[I am re-posting this since (because of the overwhelming spam assembly line) it zipped through the pages really fast since 1am this morning. Will re-copy comments, too]
[Also see Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhall’s blog "It Can't Happen Here - US Troops Plot to Overthow Govt” ]
According to an article in the Guardian, four of Georgia’s Fort Stewart’s active soldiers killed a former comrade and his girlfriend last December 4th to “protect an anarchist militia group.”
The militia group calls itself F.E.A.R., short for “Forever Enduring Always Ready.” Three of the four soldiers charged with these killings and facing 13 counts including malice murder, felony murder and illegal gang activity are private Isaac Aguigui, sergeant Anthony Peden and private Christopher Salmon. The fourth defendant is army private first class Michael Burnett, 25, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter, illegal gang activity and other charges in exchange for offering testimony against the other three defendants. The four men and one of their victims all had served together at Fort Stewart.
The Guardian:
In a videotaped interview with military investigators, [Prosector Isabel] Pauley said, Aguigui called himself "the nicest cold-blooded murderer you will ever meet". He used the army to recruit militia members, who wore distinctive tattoos that resemble an anarchy symbol, she said. Prosecutors say they have no idea how many members belong to the group.
"All members of the group were on active duty or were former members of the military," Pauley said. "He targeted soldiers who were in trouble or disillusioned."
According to the Georgia prosecutors, the militia group had ambitious plans.
It plotted to take over Fort Stewart by seizing its ammunition control point and talked of bombing the Forsyth Park fountain in nearby Savannah, she said. In Washington state, she added, the group plotted to bomb a dam and poison the state's apple crop. Ultimately, prosecutors said, the militia's goal was to overthrow the government and assassinate the president.
The slain Michael Roark was 19 and had served with the four defendants in the fourth brigade combat team of the army's third infantry division. The group had concluded that Roark had betrayed it. He had only been out of the military two days when he and his 17 year old girlfriend, Tiffany York, were “silenced.”
According to the Guardian:
Burnett testified that on the night of December 4, he and the three other soldiers lured Roark and York to some woods a short distance from the army post under the guise that they were going target shooting. He said Peden shot Roark's girlfriend in the head while she was trying to get out of her car. Salmon, he said, made Roark get on his knees and shot him twice in the head. Burnett said Aguigui ordered the killings. "A loose end is the way Isaac put it," Burnett said.
Also charged in the killings is Salmon's wife, Heather Salmon.
The militia was funded by its leader Aguigui using a $500,000 insurance and benefit payment from the death of his pregnant wife. He used $87,000 to purchase semiautomatic assault rifles, other kinds of guns and bomb components. These have been recovered from the homes and a storage locker of the accused soldiers. Aguigui also used the insurance payment to buy land for the militia group in Washington state.
This certainly is a troubling manifestation of dangerous underground gang-think cronyism and violence within our military.
[cross-posted at correntewire and sacramento for democracy]
---------
comment from trudie jackson:
Great piece Libby, " gang-think cronyism " not only in our military. R
Great piece Libby, " gang-think cronyism " not only in our military. R
comment from zacharydtaylor:
They train people to kill and in many cases that is what they do; it's not that easy to train them to kill only when told especially when the government is always starting wars based on lies. As I said on Stuarts blog it is the majority of us that are left without the protection from the people that they train to kill while they stay behind their gates. And, of course, most of the soldiers aren't this fanatical and they often get abandoned; which is why they always have to have fund raisers for things like wounded warriors, homeless vets or those suffering from PTSD or something like that.
