There are 149 days until Jan. 20, 2009.
U.S. Military Keeping Secrets About Female Soldiers' 'Suicides'?
By Col. Ann Wright
Aug 26, 2008
TruthDig
Since I posted on April 28 the article "Is There an
Army Cover Up of the Rape and Murder of Women
Soldiers," the deaths of two more U.S. Army women in
Iraq and Afghanistan have been listed as suicidesÂthe
Sept. 28, 2007, death of 30-year-old Spc. Ciara Durkin
and the Feb. 22, 2008, death of 25-year-old Spc. Keisha
Morgan. Both "suicides" are disputed by the families of the women.
Since April 2008, five more U.S. military women have
died in IraqÂthree in noncombat-related incidents.
Ninety-nine U.S., six British and one Ukrainian
military women and 13 U.S. female civilians have been
killed in Iraq , Kuwait and Bahrain , as well as probably
hundreds of thousands of Iraqi women and girls. Of the
99 U.S. military women, 64 were in the Army active
component, nine in the Army National Guard, seven in
the Army Reserve, seven in the Marine Corps, nine in
the Navy and three in the Air Force. According to the
Department of Defense, 41 of the 99 U.S. military women
who have been killed in Iraq died in "noncombat-related
incidents." Of the 99 U.S. military women killed in the
Iraq theater, 41 were women of color (21 African-
Americans, 16 Latinas, three of Asian-Pacific descent
and one Native AmericanÂdata compiled from the Web site www.nooniefortin.com).
Fourteen U.S. military women, including five in the
Army, one in the Army National Guard, two in the Army
Reserves, three in the Air Force, two in the Navy (on
ships supporting U.S. forces in Afghanistan ) and one in
the Marine Corps, one British military woman and six
U.S. civilian women have been killed in Afghanistan .
According to the Department of Defense, four U.S.
military women in Afghanistan died in noncombat-related
incidents, including one now classified as a suicide.
Four military women of color (three African-Americans
and one Latina ) have been killed in Afghanistan . (Data
compiled from www.nooniefortin.com.)
The deaths of 14 U.S. military (13 Army and one Navy)
women and one British military woman who served in
Iraq, Kuwait or Afghanistan have been classified as suicides.
Two Army women in Iraq (Pfc. Hannah Gunterman McKinney,
a victim of vehicular homicide, and Pfc. Kamisha Block,
who was shot five times by a fellow soldier who then
killed himself) and two Navy women in Bahrain (MASN
Anamarie Camacho and MASN Genesia Gresham, both shot by
a male sailor who then shot, but did not kill, himself)
have died at the hands of fellow military personnel.
Several more military women have died with unexplained
"noncombat" gunshot wounds (U.S. Army Sgt. Melissa
Valles, July 9, 2003: gunshot to the abdomen; Marine
Lance Cpl. Juana Arellano, April 8, 2006: gunshot wound
to the head while in a "defensive position"). Most of
the deaths of women who have died of noncombat gunshot
wounds have been classified as suicides, rather than homicides.
The Army, the only military service to release annual
figures on suicides, reported that 115 soldiers
committed suicide in 2007. According to Army figures,
32 soldiers committed suicide in Iraq and four in
Afghanistan. Of the 115 Army suicides, 93 were in the
Regular Army and 22 were in the Army National Guard or
Reserves. The report lists five Army women as having
committed suicide in 2007. Young, white, unmarried
junior enlisted troops were the most likely to commit
suicide, according to the report (Pauline Jelinek,
"Soldier suicides hit highest rate, 115 last year,"
Associated Press, May 29, 2008, abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=4955043).
From 2003 until August 2008, the deaths of 13 Army
women and one Navy woman in Iraq and Afghanistan
(including Kuwait and Bahrain ) have been classified as
suicides (numbers confirmed with various media sources):
2008Spc. Keisha Morgan ( Taji , Iraq ) 2007Spc. Ciara
Durkin ( Bagram , Afghanistan ), Capt. (medical doctor)
Roselle Hoffmaster ( Kirkik , Iraq ) 2006Pfc. Tina Priest
( Taji , Iraq ), Pfc. Amy Duerkson ( Taji , Iraq ), Sgt.
Denise Lannaman ( Kuwait ), Sgt. Jeannette Dunn (Taji,
Iraq), Maj. Gloria Davis ( Baghdad ). 2005ÂPvt. Lavena
Johnson ( Balad , Iraq ), 1st Lt. Debra Banaszak
( Kuwait ), USN MA1 Jennifer Valdivia ( Bahrain ) 2004Sgt.
