we've created!!
On this day a Man of Peace was Gunned Down but His Legacy, Teachings, and Humanity Lives On!
Mohandas K. Gandhi was killed in Delhi by an assassin who fired three shots from a pistol at a range of three feet.
An American reporter who saw it happen Read It Here
"Just an old man in a loincloth in distant India: Yet when he died, humanity wept." This was the observation of a newspaper correspondent at the death of Mahatma Gandhi. The tragedy occurred in New Delhi as the gaunt old man walked to a prayer-meeting and was engulfed by one of history's great ironies - a life-long pacifist and promoter of non-violence struck down by an assassin's bullet.
Wars of Choice are Atrosities even before they begin, as the Rethoric grows to lead to the Hatreds of others, enough Hatreds that when the First Bombs Drop many Cheer the Death and Destruction on! Those we've been led to Hate are than called Colateral Damage, another Atrosity, for it's the Innocents who suffer the most!
January 31, - Febuary 2, 1971 The Winter Soldier Hearings began in a Howard Johnson's motel in Detroit. Sponsored by Vietnam Veterans Against the War, the three days of hearings were an attempt by soldiers who had served in Vietnam to inform the public of the realities of U.S. conduct in the war. The veterans testified that the My Lai massacre was not an isolated incident, and that some American troops had committed atrocities. More than 100 veterans testified to such brutal acts. Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield later entered the transcript of the Winter Soldier hearings into the Congressional Record but, otherwise, the proceedings captured little attention.
The "Winter Soldier Investigation" was a media event sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War intended to publicize war crimes and atrocities by the United States Armed Forces and their allies in the Vietnam War. The VVAW challenged the morality and conduct of the war by showing the direct relationship between military policies and war crimes in Vietnam. The three-day gathering of 109 veterans and 16 civilians took place in Detroit, Michigan, from January 31-February 2, 1971. Discharged servicemen from each branch of military service, as well as civilian contractors, medical personnel and academics, all gave testimony about war crimes they had committed or witnessed during the years of 1963-1970.[1][2][3] With the exception of Pacifica Radio, the event was not covered extensively outside Detroit. However, several journalists and film crews recorded the event, and a documentary film called Winter Soldier was released in 1972. A complete transcript was later entered into the Congressional Record. The Winter Soldier hearings were followed in April and May 1973 by the Fulbright Hearings, convened by Senator J. William Fulbright, chair of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
Verification of participants' credibility
The organizers of the Winter Soldier Investigation took several steps to guarantee the validity of the participants. Each veteran's authenticity was checked before the hearings by the investigation event organizers, and subsequently by reporters and Pentagon officials. In addition, they also gave specific details about their units and the locations where the events had occurred. Those who wanted to testify were carefully screened by the officers of VVAW, and care was taken to verify the service records and testimony of the veterans. After the severe criticism of the accuracy of Mark Lane's book about atrocities a month before the event, the organizers of the Winter Soldier Investigation made the credibility of the participants a top priority. All veterans participating in Winter Soldier were required to bring their discharge papers (DD-214's) and IDs.[17] In this connection, the identifying military affiliation of each veteran testifying, including in almost all cases, the dates of service, appears on the roster for each panel that was included with the testimony in the Congressional Record [4] As noted in VVAW records, each veteran's authenticity and testimony were checked after the hearings by Nixon's "plumbers." Charles Colson was assigned the task. In a confidential "Plan to Counteract Viet Nam Veterans Against the War", Colson wrote, "The men that participated in the pseudo-atrocity hearings in Detroit will be checked to ascertain if they are genuine combat veterans." At one point, the Nixon team suggested in a memo about VVAW, "Several of their regional coordinators are former Kennedy supporters." [18] VVAW was also targeted by the FBI for observation as a possible dissident organization. Although military documentation was provided, some media organizations such as the Detroit News made further inquiries into the hearings by questioning the authenticity of the testifying veterans. Discharge papers were examined; military records were checked against the Pentagon records; after all their digging, not one fraudulent veteran was found.