Wednesday, August 27, 2008

U.S. Military Keeping Secrets About Female Soldiers' 'Suicides'?

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

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080826_us_military_keeping_secrets_about_female_soldiers_suicides/

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 suicides­the

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 Iraq­three 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 American­data 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 ). 2005­Pvt. 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 report­written 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 Caruso­states 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 body­in 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."

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