Gina Sparks (it is unclear where in Iraq she was
injured, but she died in the Fort Polk , La. , hospital)
2003Spc. Alyssa Peterson (Tal Afar, Iraq ), Sgt.
Melissa Valles ( Balad , Iraq )
The demographics of those Army women who allegedly
committed suicide are as intriguing as the
circumstances of their deaths: -- Seven of the women,
being between the ages of 30 and 47, were older than
the norm (Davis, 47; Lannaman, 46; Dunn, 44; Banaszak,
35; Hoffmaster, 32; Sparks , 32; and Durkin, 30). (Most
military suicides are in their 20s). -- Three were
officers: a major ( Davis ), a captain and medical
doctor (Hoffmaster) and a first lieutenant (Banaszak).
-- Five were noncommissioned officers (Lannaman, Dunn,
Sparks, Valles and Valdivia ). -- Five were women of
color (Morgan, Davis, Johnson, Lannaman, Valles). --
Four were from units based at Fort Hood , Texas , and
were found dead at Camp Taji , Iraq (Dunn, Priest,
Duerkson, and Morgan). -- Two were found dead at Camp
Taji, Iraq, 11 days apart (Priest and Duerkson). -- Two
were found dead at Balad , Iraq (Johnson and Valles). --
Two had been raped (Priest, 11 days prior to her death;
Duerksen, during basic training). -- One other was
probably raped (Johnson, the night she died). -- Two
were lesbians (Lannaman and Durkin). -- Two of the
women were allegedly involved in bribes or shakedowns
of contractors (Lannaman and Davis). -- Two had
children (Davis and Banaszak). -- Three had expressed
concerns about improprieties or irregularities in their
commands (Durkin's concerns were financial; Davis had
given a seven-page deposition on contracting
irregularities in Iraq the day before she died;
Peterson was concerned about methods of interrogation
of Iraqi prisoners). -- Several had been in touch with
their families within days of their deaths and had not
expressed feelings of depression (Morgan, Durkin,
Davis, Priest, Johnson).
The Death of Lavena Johnson
As discussed in my article "Is There an Army Cover Up
of Rape and Murder of Women Soldiers?," 19-year-old
Army Pvt. Lavena Johnson was found dead on the military
base in Balad , Iraq , in July 2005, and her death was
characterized by the Army as suicide from an M-16 rifle
gunshot. From the day their daughter's body was
returned to them, the parents, both of whom have had a
long association with the Armythe father, a medical
doctor, is an Army veteran and worked 25 years as a
Department of the Army civilian and the mother, too,
worked for the Department of the Armyharbored grave
suspicions about the Army's investigation into
Johnson's death and the Army's characterization of her
death as suicide. As she had been in charge of a
communications facility, Johnson was able to call home
daily; in those calls, she gave no indication of
emotional problems or being upset. In a letter to her
parents after her death, Johnson's commanding officer,
Capt. David Woods, wrote, "Lavena was clearly happy and
seemed in very good health both physically and
emotionally." In viewing his daughter's body at the
funeral home, Dr. John Johnson was concerned about the
bruising on her face. He was puzzled by the discrepancy
in the autopsy report on the location of the gunshot
wound. As an Army veteran and a long-time Army
civilian employee who had counseled veterans, he was
mystified how the exit wound of an M-16 shot could be
so small. The hole in Lavena's head appeared to be more
the size of a pistol shot rather than an M-16 round.
But the gluing of military uniform white gloves onto
Lavena's hands, hiding burns on one of her hands, is
what deepened Dr. Johnson's concerns that the Army's
investigation into the death of his daughter was flawed.
Over the next two and a half years, Dr. and Mrs.
Johnson and their family and friends, through the
Freedom of Information Act and congressional offices,
relentlessly and meticulously requested documents
concerning Lavena's death from the Department of the
Army. Gradually, with the Army's response to each
request for information, another piece of evidence
about Johnson's death emerged.
The military criminal investigator's initial drawing of
the death scene revealed that Johnson's M16 was found
perfectly parallel to her body. The investigator's
sketch showed that her body was found inside a burning
tent, under a wooden bench with an aerosol can nearby.
A witness, an employee of the defense contractor
Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR), stated that he heard a
gunshot and when he went to investigate, he found a KBR
tent on fire. When he looked into the tent, he saw a
body. The official Army investigation did not mention a
fire, nor that Johnson's body had been pulled from the fire.
KBR Women Employees Raped in Iraq
The fact that Lavena Johnson's body was discovered in a
KBR tent raises questions.
Many KBR women employees have been raped in Iraq . One
law firm in Houston has 15 clients with sexual assault,
sexual harassment or retaliation complaints against
Halliburton and its former subsidiary Kellogg, Brown &
Root LLC (KBR), as well as against the Cayman Island-
based Service Employees International Inc., a KBR shell
company (Karen Houppert, "Another KBR Rape Case," The
Nation, April 3, 2008).
