This is a link to a radio discussion about the movie, "Semper Fi -- Always Faithful" with Jerry Ensminger and Pam Baragona. The movie is a documentary about the problem of contaminated water at Ft. LeJeune, North Carolina.

Civilian Police and Non-combat Death Investigations, Part Three

Jose Guerena Killed: Arizona Cops Shoot Former Marine In Botched Pot Raid

As the SWAT team forced its way into his home, Guerena, a former Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq, armed himself with his AR-15 rifle and told his wife and son to hide in a closet. As the officers entered, Guerena confronted them from the far end of a long, dark hallway. The police opened fire, releasing more than 70 rounds in about 7 seconds, at least 60 of which struck Guerena. He was pronounced dead a little over an hour later.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department initially claimed (PDF) Guerena fired his weapon at the SWAT team. They now acknowledge that not only did he not fire, the safety on his gun was still activated when he was killed. Guerena had no prior criminal record, and the police found nothing illegal in his home. After ushering out his wife and son, the police refused to allow paramedics to access Guerena for more than hour, leaving the young father to bleed to death, alone, in his own home.

Read the entire story here.

Editor's note:  This story closely parallels my son's death in 2001.  It establishes a pattern of behavior by civilian police.

The following article is re-printed with the permission of Marti Hiken:

How the Police Get Away With Murder

By Luke Hiken and Marti Hiken

Police officers who murder citizens in our communities are more likely than not to get off scot-free. The odds are that they will not be prosecuted at all, and if they are, they will be offered a plea bargain to misdemeanor assault or manslaughter, at worst. The reasons that police can kill at will are found in the laws themselves. 

The disparity in how police officers who kill are treated, as compared to citizens who kill, lies in the way the state deals with the two groups. A citizen who is accused or suspected of killing another citizen, is immediately arrested, held without bail, and subjected to sustained and often brutal interrogation. The threats that police make to murder suspects are the subject of books, television dramas and newspaper articles. The pressure applied by police officers to murder suspects borders on the illegal in most situations, and can even constitute the sort of torture we’ve come to expect from our lawless government. The treatment of “enemy combatants” at Guantanamo is only marginally less horrific than the treatment of prison inmates and gang members suspected of committing serious offenses. Threats to “throw the book” at a suspect, if (s)he doesn’t confess, threats to arrest and/or deport family members, threats of beatings and worse, are the every day grist of police interrogations. The justification is that suspects are “bad” people, and deserve what they get. Naïve principles about presumptions of innocence go out the window when the interrogation room door closes.

Within hours, if not days, of a citizen suspect’s arrest, the police will have gathered incriminating evidence, a confession, or leads to witnesses who can assure a conviction in the case. Only the most street-wise defendants will assert their right to remain silent, or speak with a lawyer in the face of the kind of bullying that goes on in these situations. Those charged with murder will not be released on bail, and only the wealthy will have access to an attorney who will have time to spend with them before their first court appearance.

Compare that situation with that of a police officer who kills a citizen. In San Francisco, the officer will first be placed on “paid administrative leave.” [See SFPD General Order 8.11, entitled “Investigations of Officer Involved Shootings and Discharges.”] The officer will then be asked to participate in an internal police investigation, where (s)he is represented by an attorney, and provided with all of the rights set forth in the “Police Officer’s Bill of Rights.” 

The trail of obfuscation begins the day of the killing when the police officer is hustled into the custody of the police and away from public scrutiny. The police officer then becomes the property of the internal police agencies and their chain of command.

Initially, there are two investigations for police officers. One is a criminal investigation, which is conducted separately by the Homicide Detail and the Office of the District Attorney (DA). The other is the Administrative Investigation conducted by the Management Control Division. Then, the Emergency Communications Division, and the immediate supervisor or platoon commander where the crime took place, take command. This agency notifies the Field Operations Bureau Headquarters (Center), who notifies at least nine more internal police agencies. Also, the DA’s and Office of Citizen Complaints are notified as well as the police Legal Division. 

The victims’ family members, their attorneys, and the media are not allowed to interview the officer; and, no public bodies have access to the officer while the police investigation is proceeding. This period of grace affords the officer the opportunity to work with his/her colleagues and attorneys to assure that no damaging version of the offense is publicized or pursued. A cynical individual might surmise that it also gives the police department an opportunity to destroy inculpatory evidence, or “turn” witnesses who might have damaging testimony or versions of what occurred.

