The two soldiers who were kidnapped earlier this week were found, and apparently they were tortured prior to their murders. This is a retaliatory action. The executive branch of our government has allowed torture in it's interrogation techniques. Bush went so far as to write a signing statement exempting his branch from following McCain anti torture law. With that exemption he exempted our own troops from the protection of higher moral ground. 'Do as I say, not as I do', does not work in war or in peace. God Bless the families of the two young men who suffered this way. God bless the families of all the people harmed by this horrid evil War. God bless us all. Units June 20, 2006, 9:55AM Bodies of missing U.S. soldiers show signs of torture The bodies of two U.S. soldiers who had been reported kidnapped have been found near the checkpoint where the men disappeared after an attack, senior Iraqi and U.S. military officials said this morning. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for killing the soldiers, and said the successor to slain terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had "slaughtered" them, according to a Web statement that could not be authenticated. The language in the statement suggested the men had been beheaded. Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore., went missing Friday near the town of Youssifiyah, south of Baghdad. Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass., was killed in the attack. All were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Ky. "Coalition forces have recovered what we believe are the remains of the soldiers,'' Major General William Caldwell told a news conference. According to a report in the Midland Reporter-Telegram, Green was arrested for misdemeanor possession of alcohol on Jan. 31, 2005. Days later, just a few months shy of his 20th birthday, he enlisted in the Army. He was deployed to Iraq from September 2005 to April 2006 as an infantry soldier in B Company, 1st Battalion of the 502nd Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, Ky.   An Iraqi military official says bodies found showed signs of torture and of being killed in "a barbaric way.'' Mario Vasquez, Menchaca's uncle, said Army officials had told the family early this morning that the bodies of two uniformed soldiers had been found, both of them beheaded. He said the Army would be conducting DNA tests, but the family believes the men were Menchaca and Tucker. "They're not sure it's him, but we don't know of any other (missing) soldiers they have,'' said Vasquez. "This is bad news,'' said the soldier's aunt Mariaelena Garcia. At the home of Menchaca's mother in Brownsville, Guadalupe Vasquez was too upset to speak. Mario Vasquez said her other son, Cesar Vasquez in Houston, was packing to leave for Brownsville to be with his mother. "He's taking it OK for now,'' his uncle said, ``but I'm sure he's just being strong.'' Abdul-Aziz Mohammed, the director of the defense ministry's operation room, said the bodies of Menchaca and Tucker were found on a street in Youssifiyah. "We found the bodies of the two abducted American soldiers in Youssifiyah, near a power transformer,'' Mohammed said. The Sunni Arab region, also known as the Triangle of Death, is the site of frequent ambushes of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi troops.

Pat Lang

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

"For what its worth and taken with some reservation of judgement, some eyewitness descriptions in the islamic press include many more US soldiers involved...from 10 up to 15.

Many, many other questions here. Why is Green the only soldier named and in theory facing justice? at least one other rapist and several accomplices in the officially sanctioned version.

"Another soldier, referred to as KP1, also allegedly raped the girl.

According to accounts provided to investigators by other soldiers, Green and took several other soldiers with him to a nearby house intending to rape the woman. Green, according to an affidavit submitted by FBI Special Agent Gregor J. Ahlers in support of the arrest warrant, killed the woman's parents and young sister, raped the woman along with another soldier, then shot her in the head and set her body on fire.

There were four soldiers who went to the residence, knowing that the plan was for the girl to be raped. They are referred to in the affidavit as SO12, SO13, Green and KP1. You can read the affidavit for Green's arrest here. Page 6 lays out the events and players.

Amid the more disgusting details, provided by S012 and SO13 who have cooperated with authorities: They go to the house, SO13 stays in front on guard, the other three go in the house. K1 smacks the girl down in the living room, Green goes in the bedroom, shoots and kills her three family members. SO13, hearing the shots, comes in the house. Green comes back out to the living room where Green and KP1 rape the girl, after which, Green shoots her and kills her. SO12 tells SO13 to get rid of the AK-47 Green used to kill them all.

No NCO or officer above these privates named? How can privates change into civilian clothes and go on a local raid without a superior's knowledge?

("he criminal complaint [FindLaw image] alleges that Green was the ringleader of the four soldiers who took part in the violence while a fifth soldier remained in a humvee to stand guard. The complaint also alleges that the soldiers had been drinking alcohol beforehand and had changed into civilian clothes, indicating that the alleged acts were not spontaneous).

What about his chain of command?

This guy and his pals were planning this attack for at least a week, and the woman's family felt threatened enough beforehand to try to take preventative action.

Plus unit discipline obviously broke down to allow the capture of single paratroopers on guard/checkpoint duty, which should be very difficult under normal circumstances.

I'll take the liberty of copying a comment from Rick at Talkleft.com....

"Green had been in the Army eleven months by the time he was discharged for an unspecified personality disorder. The discharge occurred after the rape/murder. He was a problem for the command at platoon and company levels, and they got rid of him. Quietly, so as to not disturb the higher commanders. To discharge him it had to go through battalion S1 (Personnel.)

The three soldiers at the traffic control point were set up. Someone attacked the group and ran. Part of the group left to chase them, leaving the three troops at the traffic control point. One was killed, two were captured, tortured, beheaded and left to be found. These three soldiers were ~in the same platoon~ as Green had been. For purposes of payback, being in the same platoon as the rapist/murderers is the same as being in the extended family, so they were responsible to the extended family four Green killed.

The rape/murder very probably led to Green's discharge, and was almost certainly known to everyone in his platoon, his company commander and first sergeant, the battalion commander and XO, and the Battalion Personnel section. This is at a minimum.