They train people to kill and in many cases that is what they do; it's not that easy to train them to kill only when told especially when the government is always starting wars based on lies. As I said on Stuarts blog it is the majority of us that are left without the protection from the people that they train to kill while they stay behind their gates. And, of course, most of the soldiers aren't this fanatical and they often get abandoned; which is why they always have to have fund raisers for things like wounded warriors, homeless vets or those suffering from PTSD or something like that.
hey Trudie, great to see you. yes, "gang-think" loyalty and amorality seems to have taken over for all citizens rather than awakened morality and critical thinking. And the authoritarian system of the military, and the tragic amoral corporate-agendas both Dem and Repub admins engineer willing to sacrifice the lives of our troops so easily and put them under such intense psychological and physical stress for such duration is so profoundly not only tragic but potentially problematic on what further unintended consequences for violence occur whether they are on foreign soil or stateside. best, libby
zachd! thanks for commenting. yes, what mafia-methods role-modeling the US government is doing with its lie-based conflicts abroad. Troops become disillusioned, often psychologically profoundly troubled. Physical issues, psychological ones, whether addictions or being suicidally prone from the PTSD or as these men homicidally dangerous.
Life was so cheap in foreign countries including theirs and might made faux-right and the dangers induced trigger-happiness in many cases, and then there was little accountability (look at how angry the Afghani people are at the barely slaps on wrist for outrages on the part of some of our soldiers over there and lame promises to take them seriously and then time passes and nada).
Disenfranchised and angry people with rage and guns and encouraged in the art of institutional genocide too often. And politicians and citizens think lazy jingoism on national holidays is all the serious national attention required for our troops and no conscience in so many re the horror and tragedy of what we are wreaking on the globe and on our own troops and on ourselves as vulnerable citizens against blowback from other countries and our own troops as our addict-leadership whether Dem or Republican sows its poisonous seeds for ultimate home to roost national ugly karma. best libby
Life was so cheap in foreign countries including theirs and might made faux-right and the dangers induced trigger-happiness in many cases, and then there was little accountability (look at how angry the Afghani people are at the barely slaps on wrist for outrages on the part of some of our soldiers over there and lame promises to take them seriously and then time passes and nada).
Disenfranchised and angry people with rage and guns and encouraged in the art of institutional genocide too often. And politicians and citizens think lazy jingoism on national holidays is all the serious national attention required for our troops and no conscience in so many re the horror and tragedy of what we are wreaking on the globe and on our own troops and on ourselves as vulnerable citizens against blowback from other countries and our own troops as our addict-leadership whether Dem or Republican sows its poisonous seeds for ultimate home to roost national ugly karma. best libby
comment from Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhall:
Thanks for providing more background on this story. I think there is another angle here. Through their repeal of most of the Bill of Rights, the Obama administration has virtually ended the right of the US population to legally dissent. From a brief perusal of of stuff people are posting on the Internet, Americans of all politically stripes are responding to the extreme repression by arming themselves in unprecedented numbers.
The lesson of history is that when you outlaw legal dissent, you gets violence. This army-linked anarchist militia is just the tip of the iceberg.
Thanks for providing more background on this story. I think there is another angle here. Through their repeal of most of the Bill of Rights, the Obama administration has virtually ended the right of the US population to legally dissent. From a brief perusal of of stuff people are posting on the Internet, Americans of all politically stripes are responding to the extreme repression by arming themselves in unprecedented numbers.
The lesson of history is that when you outlaw legal dissent, you gets violence. This army-linked anarchist militia is just the tip of the iceberg.
Thanks, Stuart. Your observation and prediction resonate but are so chilling.
I re-posted this because I do think it is an important story and we should watch and heed what happens with it and other occasions of domestic terrorism particularly among profoundly troubled to the point of dangerous soldiers.
Our government creates blowback terrorism both in foreign countries and on its own turf. The government doesn't seem to care seriously about the troops suicides inspired by the amoral insanity and surreal amounts of stress it forces the troops to partake in. Let's see how our government handles the homicides it also has catalyzed and those many individuals it has trained and armed for such unintended consequences violence. best, libby
I re-posted this because I do think it is an important story and we should watch and heed what happens with it and other occasions of domestic terrorism particularly among profoundly troubled to the point of dangerous soldiers.
