US Soldiers Executed Iraqis: Report

New York Times:

In March or April 2007, three noncommissioned United States Army officers, including a first sergeant, a platoon sergeant and a senior medic, killed four Iraqi prisoners with pistol shots to the head as the men stood handcuffed and blindfolded beside a Baghdad canal, two of the soldiers said in sworn statements.

After the killings, the first sergeant -- the senior noncommissioned officer of his Army company -- told the other two to remove the men's bloody blindfolds and plastic handcuffs, according to the statements made to Army investigators, which were obtained by The New York Times.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[oldwiseone]

Is this the first time you read about this?

Iraqi officials blame the Americans for sending a team in the spring that demanded more than 50 long-term bases, the ability to launch operations without permission from the Iraqi government and immunity for security contractors and U.S. troops.

[oldwiseone]

Reported iin the NY TImes
"A State Department spokesman in Washington told reporters last week that the United States hoped to finish an agreement by December. The sides had originally aimed to complete it by July. The Iraqi official close to Maliki said Iraq could always request an extension from the U.N. if they did not reach a deal before the end of the year.

Some Western and Iraqi officials blame the Americans for sending a team in the spring that demanded more than 50 long-term bases, the ability to launch operations without permission from the Iraqi government and immunity for security contractors and U.S. troops. Their opening stance played into the hands of Shiite lawmakers in Maliki's coalition, who want the Americans to leave, officials said.

Mithal Alusi, an independent Sunni lawmaker who has advised Maliki in the past, accused the prime minister of trying to wreck the talks.

"Why does he have to change the leaders of the negotiating team, and now? Why? We had reached the last part, why does he have to change it?" Alusi asked. "He doesn't want it."

[CyrusBeaucephus]

Indifference to human life is the root cause of Terrorism. How's that Global War on Terror coming, right wing hypocrites?

Maybe the next President will actually pay attention to his intellligence briefings. When you are not spending all your available time trying to put together a phony case for War and forging documents its amazing what can be accomplished. Stay the courseof failure--vote GOP

[groucho]

this is why record numbers of vets are committing suicide, they didn't have the cold blooded killer instinct in their genes like Cheney and his gang. then they come home and are supposed to go back to their previous life. doesn't work like that, that's why Chauchescu of Romania was breeding kids to become killers.
now the same people who head this nightmare are messing around in Georgia. i don't look forward to what this country is producing.

[Destin]

Shameful way for our soldiers to behave, but when they have a CinC with no morals and no honor, what can you expect from the soldiers the CinC is in charge of? Here's another example...

http://www­.13wmaz.co­m/apps/pbc­s.dll/arti­cle?AID=/2­0080825/NE­WS02/80825­042/1005/N­EWS01

"ATLANTA (AP) -- Two soldiers who were assigned to an Army Ranger
training facility in north Georgia have been sentenced to federal
prison for plotting to steal 50 pounds of cocaine from drug dealers
at gunpoint. "

Now, what would US Army Rangers be doing associating with drug dealers? And what would they do with the 50 POUNDS of cocaine they were planning to steal??

[Rivcuban]

Did the soldiers pray before or after the executions?

[Agnim]

At least these soldiers recognized their criminality, regretted and confessed.
Not so the soulless and heartless wild bush-chene­y-McCaint; Those warmongers are so emotionally dead that they cannot even appreciate the crime of 'shock and awe' and mass slaughtered of hundreds of thousands of INNOCENT Iraqis in their UNPROVOKED bush war!

When those young soldiers have such heartless and soulless war criminals as their leader, some of those young soldiers will be led astray into the abyss.

If I could ask Laura Bush one question, it would be, "How do you lie in bed every night with such a monster?" "Or is it the case that you too are also as lost and loony as your mass murdering husband?"

[torrrep]

You are ignorant. We did not slaughter hundreds of thousands of "innocent Iraqis". You liberals keep claiming that yet every study done has shown that is false. The majority of Iraqi civilian casualties have been caused by insurgent and sectarian attacks. Not by U.S. soldiers. But don't let the facts get in the way of your lies. Second of all you say the war was unprovoked. Another lie. Failing to abide by the rules of the cease fire that ended the First Gulf War is provocation of war. And that's the UN mandate whether you like it or not. Iraq continuously fired on coalition aircraft with surface to air missiles. That was illegal and an act of war but I guess in your eyes not a provocation. They continuously tracked and monitored coalition aircraft with radar, which was illegal and act of war but again, in your eyes not a provocation. You need to grow up and read a little bit of history instead of making stupid comments.