The hullabaloo caused by the capture of the two soldiers brought the entire U.S Army in the Iraq command out in force, and included - what was it? - some 6,000 soldiers searching for them over the weekend until the bodies were found? That tore to top off the cover up within the 502d bn. It was exposed in the debriefings after the deaths of the three soldiers.

I can understand your genteel use of the term "~may have caused~ the soldier's kidnappings, beheadings." but for this to all happen in the same single platoon is just to unlikely to be a reasonable coincidence. Especially when connected to the discharge of the prime suspect for some unspecified "personality disorder" after he has only been in the Army for a total of eleven months. Gimme a break. Every bit of this stuff is connected. That discharge itself is very unlikely to have occurred to anyone. That it happened to the person identified as the prime suspect in a rape/murder shortly after the crime happened is too unreasonable to be a coincidence.

By the way, notice that Green was a high school dropout with a GED. Prior to the invasion of Iraq, he would not even have been allowed into the Army. The standards had to be lowered a lot just to get him in, and look what happened as a result. High school graduates are a lot less likely to be this kind of discipline problem. But the Army wasn't making the enlistment quotas, remember?

I'd really like to know Green's training and discipline record prior to March."

And another commenter, Tom, gives the FBI document a close read, noting that "Seeing a couple of comments about the possibility of an initial cover-up of the horrible incident in Mahmoudiya, I would note the following issues seem to be raised by a careful reading of the FBI Affidavit supporting the warrant for Steven Green's arrest:
(1) para. 13 of the Affidavit indicates that "fifteen crime scene photos" had been provided to the Affiant by the Army's CID, and further indicates that bodies appeared in the photos.

Shrink
(2) since the actual rape and murder occurred during the evening of March 11, 2006 (paras. 8, 9 and 12) bodies would clearly have been removed from the scene of the crime before the "combat stress debriefing" of "on/about 06/20/2006" when the crime was "discovered (para. 6). If the crime scene photos predate the 6/20/06 debriefing, why were they taken, and if as part of an investigation, what did it conclude? Is anyone following up with a FOIA Request to get all relevant CID files?
(3) the references in the FBI Affidavit as to the initial US awareness of the incident are a little bit contradictory - - para. 5 states the incident was brought to the attention of US forces "about 1730, 03/12/2006" by "three unknown Iraqi males" while para. 12 indicates that notification was received from "an Iraqi National on 03/11/2006." If the incident indeed came to light on March 11, 2006, the very day of the alleged incident, what kind of follow-up was there?
(3) since the FBI affidavit para. 5 reference to the three unknown Iraqi males, continues that the incident occurred "in their house," and since news accounts have mentioned that the girl who was raped had three brothers who were not at home when the incident occurred, was the initial report made by those three brothers? If so, what did they say, especially in light of news reports now indicating that the young girl's family had expressed fears for the safety of the girl because of advances by US troops?"

It seems to me there's at least the possibility of a company-level coverup attempt that's failed here."

Chris

 

In Cold Blood: Iraqi Tells of Massacre at Farmhouse

A cousin describes finding the shot and shattered bodies. A U.S. soldier is in custody.

By Raheem Salman and J. Michael Kennedy, Times Staff Writers
July 6, 2006

BAGHDAD — He was the first to enter the charred farmhouse where the bodies of his relatives lay strewn about the floor, shot and bludgeoned to death.

And he watched more than three months later as a U.S. Army officer took the two surviving children in his arms, barely able to hold back tears as he told them that the people who had killed their family would be punished.

Discovers bodies "Never in my mind could I have imagined such a gruesome sight," Abu Firas Janabi said of the day in March when his cousin, Fakhriya Taha Muhsen; her husband, Kasim Hamza Rasheed; and their two daughters were slain and their farmhouse set ablaze.

"Kasim's corpse was in the corner of the room, and his head was smashed into pieces," he said. The 5-year-old daughter, Hadel, was beside her father, and Janabi said he could see that Fakhriya's arms had been broken.

In another room, he found 15-year-old Abeer, naked and burned, with her head smashed in "by a concrete block or a piece of iron."

"There were burns from the bottom of her stomach to the end of her body, except for her feet," he said.

"I did not believe what I was seeing. I tried to fool myself into believing I was in a dream. But the problem was that we were not dreaming. We put a piece of cloth over her body. Then I left the house together with my wife."

At least four American soldiers from a nearby checkpoint are the prime suspects. The case, which includes the alleged rape of the older daughter, has caused a firestorm in the United States and Iraq. And the soldiers, including one charged Monday with rape and murder, have become lurid symbols of the American military at its worst.

The image has not been helped in recent weeks by the emergence of other accusations that U.S. soldiers had killed Iraqi civilians.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki complained Wednesday that immunity from Iraqi prosecution had encouraged atrocities by American troops. And the U.S. military is clearly on the defensive. On Wednesday, Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the chief military spokesman in Iraq, defended the troops here, complaining that the "acts of a few outweigh the deeds of many."

Janabi, who has emerged as a potential witness, has been interviewed by a U.S. investigator.

He lives about half a mile from the scene of the killings, just outside the town of Mahmoudiya. It's agricultural country, where the small farms are divided by mesh wire fences and the people who toil on them make a subsistence living.

Janabi and his wife were home March 12 when a neighbor ran to tell him that the farmhouse of his cousin and her husband was on fire and that he could see slain family members inside the burning building.

Janabi said that when he arrived at the house, he began to call for others to help him.

"But nobody came," he said in a telephone interview Tuesday from Mahmoudiya, describing the eeriness he felt as he and his wife stood there. "I felt that I had made a disastrous decision. I felt I had made a mistake to rush so quickly to the house, because if the murderers were still there, they would kill me as well."

He and his wife had to douse some of the flames before they could enter the home.