Two female employees of KBR who were raped while in
Iraq have testified before Congress. On her fourth day
in Iraq , July 28, 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-
raped by seven fellow KBR employees at Camp Hope in
Baghdad. Jones' rape occurred nine days after Lavena
Johnson was found dead in a KBR tent at Balad Air Base.
Jones was drugged, raped and beaten, and the injuries
she suffered were so severe that she had to have
reconstructive surgery on her chest ("Democracy Now,"
April 18, 2008, "Two Ex-KBR Employees Say They Were
Raped by Co-Workers in Iraq ," www.democracynow.org/2008/4/8/exclusivein_their_first_joint_interview_two).
Jones reportedly was taken back to the KBR area, where
she was placed into an empty shipping container under
KBR armed guard for almost 24 hours without food or
water or the ability to communicate with anyone. The
military doctor who examined her turned over the "rape
kit" photographs and statement to KBR. Jones persuaded
a guard to allow her a phone call, which she made to
her father. Her father promptly called their Texas
congressional representative, Ted Poe, who then called
the State Department in Iraq and demanded her immediate
release. Jones was rescued shortly thereafter and
quickly left Iraq . Congressman Poe again contacted the
State Department and the Department of Justice in an
effort to launch an investigation, but both departments
ignored the requests and even refused to contact Poe
for the next two years. The "rape kit" and the
photographs of and statement from Jones taken by a
military doctor disappeared (ABC News, "KBR Employees:
Company Covered Up Sexual Assault and Harassment,"
abcnews.go.com/Blotter/popup?id=3948132&contentIndex=1&start=false&page=1).
Jones testified Dec. 17, 2007, before the House
Judiciary Committee on "Enforcement of Federal Criminal
Law to Protect Americans Working for U.S. Contractors
in Iraq " (judiciary.house.gov/hearings/hear_121907.html).
The nonprofit foundation Jones created after her
ordeal, the Jamie Leigh Jones Foundation, has been
contacted by 40 U.S. contractor employees alleging that
they are the victims of sexual assault or sexual
harassment on the job and that Halliburton, KBR and
Service Employees International Inc. have not helped
them or have obstructed their claims (Karen Houppert,
"Another KBR Rape Case," The Nation, April 3, 2008).
Dawn Leamon was another civilian contractor employed by
KBR who was raped allegedly by KBR employees. She was
the sole medical provider at Camp Harper , a base near
Basra in southern Iraq . Leamon reported being raped
anally by a U.S. soldier in January 2008 while a KBR
employee forced his penis into her mouth. She says she
was told to keep quiet by her KBR supervisor and by the
military liaison officer. Her laptop computer was
seized within hours after she e-mailed a civilian
lawyer. She testified on April 9, 2008, before the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the hearing
"Closing Legal Loopholes: Prosecuting Sexual Assaults
and Other Violent Crimes Committed Overseas by American
Civilians in a Combat Environment" (foreign.senate.gov/hearings/2008/hrg080409a.html).
Johnsons' Quest Continues in Daughter's Death
After two years of requesting documents, the family of
Lavena Johnson received a set of papers from the Army
that included a photocopy of a compact disk. Wondering
why the copy was among the documents, Dr. Johnson
requested the CD itself. The Army finally complied
after a congressman intervened. When Dr. Johnson viewed
the CD, he was shocked to see photographs taken by Army
investigators of his daughter's body as it lay where
her body had been found, as well as other photographs
of her disrobed body taken during the investigation.
The photographs revealed that Lavena, barely five feet
tall and weighing less than 100 pounds, had been struck
in the face with a blunt instrument, perhaps a weapon
stock. Her nose was broken and her teeth knocked
backward. One elbow was distended. The back of her
clothes contained debris, indicating she had been
dragged. The photographs of her disrobed body showed
bruises, scratch marks and teeth imprints on the upper
part of her body. The right side of her back as well as
her right hand had been burned, apparently from a
flammable liquid poured on her and then lighted.
Photographs of her genital area revealed massive
bruising and lacerations. A corrosive liquid had been
poured into her genital area, probably to destroy DNA
evidence of sexual assault.
Despite the bruises, scratches, teeth imprints and
burns on her body, Lavena was found completely dressed
in the burning tent. There was a blood trail from
outside the contractor's tent to inside the tent. She
apparently had been dressed after the attack and her
attacker had placed her body in the tent before setting it on fire.
