New friendly fire coverup: Army shreds files on dead soldiers

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: Salon.com

Nov. 20, 2008 | FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Last month, Salon published a story reporting that U.S. Army Pfc. Albert Nelson and Pfc. Roger Suarez were killed by U.S. tank fire in Ramadi, Iraq, in late 2006, in an incident partially captured on video, but that an Army investigation instead blamed their deaths on enemy action. Now Salon has learned that documents relating to the two men were shredded hours after the story was published. Three soldiers at Fort Carson, Colo. — including two who were present in Ramadi during the friendly fire incident, one of them just feet from where Nelson and Suarez died — were ordered to shred two boxes full of documents about Nelson and Suarez. One of the soldiers preserved some of the documents as proof that the shredding occurred and provided them to Salon. All three soldiers, with the assistance of a U.S. senator's office, have since been relocated for their safety.

Oct. 14 was a long and eventful day at Fort Carson. The post had been in an uproar. The night before, Salon had published my article airing claims that two of the base's soldiers, Pfc. Albert Nelson and Pfc. Roger Suarez-Gonzalez, had been killed by friendly fire in Iraq on Dec. 4, 2006, but that the Army covered up the cause of death, attributing it to enemy action.

Based on the testimony of eyewitnesses, and on video and audio recorded by a helmet-mounted camera that captured much of the action that day, my report stated that Nelson and Suarez seemed to have been killed by an American tank shell. The shell apparently struck their position on the roof of a two-story ferro-concrete building in Ramadi, Anbar province, Iraq, killing Suarez instantly, mortally wounding Nelson, and injuring several other soldiers. I included both an edited and a full-length version of the video in the article. The video shows soldiers just after the blast claiming to have watched the tank fire on them. Then a sergeant attempts to report over a radio that a U.S. tank killed his men. He seems to be promptly overruled by a superior officer who is not at the scene. An official Army investigation then found that the simultaneous impact of two enemy mortars killed the men.

The article about the alleged friendly fire incident was long overdue for some of the men who fought in Ramadi that day for the Army's Fort Carson-based D Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. Many continue to insist privately that a U.S. tank killed their friends.

Read more: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/11/20/friendly_fire/

[cliffordu]

1. Sigh. K&R.

[peacetalksforall]

20. Someone has to move on up the ranks.and figure out who did this.

These people running this administration don't give a dime about our soldiers.

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R

[Seldona]

3. K&R

When *Bush talked about making his own reality, he wasn't kidding. Is nothing sacred to these people? To use the death's of US soldiers for PR propaganda is pathetic, and an insult to their memory.

[ksimons]

4. K&R - thank God they were smart about it - and are protected now

Now let's hope that same Senator goes after the idiots who learned from Bush that shredding is the answer to their problems. And we thought emails disappearing might for one second be innocent in a Bush Whitehouse.

[HillbillyBob]

25. yea too many ''suicides'' connected to the boosh mafia

nt

[truthisfreedom]

5. knr for the biggest lie: "Army" shreds documents... excuse me? SOMEONE ORDERED THIS.

Not the "Army." A PERSON. Find him or her and boot that person out, now.

[AlabamaBrightBlueDot]

8. Commander in Chief, perhaps? (n/t)

[bertman]

12. "boot him out now". No way. Court martial. Hard time. This shit is unforgiveable.

[Swagman]

6. "friendly" fire happens in every war and covering it up is an act

that will only cause greater distress for relatives of those killed when the truth eventually emerges , as it always will.

[Dogtown]

7. K&R n/t

[MetaTrope]

9. Pat Tillman? Who's that?

[saigon68]

10. nothing new here

[southern_belle]

11. K & R

[L0oniX]

13. Honor? Pride? Patriotism? Yea right! Bunch of liars as usual. Be all you can be ...pffft

[Aviation Pro]

14. Fog of war, fratricide, etc.....

...I understand friendly fire and that war is bloody, confusing and horrible in the heat of battle, but....

YOU ALWAYS TELL THE TRUTH WHEN IT COMES TO THE BROTHERS AND SISTERS WHO ARE LEFT BEHIND!

Some fucking O-6 who is worried about his fucking career should hang for this.

[Nevernose]

24. I wholeheartedly agree

You put a bunch of high-strung kids with little sleep (and quite probably hopped up on some kind of prescribed amphetamine) into a nebulous, stressful situation, and shit like this happens. It is, to put it crudely, just the cost of doing business.

But you don't cover it up. Not even if some other kid -- some good, career, promising kid with a bright future in the military ahead of him -- fucked up.

There are exceptions, rarely (emphasis on the RARE), but this ain't one of them.

[crickets]

26. Yes. As messy as war is, the truth should be told.

BECAUSE war is messy, it must be told. No matter how painful the truth is, at the very least the dead deserve it. The living should demand it.

[xxqqqzme]

15. This incident is a stellar example of the real

'* legacy'. A complete fabrication of reasons to invade a nation posing NO threat to the US. Then a cascade of lies, obfuscation and cover-up/denial to justify the eternal occupation. The entire * administration, beginning the day after the 2000 election, has been the definition of disaster.

[hisownpetard]

16. Yet another conscienceless cover-up. My hero is not so much the commanding officer who said, when

told that the two soldiers were shot by an American tank, "It doesn't matter," but the unseen
soldier, off camera, who muttered, "It matters to me."

[uppityperson]

18. Indeed. Someday, someone will talk. And those who do are very brace.

And in my estimation, heroes.

[MasonJar]

17. The tanks in Iraq seem to be especially ill-led. I'll never forgive

their purposely killing the journalists in the hotel.

[tuckessee]

19. The military seems to coverup and lie about everything all the time.

Even when it's unnecessary they lie and coverup.

It must be their nature. Simply SOP.

[windoe]

21. Does Army have oversight? Pentagon?

These people have had free reign for too long, the openly criminal administration must be stopped.

[cascadiance]

22. This isn't surprising... There were earlier rumors of heavy coverups of # of suicides too!

http://www.military.com/news/article/suicides-coverup-causes-stir-in-congress.html

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/v-a-military-suicide-cover-1000-attempts-month

http://rinf.com/alt-news/contributions/general/emails-suggest-cover-up-of-vets-suicide-rate/3190/

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18737.htm

[frylock]

23. motherfuckers..

to deny the families of these soldiers the truth surrounding their deaths is unfuckingforgivable.

[Serial Mom]

27. We have killed more of our own soldiers than anyone would admit.

I said this to my husband weeks ago, and I know Friendly Fire is part of war, but I truly believe this Iraq war has covered up many more of these incidents than previously reported.

How sad... and why so many of us didn't want this war in Iraq!