The couple had found the two young boys in the family crying as they stood outside the farmhouse, where they could see the bodies inside. The boys had been at school when the killings occurred but were home by the time Janabi and his wife arrived.

Together, they went to a checkpoint guarded by Iraqi soldiers to tell them what had happened. Then they went back to the house and watched as the bodies were placed in nylon bags and taken to a nearby Iraqi base.

Janabi said Abeer was not in school and, like other peasant girls, seldom left the house. But he said that three days before the killings, the Rasheed family was at his house and his cousin was complaining that the American soldiers at the nearby guard post were constantly searching her house. Janabi said the parents believed that the "girl was the target."

"I suggested they come and live in the house beside mine that was empty," Janabi said. "But they said, 'There are a lot of families close to us, and nothing bad will happen.' "

Janabi said he returned to the burned-out house the day after the attack as villagers gathered to scavenge for furniture. He asked the villagers whether they knew of any enemies that Kasim had made. They answered no, saying he was just a poor farmer like them who barely made ends meet, working in a Baghdad factory to earn an extra $3 a day. But the villagers had heard stories about the slayings.

In one story, the killers wore black shirts and military pants. In another, they were wearing track suits, and in a third, there was a dog with them.Janabi said he suspected the Americans because the dozens of shots fired would have been heard by U.S. troops at the nearby checkpoint. And from what he could gather, the killers were at the house for more than two hours, too long for them to have gone unnoticed by the Americans. He also said he suspected that whoever carried out the killings had used Kasim's AK-47 assault rifle, the only item that Janabi said was missing from the house.

Initially, U.S. military officials said the killings were the result of intra-Iraqi feuding, a plausible conclusion given the dozens of revenge killings that happen each day in the country. But a U.S. soldier came forward recently with rumors of American involvement in the alleged rape and killings.

On Monday, Steven D. Green, 21, a former private with the 502nd Infantry Regiment, was charged in Charlotte, N.C., in the case. The Army has said that no other soldiers have been charged or detained, but that several were under close supervision in Iraq.

Janabi said he learned of the inquiry involving the soldiers last week, and an American investigator asked him to tell his side of the story.

"He was saying that he wants to find out the truth," Janabi said. "I told him I didn't want any money or compensation. The most important thing is that the criminal must be punished in a punishment in the same level of the crime he committed. He must not be imprisoned for four to six months and that is all."

Janabi said he asked the investigator why all this was happening now, when the killings took place three months earlier.

"He told me that a soldier confessed and we want to know the truth," he said.

Then, Janabi said, the investigator told him that a high-ranking U.S. officer wished to pay his condolences to the family. The next day, he brought Fakhriya's cousin, Mohammed, to the base along with the two boys to meet the commander.

"He hugged the children and kissed them several times," Janabi said. "It was hard for him to control his tears."

The discussions, Janabi said, now center on whether the bodies can be exhumed for autopsies. He said they received only a cursory examination when they were taken to the Mahmoudiya hospital in March.

Janabi said that the two boys were with their uncle in the village of Iskandariya, but that their faces told the effects of their misery.

"They lost their father and mother," Janabi said. "They lost their house and sisters. Basically their family was too poor and they have not inherited anything. Their life is deplorable."

 

The allegations of rape could generate a particularly strong backlash in Iraq, a conservative, strongly religious society in which many women will not even shake hands with men who are not close relatives

(CBS/AP)

(AP) The justice minister demanded Tuesday that the U.N. Security Council ensure a group of U.S. troops are punished in the alleged rape and murder of a young Iraqi and the killing of her family, calling the attack "monstrous and inhuman."

Two female legislators also called for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to be summoned to parliament to give assurances that justice would be done.

Meanwhile, gunmen in camouflage uniforms kidnapped Deputy Electricity Minister Raed al-Hares, along with 11 of his bodyguards in eastern Baghdad, security officials said.

The gunmen stopped al-Hares' convoy in the Shiite neighborhood of Talbiya, then forced the official and his bodyguards into their vehicles, said police Lt. Ahmed Qassim.

The kidnapping occurred three days after gunmen seized female Sunni legislator Tayseer al-Mashhadani in a Shiite area of east Baghdad. She and seven bodyguards are still missing.

The March 12 attack on the family in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, was among the worst in a series of cases of U.S. troops accused of killing and abusing Iraqi civilians. Iraq's largest newspaper, Azzaman, said in an editorial Tuesday the rape "summarizes what has been going in Iraq for the past years not only by the American occupation army, but also by some Iraqi groups."

Former Pfc. Steven D. Green appeared in federal court in Charlotte, N.C., on Monday to face murder and rape charges. At least four other U.S. soldiers still in Iraq are under investigation, and the military has stressed it is taking the allegations seriously.

"If this act actually happened, it constitutes an ugly and unethical crime, monstrous and inhuman," said Justice Minister Hashim Abdul-Rahman al-Shebli, a Sunni Arab. "The Iraqi judiciary should be informed about this investigation which should be conducted under supervision of international and human organizations. Those involved should face justice."

"The ugliness of this crime demands a swift intervention of the U.N. Security Council to stop these violations of human rights and to condemn them so that they will not happen again," he added.

The two lawmakers, Safiya al-Suhail and Ayda al-Sharif, said condemnation was not enough.

"We demand severe punishment for the five soldiers involved," al-Sharif said. "Denouncements are not enough. If this act has taken place in another country, the world would have turned upside down."

Al-Suhail said al-Maliki should appear before parliament "to make sure investigations are taking place."

Mahmoudiya Mayor Mouayad Fadhil said Iraqi authorities have started their own investigation and that he had asked the hospital where the victims were taken for more details.

