Tag: soldier

US soldier admits killing unarmed Afghans for sport – WTF?

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An American soldier has pleaded guilty to being part of a “kill team” who deliberately murdered Afghan civilians for sport last year.

Army Specialist Jeremy Morlock, 23, told a military court he had helped to kill three unarmed Afghans. “The plan was to kill people, sir,” he told an army judge in Fort Lea, near Seattle, after his plea.

The case has caused outraged headlines around the world. In a series of videotaped confessions to investigators, some of which have been broadcast on American television, Morlock detailed how he and other members of his Stryker brigade set up and faked combat situations so that they could kill civilians who posed no threat to them. Four other soldiers are still to come to trial over the incidents.

The case is a PR disaster for America’s military and has been compared to the notorious incidents of torture that emerged from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. This week the German magazine Der Spiegel published three pictures that showed American soldiers, including Morlock, posing with the corpse of a young Afghan boy as if it were a hunting trophy.

Some soldiers apparently kept body parts of their victims, including a skull, as souvenirs. In a statement issued in response to the publication of the photos the US army apologised to the families of the dead. “[The photos are] repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States army,” the statement said.

Violent criminal behavior is repugnant to civilized people the world over. Taking murder to the level of sport is not only reprehensible – you have to wonder, to question, the “values” that this thug learned in his young years.

And where they came from?

Stanley McChrystal bids farewell to army life

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Gen. Stanley McChrystal ended his 34-year career as an Army officer Friday in an emotional retirement ceremony at his military headquarters in Washington, D.C., marking the last chapter of his swift and stunning fall from grace.

Before a crowd of a few hundred friends, family and colleagues on the Fort McNair parade grounds under an oppressively hot July sun, McChrystal said his service didn’t end as he hoped. But he regretted few decisions he had made on the battlefield, cherished his life as a soldier and was optimistic about his future, he said.

“I trusted and I still trust,” McChrystal said. “I cared and I still care. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

The former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan was fired last month after Rolling Stone magazine published an article titled “The Runaway General” that quoted scathing remarks he and his aides made about their civilian bosses…

Shortly after the article was published, McChrystal was sent packing…

McChrystal also sounded a more serious note, when he talked about the pain of leaving behind unfulfilled commitments in Afghanistan and watching colleagues ensnared in the scandal…

Still, he said he was approaching the future with optimism…

Soldiers attending the ceremony were allowed to forgo their formal dress uniforms in lieu of combat fatigues — an apparent tribute to a war commander fresh from battle and whose career was marked by more secret operations to snatch terror suspects than by pomp and circumstance.

Wearing his own Army combat uniform for the last time, the four-star general received full military honors, including a 17-gun salute and flag formations by the Army’s Old Guard.

RTFA. A modicum of interest and insight.

As much as I support the precedence of civilian control over the military, Stan McChrystal will be missed in this household. As much of my life as I spent afoot, in the field and in political war zones opposing the imperial uses of American military might – I will miss a good soldier who understood 4th Generation warfare and the commitment to civilian needs required by that understanding.

I haven’t saluted a general since the days of Omar Bradley and Georgii Zhukov. I salute Stanley McChrystal.

U.S. soldier charged as hit man for Mexican drug cartel

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A U.S. soldier arrested in connection with the killing of a Mexican drug cartel member in El Paso, Texas, allegedly worked as a hit man, court records say.

Pfc. Michael Jackson Apodaca, 18, was one of three men arrested Monday in connection with the shooting death of the mid-level drug cartel member who also worked as an informant for the United States, according to a complaint affidavit.

Police identified the other suspects as Ruben Rodriguez Dorado, 30, and Christopher Andrew Duran, 17.

The three men each face one count of capital murder, El Paso police said…

Duran and Rodriguez told police that Apodaca was paid to be the shooter, the affidavit states. Cell phone records, witness statements and El Paso Police detectives corroborated this, according to the document…

Apodaca joined the Army in September 2008, according to a statement from Fort Bliss in El Paso. He is a member of the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade at Fort Bliss and performs the duties of a Patriot launcher crew member, the statement said.

