The upside of "Patriotism" is not easy to define but the downside of "Patriotism" is the flag waving endorsement,by the Bush Govt. ands the U.S.media,of the brutal slaughter and devestation that the US Marines and the US Military are inflicting on Iraq !



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

TIKRIT, Iraq - Four U.S. soldiers accused of murdering Iraqi detainees refused to testify Thursday at a military hearing, where witnesses described how one of the victims spat blood as he lay dying and another was covered in brain matter.

ADVERTISEMENT

Get Our Top 20™ Newsletter

in Your Inbox Each Week!

Here are Actual Deals from

this week's Canadian Top 20: Released

AUG 2, 2006



New York City from Eastern Canada (each way) -9 Air Canada



Scottsdale Resort w/ Credit US DoubleTree Paradise Valley Resort



Puerto Plata: 7 Nights from Ottawa (All-Inclusive) 3 Sears Travel



Fly to the U.K. from Western Canada, Roundtrip 9 Air Transat



Click Any Deal - Join 10 Million Subscribers!

*Fares listed may not include all taxes, charges and government fees.

More information. © 2006 Travelzoo Inc.



The four invoked their right not to testify for fear of incriminating themselves at the hearing to determine if they should be court-martialed for the May 9 shooting deaths. Instead, their attorneys submitted sworn statements and rested their case on the third day of the hearing.

The defendants — Pfc. Corey R. Clagett, Spc. William B. Hunsaker, Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard and Spc. Juston R. Graber — initially said the three detainees were killed because they tried to escape, but military prosecutors have said they were freed before being shot.

The shootings have raised questions about the Army's rules of engagement during combat and dealt another blow to the reputation of U.S. soldiers, fueling anger against the coalition presence. The U.S. military's conduct has also come under criticism from international human rights groups.

In his testimony, witness Cpl. Brandon Helton said he was the last man off the helicopter that brought the accused and other soldiers to a corner of a marshy island outside Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, in search of suspected al-Qaida operatives.

Helton said the three Iraqis had already been detained when he arrived, but he saw them trying to flee before they were shot. Some of the detainees had their blindfolds down and were "running at full sprint," he said.

At that point, the soldiers fired.

"The first one fell flat down and the second one, whenever he got shot, it was kind of like what you'd see in a movie where he spun around and landed on his back," Helton said. "I seen one spitting up blood."

Another witness, Spc. Micah Bivens, a medic, recalled hearing shots but said he did not see the soldiers fire.

Bivens said as he approached the fallen men, he knew immediately two were dead. "There was nothing there to sustain life," he said. "The last few seconds of life."

He said he checked the third person. "To me there is no way that he could have been alive considering there was brain on the ground."

Defense lawyers are arguing the soldiers were only following the orders of brigade commander Col. Michael Steele to "kill all military-aged males." Bivens said he doesn't recall hearing such an order.

Steele, who led Army Rangers during the 1993 battle for Mogadishu in Somalia, has denied the allegations. He declined to speak to reporters about the charges, and has also invoked his right not to testify.

Girouard, Hunsaker, Clagett and Graber could face the death penalty if the case is passed on for a court-martial. They are accused of concocting a story to justify the shootings and covering it up from military prosecutors.

The first three are also accused of obstruction of justice for allegedly threatening to kill Pfc. Bradley Mason, the prosecution's leading witness, who testified Wednesday.

"It's our position that you didn't prove anything in this case," Paul Bergrin, a civilian attorney, said Thursday to prosecutors after submitting the sworn statement by his client, Clagett.

All the soldiers were assigned to the 101st Airborne Division's 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment.

The hearing is expected to conclude Friday with testimony from Iraqi soldiers who took part in the raid the Army had dubbed "Operation Iron Triangle."

Actually, these men are US Army Airborne soldiers, not Marines. This section of the Army is often used for the same purpose as the Marine Corps - brutal assaults on "enemy" nations. Often they are used in combination, as was the case in the Dominican Republic occupation in the mid-sixties.

This exact unit (101st Airborne 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment) was involved in some of the goriest "search & destroy" action in Vietnam.