Green is accused of raping the woman and killing her and three relatives — an adult male and female and a girl estimated to be 5 years old. An official familiar with the investigation said he set fire to the rape victim's body in an apparent cover-up attempt.

Iraqi authorities identified the rape victim as Abeer Qassim Hamza. The other victims were her father, Qassim Hamza, her mother, Fikhriya Taha, and her sister, Hadeel Qassim Hamza.

The affidavit estimated the rape victim was about 25. But a doctor at the Mahmoudiya hospital gave her age as 14. He refused to be identified for fear of reprisals.

Mahdi Obeid, a neighbor, said that on March 12, he saw fire coming from the house. He rushed over to find Abeer's body on fire. He extinguished the flames and saw bullet wounds in her head and chest.

"It was a horrible scene," he said. "If I could go back in time, I would have not dared enter the house. I cannot wipe those barbaric scenes from my memory."
Jeish propaganda
An insurgent group, the Mujahedeen Army, distributed an account of the incident on an Islamist Web site. It appeared the report, which generally corresponded with details already made public, was designed to draw attention to the deaths and stir up hostility against the U.S. military.

The Azzaman newspaper expressed skepticism the soldiers would be severely punished.

"The U.S. Army will conduct an investigation and the result at best is already known. One or two U.S. soldiers will receive a 'touristic punishment' and the whole crime will be forgotten as it happened with Abu Ghraib criminals," the newspaper said, referring to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. guards at a prison in west Baghdad.

Iraqi authorities, meanwhile, imposed an 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. car and pedestrian curfew in Basra to bolster a state of emergency that has failed to curb increasing violence in the southern city. The measure will take effect on Friday, police Col. Karim al-Zeidi said.

A roadside bomb struck a police patrol in eastern Baghdad, killing three policemen and wounding three others, Lt. Bilal Ali said.

Police also found six bodies of construction workers in Baghdad —
four who were shot in the head and left near a Sunni mosque and two others — a Shiite and a Sunni — who were left in a different location, Lt. Maitam Abdul-Razzaq said.

A Sunni sheik who was shot by gunmen on Monday in Fallujah died of his wounds and large numbers of clerics and other mourners participated in a funeral procession.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/2006.06.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq - America's two top officials in

Iraq on Thursday sought to calm Iraqi anger over allegations that U.S. soldiers were involved in the rape-murder of a girl, promising an open investigation and calling such acts "absolutely inexcusable and unacceptable." The rare joint statement from U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Gen. George W. Casey, the senior U.S. commander in Iraq, came as military officers investigated the apparent failures of leadership to keep a close watch on American troops.

Several groups of soldiers and Marines are under investigation for alleged slayings of unarmed civilians, and three U.S. soldiers were killed by insurgents last month after they apparently were left alone despite procedures designed to prevent that.

The joint statement underscored U.S. efforts to contain the political damage that the March 12 killing of a girl and three relatives has caused among an Iraqi public increasingly weary of foreign troops.

"The alleged events of that day are absolutely inexcusable and unacceptable behavior," the statement said. "We will fully pursue all the facts in a vigorous and open process as we investigate this situation."

President Bush called the attack "a despicable crime, if true," that could color perceptions of American troops.

"These are very serious charges and what the Iraqis must understand is that we will deal with these in a very transparent, upfront way," Bush said during an interview broadcast on CNN's "Larry King Live."

Khalilzad and Casey promised a vigorous investigation and prosecution of the case and pledged to "work closely with the government of Iraq to ensure transparency as we complete the investigatory and legal processes."

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has called for an independent investigation into the attack and a review of the agreement granting U.S. forces immunity from prosecution by Iraqi courts.

Ex-soldier Steven Green has been charged with rape and four counts of murder in the March 12 incident in Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad. At least three soldiers still in Iraq are under investigation, including a sergeant, a specialist and a private first class, a defense official in Baghdad told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The case has raised questions about adherence to procedures set for U.S. troops in Iraq, as well as discipline within the suspects' unit. The soldiers were from the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, the same unit hit by the insurgent killings of three soldiers last month.

Spokesmen for the 101st Airborne and the Multinational Corps of Iraq refused to discuss the case on the record because of its sensitivity.

Leaving Base

The U.S. military has strict rules for soldiers operating outside their bases, designed to ensure they are under supervision and also to protect them. All soldiers leaving their bases are supposed to be accompanied by a noncommissioned officer and travel in at least two vehicles.

The rape-murder investigation has raised questions about whether there are problems with how the military operates since soldiers allegedly left their post without someone raising questions.

U.S officials and analysts say the problem may not be the procedures but the leaders responsible for enforcing them.

"Somebody had to have known. The procedures are fine," said Tim Brown, an analyst with Globalsecurity.org, a Washington-based military think tank. "Maybe in the case of this particular unit the failure goes a lot higher, to the failure of the command to properly enforce the rules."

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is under way, maintained the procedures "that are in place are right and good." The official said the question is whether the procedures are being "followed all the time."

Manning checkpoint  Infront of base

According to a federal affidavit, Green and at least two other soldiers drank alcohol, abandoned the checkpoint they were manning, changed clothes to avoid detection and then headed to the victims' house about 200 yards from a U.S. military camp. A fourth soldier stayed in uniform, the affidavit said.

Nearly all those steps — including drinking alcohol — are violations of regulations, U.S. officials say.

Even before the rape-murder investigation surfaced, the military was investigating the incident in which three soldiers from the same battalion were killed by insurgents near Youssifiyah. Two of those apparently were abducted and then slain, with their bodies mutilated.

The Army said it was trying to determine how the soldiers were left by themselves with a single vehicle in a known stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq.

At a news conference Wednesday, the U.S. military spokesman, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, said U.S. officials were looking into the leadership of the unit "from an administrative standpoint."