[luvthelaw]

We are responsible for the insurgent and sectarian violence. When we invaded, we did not have a plan for the next step, did not establish a working government, and did nothing to control the violence and looting. We had no plan to bring the various groups together and we had no plan to restore services to the people. We broke their country. As for the justification for invasion, we were sold a bunch of lies as to why we were there. They didn't really care about the results, they had wanted to invade since Bush took office. And by the way, I am a grown up and a history buff.

[oxford]

Why should we kill "them" off one or two at a time, when we have the power to obliterate them. We all want war, just look around, the ecomomy is booming, the Govt is bailing out failing Wall St. firms, what could be better. WAR, that's McCain's family business.
Besides, how did OUR OIL get under their sands. And we should stay until the oil runs out, even if it takes 100 years. What else could be more important????

[oldwiseone]

You are not so smart, the US bombed all the water filtration plants so 565,000 children died of dysentry. We were the cause of the killing. So, Mexico can send an airplane over here, and if we fire on it, then they can claim that we started a war?

[fishsandwichesr2good]

This story says "execute" like it's a bad thing. If you want to make an omlette, you have to break a few eggs...

[luvthelaw]

Just hope that you are never one of those eggs that need to be broken. What is it that makes Americans think that Iraqi lives are worth less than ours?

[fishsandwichesr2good]

You misunderstand. It's those shooting-a­t-our-troo­ps Iraqi lives that I find less than worthwhile.

[RoloTomassi]

All of you NeoCon supporters put your bloated patriotism aside for a moment and consider what is stated here:

If you judge by the statements made by the soldiers who killed these Iraqis, they were told to release them, and then on orders from their Sgt.--using the excuse of REVENGE--executed these people.

That is so cut and dried that, pro-war, anti-war, regardless of where you stand, these guys are guilty of MURDER. It's just that simple. Perhaps the two pulling the trigger should get 2nd degree charges for following orders and the sgt. 1st degree for ignoring his orders and acting on the motivation of revenge--but it's murder, and I really like to hear a non-ideological explanation of how it could be described as something other than murder.

When you throw out the only reasonable excuse for killing these people--military combat engagement--what other definition of these soldiers' actions are you left with?

[torrrep]

I have no problem with your statement. If they are convicted of murder then they should be punished. And I am all for the death penalty. Why do you assume that conservatives think they should get off free?

[RoloTomassi]

Ah...have you read any of the comments on this thread? Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what I'm reading...but in general, it has been my observation that conservatives tend to apply blanket immunity to soldiers in Iraq; it's as though the absurdity of the war causes its proponents to defend every indefensible aspect of it, even more so as it has become more apparent over time that it is a war that should have never happened.

Assuming that the facts are as stated in the article [that the story is derived from statements made by the soldiers involved], there just doesn't seem to be much to defend.

I mean, I don't even support capital punishment, so I'm not screaming for blood, but clear cut guilty shouldn't be excused due to some confounding concept of immunity.

[rwe]

Report??like the Haditha reports that wre proved false??the despicable America hating rhetoric that is liberalism is exposed... Murtha the ex marine has still to apologize for his heinous comments . Wonder why he is not at the obamafest?

[AmandaBC]

"like the Haditha reports that wre proved false??"

Proven by whom? The same war criminals who commmited the crime? The SS generals at Nuremberg claimed their soldiers never did anything wrong. I'm sure you agree with that, or else you'd be a big, big hypocrite... You're using the very same argument. I repeat the question, did the Haditha victims ra_ped and ki_lled themselves?

[awcbuddy8]

How come you don't man up and try and perform citizen's arrest on the Haditha marines. See how well that goes for you? Until then, shut up. Jesus.

[Durango]

One of the demands of the Iraqi's is that the occupying force is subject to Iraqi law.

So until or unless the Haditha event gets investigated by an Iraqi court I think it will remain an open wound.

Most of the troops who committed the My Lai Massacre got off. Only the small fry Lt Calley got convicted.

[RexPrimoris]

This is just one of the numerous atrocities committed by U.S. forces or their private contractor surrogates in the name of "liberating Iraq." How many were committed that will never see the light of day and will fade away into the fog of war, unknown and forgotten by all except the victims' families? Anyone who thinks our presence in Iraq is just, or has anything to do with our national security, needs a refresher course in how military power is used in this country, and for what ends. This is a war that has accomplished nothing beneficial for anyone except 1) al-Qaeda; 2) Iran; and most importantly, 3) The military industrial complex, whose defense contractor members are reaping riches from the massive spending (all on credit) that is being used to finance this war. What macho GOP warmongers like McCain and his ilk fail to comprehend is that ill-conceived foreign occupations and and nation-building exercises do not strengthen America; they weaken it. We are headed down the same road as the Soviet Union, undone by stupid foreign occupations and financial collapse caused in part by out-of-control defense spending. Our unpreparedness and lack of appreciation for the full ramifications of Peak Oil will take care of the rest. It will take a while for the house of cards to come crashing down, but the groundwork is being laid for this result.