"Elite combat unit" is just Orwellese for "psychopathic mass-murderers with great tools"

These assholes stopped serving any redeeming purpose exactly 61 years ago. That's how long the US empire has been an unqualified Satan running amok on the planet

Yea Germany certainly wasnt the 'enemy' in WW2 was it.Meyer?....nice to know you were rooting for the Wehrmacht over the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisioins

I said nothing about Germany. The nation I mentioned was the Dominican Republic - which gets treated by the US the way Israel treats Lebanon. As for rooting for the German Army, I believe it was the Irgun or the Stern Gang who tied down British troops in Palestine during WWII who otherwise would have been used against General Rommel's forces.

Avraham Stern and YITZHAK SHAMIR approached Hitler in 1940 with a proposal to make Israel a client state of Nazi Germany!!!! The Nazis turned them down.

http://www.counterpunch.org/brenner1223.html

the document "Fundamental Features of the Proposal of the National Military Organization in Palestine (Irgun Zvai Leumi) Concerning the Solution of the Jewish Question in Europe and the Participation of the NMO in the War on the Side of Germany":

http://www.marxists.de/middleast/brenner/irgunazi.htm

And there's this minor little figure of the 1930s, a certain FEIVEL POLKES, who was sent to Germany in 1937 by Haganah, i.e. by the closest thing to a zionist state entity in Palestine at the time.

Polkes' assignment:

to assist Heinrich Himmler's SS in exchange for Nazi support of the zionist project

http://www.marxists.de/middleast/schoenman/ch06.htm

When the mufti raised three divisions of Islamic Waffen SS to undertake cruel operations in Bosnia, among the 30,000 killers were some volunteer contingents from Iran. Iranian Nazis, along with the other Muslim Waffen SS, operated under the direct supervision of Heinrich Himmler and were responsible for barbarous actions against Jews and others in Bosnia. Recruitment for the murderous “Handschar Divisions” was done openly in Iran. The unit, however, was basically Yugoslavian. According to one site quoting sources:

According to the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust (Edition 1990, Volume 2, Pages 706 and 707), Mufti Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, made a major contribution to the Nazi war effort by organizing “in record time” Muslim SS units in Croatia. These units were involved in some of the worst atrocities of World War II.

An estimated 20,000 Muslims fought in the Hanjar (Sword) SS Division. Most of their activities were directed against the Yugoslav partisans, led by Josip Broz Tito, and the local Jewish and Romany populations. They also conducted police and security activities in Fascist Hungary. The Nazis recruited two SS divisions from Yugoslavia’s Muslim population: the Bosnian 13th Waffen Hanjar (or Handschar) SS division, and the Albanian Skanderbeg 21st Waffen SS division.

According to the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust:

They participated in the massacre of civilians in Bosnia and volunteered to join in the hunt for Jews in Croatia … The Germans made a point of publicizing the fact that Husseini had flown from Berlin to Sarajevo for the sole purpose of giving his blessing to the Muslim army and inspecting its arms and training exercises.From the Encyclopedia of Holocaust, Edition 1990, Vol. 2, page 704. The caption reads: Hajj Amin al-Husseini, Mufti of Jerusalem, inspecting troops in Bosnia (1943).

According to the National Review:

The Mufti also recruited Bosnian Muslims for an all-Muslim unit of the SS called the “Handschar” division, which committed so many atrocities that 38 of its officers were later tried as war criminals. In July 1945, Husseini himself was indicted for war crimes by the Yugoslavian government. [emphasis added]

As a side note, The BBC News had an article in July 2001 entitled, Nazis planned Palestine subversion:

British secret intelligence files have been released in London about a German wartime plan for subversion in Palestine, when the territory was administered by Britain.

The plot involved parachute landings, thousands of gold coins and the Arab Muslim leader, Mohammed Amin el-Hussaini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who was then living in exile in Berlin.

It also had the approval of Hitler’s security chief, Heinrich Himmler.

…Palestine in 1944 was in a state of ferment, with the British Mandate authorities struggling to keep the lid on violent hostility between Arab and Jewish communities.The Germans, on the other hand, wanted to make things a great deal worse and planned - with the support of the Grand Mufti - to arm Palestinian villagers and incite them to rise up against the Jews.