Brown said the case demonstrated a bigger problem facing the strapped U.S. military.

"Maybe it's a case where the manager knew that he had disciplinary and morale problems but he was under pressure," Brown said. "They have limited resources ... and something's got to give."

Mahmudiyah

FOB St. Michael

The city of Mahmudiyah is located 25 kilometers south of Baghdad.

In April 2003 soldiers with the Army Reserve's 431st Civil Affairs Battalion, attached to the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), went out on an assessment mission of the local infrastructure of the town of Al Mahmudiyah. The were basically identifying problems they are having such as water, sewage and power. The team separated in to four groups, established rally points and discussed the plans of the day. Within minutes the soldiers came upon a large group of civilians. Fortunately for the soldiers, the mood of the crowd was a pleasant.

TF 3-505 operates out of FOB St Michael. They are making great progress in defeating enemy and threat forces in their zone. In October 2003 they conducted a cordon and search detaining a former Iraqi Republican Guard two star general. This general was very sought after. He gave them very useful information during his interrogation that will undoubtedly result in more successful missions. TF 3-505 continues to make improvements to their FOB. They recently expanded their FOB by building a half-mile perimeter around the backside of their FOB. They are in the process of repositioning the living tents and reinforcing them with wooden floors, walls and roofs. They are also constructing a running track.

An ambush on a convoy traveling near Al Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad, led to one 3rd Corps Support Command soldier being killed by small arms fire at about 6:30 p.m. local time, 09 July 2003. One soldier from 3rd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division was killed and two were wounded when their patrol was ambushed by rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire near the city of Mahmudiyah at approximately 8:00 p.m. 05 November 2003.

As of mid-September 2003 TF 3-505 continued FOB improvements and have turned an old Chicken Meat Packing Plant into a robust FOB. It is amazing what troopers will do with a little money and a few vertical engineers. They were constructing a running track around the backside of their erimeter. They continue to operate in and around the Mahmudiyah area and are making good process. All of the troopers in 3 Panther are living in Tier 3 Tents with A/C and a wooden frame. They get showers daily and are eating at least two hot meals daily.

 

(Your Voice in a World where Zionism, Steel, and Fire have
turned Justice Mute)

Candy

Suicide car bomber kills 30 in Iraq

08:01 PM EST on Thursday, November 24, 2005

By CHRIS TOMLINSON / Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide bomber blew up his car outside a hospital south of Baghdad on Thursday while U.S. troops handed out candy and food to children, killing 30 people and wounding about 40, including four Americans.

AP Photo People gather around the site of a car bomb outside the hospital in Mahmoudiya, Iraq, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2005.

As U.S. troops spent another Thanksgiving at war, two soldiers died in another bombing near the capital, and the U.S. command said four American deaths occurred Wednesday.

Elsewhere, 11 Iraqis were killed and 17 injured Thursday when a car bomb exploded near a crowded soft drink stand in Hillah, a mostly Shiite Muslim city 60 miles south of Baghdad. More than 200 people - mostly Shiites - have died from suicide attacks and car bombs since Friday.

Amid the bloodshed, at least four insurgent groups reportedly were mulling a government offer to talk peace - a hopeful sign for efforts to end an insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives.

Three women and two children were among the dead in the attack outside the hospital in Mahmoudiya, a flashpoint town 20 miles south of Baghdad in the "triangle of death" notorious for attacks on Shiite Muslims, U.S. troops and foreign travelers.

A civil affairs team from the U.S. Army's Task Force Baghdad was at the hospital studying ways to upgrade the facility when the bomber struck just outside the guarded compound, a U.S. military statement said.

Mosque

 

U.S. Sees Possible Links Between Incidents in Iraq

The slayings of three soldiers near the site of an alleged rape and the killing of a family may have been an act of revenge, an official says.

By Julian E. Barnes, Times Staff Writer
July 5, 2006

 

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military is investigating whether the kidnapping, killing and mutilation of two American soldiers was carried out in retaliation for an alleged rape and murder of an Iraqi woman by another member of the same unit three months earlier, a military official said Tuesday.

The incidents occurred in nearby towns and the soldiers involved were in the same unit. The bodies of the two American soldiers and at least one Iraqi were mutilated. A third U.S. soldier was killed during the kidnapping of his comrades.

The official, citing results of a preliminary military investigation, also said military officers had forced the chief suspect in the rape case out of the Army before the accusation against him came to light because they believed he could pose a threat to Iraqi civilians.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because investigations of both incidents are incomplete.

Military officials initially believed that the three soldiers attacked in the town of Yousifiya were selected because they were vulnerable when separated from the rest of their unit. But as information about the alleged rape-killing has emerged, so have new theories about the kidnappings-killings.



"Was it a target of opportunity or was it a warning: Don't do this to our women?" said the military official.

The rarity of kidnappings of U.S. troops — only one other is missing in Iraq — and the apparent complexity and brutality of the attack in Yousifiya has investigators looking further into possible connections.

"We are trying to find out if this hit on these three soldiers was a retribution for the rape and murder," said the official. "I cannot fathom the audacity it would take to do such a complex attack. What sort of rage exists in the populace? Are they saying, 'We aren't going to take this from people who do this to our women?' "

On Monday, Steven D. Green, 21, a former Army private with the 502nd Infantry Regiment, appeared in federal court in Charlotte, N.C., on charges that he raped and murdered an Iraqi woman in the town of Mahmoudiya. According to accounts provided to investigators by other soldiers, Green dressed in black and took several other soldiers with him to a nearby house with the intent of raping the woman. According to an affidavit submitted by FBI Special Agent Gregor J. Ahlers in support of the arrest warrant, Green killed the woman's parents and young sister; he and another soldier raped the woman; then he shot her in the head and set her body on fire.

