On September 24th, US Spc John Carrillo Jr. and Pfc Gebrah P. Noonan were shot dead while serving in Iraq. A third US soldier was injured in the shooting and he or she has not been identified at present. US Spc Neftaly Platero's name has been floated in the press as the shooter. Yesterday, USF issued the following:
BAGHDAD – A U.S. service member, Spc. Neftaly Platero, is in pre-trial confinement, in connection with the shooting and killing of two service members and injury of another here Thursday.
The incident remains under investigation.
"Our condolences go out to the families of those service members whose lives were lost. We are saddened by this tragic incident," said Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan.
"Not someone that you'd think would do this," Guy Womack tells Jessica Willey (ABC 13 out of Houston, Texas) of his client, Platero. Willey notes that Womack spent a couple of hours with the soldier "and none of it was asking his client whether he did it."
Womack maintains that there is no hard evidence against his client. He states that John Carrillo Jr. was shot dead on or near his bed with Gebrah P. Noonan shot dead on or near his bed. Between their two beds was a third bed. The third bed contained the soldier who was reported wounded and who has not been identified thus far. Womack states that the three were found in the room and that his client was found outside the room (after the shooting).
Womack also states, "Well I don't need to know what he thinks happened, I need to know what the government thinks happened and what the evidence suggests. And, right now, most of the scenarios you can come up with from looking at the evidence would exclude him as being a shooter."
Womack, a former Lt Col in the Marines, found infamy in some circles when, acting as Abu Ghraib criminal Charles Graner's defense, he stated, "Don't cheerleaders all over America form pyramids six to eight times a year. Is that torture?" Graner received a ten year sentence after being found guilty. Guy Womack & Associates is the firm Womack runs with his son Geoff Womack.
In other news of deaths, Dr. David Kelly died in 2003 after being publicly revealed as the source for a BBC News report that Tony Blair and his minions "sexed up" the intelligence to push for war with Iraq. The inquest into his death including medical files that were supposed to remain kept from the public for 70 years. That detail only came to light this year when a group of doctors publicly questioned the inquest's finding of suicide. In a few hours, the records that were to have been kept secret are scheduled to be released. BBC News reports on it here and the Guardian reports on it here. The Independent of London continues its recent pattern of self-disgrace with a six-sentence 'report' by Tom Peck which includes this sentence: "Dr Kelly committed suicide in July 2003 after it was disclosed that he had been speaking to journalists about his work as a weapons inspector in Saddam Hussein's Iraq."
Tom Peck apparently doesn't know journalism anymore than he knows what happened to Kelly. A reporter for a news outlet -- not a columnist, a reporter -- deals in facts. He can say the inquest ruled it to be suicide. He can not say -- when the ruling itself is being questioned -- that it was suicide and be reporting.
But apparently the editors wave everything through these days at the Independent of London -- a paper that's making the Daily Mail look like a bastion of journalistic integrity.
It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)
Last week, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 4428. Tonight it's [PDF format warning] 4429.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
i hate the war
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