Investigator records reveal that members of her unit
said Johnson had told them she was going jogging with
friends on the other side of the base. One unit member
walked with her to the post exchange, where she bought
a soda, and then, in her Army workout clothes, Johnson
went on by herself to meet friends and to exercise. The
unit member said she was in good spirits, showing no
indication of personal emotional problems.
The Army investigators initially concluded that Pvt.
Johnson's death was a homicide and indicated that on
their paperwork. However, a decision apparently was
made by higher officials that the investigators would
stop the homicide inquiry and classify her death a suicide.
Three weeks later, a final autopsy report from the U.S.
Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, dated Aug. 13,
2005, said the cause of death was an intraoral gunshot
wound to the head and the manner of death was a
suicide. However, the autopsy reportÂwritten after the
July 22, 2005, autopsy at Dover Air Force Base and
signed on Aug. 9, 2005 by associate medical examiner
Lt. Cmdr. Edward Reedy and by chief deputy medical
examiner Cmdr. James CarusoÂstates much more in its opinion section:
"The 19 year old female, Lavena Johnson, died as a
result of a gunshot wound of the head that caused
injuries to the skull and brain. The entrance wound was
inside the mouth and injuries to the lips and oral
mucosa were a direct result of the discharge of the
weapon. The exit wound was located on the left side of
the head. No bullet or bullet fragments were recovered.
Toxicology was negative for alcohol and other screened
drugs. The investigative information made available
indicates that this was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
With the information surrounding the circumstances of
the death that is presently available the manner of
death is determined to be suicide."
The medical examiners revealed that they were basing
their determination of suicide on "investigative
information made available indicat[ing] that this was a
self-inflicted gunshot wound," not from medical
evidence. They did not address what caliber of bullet
entered her bodyÂin fact, they stated that no bullet or
bullet fragment was recovered, and they did not offer
comments on what caliber of bullet would have made the
entry and exit wounds.
The Aug. 25, 2005, report from the U.S. Army Criminal
Investigation Laboratory in Forest Park , Ga. , stated:
The characteristic gunshot residue particle indicated
on Exhibit 5 (Gunshot residue kit (Item 9, Doc 775-05),
the number is considered insignificant. Based on these
results, the report concludes that the following
possibilities exist, but the report makes no
conclusion: a. The subject did not handle/discharge a
firearm. b. The subject handled/discharged a firearm
but an insignificant number of gunshot residue
particles were deposited on the hands. c. The subject
handled/discharged a firearm that deposited a
significant number of gunshot residue particles on the
hand; however, due to washing, wiping, or other
activity, the particles were reduced to insignificant
numbers.
The medical examiners who did the autopsy on Johnson's
body did not mention any burns on her body, but when
the family had gloves that had been glued onto her
hands cut off by the funeral home employees in
Missouri, they found her hands had been burned, and
further examination showed her back was burned. A
witness statement taken on July 19, 2005, states: "The
witness [name redacted] ... found the victim under the
bench and verified there were no signs of life ...
related he saw the M16 lying across the victim's body
... he didn't know what setting the weapon was on ...
he related everything was smoking, including parts of
the body. He called for an ambulance and secured the scene."
On April 9, 2008, Johnson's parents flew from their
home in St. Louis for meetings with members of Congress
and their staff. They again went to Washington , D.C. ,
in July 2008 and were briefed by Army investigators and
the military medical examiner who conducted the autopsy
on Lavena. The Army briefers maintained that her death
was a suicide and were unable to answer Dr. John and
Linda Johnson's long list of questions. The Johnsons
are asking for a congressional hearing that would force
the Army to further investigate their daughter's death.
Murder of Three Women in North Carolina
Some of the circumstances surrounding Lavena Johnson's
death in Iraq three years ago are similar to those of
other American servicewomen who died in recent months.
In the six months from December 2007 to July 2008,
three U.S. military women were killed by military males
near the Army's Fort Bragg and the Marine Corps' Camp
Lejeune, two mega-bases in North Carolina .
Two of the women were in the Army. Spc. Megan Touma was
seven months pregnant when her body was found inside a
Fayetteville hotel room June 21, 2008. A married male
soldier whom she knew in Germany has since been
arrested. The estranged Marine husband of Army 2nd Lt.
Holley Wimunc has been arrested in her death and the
burning of her body.
Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach had been raped in
May 2007 and protective orders had been issued against
the alleged perpetrator, fellow Marine Cpl. Cesar
Laurean. The burned body of Lauterbach and her unborn
baby were found in a shallow grave in the backyard of
Laurean's home in January 2008. Laurean fled to
Mexico, where he was captured by Mexican authorities.