Making the world safe for democracy.

Homegrown terrorist murders soldier outside recruiting station

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Daylife/AP Photo used by permission
Under arrest!

Little Rock, Arkansas… A 23-year-old man upset about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan opened fire from his truck at two soldiers standing outside a military recruiting station here on Monday morning, killing one private and wounding another, the police said.

The gunman, identified by the police as Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad of Little Rock, fled the scene and was arrested minutes later a short distance from the recruiting station, in a bustling suburban shopping center. The police confiscated a Russian-made SKS semiautomatic rifle, a .22-caliber rifle and a handgun from his black pickup truck.

The two privates, who were both from Arkansas, were in Little Rock as part of a recruiting program that typically uses soldiers recently out of basic training to promote the Army in their home regions, Army officials said.

“They were serving their country,” said Lt. Col. Thomas F. Artis, commander of the Oklahoma City recruiting battalion, which includes Arkansas. “They were just standing outside, just taking a five-minute break, just minding their own business — and this happens.”

The dead soldier was identified as Pvt. William A. Long, 23, of Conway, about 30 miles north of Little Rock. The other victim, Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, was in stable condition at Baptist Medical Center, Chief Stuart Thomas of the Little Rock Police Department said.

In a lengthy interview with the police, Mr. Muhammad said he was angry about the killing of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan, Chief Thomas said. Previously known as Carlos Bledsoe, Mr. Muhammad told investigators that he had converted to Islam as a teenager, Chief Thomas said…

“I would say he was looking for any and all targets of opportunity that happened to be military,” the chief said in a telephone interview. “That may have well been the first place he found.”

Idiot. Profoundly ignorant, thoughtless fanatic. He defames his religion.

His defiance of the laws of the land deserves a life in prison. His murder of another young man guilty only of serving his country – is beyond defense.

From the Front Lines in the Swat Valley…

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‘They used to attack early in the morning or after dark. They would always go for an ambush,’ said Lieutenant Zaigham, wounded in battle with the Taliban and lying in a hospital.

Zaigham – who did not give his full name – sustained shrapnel wounds from fierce street fighting in the Swat valley and is a patient at the Combined Military Hospital in Rawalpindi, away from the combat in the northwest.

Lying in bed with bandaged wounds, he and fellow soldiers spoke of intense battles against heavily-armed insurgents, who put up stiff resistance and are often able to outflank Pakistan’s well-equipped and motivated soldiers…

From May 4 to May 17, when Zaigham was wounded, his unit advanced slowly from Khwazakhela in northern Swat to the nearby town of Matta, which has long been under Taliban control.

‘There were strong resistance during the entire journey but we managed to clear the area. They buried mines and planted IEDs (improvised explosive devices) every 50 metres,’ he said…

‘They positioned snipers in holes made out of the walls of houses. They used civilians as human shields. They used to attack from houses and roofs.’

‘They are well equipped, they have mortars. They have rockets, sniper rifles and every type of sophisticated weapons,’ said Zaigham.

‘I am certain that foreign elements are behind these militants. Can I ask something very simple – who are their sponsors? What their sources of funding? Who runs their logistics?’ he said.

Only a few of the questions raised by this report from the front lines.

A useful and informative report. Classic journalism helping the people of a nation and citizens of the whole world to understand the course of Pakistan’s battle against insurgent Islamist brutality.

A General steps from the shadows – reluctantly

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PocketSunTzu

Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the ascetic who is set to become the new top American commander in Afghanistan, usually eats just one meal a day, in the evening, to avoid sluggishness.

He is known for operating on a few hours’ sleep and for running to and from work while listening to audio books on an iPod. In Iraq, where he oversaw secret commando operations for five years, former intelligence officials say that he had an encyclopedic, even obsessive, knowledge about the lives of terrorists, and that he pushed his ranks aggressively to kill as many of them as possible.