The police officer is escorted from the crime scene to the Bureau Headquarters (department facility) where the officer will be interviewed by the Homicide Detail Inspectors. Officers shall not return to regular assignment for a minimum of 10 calendar days. “This reassignment is administrative only and in no way shall be considered punitive.” 

Within 5 business days, the Chief of Police shall convene a panel to discuss whether it is appropriate for the involved member to return to duty. There is a mandatory debriefing (per DGO 8.04, Section 1.A), where a written report is made and sent to the Police Commission and Director of the OCC. The written report “shall not be disclosed to any member of the public except by court order.” Then the Police Commission meets with the Chief of Police to review the Chief’s findings and decision. The officer is also debriefed by the Crisis Incident Response Team. 

It is both the Homicide Detail and the Management Control Division that respond immediately and conduct an investigation into every officer-involved shooting. Within 45 calendar days the Firearm Discharge Review Board shall receive the Homicide Detail Investigation report. Within 60 days, the Management Control Division findings shall be completed and submitted to the same Firearm Discharge Board, which must convene within 30 days. It then has 120 days to complete its investigation and issue its findings.

After these months of delay (and cover-up?), the police officer might be charged with an offense by the DA’s office. Picture how many murder prosecutions there would be for citizens who were provided the same protections as police officers before being arrested and interrogated. The state would never be able to charge anyone with murder if citizens were secluded and protected the way the police are.

This disparate treatment is a blatant violation of the Equal Protection Clauses of our state and federal Constitutions, and defense attorneys should challenge this outrageous contradiction at every stage of the criminal process. The reasons police get away with murder in our society, while citizens are often convicted of crimes they didn’t even commit, is simply because of the differing way the laws are written and designed. Our society doesn’t mind cops who kill, only citizens who do. 

______________________ 

Marti Hiken is the director of Progressive Avenues. She is the former Associate Director of the Institute for Public Accuracy and former chair of the National Lawyers Guild Military Law Task Force. She can be contacted at info@progressiveavenues.org, 415-702-9682. 

Luke Hiken is an attorney who has engaged in the practice of criminal, military, immigration, and appellate law.

Mother of One Dead Soldier Suspects Sex Assault

By John Lasker

WeNews correspondent

Monday, December 20, 2010

At least 20 female soldiers have died in Iraq and Afghanistan in "noncombat" circumstances that their families find mysterious. The mother of one talks here about why she thinks sexual violence--not suicide--was her daughter's real killer.

Read the entire story by clicking here.

AOC Thomas R. Traylor, USN

The death anniversary of my late husband, AOC THOMAS R. TRAYLOR, USN,  is 03 December, he died in 1998, 11 years ago while on active duty at Naval Air Weapons Station, China Lake, CA – again another bogus suicide.   I will never give up until I get the truth.  Charolette

You can read his story by clicking here.

101st Airborne soldier's death baffles dad

Staff Sgt. David Senft, 27, was found Nov. 15 in an SUV inside Kandahar Airfield with a single gunshot wound to the head.

Read the entire story by clicking here.

Cover-Up Alleged In Probe Of Army Death (Armenia)

Read the entire story by clicking here.

SOLDIER'S DEATH A MURDER PROBE

Military now says area soldier who died in Iraq in July was murdered

Date published: 11/12/2010
By Rusty Dennen

The July death in Iraq of a decorated Army medic from the Fredericksburg area was murder, her parents say they have been told by military investigators.

The Army initially reported that Spc. Morganne McBeth, 19, a combat medic, died July 2 in a noncombat incident.

Read the whole story by clicking here.
Another story and video -- click here.

US Soldiers 'Killed Afghan Civilians for Sport and Collected Fingers as Trophies'

Published on Thursday, September 9, 2010 by The Guardian/UK
Soldiers face charges over secret 'kill team' which allegedly murdered at random and collected fingers as trophies of war
by Chris McGreal

Twelve American soldiers face charges over a secret "kill team" that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies.