Our government creates blowback terrorism both in foreign countries and on its own turf. The government doesn't seem to care seriously about the troops suicides inspired by the amoral insanity and surreal amounts of stress it forces the troops to partake in. Let's see how our government handles the homicides it also has catalyzed and those many individuals it has trained and armed for such unintended consequences violence. best, libby
Now that I'm back, likely temporarily, I like to thank You for this post, Libby. It fits nicely with the recent denial by many of a neonazi presence in the military. Despite what others may insist, I live, as many know, surrounded by FORTY american bases on a piece of land less than 1/10th the size of NJ, and at most places only 2 miles in girth, and from FIFTEEN years of ugly co-existance with our mercenary army, I can attest to a strong such presence.
-R-
-R-
Good start Libby, but as you know from my PM's, two articles posted during the last few days on The Daily Beast went into much greater detail about the growth of Neo-nazi and racist/white supremacist organizations that are infiltrating the US Army for weapons and explosives training and mysteriously "disappeared." Both articles cited US Army counter terrorist intelligence sources and both of them went "poof." Makes me wonder if Homeland Security NSA/ and DODI/USAI have been pulling strings on editorial policy over at the Newsweek organization??
libby
there are the same sorts of problems in the military as in the civilian "Militias". I've always been a bit of a "militia" presence wherever I am, in that I won't tolerate those who physically abuse others. I attempt to stop them. By violence if necessary. Of course, "I'm always Justified" ( as if anyone ever says any difference) The difference between me and Zimmerman is that "I have good judgment" ( as if anyone ever says any different.) I believe I have not just a Right but a Duty to protect my Self and those who cannot protect themselves- from predators always, from government as necessary.
In the armed forces, the Government is not nearly as keen to root out "Neo Nazi" and Gang trainees ( yes, gangs and neo nazi militias DO send their member into the armed forces for weapons training) as those officers and enlisted personnel who belong to the "Oathkeepers"and related groups.
"Oathkeepers' are members of the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement who have taken an oath to NOT be used against American citizens by a government giving Illegal orders.
http://oath-keepers.blogspot.com/2009/03/oath-keepers-declaration-of-orders-we.html
This site gives a List of Orders that "Oathkeepers" consider to be Illegal and will not obey.
i would like anyone's opinion on such organizations, To me they represent the finest men our military and Law enforcement professionals offer. Unfortunately, the Government does not feel the same - If they order soldiers to herd American Citizens into concentration Camps, Our Fearless Leaders expect to be obeyed. Soldiers who express reluctance to obey illegal orders are characterized as "renegade Militia" members and prosecuted by military court martial
The problem today is sorting out the "Neo nazi" and Gang "Militias" from those who truly understand what the Militia meant in the founding of our country.
Comments?
there are the same sorts of problems in the military as in the civilian "Militias". I've always been a bit of a "militia" presence wherever I am, in that I won't tolerate those who physically abuse others. I attempt to stop them. By violence if necessary. Of course, "I'm always Justified" ( as if anyone ever says any difference) The difference between me and Zimmerman is that "I have good judgment" ( as if anyone ever says any different.) I believe I have not just a Right but a Duty to protect my Self and those who cannot protect themselves- from predators always, from government as necessary.
In the armed forces, the Government is not nearly as keen to root out "Neo Nazi" and Gang trainees ( yes, gangs and neo nazi militias DO send their member into the armed forces for weapons training) as those officers and enlisted personnel who belong to the "Oathkeepers"and related groups.
