Was a Colonel's Death in Iraq Something More Sinister Than Suicide?

[marmar]

from the TX Observer, via AlterNet:



Was a Colonel's Death in Iraq Something More Sinister Than Suicide?

By Robert Bryce, Texas Observer. Posted February 23, 2008.

New questions surround the highest ranking officer to die in Iraq.




Since last March, when I wrote a story about the apparent suicide of Col. Ted Westhusing in Iraq, I had believed there was nothing else to write about his tragic death.

But in December, I talked to a source in the Department of Defense who met Westhusing in Iraq about three months before his death. The source, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, was investigating claims of wrongdoing against military contractors working in Iraq. After a short introduction, I asked him what he thought had happened to Westhusing. "I think he was killed. I honestly do. I think he was murdered," the source told me. "Maybe DOD didn't have enough evidence to call it murder, so they called it suicide." I contacted the source through Larry C. Johnson, a former employee of the CIA who specializes in terrorism and security issues, and who writes the "No Quarter USA" blog. Johnson and other bloggers have written extensively about Westhusing's death.

Two other factors led me to look into the story again: First, some members of Westhusing's family -- in particular his mother, Terry Clark -- refuse to believe that the career Army officer, who was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head at Camp Dublin on June 5, 2005, took his own life.

Second, the curiosities about Westhusing's death are getting attention on Capitol Hill. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by California Democrat Rep. Henry Waxman, has interviewed members of Westhusing's family and some of the investigators who met with Westhusing in Iraq in 2005. A spokesperson for the committee confirmed that it is "looking into the matter."

There are many reasons why Westhusing's story has attracted so much attention. At the time of his death (he was 44), he was the highest-ranking American soldier to die in Iraq. His résumé was stellar. Born in Dallas, he went to grade school in La Porte and later attended high school in Jenks, Oklahoma, where he was a National Merit Scholar. From there he went to West Point. As an underclassman, he was his company's honor representative on the cadet committee. In 1983, during his senior year, he was selected as the honor captain for the whole school, a position that made him the highest-ranking ethics official in the cadet corps. He graduated third in his class. He went to Ranger and Airborne schools and did stints in Italy, South Korea, and Honduras. He learned to speak Russian and Italian. He earned a doctorate in philosophy and was one of the Army's foremost experts on military ethics. Before volunteering to go to Iraq, he was a professor at West Point. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/77313/

[lonestarnot]

1. Looking into corruption of private contractors will do alot for a funeral.