He is currently awaiting extradition to the United
States to stand trial. Lauterbach's mother testified
before Congress on July 31, 2008, that the Marine Corps
ignored warning signs that Laurean was a danger to her
daughter (testimony of Mary Lauterbach to the National
Security and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee of the
Oversight and Government Reform Committee,
nationalsecurity.oversight.house.gov/documents/20080731134039.pdf).
Two Women Sexually Assaulted Before Their Deaths
Remarkably, a rape test was not performed on the body
of Lavena Johnson although bruising and lacerations in
her genital area indicated assault.
Another family that does not believe their daughter
committed suicide in Iraq is the family of Pfc. Tina
Priest, 20, of Smithville , Texas , who was reported
raped by a fellow soldier in February of 2006 on a
military base known as Camp Taji . Priest was a part of
the 5th Support Battalion, lst Brigade Combat Team, 4th
Infantry Division from Fort Hood , Texas . The Army said
Priest was found dead in her room on March 1, 2006, of
a self-inflicted M-16 shot, 11 days after the rape.
Priest's mother, Joy Priest, disputes the Army's findings.
Mrs. Priest said she talked several times with her
daughter after the rape and that Tina, while very upset
about the rape, was not suicidal. Mrs. Priest
continues to challenge the Army's 800 pages of
investigative documents with a simple question: How
could her five-foot-tall daughter, with a
correspondingly short arm length, have held the M-16 at
the angle which would have resulted in the gunshot? The
Army attempted several explanations, but each was
debunked by Mrs. Priest and by the 800 pages of
materials provided by the Army itself. The Army now
says Tina used her toe to pull the trigger of the
weapon that killed her. The Army reportedly never
investigated Tina's death as a homicide, only as a suicide.
According to Tina's mother, rape charges against the
soldier whose sperm was found on Tina's sleeping bag
were dropped a few weeks after her death. He was
convicted of failure to obey an order and sentenced to
forfeiture of $714 for two months, 30 days' restriction
to the base and 45 days of extra duty.
On May 11, 2006, 10 days after Tina Priest was found
dead, 19-year-old Army Pfc. Amy Duerksen was found dead
at the same Camp Taji . Duerksen died three days after
she suffered what the Army called "a self-inflicted
gunshot." The Army claimed that she, too, had committed
suicide. In the room where her body was found,
investigators reportedly discovered her diary open to a
page on which she had written about being raped during
training after unknowingly ingesting a date-rape drug.
The person Duerkson identified in her diary as the
rapist was charged by the Army with rape after her
death. Many who knew her did not believe she shot
herself, but there is no evidence of a homicide
investigation by the Army.
Women Had Concerns About Job Irregularities
Three women whose deaths have been classified as
suicides had expressed concerns about improprieties or
irregularities in their military commands.
Army Spc. Ciara Durkin, 30, a Massachusetts National
Guard payroll clerk, was found dead on Sept. 28, 2007,
from a gunshot wound to the head. She had gotten off
work 90 minutes earlier and was found lying near a
chapel on Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan . Durkin had
called her brother just hours before she died, leaving
an upbeat happy birthday message on his telephone. In
previous conversations, Durkin told her sister that she
had discovered something in the finance unit that she
did not agree with and that she had made some enemies
over it. She told her sister to keep investigating her
death if anything happened to her ("How did Specialist
Ciara Durkin Die?" CBSNews, Oct. 4, 2007,
cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/04/world/main3328739.shtml).
In June 2008, the Army declared her death a suicide.
Army interrogator Spc. Alyssa Renee Peterson, 27,
assigned to C Company, 311th Military Intelligence
Battalion, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell , Ky. ,
was an Arabic linguist who reportedly was very
concerned about the manner in which interrogations of
detained Iraqis were being conducted. She died on Sept.
15, 2003, near Tal Afar, Iraq , in what the Army
described as a gunshot wound to the head, a noncombat,
self-inflicted weapons discharge, or suicide. Peterson
had reportedly objected to the interrogation techniques
used on prisoners in Iraq and refused to participate
after only two nights working in the unit known as "the
cage." Members of her unit have refused to describe the
specific interrogation techniques to which Peterson
objected. The military says that all records of those
techniques have now been destroyed. After refusing to
conduct more interrogations, Peterson was assigned to
guard the base gate, where she monitored Iraqi guards.
She was also sent to suicide prevention training. Army
investigators concluded she shot and killed herself
with her service rifle on the night of Sept. 15, 2003.
Family members challenge the Army's conclusion.