"Oathkeepers' are members of the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement who have taken an oath to NOT be used against American citizens by a government giving Illegal orders.
http://oath-keepers.blogspot.com/2009/03/oath-keepers-declaration-of-orders-we.html
This site gives a List of Orders that "Oathkeepers" consider to be Illegal and will not obey.
i would like anyone's opinion on such organizations, To me they represent the finest men our military and Law enforcement professionals offer. Unfortunately, the Government does not feel the same - If they order soldiers to herd American Citizens into concentration Camps, Our Fearless Leaders expect to be obeyed. Soldiers who express reluctance to obey illegal orders are characterized as "renegade Militia" members and prosecuted by military court martial
The problem today is sorting out the "Neo nazi" and Gang "Militias" from those who truly understand what the Militia meant in the founding of our country.
Comments?
PS- copy and past the whole address in the above comment, the "link function in comments " doesn't get the whole address, and puts you at a 404 error.
http://oath-keepers.blogspot.com/2009/03/oath-keepers-declaration-of-orders-we.html
jmac, was searching for the articles you mentioned, but I found some troubling quotes from john glaser on antiwar.blog:
http://antiwar.com/blog/2012/08/22/white-supremacists-infiltrating-us-military/
"Leyden and Wade Page, who shot up the Sikh temple, are not likely representative of most of the military, but their examples certainly poke holes in how Americans are supposed to feel about their brave men and women in uniform. Recent FBI investigations found that “Gang members have been reported in every branch of the U.S. military,” constituting “a significant criminal threat.” As of April 2011, the FBI has “identified members of at least 53 gangs whose members have served in or are affiliated with U.S. military,” including the Bloods, Crips, Latin Kings, MS-13, the Aryan Brotherhood, and many more."
"Other ugly facts about those in the military, other than the fact that they make a commitment to kill on the orders of politicians in Washington, like the rampant sexual abuse taking place of late, tend to get in the way of Americans’ white-washed view of Washington’s freedom fighters. In 2008, an estimated 41 percent of all the women serving in the military were victims of sexual assault, a problem Rep. Jane Harman called “an epidemic.” In a January 2012 Pentagon report on “rape, sexual assault, and forcible sodomy” in the military, it was found that these crimes have increased 64 percent since 2006, although most of them go unreported. Sexual assault and rape are among the most derided crimes in society, but Americans seem to view criticizing soldiers or the army as a whole as a higher crime."
http://antiwar.com/blog/2012/08/22/white-supremacists-infiltrating-us-military/
"Leyden and Wade Page, who shot up the Sikh temple, are not likely representative of most of the military, but their examples certainly poke holes in how Americans are supposed to feel about their brave men and women in uniform. Recent FBI investigations found that “Gang members have been reported in every branch of the U.S. military,” constituting “a significant criminal threat.” As of April 2011, the FBI has “identified members of at least 53 gangs whose members have served in or are affiliated with U.S. military,” including the Bloods, Crips, Latin Kings, MS-13, the Aryan Brotherhood, and many more."
"Other ugly facts about those in the military, other than the fact that they make a commitment to kill on the orders of politicians in Washington, like the rampant sexual abuse taking place of late, tend to get in the way of Americans’ white-washed view of Washington’s freedom fighters. In 2008, an estimated 41 percent of all the women serving in the military were victims of sexual assault, a problem Rep. Jane Harman called “an epidemic.” In a January 2012 Pentagon report on “rape, sexual assault, and forcible sodomy” in the military, it was found that these crimes have increased 64 percent since 2006, although most of them go unreported. Sexual assault and rape are among the most derided crimes in society, but Americans seem to view criticizing soldiers or the army as a whole as a higher crime."