To read the entire story, click here.
Editor's note: I've reprinted this story for those who find it hard to believe that soldiers are capable of murder and for those who find it hard to believe that soldiers would beat up (and possibly murder) another soldier who has reported wrongdoing. My own son was killed after being beaten up and harassed repeatedly for reporting illegal activity in the Army. The cover up in his case continues. This story allows the light of day to shine in on this rotten little secret kept by the Military Services for some twisted reason.

In Tillman's Story, Echoes of a Daughter's Pain

By Karen Spears Zacharias, Special to CNN
August 27, 2010 7:52 p.m. EDT

Editor's note: Karen Spears Zacharias is author of After the Flag has been Folded and Will Jesus Buy Me a Doublewide?

Hermiston, Oregon (CNN) -- In war, one family's story echoes the pain of another. I was reminded of that while watching Larry King interview Pat Tillman's parents last week.

Spc. Pat Tillman, who forfeited a multimillion-dollar football contract to serve his country, died in Afghanistan in 2004.

Many may consider this couple's relentless pursuit for truth futile -- it won't resurrect their son -- but I understand it. It took me eight years to discover what really happened the day my father died in Vietnam's Ia Drang Valley.

They say the man who killed my father went nuts. I don't know if that's true or not -- he was dead by the time I got around to looking for him. I wonder sometimes if he took his own life. I could find that out easily enough if I really wanted to know, but I don't.

The men who were there in 1966 know how hard Sgt. C. took it. He and Daddy were good buddies. Our families often gathered for weekend barbecues and fishing along on Oahu's North Shore before the 25th Infantry, stationed there, shipped out.

They say that Sgt. C. drank too much. There's some that say his drinking is the cause of the fratricide -- that's what the Army calls it when one of your buddies kills you.

After Daddy died, Sgt. C. sent Mama a rambling letter about how he wished he could marry her. That's the sort of crazy thing a fellow says when he's talking out of his head. The sentiment doesn't offend me. It shows me how much heart he had, sober or not.

When his widow learned that I was writing a book about what happened to my father, she hired a lawyer, who sent me a snarky letter by certified mail. The widow threatened a lawsuit if I quoted from her husband's letter. She didn't have any legal grounds to stand on: You can't slander a dead man. I could tell you his name and quote from the letter if I wanted, but hurting others has never been the point.

They say when Sgt. C. returned from Vietnam he didn't go home to Alabama. Instead he went to a head hospital in Texas. They say he spent months there, trying to forget everything he remembered. How that blast from Sgt. C's 105-howitzer pushed my father's guts straight out into Daddy's hands. Sgt. C likely overheard, the way others there that day did, my father pleading with the young doctor, "Please don't let me die."

These things happen in war, everyone says so, even Mama. She didn't really understand why I needed to know the truth: "It won't bring your father back," she warned. I wasn't trying to bring Daddy back -- I was trying make sense of a world gone mad.

I didn't know when I started my search that my father was killed by his buddy. I wasn't aware that there were two official Army reports -- the first one the truth and the second one a lie meant to protect Sgt. C. and, if you believe military officials (and I don't), to "protect the family."

Pat Tillman's family doesn't feel protected. They feel betrayed. His parents are in the news again, telling us, this time in a documentary, what they've been telling us for the last six years: That their son was killed by men in his own platoon and that the military knowingly and willingly participated in covering up the truth to protect, not the family, but their own sorry asses. (Excuse my potty mouth but there are times when behinney is the inappropriate word).

All this reminds me of a quote I read: "The central defect of evil is not the sin but the refusal to acknowledge it" (Dr. M. Scott Peck, "People of the Lie").

The military only needs to practice the integrity they preach. Instead they do the blame-shift thing. In an interview with ESPN's Mike Fish, the Army officer who directed the first inquiry, Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich, admitted officials knew which shooter killed Tillman but he saw no value in going there.

"I don't think it really matters," Kauzlarich said.

The point, he said, isn't who really killed Tillman but rather his parents' lack of faith:

"There [have] been numerous unfortunate cases of fratricide and the parents have basically said, 'OK, it was an unfortunate accident.' And they let it go. These people have a hard time letting it go. It may be because of their religious beliefs."

He went on to say:

"When you die, I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don't believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt. So for their son to die for nothing, and now he is no more -- that is pretty hard to get your head around that."

You may recall that at Pat Tillman's funeral, his younger brother Rich chided the crowd for their false piety:

"Pat's not with God. He's f***ing dead. He's not religious. So, thanks for your thoughts but he's f***ing dead."