Maj. Gloria Davis, 47, an 18-year Army veteran, mother
and grandmother, was found dead of a gunshot wound on
Dec. 12, 2006, the day after she reportedly talked at
length to an Army investigator about corruption in
military contracting. She had been accused of accepting
a $225,000 bribe from Lee Dynamics, a defense
contractor that provided warehouse space for the
storage of automatic weapons in Iraq (Eric Schmitt and
James Glanz, " U.S. Says Company Bribes Officers for
Work in Iraq ," New York Times, Aug. 31, 2007).
Davis' mother, Annie Washington, told the author that
military investigators have never located any of the
$225,000 Davis is alleged to have taken. Washington
said her daughter was right-handed and would have had a
hard time holding the weapon in her left hand and
shooting herself on the left side of her head
(telephone conversation between Ann Wright and Annie
Washington, July 2008).
Federal court documents show that the Army suspended
Lee Dynamics from contracting on July 9, 2007, over
allegations that the company paid hundreds of thousands
of dollars to numerous U.S. officers in Iraq and Kuwait
in 2004 and 2005 to get contracts to build, operate and
maintain warehouses in Iraq where weapons, uniforms and
vehicles for the Iraqi military were stored.
Reportedly included in the documents was a seven-page
statement by an Army investigator who questioned Maj.
Davis the day before she was found dead in her
quarters. The deposition has apparently been used in
ongoing federal cases on corruption in military
contracting (Ed Blanche, "Kickbacks, Weapons and
Suicide: The US Army's Battle With Corruption," March
15, 2008, kippreport.com/article.php?articleid=
1056&page=1). The author attempted to obtain a copy of
Davis' statement from the Department of Justice, but a
DoJ public affairs officer said the statement is not
yet in the public domain and intimated that it is being
used in other ongoing DoJ investigations into
contracting fraud (telephone conversation on July 28,
2008, with DoJ public affairs officer).
The Lee Dynamics warehouses were part of a circle of
corruption involving military personnel and contractors
throughout Iraq and the disappearance of 190,000 U.S.-
supplied weapons 110,000 AK-47 assault rifles and
80,000 pistols intended for Iraqi security forces for
which the U.S. military cannot account. A July 2007
Government Accountability Office report said that until
December 2005 the U.S.-Iraqi training command had no
centralized records on weapons provided to Iraqi
forces, and although 185,000 AK-47 rifles, 170,000
pistols, 215,000 sets of body armor and 140,000 steel
helmets had been issued by September 2005, because of
poor record keeping it was unclear what happened to
110,000 AK-47s and 80,000 pistols and more than half
the armor and helmets (GAO Report 07-711, Stabilizing
Iraq: DOD Cannot Ensure That U.S.-Funded Equipment Has
Reached Iraqi Security Forces, July 2007, Pages 14 and
15, gao.gov/new.items/d07711.pdf).
In December 2007, the U.S. military acknowledged that
it had lost track of an additional 12,000 weapons,
including more than 800 machine guns (Ed Blanche,
"Kickbacks, Weapons and Suicide: The US Army's Battle
With Corruption," March 15, 2008, kippreport.com/article.php?articleid=1056&page=1).
In 2005, Col. Ted Westhusing, 44, at the time the
highest-ranking officer to die in Iraq , allegedly
committed suicide after reportedly becoming despondent
about the poor performance of private contractors who
were training Iraqi police, for which he was
responsible. After graduating third in his West Point
class and serving as the honor captain for the entire
academy his senior year, Westhusing became one of the
Army's leading scholars on military ethics and was a
professor at West Point .
In January 2005 Westhusing began supervising the
training of Iraqi forces to take over security duties
from the U.S. military. He oversaw the Virginia-based
USIS, a private security contractor, which had
contracts worth $79 million to train a corps of Iraqi
police to conduct special-operations missions.
Westhusing was upset about allegations, in a four-page
anonymous letter, that USIS deliberately shorted the
Iraqi government on the number of trainers it provided
in order to increase its profit margin. The letter also
revealed two incidents in which USIS contractors
allegedly had witnessed or participated in the killing
of Iraqi civilians. After an angry counseling meeting
with the contractor, Westhusing was found dead of a
gunshot wound. Many of Westhusing's professional
colleagues question the Army's ruling of suicide,
despite the note found in his quarters. They point out
that Westhusing did not have a bodyguard and was
surrounded by the same contractors he suspected of
wrongdoing. They also question why the USIS company
manager who discovered Westhusing's body was not tested
for gunpowder residue.
In the space of three months in 2006, three members of
the U.S. Army who had been part of a contracting and
logistics group in Kuwait and Iraq were accused of
taking bribes from contractors and allegedly committed
suicide. Two of them were women, Maj. Gloria Davis and
Sgt. Denise Lannaman, and the third was Lt. Col.