Ahlers said his six-page affidavit was drawn largely from the work of Army investigators. No other current or former soldier has been charged in the case.

Although the incident occurred in March, military officials learned only recently that it might have been carried out by a group of Americans, rather than the insurgents who initially were blamed.

The attack on the three American soldiers working alone at a checkpoint in Yousifiya, near Mahmoudiya, occurred in June. One soldier, Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass., was killed. Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore., were kidnapped, apparently tortured and killed. Their bodies were found beheaded and mutilated beyond recognition.

It was during counseling after the deaths of the three soldiers that military officials heard the allegations that Americans were responsible for the killing of the four civilians in Mahmoudiya.

By that time, Green had been honorably discharged from the Army. Officially, he was discharged because of a "personality disorder." But unit commanders removed Green because they feared he posed a threat to Iraqi civilians, said the military official, citing documents produced by investigators.

The other soldiers remain under investigation.

Responding to the allegations against Green, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Tuesday denounced murder or rape of Iraqis as "totally unacceptable." Appearing on NBC's "Today Show," Pace promised that the military would find out what happened in Mahmoudiya.

"We will do the investigations, we will find out what the truth is and, if necessary, we will take those who deserve to be taken to court so they can have their day in court," Pace said.

Military officials are reeling from a series of allegations of atrocities involving U.S. troops in Iraq. The cases include the slayings in November of 24 civilians in Haditha. The graphic details about the Mahmoudiya case have top officers in Iraq worried that the charges could prove as explosive as the photographs of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison.

Some Iraqi officials have expressed outrage, and the mayor of the area that includes Mahmoudiya has promised his own investigation.

As the American military was wrestling with how to handle the situation, another high-ranking Iraqi official was briefly kidnapped Tuesday on the outskirts of Baghdad.

 

 

Four soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment have been taken to a U.S. military camp in Baghdad for questioning, Wright said. He would not say if those soldiers had been arrested, but another U.S. official said Saturday that several more soldiers would soon be charged. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

