http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2003Oct29.html

Hmmmm.

Just how are our troops supposed to get their job done with this kind of sh*t happening?
There are good people out there getting killed every day to help this backward part of the world and all some people seem to care about are whether some terrorist has had his so called "rights" abused.

Ridiculous!

The Army has charged one of its battalion commanders in Iraq with abusing a prisoner during an interrogation by firing his pistol near him, the officer's lawyer said yesterday.

Lt. Col. Allen West, who until recently commanded an artillery unit in the 4th Infantry Division, allegedly committed the act in August while trying to acquire information about an assassination plot against him in the town of Saba al Boor.

The incident was first reported in yesterday's Washington Times, which said that West was acting on a tip that a local police officer was involved in the plot, which already had resulted in one attack. West had the police officer detained and interrogated. When the initial questioning failed to produce information, West took over the interrogation and threatened the prisoner with his weapon, firing it twice, but not at him, the article said. At that point, the prisoner offered information about another planned attack.

West was charged by the Army with aggravated assault and relieved of command.

Reached by e-mail in Iraq, West referred all questions to his lawyer, retired Marine Lt. Col. Neal Puckett. Reached by e-mail in Japan, where he said he is just concluding a trial, Puckett said the newspaper account was "accurate."

Puckett also wrote that West's action may have saved the lives of U.S. troops, because "the detainee was not talking until Lieutenant Colonel West demonstrated that time was up." He also said that West "didn't manhandle the detainee or point the pistol in his direction."

After the incident, West reported his actions to his immediate commander, Puckett said. No actions were taken then, but "when his boss was placed under investigation himself, this interrogation suddenly became a big deal." Puckett did not specify what that investigation was, but the Washington Times account said that the Army had conducted an inquiry into the "command climate" in the brigade of which West's unit is part.

A spokeswoman at Army headquarters said she was unable to confirm that West had been charged. Spokesmen for the 4th Infantry Division, which is based in Tikrit, in the heart of Iraq's "Sunni Triangle," could not be reached for comment.

© 2003 The Washington Post Company

 

Lt. Col. Allen West deserves an award…

I have no problem with what he did. It is war time and you do what you have to in order to get people to talk. There is NO other county in the world, but our own allies that follow the Geneva Convention rules therefore screw it…

I don’t go for extreme physical injuries to a prisoner such as cutting finger off, electrocution etc, but I have no problem with someone slapping someone around or scaring the chit out of them to get them to talk.

I’d go one better and have someone gut a pig and tell the prisoner if he don’t talk he will get his face shoved into the internals of the gutted pig. I bet the ol’ boy will start talking pretty damn fast then…

 

First it's CATS, now it's PIGS! I don't know about you 01. If I were to guess, I'd bet New Hampshire has a vast animal void for miles around your house and commute to work. In fact, I'll bet most animals void in their fur coats at the mere mention of Bert on the loose.

In all seriousness, I agree with giving our troops a "little latitude" with the gathering of information from detainees. I too would prefer not to see fingers rolling on the deck, but then again what should you expect when there were death threats against him.

Which brings up a related point. How can you possibly decide someone in the military has committed a crime during military action by conducting a court proceeding that has all the time in the world to decide whether that particular decision was legal or not. Bear in mind that the original decision probably had to be made under adverse, pressure-filled circumstances in an extremely short time. I say, give the military tribunal or court the same amount of time to read the summary of action, then begin firing guns over their heads and at their feet till they reach a decision or run themselves into the looney bin. Have another court follow behind the first one and take their time and decide if they made the correct decision, if they didn't, they all serve time equal to the accused for their lack to good judgement under fire.

 

serotta:

Oh, I don’t have any problems with pigs. I love tasty pork products. There is nothing you can do with a cat and the best cat is a dead cat…

Here kitty, kitty, kitty…

 

I don't agree with it, but I see a little where this decision came from.

First we have the left blasting Bush every chance they get because he made a decision to protect every American. The left already loves to whine about rights of everyone, incidents like this that go without punishment/reprimands just gives them more whining, err fire power.

In the minds of some people we (America) are the bad guys in this whole event. Again something like this getting out to the general public is just handing out more things to yell about.

The classic good vs. evil story lines of movies applies as an analogy here. Evil can break all the rules but good has to follow them.

It sucks.

And personally I see nothing wrong a little scare tactics. Hell, some people deserve a little slap around.

 

Ah my dear friends:

It is sad that we often don't have all the facts at hand but from what I have read and heard on the "talk/news" radio circuit this Officer may really be getting railroaded.

According to Glen Beck "Yes Virginia there will be a life after Rush if he doesn't return to us" the following may be added to the story. I cannot vouch for any of it as I have not seen any hard copy updates. Firstly, the Officer is African/American which Glen sees as a real red flag. Next, he says, or actually said repeatedly, the Officer is/was three days away from his 20 years for full retirement and he has been presented with a choice of resigning and forfieting all pensions and benefits or facing a court martial. He went on to say that the Officer shot at a barrel five feet away, then at the wall about three feet away and then apparently pointed the pistol directly at the suspected Iraqi at which point he not only admitted involvement I guess in the first attack but as earlier indicated, gave intell on a planned second attack which was averted/stopped or whatever.

Beck also indicated that his sources said that the Iraqi policeman was "roughed up" in the initial interrogation process, whatever that means but it was obviously not so serious as to convince him to confess and my guess is it was not a big deal.

My take is that our guys are now involved in the ugliest, absolute ugliest form of combat. That's the one where the bad guys don't wear uniforms and have no regard for their own life (well this guy obviously did) and you have no idea who is going to try to kill you.
If the info that we have so far is the truth and it was not an issue of cutting off fingers or worse or shock therapy and so on I think Lt. Col. West did a good job of protecting his people and should be recognized in a positive way, not by being denied the possibility to retire honorably, if that is what has to happen, and get on with his life. Beck also said that he had an "outstanding" record up to this point.

As a side note, and not to take away from the seriousness of this subject, I got a letter from our local Court System today that the punk that I ran down and tried to tackle when he shoplifted at my store (You can find the story on the Blackwood thread "The Blackwood as a Police Interceptor" or some such) got six years probation and a $2,000 fine. This same punk tried to file a charge against me for assault because the third time he rabbited I attempted a cross body block on him and when that failed to drop him I grabbed him and shook the **** out of him and I guess broke his nose or something. The court refused to take the case.
Bill