[19] Several months after the Winter Soldier Investigation, NBC News reported on an incident with VVAW executive and Winter Soldier co-organizer Al Hubbard. Hubbard lied about being an officer during a Meet the Press television interview, and was confronted about it shortly afterward. Journalist William Overend states he had met Hubbard and he had been introduced as being a former Air Force captain. Overend learned Hubbard was only an E-5 Staff Sergeant when Hubbard had apologized on the Today Show a few days later, for exaggerating his rank. NBC's Frank Jordan recalls, "He was convinced no one would listen to a black man who was also an enlisted man." Hubbard did not testify at Winter Soldier, but detractors of the WSI frequently raise Hubbard's fabrication in attempts to generate doubt. Fritz Efaw, a Chapter Representative of VVAW, stated: "The claims that the WSI hearings contained falsified testimony from men who were not veterans is an old one, and it's definitely false. The testimony was startling even at the time it took place: startling to the general public, startling to the military and the Nixon administration, and startling to those who participated because each of them knew a piece of the story, but the hearings brought a great many of them together for the first time and provided a venue in which they could be heard for the first time. It's hardly surprising that those on the other side would set out almost immediately to discredit them." Seven years after the hearings, writer Guenter Lewy claimed in his book, America in Vietnam, that allegations against Marines were investigated by the Naval Investigative Service. Lewy wrote that the report stated that some veterans contacted by the NIS did not attend the WSI hearing in Detroit or had never been to Detroit, and many refused to be interviewed. However, government officials today cannot verify the report's existence, and no other historian has seen it.[5] Lewy later said that he could not recall if he had actually seen the alleged report or simply been told of its contents.[6] [7] See the text of this excerpt from Guenter Lewy's book, America in Vietnam, in wikiquote In addition, the Army found the allegations made by 46 veterans at the hearings to merit further inquiry, and were able to identify 43 of the complainants. The Army's CID investigators attempted to contact 41 of the people who testified; of the 36 they were able to locate, 31 submitted to interviews. [8] One participant, Jamie Henry, had reported the massacre he described at the hearings [9] to the Army, which investigated and subsequently confirmed the story. However, the details of the investigation were not made public until 2006, when the Los Angeles Times published the declassified information [10].
This Country has Still not come to terms with Vietnam and Now it will need to dig Real Deep Within to come to Terms with the Present and the Hatreds it has Instilled in Many over the Actions We Have Taken!!
The fact that this process of truth-telling was not respected and honored as a part of the experience of these soldiers is one of the reasons that the subject of the war in Vietnam continues to be misunderstood and misrepresented. This is a very disturbing film about the making of war, the making of young men into killers, the bringing of our society into acceptance of a war against people of a different color, a different culture, all the way around the globe. It brings to the surface of consciousness questions that must be confronted and asked again as our country is again sending off soldiers to die and to kill."
War crimes "encouraged?" WATERTOWN, NY - "I was messed up in the head. It was okay for me. I laughed afterwards. We all did. It's just the way things go." SNIP
But Turner says it wasn't his choice to be encouraged to do it from higher ranking officers. He and three other veterans speaking out Saturday at the Different Drummer Cafe in Watertown said committing war crimes is not only the way things go, but it's unofficial policy. SNIP
You can read the rest at above link, along with catching the News 10 Video there as well.
Winter Soldiers, according to founding father Thomas Paine, are those who stand up for the soul of their country, even in its darkest hours.
A group of Iraq war veterans are planning a gathering in Washington D.C. in March to talk about war crimes they've seen or committed during their tours of duty.
Humanity, that preaches Religious Beliefs, Human Rights, Morality has to come to terms with what War Brings On and it's Longterm Effects, Personal and to Security for All!
War crimes "encouraged?" WATERTOWN, NY - "I was messed up in the head. It was okay for me. I laughed afterwards. We all did. It's just the way things go." SNIP
But Turner says it wasn't his choice to be encouraged to do it from higher ranking officers. He and three other veterans speaking out Saturday at the Different Drummer Cafe in Watertown said committing war crimes is not only the way things go, but it's unofficial policy. SNIP
You can read the rest at above link, along with catching the News 10 Video there as well.
Winter Soldiers, according to founding father Thomas Paine, are those who stand up for the soul of their country, even in its darkest hours.
A group of Iraq war veterans are planning a gathering in Washington D.C. in March to talk about war crimes they've seen or committed during their tours of duty.
4543 people have signed the Statement of Support - Add Your Name Now
Please contact both of your Senators regarding S38. Veterans' Mental Health Outreach and Access Act of 2007 Ask them to co-sponsor this bill. At this time, it has 13 co-sponsors.
S38 - 'A bill to require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a program for the provision of readjustment and mental health services to veterans who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, and for other purposes.'