more re jmac -- some more very troubling stuff: this from matt kennard in The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/31/us-army-racism-iraq-afghanistan?newsfeed=true
"The change came after 9/11. "The key rule nowadays is ignore it until it becomes a problem," Glass tells me. "We need manpower. So as long as the man isn't acting out, let's blow it off." He recounts one episode in early 2005 when he was requested by military police investigators at Fort Bragg to interview a soldier with blatant skinhead insignia – SS lightning bolts and hammers. Glass worked with the base's military police investigators, who filed a report. "They recommended that he be kicked out," he recalls, "but the commanding officers didn't do anything." He says there was an open culture of impunity. "We're seeing guys with tattoos all the time ... As far as hunting them down, I don't see it. I'm seeing the opposite, where if a white supremacist has committed a crime, the military stance will be, 'He didn't commit a race-related crime.' "
"By 2005, the US had 150,000 troops deployed in Iraq and 19,500 in Afghanistan. But the military wasn't prepared in any way for this kind of extended deployment – and just two years into the war in Iraq, people were talking openly about the fact that it had reached breaking point. The slim forces needed fattening up and what followed constituted a complete re-evaluation of who was qualified to serve – a full-works facelift of the service unheard of in modern American history. In the relatively halcyon days of the first Gulf war in 1990, the US military blocked the enlistment of felons. It spurned men and women with low IQs or those without a high school diploma. It would either block the enlistment of or kick out neo-Nazis and gang members. It would treat or discharge alcoholics, drug abusers and the mentally ill. No more. While the Bush administration adopted conservative policies pretty much universally, it saved its ration of liberalism for the US military, where it scrapped many of the regulations governing recruitment.
"Many of the wars' worst atrocities are linked directly to the loosening of enlistment regulations on criminals, racist extremists, and gang members, among others. Then there are the effects on the troops themselves. Lowering standards on intelligence and body weight, for example, compromised the military's operational readiness and undoubtedly endangered the lives of US and allied troops. Hundreds of soldiers may have paid with their lives for this folly.
"On 1 December 2007, Kevin Shields was murdered in Colorado Springs in an incident involving three of his fellow soldiers, Louis Bressler, Kenneth Eastridge and Bruce Bastien Jr, who all served in Iraq as part of the Second Brigade Combat Team, Second Infantry Division. Bressler and Bastien were each put away for 60 years for their part in the murder, alongside a litany of other crimes in Colorado Springs; Eastridge is serving a 10-year prison sentence for his part. In the aftermath of the arrests, pictures emerged of Eastridge proudly displaying his SS bolts tattoo. After his arrest, Bastien told investigators that he and Eastridge had randomly fired at civilians in Iraq during patrols through the streets of Baghdad. In broad daylight, Bastien alleged, Eastridge would use a stolen AK-47 to fire indiscriminately at Iraqi civilians. At least one was hit, he said. "We were trigger happy," said another member of the platoon, José Barco, who is serving 52 years in jail for shooting and injuring a pregnant woman in Colorado Springs. "We'd open up on anything. They even didn't have to be armed. We were keeping scores." So far, no one has been charged with shooting civilians in Iraq.
snip
"One of the main incentives offered was money – a lot of money from the perspective of a 16-year-old. In 2005, the army moved to raise the average bonus given to recruits when they signed on the dotted line from $14,000 to $17,000, with the possibility of as much as $30,000 for hard-to-fill vacancies. Another of the military's slogans was "Join the Armed Forces, get a free education", an offer many of America's poorest kids couldn't turn down.
"A report, Soldiers Of Misfortune, by the American Civil Liberties Union, found that the US government was actually in contravention of an international protocol prohibiting the recruitment of children into military service when they are under 18 years old. It also noted that the US military disproportionately targets poor and minority public school students, but its findings were dutifully ignored.
"It took a report from the Palm Center at the University of California – a group committed to discussion of homosexuals in the military – to blow the lid on yet more figures the military was trying hard to cover up. In 2007, it published information obtained through the Freedom of Information Act that found the number of convicted criminals enlisting in the US military had nearly doubled in two years, from 824 in 2004 to 1,605 in 2006. In that period, a total of 4,230 convicted felons were enlisted, including those guilty of rape and murder. On top of this, 43,977 soldiers signed up who had been found guilty of a serious misdemeanour, which includes assault. Another 58,561 had drug-related convictions, but all were handed a gun and sent off to the Middle East. "The fact that the military has allowed more than 100,000 people with such troubled pasts to join its ranks over the past three years illustrates the problem we're having meeting our military needs in this time of war," said Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center.