It's painful to see a brother come undone that way, in front of God and everybody. But given the propensity we Americans have to manipulate God for our own patriotic, and particularly militaristic purposes, I appreciate the pain that propels the Tillman family.

Kauzlrich ought to take a lesson from the General in Isak Dinesen's tale, "Babette's Feast":

"Man, in his weakness and shortsightedness believes he must make choices in this life. He trembles at the risks he takes. We do know fear. But no. Our choice is of no importance. There comes a time when our eyes are opened and we come to realize that mercy is infinite. We need only await it with confidence and receive it with gratitude. Mercy imposes no conditions. And lo! Everything we have chosen has been granted to us. And everything we rejected has also been granted. Yes, we even get back what we rejected. For mercy and truth have met together, and righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another."

If Lt. Col. Kauzlrich, and others charged with handling the Tillman investigation, had only been as relentless in their pursuit of truth as they were in covering it up, it would have been a grace to the Tillman family.

A grace that may have helped them make sense of a world gone mad.

A grace that surely would have enabled them to put their son rest and perhaps, restore to them, in some small measure, a glimpse of the God of mercy and truth.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Karen Spears Zacharias.

Pat Tillman's mother on Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal: I told you so

Mary Tillman speaks on Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his role in covering up the truth about her son's death.

August 08, 2010By Mary Tillman

Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal was forced to retire because of remarks he made to a Rolling Stone reporter. Having read the article that led to his departure, I feel strangely validated. "The Runaway General" described by journalist Michael Hastings is exactly the arrogant individual I believed him to be.

McChrystal was in charge of Joint Special Operations Command in 2004, when my son, Pat, was killed in Afghanistan. But I didn't become aware of him until March 2007. That's when someone anonymously sent an Associated Press reporter a copy of a high-priority correspondence. The memo was written on April 29, 2004, by McChrystal and sent to Gen. John P. Abizaid, Gen. Bryan Douglas Brown and Lt. Gen. Philip R. Kensinger Jr. Its purpose was to warn President George W. Bush and other officials to avoid making public comments about Pat's heroic death at the hands of the enemy, because it was beginning to seem "highly possible that Corporal Tillman was killed by friendly fire."

The memo went on to caution against "unknowing statements by our country's leaders which might cause public embarrassment if the circumstances of Corporal Tillman's death become public."

We knew nothing about this memo at the time it was written. In fact, we did not learn until weeks after Pat's memorial service that it was even possible he was killed by friendly fire.

The memo makes it clear there was no intention of telling the truth unless circumstances made it absolutely necessary. Much later, during Brig. Gen. Gary Jones' investigation of Pat's death, McChrystal was asked why we were kept in the dark.

"Question: Once you became aware that this was a possible fratricide, was there a conscious decision made not to tell the family of the possibility?"

"Witness: There was a conscious decision on who we told about the potential because we did not know all the facts. I did tell the senior leadership [long redaction] about the possibility prior to the memorial ceremony, because I felt they needed to know that before the ceremony. I believe that we did not tell the family of the possibility because we didn't want to give them a half-baked finding."

McChrystal says they didn't want to give us a half-baked finding. Yet that is exactly what they did. Rather than being told there were questions about Pat's death, we were presented with a contrived story, an absolute lie about how he had been killed by enemy fire.

What many people don't realize is that Pat's autopsy and field hospital report were very suspicious from the start. The autopsy gives a description of Pat's body that led us to later question if the autopsy was even his, and the field hospital report contains language that suggests he was alive when he was brought back to the field hospital at Forward Operating Base Salerno. Yet soldiers' statements indicated Pat was decapitated by the barrage of bullets, and he was deemed killed in action by the medic on the scene.

These horrifying discrepancies raised dire questions. Even the medical examiner called for a criminal investigation, but the adjutant general prevented it from going forward. By covering up the circumstances of Pat's death, McChrystal and the rest of the chain of command may have, knowingly or unknowingly, covered up a crime.