About This Legislation:
5/23/2007--Introduced. Veterans' Mental Health Outreach and Access Act of 2007 - Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a program to provide to veterans of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, particularly veterans who served in such Operations while in the National Guard and reserves: (1) peer outreach and support services; (2) readjustment counseling and related services; and (3) mental health services. Directs the Secretary to also provide to immediate family members of such veterans, during the three-year period following the return of the veterans from such a deployment, education, support, counseling, and mental health services to assist in: (1) readjustment to civilian life; (2) recovery from an injury or illness incurred during such deployment; and (3) readjustment of the family following the veteran's return. Authorizes the Secretary to contract with community health centers and other qualified entities to provide such services in areas not adequately served by health care facilities of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Requires the Secretary to: (1) contract for a program to train veterans to provide the peer outreach and support services; and (2) conduct a training program for clinicians of community health centers and entities contracted to provide such services. Extends the eligibility for hospital care, medical services, and nursing home care for veterans who served on active duty in a theater of combat operations from two to five years after their discharge or release from such duty.
Blackwater, and the other 'merc' groups, under our employ, for handsome wages, are nothing more than another Insurgent/Terrorist Group in Iraq and beyond. the first part is a clip of an earlier NBC report, listen to what this man says, for he isn't only talkin about blackwater!
Everytime they do something that is an Atrosity or even Borders On, they put Our Military Troops, and our security, in Greater Danger, for Every Action has a Reaction especially in Retaliation!
It's not even the money!
Insurgents Know No Law, they are Guerilla Fighters, it's that simple!!
"Casualties of War" in 1989 told a similar tale of abuse by American soldiers in Vietnam, makes no secret of the goal he is hoping to achieve with the film's image.
Brian De Palma:
"The movie is an attempt to bring the reality of what is happening in Iraq to the American people," he told reporters after a press screening. "The pictures are what will stop the war. One only hopes that these images will get the public incensed enough to motivate their Congressmen to vote against this war," he said.
The movie was shown at the Venice Film Festival and stars Robert Devaney and Patrick Carroll and yes is directed by De Palma.
stunned the Venice festival, with shocking images that left some viewers in tears.
It's about an extremely tragic event, War Crime!, that took place in Iraq and we All know about.
the real-life rape and killing of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl by U.S. soldiers who also murdered her family
it is a harrowing indictment of the conflict and spares the audience no brutality to get its message across.
It's about Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi and the Soldiers who brutalized her, gang raped and than burned, and killed her parents and sister!
It's written as
halfway between documentary and fiction and draws on soldiers' home-made war videos, blogs and journals and footage posted on YouTube
De Palma again:
"In Vietnam, when we saw the images and the sorrow of the people we were traumatizing and killing, we saw the soldiers wounded and brought back in body bags. We see none of that in this war,"
Click on the movie title above to find out what De Palme says about the American Media and a little about the making of it.
The movie
ends with a series of photographs of Iraqi civilians killed and their faces blacked out for legal reasons.
This movie sounds like it would be a must see, if one has a strong will, to better understand some of what actually goes on in a War Theater.
The small number of military personal who commit what would be considered War Crimes create even more danger for their fellow soldiers and raise the hatreds of the occupied populace, already in rage for many over all the death and destruction, bringing more into the fold trying to rid their homeland of the invaders.
The report says there probably will be a limited U.S. release.
We don't mind waging Wars on little countries, with all our might, we just don't like to view the results of that might. It doesn't have a 'Rambo' figure to cheer and never ends happily like those good ole World War II movies I grew up with, nor the westerns fighting those savages who were here first!
In his first in-depth interview after more than a year in jail, a Marine corporal convicted of conspiracy and other charges in the death of an Iraqi man tells The Associated Press how he and his squad came to do what they did.
When an Atrosity occurs, in a War Theater, and the Citizens know who are insurgents and who are innocents, it puts All the Troops in Extreme Danger from the Blowback!
Give diagnosis, Give drugs, Tell him to get more Sleep, Send him back on partrols, where he Rapes a Young Iraqi Girl and Kills Her and the Entire Family, and THE ARMY KNEW!!!!!!
Putting All U.S. Trops into even More Danger than they already were, the Army Itself is complicent in this Atrosity
By RYAN LENZ Associated Press Writer
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) -- An Army private charged with the slaughter of an Iraqi family was diagnosed as a homicidal threat by a military mental health team three months before the attack.