"One of the most horrific of the reported atrocities by the US military in Iraq, the murder of the al-Janabi family in Yusufiyah, involved a convicted criminal, Steven D Green, whose enlistment required special dispensation because of his criminal record. But research has shown that these recruitment practices engender breakdown within the ranks as well. During the "war on terror", one in three female soldiers reported being victims of some form of sexual assault while in service. In fact, US women service members are today more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than to be killed by enemy fire. No one knows how many Iraqi or Afghan women and girls have been subjected to similar atrocities, although cases such as the rapes and murders in Yusufiyah suggest it was equally endemic, and went equally unpunished.
"In 2009, the military met its recruitment targets for the first time since 2004 and once again pledged to lock out those with criminal records. Brigadier General Joseph Anderson, deputy commander of the US Army Recruiting Command, said that the "adult major misconduct" waiver, given for felony offences, was now closed and, additionally, those with a history of juvenile criminal activity would not be allowed to recruit without a high school diploma. It was an admission of guilt, but for many in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was too late.
• Extracted from Irregular Army: Irregular Army: How The US Military Recruited Neo-Nazis, Gang Members, And Criminals To Fight The War On Terror, by Matt Kennard, is published by Verso Books on 24 September, priced £14.99. To order a copy for £11.99, with free UK p&p, visit the Guardian Bookshop.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/31/us-army-racism-iraq-afghanistan?newsfeed=true
"The change came after 9/11. "The key rule nowadays is ignore it until it becomes a problem," Glass tells me. "We need manpower. So as long as the man isn't acting out, let's blow it off." He recounts one episode in early 2005 when he was requested by military police investigators at Fort Bragg to interview a soldier with blatant skinhead insignia – SS lightning bolts and hammers. Glass worked with the base's military police investigators, who filed a report. "They recommended that he be kicked out," he recalls, "but the commanding officers didn't do anything." He says there was an open culture of impunity. "We're seeing guys with tattoos all the time ... As far as hunting them down, I don't see it. I'm seeing the opposite, where if a white supremacist has committed a crime, the military stance will be, 'He didn't commit a race-related crime.' "
"By 2005, the US had 150,000 troops deployed in Iraq and 19,500 in Afghanistan. But the military wasn't prepared in any way for this kind of extended deployment – and just two years into the war in Iraq, people were talking openly about the fact that it had reached breaking point. The slim forces needed fattening up and what followed constituted a complete re-evaluation of who was qualified to serve – a full-works facelift of the service unheard of in modern American history. In the relatively halcyon days of the first Gulf war in 1990, the US military blocked the enlistment of felons. It spurned men and women with low IQs or those without a high school diploma. It would either block the enlistment of or kick out neo-Nazis and gang members. It would treat or discharge alcoholics, drug abusers and the mentally ill. No more. While the Bush administration adopted conservative policies pretty much universally, it saved its ration of liberalism for the US military, where it scrapped many of the regulations governing recruitment.
"Many of the wars' worst atrocities are linked directly to the loosening of enlistment regulations on criminals, racist extremists, and gang members, among others. Then there are the effects on the troops themselves. Lowering standards on intelligence and body weight, for example, compromised the military's operational readiness and undoubtedly endangered the lives of US and allied troops. Hundreds of soldiers may have paid with their lives for this folly.