McChrystal's actions should have been grounds for firing him back then. That is why it was so disturbing to us when President Obama instead promoted McChrystal to the position of top commander in Afghanistan last year. At the time, I sent the president an e-mail and a letter reminding him of McChrystal's involvement in Pat's coverup. In the letter, I suggested McChrystal be "scrutinized very carefully" by the Senate Armed Services Committee. Pat's father and I both gave statements to the media reiterating that McChrystal should be properly vetted. We had real knowledge of McChrystal's questionable behavior, of actions that should perhaps have disqualified him from this position, and we felt it would be negligent not to do something. Our entreaties fell on deaf ears.

After McChrystal was forced to step down in June, I was contacted by several reporters and asked to give my thoughts about McChrystal, but I declined to comment. I hadn't read the piece in its entirety, so it seemed inappropriate to respond. Now, though, I have read and thought about the article. Obama clearly had no choice but to relieve McChrystal of his command. But how sad that the president and Congress didn't properly scrutinize the general a year ago.

People have asked, "Why is Pat so special that so much attention is given to his death"? I understand that question. Thousands of soldiers and Marines have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of their families have also been lied to, yet those deaths have not received the attention Pat's did. And Pat's death continues to be in the news.

Pat's story initially became news because he was well known for having played in the NFL. The government used his fame to create propaganda for the war. Pat is not more important or special than any of the others who have fought in these wars, but the truth of what happened to Pat — and to every soldier who has died — is important. The truth shines a light on systematic corruption, incompetence and lack of accountability in the military and in government.

Over the last five years, the Pentagon and Congress have had numerous opportunities to hold accountable those responsible for the coverup of Pat's death. Each time they've failed. The government didn't just lie to us; it lied to a nation.

Mary Tillman is the author of "Boots on the Ground by Dusk: Searching for Answers in the Death of Pat Tillman." A documentary featuring her and other family and friends will open in theaters Aug. 20.

Click here to read the entire story in the LA Times.

-- submitted by Patti Woodard

Loose Lips Sink Ships: Parallels and Connections

Stanley McChrystal was engaged in a pissing contest with Administration Officials. It’s worked for him in the past.

Surely, he knows that we can’t win in Afghanistan. “It's not going to look like a win, smell like a win or taste like a win," says Maj. Gen. Bill Mayville, who serves as chief of operations for McChrystal.”

“Today, as McChrystal gears up for an offensive in southern Afghanistan, the prospects for any kind of success look bleak. In June, the death toll for U.S. troops passed 1,000, and the number of IEDs has doubled. Spending hundreds of billions of dollars on the fifth-poorest country on earth has failed to win over the civilian population, whose attitude toward U.S. troops ranges from intensely wary to openly hostile.” It is unlikely that after all the years the US has spent in Afghanistan we will even undo the damage done to the country by the Taliban after they received US aid during the Soviet occupation.

“The general's staff is a handpicked collection of killers, spies, geniuses, patriots, political operators and outright maniacs.” “…they pride themselves on their can-do attitude and their disdain for authority.”

Still, unless the magic of positive thinking results in the refutation of history, McChrystal would have been the general in charge of losing. Getting himself fired was a way out. Maybe that was his intent in giving access to Rolling Stone reporter, Michael Hastings.

Publicly criticizing Biden, Eikenberry, Holbrooke, Jones, etc. fit his macho image and would be consistent with any plan to get out of his position of “sure-to-fail Commander.” He may have strategized a “best case” scenario for himself.

Military personnel on active duty, at any level, do not have the luxury of engaging in this type of public criticism. This is not accepted military demeanor.

What is the connection of this story with the handling of non-combat military deaths and the experiences of surviving families?

First, there appears to be a total disregard for the lower ranking military personnel who are in Afghanistan, in danger of death by I.E.D., suicide, accident, or fratricide. While the “pissing contest” proceeds at the highest levels of authority, people are dying. In the light of the hopelessness admitted by McChrystal’s aides, they are dying for nothing.

Let’s not forget McChrystal’s very active role in the cover up of Pat Tillman’s “friendly fire” death. He was also involved in a prisoner abuse scandal at Camp Nama in Iraq. Although one would think that McChrystal surely deserved demotion for all this -- he received regular promotions in rank and no punishment worth mentioning. All of these risky projects just helped him climb the ladder of success in his career.

I’d nearly forgotten that I wrote to my US Senators from Virginia when McChrystal was up for the Afghanistan Command, protesting that he was not worthy of such a distinction. No one paid attention.