Pfc. Steven D. Green was found to have "homicidal ideations" after seeking help from an Army Combat Stress Team in Iraq on Dec. 21, 2005. Green said he was angry about the war, desperate to avenge the death of comrades and driven to kill Iraqi citizens, according to an investigation by The Associated Press.
The treatment was several small doses of Seroquel - a drug to regulate his mood - and a directive to get some sleep, according to medical records obtained by the AP. The next day, he returned to duty in the particularly violent stretch of desert in the southern Baghdad suburbs known as the "Triangle of Death."
On March 12, 2006, Iraqi police reported a break-in at the home of a family in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles from Baghdad. The intruders shot and killed the father, mother and two young daughters. The older girl, 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, was raped and her body set afire.
The carnage first was assumed to be the work of insurgents. That changed in late June when two members of Green's unit told their superiors of suspicions that soldiers were involved in the killings. Now the Army believes Green and four other soldiers are responsible. One of them has confessed and provided information to prosecutors; in testimony at his court-martial, the soldier identified Green as the ringleader.
If the charges are true, the attack would be among the most horrific instances of criminal behavior by American troops in the nearly four-year-old war. It also would represent a worst-case scenario for the military's much-criticized practice of keeping mentally and emotionally unfit personnel in the killing fields of Iraq.
Col. Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, psychiatry counsel to the Army Surgeon General, would not specifically discuss Green when contacted by The AP. She defended the military's policies regarding the treatment of emotionally or psychologically distressed soldiers.
"If unresponsive to treatment and/or a persistent danger to self or others, they will be evacuated," Ritchie told The AP in an e-mail.
The 101st Airborne Division also declined to comment, noting it is an open federal case.
The Army and the Marines, who have the most personnel on the ground in Iraq, have been faulted for the manner in which troops with mental and emotional difficulties are being treated.
Sending troops already in Iraq who have been diagnosed with mental illness back to combat duty - often under medication that has not been prescribed long enough to have provided relief - has been a particular criticism.
Green has been charged with the murders and rape and pleaded not guilty in federal court in Kentucky. He is being tried in federal court because his arrest came after he had been discharged from the Army. Three others face the same charges and will be court-martialed.
From interviews with people who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized by the military to discuss the case, and from viewing the Army's medical and investigative records, the AP also has learned:
- Three months passed without Army doctors and clinicians from the Combat Stress Team having any contact with Green. He was summoned for a second examination on March 20, 2006 - eight days after the killing of the family. Green was diagnosed as having an anti-social personality disorder and declared unfit for service. The process of discharging him began a week later and he was sent home.
- The Army's own investigation of Green's initial treatment, prompted by concerns he and others would use mental health problems as a defense in trial, is highly critical. Among the most salient findings from a July review of Green's treatment: "Although a safety assessment was conducted, there is no safety plan addressing how Soldier (Green) will keep from acting on his homicidal thoughts."
- Lt. Col. Elizabeth Bowler, a psychiatrist and Army reservist from California who took over the Combat Stress Team with Green's unit in January, recommended his discharge after the second examination in March. Yet she wrote a final evaluation that said Green exhibited no traits that would indicate dangerously erratic or homicidal moods, according to documents viewed by The AP.
Green deployed to Iraq in September 2005 from Fort Campbell with a battalion from the 101st Airborne Division's 502nd Infantry Regiment. The unit was charged with security operations and assisting Iraqi army units in the "Triangle of Death."
Eleven days before Green's first visit with the stress team in December 2005, he and five others were manning a checkpoint when an Iraqi civilian approached, according to testimony in military hearings. The civilian was familiar because of his status as a sometimes informant. He greeted the soldiers warmly before pulling a pistol from his belt and shooting two of them at point-blank range.
Green's behavior worsened after that, according to commanders. He was directed to visit doctors a second time. Eight days later, Bowler told commanders that Green was unfit for service, according to documents. The discharge process for Green concluded in May 2006.
The Pentagon issued new guidelines in November that prevent personnel with certain pre-existing mental problems from deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan. Clinicians evaluating whether a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan is fit for service are now required to review all medical records. Mental illnesses that are not expected to be resolved in one year will be cause for discharge.