"On 1 December 2007, Kevin Shields was murdered in Colorado Springs in an incident involving three of his fellow soldiers, Louis Bressler, Kenneth Eastridge and Bruce Bastien Jr, who all served in Iraq as part of the Second Brigade Combat Team, Second Infantry Division. Bressler and Bastien were each put away for 60 years for their part in the murder, alongside a litany of other crimes in Colorado Springs; Eastridge is serving a 10-year prison sentence for his part. In the aftermath of the arrests, pictures emerged of Eastridge proudly displaying his SS bolts tattoo. After his arrest, Bastien told investigators that he and Eastridge had randomly fired at civilians in Iraq during patrols through the streets of Baghdad. In broad daylight, Bastien alleged, Eastridge would use a stolen AK-47 to fire indiscriminately at Iraqi civilians. At least one was hit, he said. "We were trigger happy," said another member of the platoon, José Barco, who is serving 52 years in jail for shooting and injuring a pregnant woman in Colorado Springs. "We'd open up on anything. They even didn't have to be armed. We were keeping scores." So far, no one has been charged with shooting civilians in Iraq.
snip
"One of the main incentives offered was money – a lot of money from the perspective of a 16-year-old. In 2005, the army moved to raise the average bonus given to recruits when they signed on the dotted line from $14,000 to $17,000, with the possibility of as much as $30,000 for hard-to-fill vacancies. Another of the military's slogans was "Join the Armed Forces, get a free education", an offer many of America's poorest kids couldn't turn down.
"A report, Soldiers Of Misfortune, by the American Civil Liberties Union, found that the US government was actually in contravention of an international protocol prohibiting the recruitment of children into military service when they are under 18 years old. It also noted that the US military disproportionately targets poor and minority public school students, but its findings were dutifully ignored.
"It took a report from the Palm Center at the University of California – a group committed to discussion of homosexuals in the military – to blow the lid on yet more figures the military was trying hard to cover up. In 2007, it published information obtained through the Freedom of Information Act that found the number of convicted criminals enlisting in the US military had nearly doubled in two years, from 824 in 2004 to 1,605 in 2006. In that period, a total of 4,230 convicted felons were enlisted, including those guilty of rape and murder. On top of this, 43,977 soldiers signed up who had been found guilty of a serious misdemeanour, which includes assault. Another 58,561 had drug-related convictions, but all were handed a gun and sent off to the Middle East. "The fact that the military has allowed more than 100,000 people with such troubled pasts to join its ranks over the past three years illustrates the problem we're having meeting our military needs in this time of war," said Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center.
"One of the most horrific of the reported atrocities by the US military in Iraq, the murder of the al-Janabi family in Yusufiyah, involved a convicted criminal, Steven D Green, whose enlistment required special dispensation because of his criminal record. But research has shown that these recruitment practices engender breakdown within the ranks as well. During the "war on terror", one in three female soldiers reported being victims of some form of sexual assault while in service. In fact, US women service members are today more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than to be killed by enemy fire. No one knows how many Iraqi or Afghan women and girls have been subjected to similar atrocities, although cases such as the rapes and murders in Yusufiyah suggest it was equally endemic, and went equally unpunished.
"In 2009, the military met its recruitment targets for the first time since 2004 and once again pledged to lock out those with criminal records. Brigadier General Joseph Anderson, deputy commander of the US Army Recruiting Command, said that the "adult major misconduct" waiver, given for felony offences, was now closed and, additionally, those with a history of juvenile criminal activity would not be allowed to recruit without a high school diploma. It was an admission of guilt, but for many in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was too late.
• Extracted from Irregular Army: Irregular Army: How The US Military Recruited Neo-Nazis, Gang Members, And Criminals To Fight The War On Terror, by Matt Kennard, is published by Verso Books on 24 September, priced £14.99. To order a copy for £11.99, with free UK p&p, visit the Guardian Bookshop.
Rudy,
I've talked to soldiers who say when they were supposed to be doing their 360 degree rotational fire when given the order they aimed their guns at rooftops to appear to be shooting so as not to kill innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan communities, but they explained they can't be overt about it for fear of enraging fellow troops and/or superiors and being threatened by them and even shot themselves.
I met Ethan McCord who belonged to the same troop as those who appeared in the Collateral Murder video of soldiers picking off Iraqi civilians like it was a video game that Bradley Manning allegedly exposed.