[StillAmused]

"America, America, God shed his tears on thee..."

[Soothsayer08]

This war drags on, as the soldiers morals are going down and their deployments are becoming longer, there will be more of this resentment heaped on the Iraqi people. It is becoming like Viet Nam and reminds me of things like the Mei Lei massacre. These were soldiers also following orders. On 60 minutes Sunday, there was another service man who was being court-martialed for almost this very same thing. No wonder the Iraqis keep resisting us. Wouldn't you ? We need to leave not in 2011 but now.

[abouttime]

Absolutely!
NOW!

[abouttime]

Prior to the U.S invasion of Iraq millions of people around the world gathered in the largest protest of in the history of mankind. Its time to increase our voices.
It's time to hit the streets - again and again!
U.S. out of Iraq - not in 2015, not in 2012, not tomorrow...
U.S. out of Iraq NOW!

[UnbiasView]

Hit the streets?

Na, I have a job and golf on the weekends.

[RoloTomassi]

while you're out on the golf course, see if you can expand your boundaries and find a human being; if you suceed in finding one, do inquire about the human condition, as you clearly out of touch with the concept, and have no clue how to relate to such.

Sociopaths such as yourself should be required to wear a sign around your neck.

[ProudNeoCon]

I do not know if these soldiers did what NYT claims they did. There were quite a few stories af US attrocities which were proven wrong and some which were proven right. Time will tell. What I do not understand is a selecetive reporting on event in Iraq by Huff.

Every day there are stories of US soldiers risking their lives to save civilians, there are stories of schools and hospitals being build, there are stories of Kurd in the North building a vibrant economy, there are stories of Shites and Sunnies living together again, yet Huff never posts them. The only news appearing here is something which either talks about how bad the cituation (i.e. suicide bombing) or how bad US trops are. Now I know that majority of people on Huff do not agree with war in Iraq. I respect that. However, it does not justify such selective postings. IMHO it makes the entire anti-war argument weaker. It feels like Huff is afraid to show good news so people will not question their anti-war stance. The sadest part is that there is no need for this. Even with good news from Iraq there are plenty of reasons to disagree with the war.

[UnbiasView]

"There were quite a few stories af US attrocities which were proven wrong and some which were proven right."

There were also false stories which John Murtha commented on.

[abouttime]

RE: "Now I know that majority of people on Huff do not agree with war in Iraq. I respect that."
I also respect that is true. I also respect that an over whelming majority of Americans want us out of Iraq. In fact I respect that near unanmious support of the people and parliament ain Iraq wants the U.S. Out - NOW.
Trillions of wasted dollars. Hundreds of thousands of deaths. Miliions of people suffer needlessly. No country is justified in the slaughter of other humans so that the theft of resources from the land they live can be justified.
Good news of valiant soldiers is newsworthy - however, the perfidy of war cannot be covered up, or ignored by those who wish things were different.
How long will our "leaders" waste money and lives for a lie!
US out of Iraq, NOW!

[ProudNeoCon]

You substitute your view of Iraq war as a justification of selective reporting...

[PierreLeClerke]

Journalism, in it's most significant form, is responsible to the citizens it serves to accurately report on events and conditions that are outside the conventional norm or social behavior pattern.
Humans are generally going about life assisting their fellow man in many varied progressive ways. Journalist are called to shine the light and hold it on conditions and events that are outside the norm in an effort to bring attention to, and in some cases judgment from the rest of society.
Fluff is not the stuff that aids the evolution of civilization.

[abouttime]

Thank you.

[ProudNeoCon]

In the was the most conventional norm is to kill the enemy and protect yourself. I would say soldiers risking their lifes to save civilians are no less deserving stories than accusation of crimes by aother soldiers. Sunni and shiites living together in the 100s of vilages is more newsworthy than 1 suicide bomber. Country comming together is not a fluff.

More importantly journalists do report those evens. Huff chooses not to post them!!

Otherwise based on your defenition, we would define our lifes by murders and car accidents.

[caber]

I didn't realize soldiers risking their lives to save citizens was fluff.

[polaris12]

Tom Friedman (who I don't normally like very much) made a good point in his column today that while China is focused on building their country up, we are focused on fighting other people's war in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are destroying when we should be building. At the same time, John McCain's puppet master, Joe Lieberman, is writing in the WSJ that we must be gearing up for war with Russia right after we finish our war with Iran. This is the kind of idiocy that John McCain and his proud neocon supporters represent for the future of America.

[abouttime]

Truely - Insanity!