The Army's hearings on the family's murder concluded in August. Those who testified put forth this outline of the crime:
The plot to rape and kill was hatched as the soldiers hit golf balls at a checkpoint. They had seen the older daughter on patrols in the area. After drinking whiskey bought from Iraqi policemen, they masked their faces and crept through backyards in afternoon daylight to get to the family's home.
They knew the family kept a gun in one bedroom for protection.
Once in the house, Green herded the father, mother and 5-year-old daughter to another room, closed the door and shot them dead. Green had blood on his clothes and boots when he returned.
Green and at least two others took turns raping the other daughter before killing her with the family's AK-47. They set her body on fire with kerosene dumped from a lamp in the kitchen in an effort to hide evidence.
Steven Green is in custody at an undisclosed location in Kentucky, according to federal law-enforcement officials. Prosecutors have not said if they will seek the death penalty.
Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, 22, of Chambersburg, Pa.; Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, 24, of Barstow, Calif.; and Pfc. Bryan L. Howard, 23, of Huffman, Texas, have been charged with rape and murder and await courts-martial. They are in custody at Fort Campbell.
Spc. James P. Barker, 24, of Fresno, Calif., pleaded guilty in November as part of an agreement to testify against the others.
Five years into the war on terror, American military contractors have finally lost some of their immunity from prosecution for dirty deeds done on the federal dime.
They now can be Court Martialed.
This means that if contractors violate the rules of engagement in a warzone or commit crimes during a contingency operation like Iraq, they can now be court-martialed (as in, Corporate Warriors, meet A Few Good Men). On face value, this appears to be a step forward for realistic accountability. Military contractor conduct can now be checked by the military investigation and court system, which unlike civilian courts, is actually ready and able both to understand the peculiarities of life and work in a warzone and kick into action when things go wrong.
The addition of five little words to a massive US legal code that fills entire shelves at law libraries wouldn't normally matter for much. But with this change, contractors' 'get out of jail free' card may have been torn to shreds. Previously, contractors would only fall under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, better known as the court martial system, if Congress declared war. This is something that has not happened in over 65 years and out of sorts with the most likely operations in the 21st century. The result is that whenever our military officers came across episodes of suspected contractor crimes in missions like Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, or Afghanistan, they had no tools to resolve them. As long as Congress had not formally declared war, civilians -- even those working for the US armed forces, carrying out military missions in a conflict zone -- fell outside their jurisdiction. The military's relationship with the contractor was, well, merely contractual. At most, the local officer in charge could request to the employing firm that the individual be demoted or fired. If he thought a felony occurred, the officer might be able to report them on to civilian authorities.
Actually this is coming about Real Late in this Debacle! As these clowns have been doing as they please, including torture, killings, whatever, their ctions have put Military Personal in Extreme Danger! That danger comes from the Retaliations that Atrosities bring about as well as the Easier Recruitment of others to join in the Insurgency/Guerilla War trying to disingage the Occupiers from their Country! It also leads to a Much Less Secure 'National Security', for not only this Country but any Considered Friendly Nations of!
Back when the Vietnamese just wanted us Out, today it's a Continuation of the already long running Guerilla War, long before 9/11, that has been waged by the fanatical extreme 'Criminal Terrorist' for a veriaty of reasons but more like because of our Policies, on the Foreign Front, and the Support we have given to so called leaders in the Countries that Suppress their fellow Countries Citizens!
And for every story that has been deemed newsworthy, there are dozens that never see the spotlight. One US army officer recently told me of an incident he witnessed, where a contractor shot a young Iraqi who got too close to his vehicle while in line at the Green Zone entrance. The boy was waiting there to apply for a job. Not merely a tragedy, but one more nail in the coffin for any US effort at winning hearts and minds.
It's bad enough, for the troops, when one of their own Royally Screws Up, but to have High Paid Guns doin the Screwin it's Fanatical!!!
So what happens next? In all likelihood, many firms, who have so far thrived in the unregulated marketplace, will now lobby hard to try to strike down the change. We will perhaps even soon enjoy the sight of CEOs of military firms, preening about their loss of rights and how the new definition of warzone will keep them from rescuing kittens caught in trees.
Take a trip over and read the report, it's worth it.
39 years later, Australia finds last Vietnam War missing
Mohandas K. Gandhi was killed in Delhi 
The Winter Soldier Hearings began in a Howard Johnson's motel in Detroit. 
The "Winter Soldier Investigation" was a media event sponsored by the 