A small commando team of two German officers and three Arabs was formed in Berlin in early 1944.

Their leader, Colonel Kurt Wieland, an Arabic speaker who knew Palestine, had several meetings with the Mufti and they agreed a plan: drop by parachute, establish a base, gather intelligence and radio it back to Berlin; and recruit and arm Palestinian supporters with Nazi gold.

The plan failed.

One last note-the change in name from Persia to Iran may itself have been influenced by Nazi Germany. According to The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies:

The suggestion for the change is said to have come from the Iranian ambassador to Germany, who came under the influence of the Nazis. At the time Germany was in the grip of racial fever and cultivated good relations with nations of “Aryan” blood. It is said that some German friends of the ambassador persuaded him that, as with the advent of Reza Shah, Persia had turned a new leaf in its history and had freed itself from the pernicious influences of Britain and Russia, whose interventions in Persian affairs had practically crippled the country under the Qajars, it was only fitting that the country be called by its own name, “Iran.” This would not only signal a new beginning and bring home to the world the new era in Iranian history, but would also signify the Aryan race of its population, as “Iran” is a cognate of “Aryan” and derived from it.

Bring it on?

There was great enthusiasm for Hitler among some circles of anti-British Africaner South Africans, but this did not deter Israel from establishing a warm relationship and defacto military alliance (which may have included at least one joint test of a nuclear weapon) with these mini-Nazis during the 1970's and 1980's. I guess aparthied states have to stick together and forget old grudges like World War II.

I'm sorry but when you put my web address into your post like that, it gives the impression that you are the owner of the website. I don't agree with the title of your post and I don't like that folks would think that it was me that made that post.

Further, don't blame US soldiers for dying in a war on a country that had not attacked us, and had nothing to do with 911. The blame rests with the neocons(and their enablers) in the Bush administration who sent these men into that battle. Our guys were trained by Israeli forces, so it comes as no surprise that they are using their (unlawful and unsuccessful) tactics in Iraq - http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1102940,00.html

Regards,

Harriet

owner astandforjustice.org/americanintifada.com

These US soldiers and their defense lawyers should plead their case in the wold's media - asking if their alledged culpability in 4 deaths should be judged as wrong or criminal when President Bush and his Neo Con instigators of the "pre emptive" slaughters and decimation in Iraq,are considered by the American judicial system as being blameless and even untouchable.

How can any of these four soldiers be charged or judged as being murderers when mass murderers like Bush,Cheney,Rumsfeld etc. can't?

Fuck 'em

The majority of the US Troops in Iraq are young guys who've been brainwashed by Washington's duplicitious patriotism and "flag-waving"!

Lots of soldiers don't want to go to Iraq and there are many deserters too but the pressure to be a "true patriotic son" is enormous.Bush-Cheney and Rumsfeld are the real evil and in their greed they've willingly abused,corrupted and sacrificed the minds and bodies of all these U.S. troops

During the '70s and '80s there were several blatantly fascist Western puppet governments that were political hot potatoes. The US Empire didn't want to give them military assistance too obviously, but was still determined to do so through back channels. So it asked its Israeli goombah friends to step in and provide *Israeli* military advisors to deliver elite troop-training services in these countries, which included:

South Africa during its active military participation in the Angolan civil war, in which it assisted pro-West hoor Jonas Savimbi

Guatemala under Rios Montt, who was then waging one of the most obscene campaigns of atrocities ever seen on this planet against Maya Indians of the Northwestern Highlands. This amounted to zionist hypocrites participating directly in what is TRULY history's most epic genocide, the total destruction of native cultures across an entire hemisphere

Argentina under the bloodthirsty Hitler-worshipper Videla, whose regime was perhaps the most extreme post-Nazi fascist government ever (though there's lots of competition here, mostly among countries complicit with the Western empires). Videla, Pinochet, Hugo Banzer, and other South American fascist heads of state were cooperating in a final mop up and mass-slaughter of every communist in the South America, beter known as 'Plan Condor.' And Israel was helping them do it.

Zionists are nothing but closet fascists, have been for 80 years