Some of us have had experience with commanders who deny families access to information and have covered up for malfeasance. On a personal level, I can comment on the unseemly behavior of McChrystal and his team and draw parallels from the time of my son’s death and the media coverage shortly afterwards. There seemed to be no consequences for such actions -- until today.

Planting false stories in the press is something Stanley McChrystal would appear to approve of if the end result was politically expedient. Disseminating disinformation is not a skill that I admire. Sacrificing lives for personal gain is not a skill that I admire. Manipulating grieving families and causing pain in order to achieve some political goal is not a skill that I admire.

I hope that there will be a carryover to the entire US Military organization at all levels.

Braveheart

Quotations are from the article, “The Runaway General”, by Michael Hastings which appeared in Rolling Stone: http://www.rollingstone.com/

More:
Revisiting the Pat Tillman Story, and McChrystal's Role
Did Pat Tillman Reach Out From the Grave?
Tillman Mother Sought to Warn Obama of McChrystal
General McChrystal's Ties to Pat Tillman Cover-up
General McChrystal's Credibility Problem

Family of soldier who died in Iraq is still looking for answers

By Sandra Jordan of the St. Louis American

Wednesday, June 2, 2010 11:37 PM CDT

Memorial Day 2010 for John Johnson and his wife Linda Johnson was marked quietly at their Florissant home with a little barbeque shared with a few close family members and friends.

As he does most days, John Johnson thought about justice for his late daughter, Private LaVena Johnson, who was killed nearly five years ago on July 19, 2005 – just a little over a week before her 20th birthday.

She joined the U.S. Army after graduating from Hazelwood Central High School to save money to pay her way to college. She never made it back home from Balad, Iraq.

Her death was not the result of a roadside bomb or an exchange of enemy fire. The Army calls it a suicide. Her family and others working on the case call it rape and murder.

The last five years have been very hard on the entire family, which includes LaVena’s parents; her three older brothers, John, JayVince and Jermaine Johnson; and her sister, LaKesha.

LaVena Johnson told her mother by phone in 2005 that she was looking forward to coming home to celebrate Christmas with her family.

A short time later, LaVena was found dead inside a contractor’s tent in Iraq. She was battered and shot, with a broken nose, shoulder and neck. She had burns on one side of her body and an aerosol can of accelerant nearby. Blood was found in more than one location in the tent where her body was found. Based on the evidence, her family believes she was also sexually assaulted.

Based on its investigation, the Army claims she committed suicide by shooting herself in the head with her M-16 rifle.

John Johnson said no ballistics test on the rifle is reported in the mounds of redacted evidence, and the wound type and fragment damage typically caused by M-16 fire is not consistent with the much smaller size and discrete shape of her head wound. The family believes, based upon the evidence, that the weapon used to kill LaVena was a handgun made by Beretta.

Team LaVena

This is not one family’s crusade. An entire team of people are working with John Johnson and his family members to get justice for LaVena. They are relying on documents from the initial Army autopsy, evidence from a second, private autopsy performed by Dr. Michael A. Graham after the body was exhumed two years later, and their own additional research.

John Johnson has spent the last five years pouring over graphic crime scene photos, letters and redacted reports. He has spoken to elected officials, congressional leaders and journalists from all over the world about his daughter’s case.

“We had a chance to get this all cleared up when Graham did that autopsy,” John Johnson said. “But he came back and said, ‘Inconclusive.’ And once he came back and said, ‘Inconclusive,’ all the news media backed off.”

Graham is the chief medical examiner for the City of St. Louis.

John Johnson said this issue is much bigger than his daughter. He believes the Army’s response to her death is part of a cover-up of a larger, chilling systemic ill – a horrible, dirty secret about the exploitation of females in the U.S. military.

An August 2008 article published by the anti-government John Birch Society, “U.S. Military Covering Up Possible Murders of Female Service Members,” links LaVena Johnson’s death to a number of other unexplained gunshot wounds and reported suicides by female members of the military serving in Iraq, describing the pattern as “highly suspicious.”

Anger fuels John Johnson’s pursuit of justice for his daughter and the affront that, despite evidence gathered by family and supporters, the Army is sticking to its story that her death was a suicide.

The Pat Tillman comparison

“There are a lot of people now that are beginning to question why the national media won’t cover this story,” Johnson said.