But General McChrystal has also moved easily from the dark world to the light. Fellow officers on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where he is director, and former colleagues at the Council on Foreign Relations describe him as a warrior-scholar, comfortable with diplomats, politicians and the military man who would help promote him to his new job.

“He’s lanky, smart, tough, a sneaky stealth soldier,” said Maj. Gen. William Nash, a retired officer. “He’s got all the Special Ops attributes, plus an intellect..”

Most of what General McChrystal has done over a 33-year career remains classified, including service between 2003 and 2008 as commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, an elite unit so clandestine that the Pentagon for years refused to acknowledge its existence. But former C.I.A. officials say that General McChrystal was among those who, with the C.I.A., pushed hard for a secret joint operation in the tribal region of Pakistan in 2005 aimed at capturing or killing Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s deputy.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld canceled the operation at the last minute, saying it was too risky and was based on what he considered questionable intelligence, a move that former intelligence officials say General McChrystal found maddening.

The man is a warrior in the mold of Sun Tzu. A compliment I do not advance lightly.

Soldier takes on Afghan insurgents – in pink boxer shorts

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Daylife/AP Photo by David Guttenfelder used by permission

The world’s best-equipped army has revealed one of the more closely guarded and, one must hope, private items in its armoury – pink underpants.

Scrambling to raise himself from sleep during a Taliban attack high in the Afghan hills, Zachary Boyd, a soldier with the First Brigade, grabbed his automatic gun, helmet and bulletproof jacket.

But in his haste he left behind his combat trousers – showing to the world that below the belt he was fighting in nothing more protective than “I love NY” boxer shorts…

An embedded war photographer, David Guttenfelder, took the image in the hills above the Korengal Valley, Kunar, four days ago. Thanks to the power of the internet and front-page exposure in the New York Times, it is fast threatening to become an icon of conflict photography.

Har!

U.S. military shoot, then rescue Afghan soldier

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Abdul Matin was resting under a tree with seven fellow Afghan soldiers this week when three U.S. helicopters opened fire. Matin was shot in the abdomen, one arm and both legs. He is lucky to be alive. Four other soldiers were also wounded.

Scores of Afghan civilians have been killed in air strikes by international troops in Afghanistan this year, Afghan officials say, feeding a perception that NATO-led and U.S. coalition forces do not take enough care when using air strikes.

Though it is rare for foreign troops to hit their Afghan army allies, the latest incident is the second reported case of friendly fire in less than two weeks. Foreign troops killed nine Afghan soldiers in an air strike in the southeast last month…

In a twist of fate, Matin was evacuated by a U.S. helicopter to a state-of-the-art trauma hospital in Bagram, the main U.S. base in the country, where he is recovering after surgery. Matin speaks slowly and grimaces as he retells his story. “I’m in severe pain,” he says. He does not understand why he was attacked, but insists he is not angry at those who shot him.

“I wanted to fight the Taliban, but in fact, I was shot by my helpers. I don’t know who is my enemy, the Taliban or those who shot at me,” he says.

The usual excuses for friendly fire incidents should not prevail. The helicopters did not come under fire and, so far, no one has claimed they were receiving fire.

There could be and should be adequate means in place to determine whether or not those folks sitting under a tree on the ground are a target of opportunity. How about it?

British family chased out of their home by Afghan spider

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A soldier’s family have been frightened out of their home by a spider thought to have been brought to Essex from Afghanistan in a kitbag.

Lorraine Griffiths and her three children have moved out of their house in Colchester, the RSPCA said. They are refusing to return until the large sandy-coloured creature, thought to be a camel spider, is captured.

“If it is the spider they believe it is, then normally they don’t attack humans, but they could give a painful bite,” the spokeswoman said.

“They identified the spider using the internet,” she said.

Of course. Don’t recall any particularly scary spiders all the years I spent cycle-camping around the UK.

Now, here in New Mexico? Been bit once by a Brown Recluse – and usually once a year by Black Widows.