col Smith

	DISPATCH FROM THE FRONT LINES What's really going on Iraq A message from the U.S. Marine Corps' 'Mad Ghosts' The Commander of Mamudiya - FOB St Michael Lt Col Mark Smith   Posted: January 19, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern Editor's note: Lt. Col. Mark Smith is commander of the "Mad Ghosts," the 2/24th Battalion (U.S. Marine Corps Reserve – Chicago). When he is not leading Marines in Iraq, he is an Indiana state trooper. © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Greetings from FOB St. Michael. Hopefully, and prayerfully, this week's update finds you all healthy, happy and joyful. For another week in your separation from your loved one is behind you, and you are yet one day closer to that reunion where a hug will be more than a hug, a kiss more than a kiss and a touch more than a touch! That moment of reunion will be the point in space and time when the victory is yours. Victory over loneliness, victory over stress, victory over challenge, victory over hardship. Victory over all those things that the devil uses to turn people's heart to stone, but that the Lord uses to turn people's heart to thanksgiving. The victory over these things will only be sweetened by the fact that they were endured for a cause worthy of the pain: the cause of freedom and security for you, for us, for Iraq and it's global impact on all of our futures, and for the blessings of liberty that come with the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! Bless us all. Now, with greetings out of the way ... let me get to this week's update. And, if I might, a short story. I received an email from a reporter from the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal last week by the name of Meg. Meg requested to do either a phone interview or a written interview via email. Well, that one was a no-brainer; given my 3rd grade writing skills, I opted for the phone interview so that if the questions actually required more than monosyllabic response, I could cover the voice meter, make that swooooosh sound, and claim I had a bad connection. You see, deception planning is a subordinate task of any good military plan! The appointed time and place came, and I made a satellite call to Ms. Meg. After we exchanged pleasantries and salutations, which for me is a Rocky Balboa 'how you doin,' Ms. Meg began the questioning. I would like to pause at this point, in case she ends up being a recipient of this email, and state for the record that Ms. Meg was very polite, very professional, very pleasant and in my opinion VERY SINCERELY INTERESTED IN THE MAD GHOSTS of 2/24. Anyhow, back to our story: she asked many well thought out questions. I, as is my policy, answered all in brute frankness and honesty, and then began the ritual of "sweating bullets" until publication to see who is offended or who races to challenge my assertions. (Bothers me not who does, as I stand by my statements and always stand ready to defend them, as I "defend to the death the right of those who vehemently disagree with them.") But, the point is that one of the questions she asked me struck me as odd. She asked me, and I am paraphrasing, "how do you decide what to write about in your updates." Now, this struck me as odd, and although I did not give her this particular answer, it struck me as odd because my challenge each week is not to "decide what TO write about," my challenge every week is to "decide what NOT TO write about." Simply put, every minute of every hour of every day of every week spent in the company of the Mad Ghosts IS something to write home about. You see, the challenge is that these magnificent Marines accomplish so much in the course of a day, an entire book could be written about just that day, and it would be the size of War and Peace, no pun intended. I struggle so hard with what details not to talk about, but I also know that the biggest challenge I could ever undertake is to attempt to actually give you a feel for this place, these Marines and what they accomplish: Day In, Day Out. The best I can do is ask you to just look around your house and imagine, Barney style, just imagine. Imagine that every single thing you take for granted you now have to provide: your electricity, your water, your toilets, your very dwelling, your food, your entertainment, ALL OF IT. You have to provide it, and then sustain and maintain it: Day In, Day Out. And, you have to do it while hunting an evil enemy relentlessly! Everywhere you go the ground is subject to explode in a milli-second of ear shattering violence and a cloud of lethal dust. Everything you do is subject to being interrupted by the thump/boom of rockets and mortars and their deadly payload. How would you feel? What would be your status? What would be your motivation? What would you do? Well, I can tell you, as both a participant and an observer, that the answer to those questions for the Mad Ghosts is as follows: How do you feel? Quite rationally fearful. What would be your status? Mission capable, locked/cocked and ready to rock. What would be your motivation? That I am a United States Marine, like all United States Marines that have gone before, some giving their last full measure of devotion. What would you do? Your duty...because that is your oath, and that is your motto: Semper Fidelis! Yeah, I could fill pages of each week's update with exploits. Exploits like Echo Company conducting a night helo assault in Black Hawk Helicopters in 1% illumination, striking the Landing Zone at the exact minute as planned, capturing 3 known terrorists and locating 14 artillery shells primed and prepared to be IEDs, just waiting to be buried on the side of the road...and all done in a darkness so black you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, and with a precision that would make any "special forces" unit envious. Yeah, I could talk about exploits like the Engineers and Mobile Strike Teams from Weapons Company moving in the middle of the night and establishing an obstacle fortress at a suspected enemy ambush site that would make the makers of the Infiltration Course at Quantico as jealous as a jilted lover. Yeah, I could talk about Fox Company who this week entertained both street workers and A CANDIDATE FOR PUBLIC OFFICE WHO CAMPAIGNED IN YUSUFIYAH, a town so under the control of the terrorists and without MNF presence three months ago that people did not venture from their homes!!! Yeah, I could talk about Golf Company, their never-ending identification and detention of terrorists in a previous hotbed at a rate three times what they should realistically be able to accomplish with their combat power. Yeah, I could talk about the Marines of H&S who work 16-18 hour days and also provide some of the most stellar and demanding security duties you can imagine. Yeah, I could talk about all of that, but all I would be doing is adding to the layers of such stories that you are innundated with everyday from the national media. OH YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT, THEY RARELY TALK ABOUT THOSE KIND OF EXPLOITS! No, they would rather tell you about every single IED or SVBIED that detonates. They would rather tell you that Iraq is overrun with insurgents. They would rather tell you that all is lost and hopeless and the only victory is in how soon we can get out of Iraq. Well, I refuse to "tow that line." I refuse to tow that line because it is misrepresentation at best, and these American HEROES deserve better. The other part of the media misrepresentation that really agitates me, now that you have spun me up, is the incessant undertone that the military senior leadership is either wrong or incompetent. This one agitates me like a Whirlpool 9000 agitates laundry. (I don't really know if there is a Whirlpool 9000, but if there was it would agitate laundry really hard!) I have been fortunate to host several General Officers here at FOB St. Michael, and I can tell you, they are without a doubt the most intelligent, genuine, "lead by example" Warriors I have ever seen. They care deeply about the Soldiers and Marines, and do things for all the right reasons. Now, before I am accused of "sucking up," rest assured, I have all the chance of ever making General as my beloved Cincinnati Bengals do of winning the Super Bowl. But, to make my point, let me tell you about our most recent General visit, which occurred on Wednesday. It was from Major General Dunford, Assistant Division Commander, Fighting First Marine Division. (As a side note, if you do a web search and study the exploits of Major General Dunford as Colonel Dunford, CO, 5th Marine Regiment during OIF, you would know the quality of leader, tactician and human being we are talking about: which on all counts is the highest caliber the scale can register.) The purpose of his visit was simple: he wanted to ensure the Marines of 2/24 that despite our current Tactical Control to the United States Army, that the 1st Marine Division would ensure that when the time comes for redeployment, the 1st Marine Division stood ready to ensure all our needs were met and that our redeployment would be smooth and seamless. Now, for those with little military experience, this is not something that is even remotely required of a General Officer. And, if the General Officer does decide it is necessary, he can easily do it with a phone call or email. But no, not General Dunford. He conducted a 2 hour vehicular patrol from his FOB to ours, through high risk avenues of approach to deliver the message in person, and to get to shake some hands of the Mad Ghosts. THAT IS THE CALIBER OF OUR GENERALS. No Ladies, rest assured, your loved one has the best Generalship in the World, whose passion is their Marines and whose focus is their Marines' success and welfare! What General Dunford said to the Staff in his closing remarks was one of the most brilliant, and yet simple things I think I have ever heard and communicates what I have been trying to communicate to you, but without the requisite intelligence or prose. He said, and again I paraphrase, "you hear talk in the media and other places of an exit strategy. Usually communicated in the form of a question, such as, what is our exit strategy? Well, professional Warriors DO NOT ESTABLISH EXIT STRATEGIES, WE ACHIEVE AN END STATE! And our end state in Iraq is a freely and democratically elected government in Iraq, sustained and protected by a viable, competent and professional security force. Have we won?...NO, are we winning?...YES!" Exactly, was my thought. No doubt it will take time. But if we remain WILLFUL as a Nation, if we deliberately and with cold calculation understand the cause, then the effort is required, the hardship endured, the VICTORY ASSURED. Your Mad Ghost is the tip of the spear, but YOU are the shaft. The tip delivers the blow, the shaft provides the steadiness during the LONG flight to the target. So, as always, it comes full circle. What is necessary is faithfulness...sound familiar? Always faithful...always faithful to God, Country and Corps. So again, and until next week, SEMPER FI! NOTE: I was the recipient of a forwarded email from Regina Simon and her discussion of a surgical procedure Chad (SSgt Simon) will soon undergo. She signed off her letter saying, "I am scared." As I have said before, rational fear is understandable. And no person I know of has more reason for rational fear than Regina Simon. So, I would ask all the families of 2/24 to pray, pray hard and pray often for Regina and Chad Simon, because I know an entire Battalion of Marines that is. And I know that with that much prayer, no matter what the Lord has in store for Regina and Chad and their family, I know fear will dissipate and peace will be found. Because in my heart of hearts I know in the darkest of times the refrain from a Hymn I often hear in my local parish reruns in my head over and over and over and over, and peace is found: "the Lord is my light and my salvation, of whom shall I be afraid...of whom shall I be afraid." God Bless all the magnificent families of 2/24. Mark Lt. Col Mark A. Smith, MAYHEM 6 CO, Task Force 2/24 "Mayhem from the Heartland" or as the terrorists call us "The Mad Ghosts"   Mahmudiyah, IZ 2nd Bn, 24th Marines, H&S Co, Bn Cmdr Unit 43495 FPO-AP 96426-3495