“We were told if we could get it to the national media, just like Pat Tillman’s family did, it will bust open just like Pat Tillman’s case did. But it didn’t happen.”

Tillman was a former NFL player who enlisted in the U.S. Army and was killed while on active duty in Afghanistan in 2004. After an initial cover-up claiming Tillman was killed by the enemy, and relentless activism by the Tillman family, it was revealed that he was in fact killed by friendly fire.

Tillman’s father, Patrick Tillman Sr., said the Army engaged in a “deliberate, calculated, ordered (repeatedly), and disgraceful” cover-up in an attempt to disguise the facts of his prominent son’s murder.

Throughout his family’s ordeal, John Johnson never thought that race played a role in how this case has been handled – until now.

“I believe that if LaVena was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl, and her father was raising as much hell as I’ve raised and had the kind of proof that I had, you ain’t going to tell me that they would be treating that family like they are treating us,” John Johnson said.

He said a local TV station promised to follow the case and help them get justice for LaVena, only to have it squashed when it got to the network level.

“Once [the network] got involved, which is their parent company, they dropped us like a hot potato,” he said.

The LaVena Johnson story is not going away. Several black news media outlets around the country picked up the story after it was reported in The American two years ago.

It has received international coverage in Australia and New Zealand, and will soon get additional exposure in a new documentary slated for completion this summer. Filmmaker Joan Brooker-Marks also places Private Johnson’s death in the context of other non-combat deaths of female soldiers serving in Iraq that were reported as suicides.

John Johnson has two brothers with backgrounds, respectively, in criminal science and law enforcement. Both have repeatedly combed the evidence and pointed out discrepancies between what is seen in photos and what is reported in official military documents.

John Johnson said their analysis is being disregarded because it comes from family members.

“I think it’s ridiculous to say that because we are family we can’t see,” he said. “You’re going to hand me information, and then tell me that I can’t see? That’s insulting.”

Regardless, John Johnson is still not backing off.

“LaVena would have gotten better justice if she was killed on the streets of St. Louis than getting killed serving her country,” he said.

While Memorial Day is a day to remember those who were killed in war, John Johnson said that is a totally separate recognition from what happened to LaVena. His unwavering efforts to find out who is responsible for her death and for justice to prevail are living memorials to his daughter.

“To know that my daughter wanted to be in the military so badly – was proud of it,” Johnson said. “I know right now that she is rolling over in her grave, if that was possible, to know they are treating us like this.”

Do People Burn Books in America?

Cilla McCain has written a post about her book, Murder in Baker Company, on the Huffington Post:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cilla-mccain

Marine's death came at hands of U.S.-paid security forces

By Chuck Goudie
Daily Herald Columnist

Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua Birchfield, 24, left, was killed while on patrol in Afghanistan on Feb. 19. Navy HM3 Christopher "Doc" Marsh, right, said "Josh was truly one of a kind. He was the glue that held his squad together."

No American soldier should die the way Josh Birchfield did.


There was much more to his "supporting combat operations" death than what the military put out.

It was the standard Pentagon release.

A soldier is killed. A clerk types in their name. "____________ died while supporting combat operations."

There is no Pentagon form titled "What Really Happened."

If there was, in the case of the metro Chicago Marine, this is how it would read:

"Lance Cpl. Joshua H. Birchfield, 24, of Westville, Ind., died Feb. 19 after being shot in the head by a doped-up private security contractor hired by the U.S. government. We're sorry we hired the guy, obviously didn't check him out very well and we are devastated that we didn't do a better job protecting our own."

This disturbing information came to me after last week's column, in which I reported how Lance Cpl. Birchfield deserved more attention in dying for his country than Tiger Woods, who at the same hour had commandeered the nation's airwaves to apologize for cheating on his wife.

"Although I respect the fact that you wrote about Josh to let the world know that he died a hero, and he did, your facts are not even close to the truth," wrote one of Lance Cpl. Birchfield's friends and fellow Marines in an e-mail from Afghanistan.

Because the military hadn't yet reported the death, I surmised that Birchfield was in the Marjan province, where Marines had been in regular firefights with the Taliban.

Actually, he was on a routine patrol in the Helmand province.