Marshall Gutierrez. In August 2006 Gutierrez was
arrested at a restaurant in Kuwait and was accused of
shaking down a laundry contractor for a $3,400 bribe.
He was allowed to return to his quarters and was found
dead on Sept. 4, 2006, with an empty bottle of
prescription sleeping pills and an open container of
what appeared to be antifreeze.
The second woman soldier who was allegedly involved
with bribes and allegedly committed suicide was New
York Army National Guard Sgt. Denise A. Lannaman.
Lannaman, 46, had completed one tour in Tikrit, Iraq,
in 2005. In December 2005 she decided to volunteer to
stay in Iraq longer and took an assignment at a desk
job at a procurement office in Camp Arifjan , Kuwait ,
that purchased millions of dollars in supplies. She
received excellent performance ratings, and her
supervisor said that her oversight eliminated misuse of
funds by 36 percent. On Oct. 1, 2006, Lannaman was
questioned by a senior officer about the death of Lt.
Col. Gutierrez and was reportedly told by that officer
that she was implicated in the contracting fraud and
would be leaving the military in disgrace. She was
found in a jeep dead of a gunshot later that day.
The Army has classified Lannaman's death as a suicide.
A member of her family said that Lannaman had a history
of psychiatric problems but somehow been allowed to
enlist in the military. She had attempted suicide four
times in her life, according to the family member. In
September 2007, Army spokesman Lt. Col. William Wiggins
told the family that Lannaman had not been the subject
of any contract investigations, but he said he could
not say whether Lannaman had been threatened by a
superior officer with dismissal from the service (Jim
Dwyer, "Letter from America : Journey from New York to
Kuwait, and Suicide," New York Times, Sept. 19, 2007).
Lannaman's family said that because of her pre-existing
mental state, the threat that the superior officer made
to send her home in disgrace could have caused her to take her life.
Soldiers Convicted of Bribery
In June 2008 four persons plead guilty in bribery and
kickback scandals concerning military contracts in
Iraq. On June 11, 2008, recently retired Army National
Guard Col. Levonda Joey Selph, a key person on Gen.
David Petraeus' team that was training and equipping
Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, pleaded guilty
to bribery and conspiracy. She admitted disclosing to
the owner of Lee Dynamics International confidential
bidding information about a $12-million contract for
building and operating U.S. military warehouses in Iraq
that stored automatic weapons and other equipment. Lee
Dynamics International is the same company that
reportedly gave Maj. Davis a $225,000 bribe. Col. Selph
helped the company owner, a former Army pay clerk, to
submit "fake bid packages on behalf of six companies he
controlled to create a false sense of competition," for
which she was given a trailer valued at $20,000; she
eventually returned the trailer, and the contractor
then gave her $4,000 in cash and paid for air fare and
accommodations for a trip to Thailand in October 2005,
valued at about $5,000. Selph has since agreed to pay
the U.S. government $9,000 and could serve a prison
sentence of up to two years (Eric Schmitt, "Guilty Plea
Given in Iraq Contract Fraud," New York Times, June 11, 2008).
After having been in military custody since July 2007,
Army Maj. John Cockerham, 43, pleaded guilty last
January to bribery, conspiracy and money laundering in
awarding illegal contracts for supplies such as bottled
water. He had received more than $9 million in bribes
from at least eight defense contractor companies, and
records found in his home indicated he expected to get
$5.4 million more. Melissa Cockerham, Cockerham's wife,
also pleaded guilty to money laundering. Their plea
bargains were kept under federal court seal until June
25, 2008, while they cooperated with investigators.
Cockerham faces up to 40 years in prison, while his
wife could face up to 20 years in prison (Dana
Hedgpeth, "2 Plead Guilty to Army Bribery Scheme,"
Washington Post, June 25, 2008).
The Death of Spc. Keisha Morgan
Army Spc. Keisha Morgan, 25, was on her second tour in
Iraq. Just days before her February 22, 2008, death,
she called her mother, Diana Morgan, and happily told
her that she had reenlisted. Her mother said that
Keisha wanted to be a nurse and planned to fulfill that
ambition after she got out of the Army. Assigned to the
Fourth Infantry Division, Fort Hood , Texas , Keisha
reportedly suffered two seizures in her barracks at
Camp Taji and died in a military hospital in Bagdad .
The Army reportedly told Keisha's mother that Keisha
was on antidepressants and may have overdosed. In a
blog, Keisha's mother said her daughter had never
mentioned being on antidepressants.
