New York Post reports that: If she can’t have justice for her slain soldier husband, she’d at least like a Purple Heart. New York widow Barbara Allen is battling the National Guard for withholding the military honor from her husband, who was killed in 2005 while serving in Iraq. The…
Articles Posted in iraq
Rapper case unwrapped
Here at truthout is a different perspective on the rapper case. According to Jeff Paterson of Courage to Resist, an Oakland-based organization dedicated to supporting military objectors like Hall, he was not jailed for the song, but was instead jailed "in retaliation for his formal complaint of inadequate mental health…
SEAL case update
Petty Officer Keefe’s trial is scheduled to commence in Iraq on 17 April 2010. Here is an excellent review, by Dwight “ML” Sullivan at CAAFLog on the political posturing, pseudo-lawyering, and plain gaffs about these cases. First SEAL prosecution imminent It is my recollection that I learned about the Know…
Up periscope
eNews Park Forest reports. Last August, Travis Bishop refused to serve in Afghanistan. Having filed for Conscientious Objector (CO) status, Bishop, based at Fort Hood, Texas, in the US Army’s 57th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, was court-martialed and sentenced to 12 months in a military brig. He was released from the…
Pantano for Congress
Three Republicans are vying for the nomination to run for the seat and all three are military vets — but only one has the kind of star power that comes with a personal story that extends from Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan to the fast-money world of Wall Street, and includes…
Up periscope weekend edition – 170110
A military court in Kuwait has convicted a third soldier in connection with the August suicide of 19-year-old Keiffer Wilhelm. Staff Sgt. Enoch Chatman of West Covina, Calif., received three months’ confinement and a written reprimand from the commanding general and was reduced two pay levels to a specialist. Chatman…
CPT Bjork – Evergreen
You’ll have seen various reports about the pending prosecution of CPT Bjork for allegedly ordering some Iraqi officers to shoot two Iraqi civilians (I have few here, and here). There is a report in The US Report. [T]he accusers are 3 former Iraqi police and a former Iraqi intel officer…
CPT Bjork – Evergreen – to go to court-martial
The United States military has decided to refer charges against an Army captain from Evergreen who is accused of ordering Iraqi officers to kill two Iraqi civilians. Army Times reports.
SEAL case #3 status [corrected]
The trial for the Navy SEAL accused of punching an alleged al-Qaida terrorist while in U.S. custody in Iraq has been postponed until May 3, but the trial will remain in Norfolk. Capt. Moira Modzelewski granted government prosecutors the continuance on the grounds that most of the evidence in the…
Sham or shame
The Army’s attempt to stem a rising tide of suicides made it impossible for a Fort Bliss soldier convicted of cruelty toward subordinates to get a fair trial, the soldier’s parents say. "I still maintain that this was a miscarriage of justice," said John Taylor, father of Pvt. Jarrett Taylor.…