Fallujah Hoosier Marine Leads Fight in Fallujah   Lt. Col. Mark Smith   US troops in Fallujah this week   By Karen Hensel An Indiana state trooper is leading the charge as a US Marine in the fight in Fallujah. His wife talks for the first time and exclusively with I-Team 8. It has been a dangerous two days in Fallujah. The military confirms ten Americans are dead. Among those on the front lines are Indiana Marines and one Indiana state trooper. US Army and Marine units pushed into the center of Fallujah this week. It's too early to tell if two days of bombings and gunfights have loosened rebel control. Some 15,000 American troops backed by 2,000 Iraqi soldiers continue to pound away. Among the troops is Indiana State Trooper Mark Smith.  He is also a lieutenant colonel with the US Marine Corps. Lt. Col. Smith is the top commander in charge of 1,100 Marines and soldiers in Fallujah. He called his wife via satellite phone just an hour before I-Team 8’s interview. "I asked how he was doing. It was one of his roughest days yesterday,” said Sheila Smith, his wife. Smith lost some of his own men in the fighting Monday. "He said it was up close and personal, so we'll patiently wait to get the names and be there for families when we find out who it was,” she said. It is not the first time he has lost a Marine brother. In weekly e-mails home to the wives and families he writes of losing Lance Corporal Daniel Wyatt last month. He wrote that he "personally recovered Daniel's body and escorted him back...for his final ride home." "When we lost Lance Corporal Wyatt it felt like one of our own kids,” said Sheila. Lt. Col. Smith describes "...the soul touching sight of combat hardened Marines, encrusted with weeks of sweat and dust...respect in the handling of the body of one of their own.” At 6:00 pm Indiana time, it is the middle of the night and the middle of their mission. Lt. Copl. Smith and those he leads are in intense fighting. "In the Marines, you learn to know no news is good news,” said Sheila. The Department of Defense released the names of two soldiers killed Monday: Cpl. Nathaniel T. Hammond, 24, of Tulsa, Okla. And Lance Cpl. Shane K. O'Donnell, 24, of DeForest, Wisc. Both Marines died Nov. 8 as a result of enemy action in Babil Province, Iraq. They were assigned to the Marine Corps Reserve's 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Chicago, Ill. Lt. Col Smith is making the sacrifice of being away from his family. On Wednesday, we’ll show you how his two young daughters are making their own sacrifice and how you can help. Battle Lines

Hospital

Three women and two children were among the dead in the attack outside the hospital in Mahmoudiya, a flashpoint town 20 miles south of Baghdad in the "triangle of death" notorious for attacks on Shiite Muslims, U.S. troops and foreign travelers.

A civil affairs team from the U.S. Army's Task Force Baghdad was at the hospital studying ways to upgrade the facility when the bomber struck just outside the guarded compound, a U.S. military statement

Some American soldiers were distributing toys and food to children when the attack occurred about 10:40 a.m., Iraqi police Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi said.

Car bombs target hospital, market

Iraqi civilians, politician among those killed

Thursday, November 24, 2005; Posted: 5:32 p.m. EST (22:32 GMT)

A car bomb Thursday in Mahmoudiya, Iraq, killed dozens of people and left a huge hole outside a hospital.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. military is blaming a suicide car bomb for a deadly attack on a hospital in Mahmoudiya, 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Baghdad earlier Thursday. Thirty people, most of them Iraqi civilians, were killed, police said.

In addition to the attack, a roadside bombing killed an Iraqi police official in Mahmoudiya Thursday afternoon.

Also Thursday, gunmen assassinated a member of the Iraqi National Accord, whose chairman is Ayad Allawi, the former prime minister with the Iraq Interim Government. An official with Allawi's party confirmed the member as Adnan Khahtan al-Jarah.

The U.S. military said the attack on the Mahmoudiya hospital occurred as Task Force Baghdad soldiers were conducting an assessment on upgrading the hospital.

In earlier reports the military said 18 Iraqi civilians and six security guards with the Force Protection Services were killed. It said that 30 other civilians and four U.S. soldiers were wounded.

Police, who customarily report only Iraqi casualties in such incidents, said 23 people were wounded. Some were taken to hospitals in Baghdad, police said.

"Task Force Baghdad officials said the target appears to have been the hospital, but the terrorist was unable to penetrate the security perimeter before detonating," the U.S. military said in a news release.

Market

Five named

U.S. military names soldiers charged in rape, murder probe

(CNN) -- The U.S. military Monday released the names of five soldiers, including two sergeants, charged in the rape and murder of Iraqi civilians in Mahmoudiya, Iraq.

The military said that Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, Spc. James P. Barker, Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, and Pfc. Bryan L. Howard were charged on Saturday in connection with their alleged participation in the rape and murder of an Iraqi female, and the murders of three other family members.

Sgt. Anthony W. Yribe was charged with dereliction of duty "for his failure to report the rape and murder of these Iraqi civilians, but is not alleged to have been a direct participant in the rape and killings," the military said.

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