However, the Army reportedly frequently prescribes
antidepressants to soldiers with anxiety from effects
of war, and one of the known side effects of some of
the depressants is seizures. The Army's fifth Mental
Health Advisory Team report indicates that, according
to an anonymous survey of U.S. troops taken in the fall
of 2007, about 12 percent of combat troops in Iraq and
17 percent of those in Afghanistan are taking
prescription antidepressants (such as Prozac and
Zoloft) or sleeping pills (such as Ambien) to help them
cope, with about 50 percent taking antidepressants and
50 percent taking prescription sleeping pills. In 2007,
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded the
warning on antidepressants that the drugs may increase
the risk of suicide in children and young adults ages
18 to 24, the age group most taking prescribed drugs in
the Army. The Army should question whether there is a
link between the increased use of the drugs by military
troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and the rising suicide
rate, which is now double the Army's suicide rate in
2001.
Deception or Just Incompetence?
It's now well known that there was deception by the
U.S. military in the friendly fire death of Pat Tillman
and the decision to make a heroic character out of Pvt.
Jessica Lynch (oversight.house.gov/documents/20080714111050.pdf). But
there are many other cases of deception and of
misinformation given to families.
After much pressure from the families for more
information on the deaths of their sons in 2004, the
parents of Army Spc. Patrick McCaffery and 1st Lt.
Andre Tyson were finally told by the Army two years
after the death of their sons that they were not killed
by insurgents but by Iraqi army recruits with whom they
were training and patrolling
(democracynow.org/2006/6/23/army_lies_to_mother_of_slai
N).
The parents of Spc. Jesse Buryj were initially told
their son died in an accident. After relentless
pressure on the Army for a copy of the autopsy, his
mother read that Buryj had died of a gunshot wound. She
had to request through the Freedom of Information Act a
copy of the incident report, which states he was killed
by friendly fire from coalition Polish troops. And
later a soldier from Buryj's unit came to her home and
told her he had been killed by "one of our own troops"
(democracynow.org/2006/3/15/sunshine_week_newspapers_an
d_broadcasters_challenge). Karen Meredith had to
request the report on the May 30, 2004, death of her
son, 1st Lt. Ken Ballard, through the Freedom of
Information Act. Ballard did not die in a firefight
with insurgents as she was originally told
(arlingtoncemetery.net/kmballard.htm). He actually died
in an accident when a branch fell on a tank in which he
was riding and set off an unmanned gun
(mydd.com/story/2005/9/12/14492/7912).
On Sept. 9, 2005, Meredith met with an Army colonel in
the Pentagon and received a letter of apology from the
Army for its misinformation on her son's death. On
Sept. 27, 2005, she met with Secretary of the Army
Francis Harvey and asked him to promise that soldiers'
families would promptly be told the truth about casualties.
As the Beaumont , Texas , newspaper the Enterprise stated
in its June 20, 2008, editorial, "There is no excuse
for the U.S. Army's shabby treatment of Kamisha Block's
parents and others who cared for her. Her commanders
knew right away that she had been killed by a fellow
soldier in Iraq , who had been harassing her. It was a
standard murder-suicide. Incredibly, the Army first
told her parents that it was an accidental death due to friendly fire."
A few days later, the Army changed its story and told
the parents of Spc. Block that their daughter had been
murdered by a shot to the chest. At the funeral home in
Vidor, Texas, Block's mother noticed her daughter had a
wound to her head, not mentioned by the Army. Six
months later, after numerous phone calls to the Army
and enlisting help from Congressman Kevin Brady,
Block's family was told by the Army that she had been
murdered by a fellow soldier in her unit, a man who had
physically assaulted her three times. His unit had
disciplined him once but kept him in the same unit
where he assaulted Block two other times before he
murdered her by firing five shots into her and then
killing himself in the same barracks room. After many
attempts, the parents finally received a 1,200-page
investigation that gave the name of the murderer.
Our Soldiers' Families Deserve Better
The families of slain soldiers deserve the truth about
how they served and how they died. A professional
military should handle each case with utmost care and
concern. Tragically, in the past seven years, too many
families have been faced with unanswered questions and
a military bureaucracy that closes ranks against those
who are trying to find answers.
I appeal to those in our military who know how these
women died to come forward. Hopefully, the House Armed
Services Military Personnel Subcommittee, chaired by
Rep. Susan Davis, (202) 225-2040, will hold hearings on
military suicides in the next two months and provide
protection from retaliation for those willing to testify. --
Army Reserve Col. Ann Wright, retired, is a 29-year
veteran of the Army and Army Reserves. She was also a
U.S. diplomat in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia,
Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan , Sierra Leone , Micronesia ,
Afghanistan and Mongolia . She resigned from the
Department of State on March 19, 2003, in opposition to
the Iraq war. She is the co-author of "Dissent: Voices of Conscience."
No comments:
Post a Comment