"He was killed by American Hired Local National Contractors that were high on opium the morning of the 19th."

The author of the e-mail was part of a Marine quick-response team that tried "to bring him back from the fatal gunshot to the head. There has never been a more charismatic and honorable man I have ever met than Joshua Birchfield."

Birchfield was on his first combat tour for the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif.

His wake last week in La Porte County, Ind., drew several thousand people. To accommodate the mourners, his funeral on Saturday was held in the high school where he had graduated just few years ago.

But none of them knew the real story of what happened.

He was on a security patrol about a half-mile from a Marine forward operating base. About 7 a.m., as day broke, shots were fired at Birchfield's patrol team, according to members of his unit. The ambush was by U.S.-hired security guards who were supposed to be protecting a highway paving project from Taliban-installed roadside bombs.

"The contractors were able to have such proximity to a U.S. patrol because we pay them to work on our FOB (forward operating base), pave the 515 (highway), and provide security from Taliban IED (roadside bomb) implacers in the area," I was told.

Because the U.S.-backed contractors "are ordinary Afghanis, they are subject to corruption and play both sides of the fence between the U.S. military and the local Taliban," reported one of Birchfield's fellow Marines. "These men are armed to the teeth and supposedly here for our protection."

He said the shooter and six other guards were arrested after the killing and are in the custody of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

"They are also drug abusers. The shooter was found to have copious amounts of wet opium on him shortly after the shooting ... we found a bag of wet opium in the compound that the contractors were using to get high."

The Pentagon had no comment on the incident on Sunday.

But the Marine said that Josh Birchfield died for two reasons. "A mix of drugs and gray areas of loyalty between U.S. forces and Taliban seems to be the motivation behind the shooting."

Although Birchfield was the first U.S. service member he recalls being killed by a U.S.-paid Afghan guard, "we have been shot at by the contractors on several cases before this incident. We have been told to refrain from returning fire and attempt to identify ourselves as Marines so they stop shooting."

His fellow Marines held a small memorial service for him last Friday in Afghanistan. They huddled around the boots and helmet he once wore. And the gun he never had a chance to fire at an enemy bought and paid for by his own government.

• Chuck Goudie, whose column appears each Monday, is the chief investigative reporter at ABC 7 News in Chicago. The views in this column are his own and not those of WLS-TV. He can be reached by e-mail at chuckgoudie@gmail.com and followed at twitter.com/ChuckGoudie

Soldier's Mother Expects Suicide Finding

The mother of a U.S. soldier who grew up in Colonie says she expects military investigators to to conclude her daughter killed herself.

"It's going to come down a suicide," says Colleen Murphy, "and then there's going to be a fight." Murphy says she does not believe her daughter's death was suicide and suggested to CBS 6 News reporter Craig Smith the prospect of exhuming her daughter's body to help prove it.

According to the military, 29-year-old Staff Sergeant Amy Seyboth Tirador died last year on November 4 from a non-combat related injury. No other details have been released to reporters. "Please understand that we go to great lengths to ensure we have all the information possible and investigate the deaths of soldiers very thoroughly before making a final determination in the death," said Chris Grey, the Chief of Public Affairs for the USA Criminal Investigation Command, in an e-mail. Grey said that generally, if a case is completed and ruled a suicide that determination would be made public.

According to Murphy, investigators have asked her questions that lead her to believe that other scenarios have been ruled out and that investigators are heading toward a finding of suicide.

Murphy and Tirador's father, Gerard Seyboth have said their daughter was shot in the back of the head and they say it was not an accident. They have not suggested any theories on what may have happened. They say their daughter worked as an Arabic-speaking translator and interrogator in Iraq. Seyboth described his daughter as a "high-profile target" because of the nature of her work.

-- submitted by Patti Woodard

Jon Krakauer: McChrystal's Explanation For Pat Tillman Cover-up Is 'Preposterous' 'Not Believable'

David Gregory interviews author Jon Krakauer:

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/jon-krakauer-mcchrystals-explanation-pat-tillman


--submitted by Patti Woodard

Krakauer Explores Pat Tillman's Death And Cover-Up : NPR

Krakauer Explores Pat Tillman's Death And Cover-Up : NPR

To access the story, click here.

Listen to the Story
All Things Considered

[7 min 32 sec]

--submitted by Patti Woodard