Ethan was on the ground at the time and he rushed over to save the two kids whose good Samaritan father in a white van -- who had come by later to help the victims -- had been shot, too, and killed by the apache helicopter soldiers. (Manning has been in jail for so long and tortured with solitary and sexualized mistreatment and none of those who killed innnocent people in that video he allegedly risked so much for to expose have had ANY action against them).
Ethan has come forward to speak against war and tell his story. He told me he received death threats for ratting out his fellow troops from some of those fellow troops. Letters, phone calls, etc.
The honor code is about loyalty and keeping whatever secrets, secrets often of serious moral and legal crimes, and apparently with many the honor code is not about the honor of human decency and empathy and respect for the sanctity of human life and upholding that decency and being honest about when it is violated. Loyalty to cover up atrocities by some. And of course not all, let's hope not most. But cover ups have a ripple outward affect of collusion.
I will explore the website. Thank you.
Right now in Obamaworld, only the whistleblowers are going to jail or getting surveilled, not the perpetrators of high military crimes and high economic ones. Orwell on steroids.
I have never heard of "oathkeepers". Very curious about it.
I wish every citizen would take such an oath to honor human morality and decency. Stand by our Constitution and its precepts, whatever is left of them, and put the ones gutted back in!!!!
Thanks for the links and will look into more. You certainly ask one of the most profound values questions we are facing today. Standing up to institutionalized evil. How courageous are we as citizens? Will we let the brave ones twist in the wind being few and far between to save our own short term welfare and comfort or stand by them, united, and all of us less vulnerable because of that uniting and take care of the long-term welfare of our country and our children and children's children, etc.? The "how many good people will do nothing?" question!
best, libby
I've talked to soldiers who say when they were supposed to be doing their 360 degree rotational fire when given the order they aimed their guns at rooftops to appear to be shooting so as not to kill innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan communities, but they explained they can't be overt about it for fear of enraging fellow troops and/or superiors and being threatened by them and even shot themselves.
I met Ethan McCord who belonged to the same troop as those who appeared in the Collateral Murder video of soldiers picking off Iraqi civilians like it was a video game that Bradley Manning allegedly exposed.
Ethan was on the ground at the time and he rushed over to save the two kids whose good Samaritan father in a white van -- who had come by later to help the victims -- had been shot, too, and killed by the apache helicopter soldiers. (Manning has been in jail for so long and tortured with solitary and sexualized mistreatment and none of those who killed innnocent people in that video he allegedly risked so much for to expose have had ANY action against them).
Ethan has come forward to speak against war and tell his story. He told me he received death threats for ratting out his fellow troops from some of those fellow troops. Letters, phone calls, etc.
The honor code is about loyalty and keeping whatever secrets, secrets often of serious moral and legal crimes, and apparently with many the honor code is not about the honor of human decency and empathy and respect for the sanctity of human life and upholding that decency and being honest about when it is violated. Loyalty to cover up atrocities by some. And of course not all, let's hope not most. But cover ups have a ripple outward affect of collusion.
I will explore the website. Thank you.
Right now in Obamaworld, only the whistleblowers are going to jail or getting surveilled, not the perpetrators of high military crimes and high economic ones. Orwell on steroids.
I have never heard of "oathkeepers". Very curious about it.
I wish every citizen would take such an oath to honor human morality and decency. Stand by our Constitution and its precepts, whatever is left of them, and put the ones gutted back in!!!!
Thanks for the links and will look into more. You certainly ask one of the most profound values questions we are facing today. Standing up to institutionalized evil. How courageous are we as citizens? Will we let the brave ones twist in the wind being few and far between to save our own short term welfare and comfort or stand by them, united, and all of us less vulnerable because of that uniting and take care of the long-term welfare of our country and our children and children's children, etc.? The "how many good people will do nothing?" question!
best, libby
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