House Demands Report from Army on LTC West Investigation

HASC Press Release | 21 Nov 03

[O6ret]

PRESS RELEASE

U.S. House of Representatives

Committee on Armed Services

Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Chairman

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 21, 2003

HOUSE ARMED SERVICES LEADERS DEMAND INFORMATION CONCERNING LT. COLONEL WEST

Actions to Save Soldiers Were Proper Based on Available Information

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Reps. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and John M. McHugh (R-NY)are calling on U.S. Army leadership to immediately provide a report on the investigation of Lt. Col. Allen West. West is charged with improperly interrogating an Iraqi prisoner.

Based on the information currently available to them, Hunter and McHugh believe that West's actions may well have been necessary to protect the lives and safety of his fellow soldiers and not the actions of a criminal, as he is charged. Hunter is Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and McHugh is Chairman of the Subcommittee on Total Force, which has jurisdiction over military personnel matters.

According to news accounts, the incident in question took place this pastAugust near Tikrit, Iraq, when guerrillas attacked U.S. soldiers underWest's command. An informant told U.S. authorities that a local policeman was involved. West ordered the policeman brought in, though he proveduncooperative. West has testified that he fired his pistol near the head ofthe Iraqi, threatening to kill him in an effort to obtain information to protect his troops. As a result of the tactic, the Iraqi provided information regarding a planned sniper attack on U.S. soldiers. Two insurgents were arrested, a third fled and there were no attacks in the area. West immediately informed his commanding officer of the incident. He is currently facing an inquiry to determine if there is cause for a court-martial.

"We are highly disturbed by media accounts that the Army is beginning criminal proceedings against Lt. Col. Allen B. West for taking actions in Iraq that he believed were necessary to protect the lives and safety of his men," stated the Congressmen in a letter to Les Brownlee, Acting Secretary of the Army. "To us, such actions if accurately reported do not appear to be those of a criminal," the letter continues.

In addition to the information previously requested, the Congressmen are asking to see a new report. "We are aware the Army has completed a preliminary inquiry regarding whether to proceed to a court martial and would like to review that report," said Hunter and McHugh in a joint statement. "Our interest is in justice. Based on what we know right now, it is more than reasonable to assume that Col. West acted in a manner proportionate to the threat against his soldiers."

[AndyJackson]

Your problem is that you like a lot of folks around here don't know what politics is. You write:

The reality of political wars is that they never succeed....the current administration has gone out of their way to allow the soldiers in theater to make the strategic, as well as the tactical decisions. War is not the contination of policy, it is the imposition of policy, after a failed attempt at continuation. It is completely judicial; it is a punitive measure against resistance of a stated policy.

This statement is so self-contradictory as to be laughable. The imposition of a policy by force is exactly what von Clausowitz meant by "war is a continuation of policy by other means." War is conducted by the state to to execute a policy. It is by its very nature political. This is a very different statement than what you are trying to turn it into which is politicians trying to micromanage the fighting of a war themselves. Establishing rules of engagement - which is a high level policy decision - is not mircromanagement. That is what Washington does for its living.

You have joined the long line of persons unable to accept that the Military bears no resemblance to civilian society.

Having retired as an 06 I am staunchly a proud member of those who believe that the military is unavoidably and must be a strong reflection of our civil society. This is not exactly a new idea. Thucydides writes at great length about this subject. War and Peace (War and Society, properly translated) is 1500 pages on this theme.

The issue is fundamentally and essentially political. It is about the policies of the U.S. Bush and Rumsfeld inserting themselves into the discussion or abtaining are both political decisions.

[AndyJackson]

He should have been immediately arrested and summarily court martialed

This is not an authority that the JAG has, and if West demands a general court martial he is entitled to one.

[AndyJackson]

LTC West was taught the proper skill to defeat the enemies' plans without perfect information. He should have used it.

And what, O Wise and All Knowing Intelligence Clerk, were those plans? You don't know. Intelligence didn't know, and West didn't know until he found out.

[mdmathis6]

You claim to know the first Sargent of the 4th infantry who is giving you the true low down on the West case...yeah right! Because of the potential public back-lash that this trial might afford the Military..you can bet no first sargent isn't going to be telling you any-thing but the official line!
Because if you are truly speaking to him, you have just outed him on line and this may subject the First Sargent to an obstuction of justice charge and violation of security oaths and just about a zillion other things that would send a FIRST SARGENT to Leavenworth for a thousand years! For that matter, with all the security and everything else how is it you have a direct line over there...especially in regards to the West case? For that matter you might be Psy ops your self, the military has areputation to guard does it not? I don't think you know squat and your just blowing smoke! If I was that First Sargent, I wouldn't have liked being outed on Free Republic!

My take on the case is that West violated interrogation procedures or he didn't! If the local JAG group felt there was a violation of procedure, he should not have been GIVEN A CHOICE OF RETIREMENT WITHOUT PAY or court Martial with threat of imprisonment. They should have relieved him of command and arrested him pending hearings and court Martial. It was the choice presented to him that the Colonel(and any man in the army as long as him) that he found unpalatable. Under duress, mistakes in judgment occur and they must be disciplined. The prisoner in question is alive, his men are alive! West was told...destroy your-self or we will destroy you. Well, a man would rather be destroyed then to destroy himself for such an error especially when the results didn't justify it.
He shouldn't have been given that choice...if the local JAG has a case, they should have gone right to arrest and court martial, in the end even if West had lost, it would have preserved some dignity. Now you have a Colonel doing a "Clarence Thomas" on the military(with some justification I might add...I mean you don't rise to Lt. Colonel with-out putting in some box-tops), and even if there was culpability on the Colonel's part, the military looks very bad. The court martial is probably the right thing to do, the act of giving the Colonel a "choice" of retirement or court Martial was wrong! The Colonel obviously feels he's being rail-roaded or else he wouldn't be putting up such a sqwawk. (I suppose its going to come down an arguement as to what IS IS...which is what we were left with after the Clintonoids put their brand of spit and NO POLISH on the military)

[Ispy4u]

The immediate tactical plan was supposedly revealed to LTC West through an informant, that some Iraqi's, one being a local policeman, were planning to ambush members of his unit via sniper fire when they visited the local police station, the goal for their target was to get a shot on LTC West and anyone else accompanying him. (All of this has been released from the Article 32 hearing.)

So LTC West was given privy to a who and a where, and you want to tell me that he shouldn't have been able to use tactics to preserve the lives of his men and himself and still accomplish his mission without having the rest of the conspirators?

In addition LTC West doesn't know what intelligence knew because he didn't even bother to ask. He acted on his own to bring in the policeman and have him interrogated (nothing wrong yet) but he didn't bother to collaborate any information he got from the "informant" nor did he bother to confirm or deny any information he got from the police officer. He simply went and arrested someone else based on a coerced confession.

Now you tell me you would have done the same thing and this Wise and All Knowing Intelligence "Clerk"(as you so humorously put it) would tell you to your face you couldn't execute the tactic of finding your a$$ with your hands stuffed in your back pockets. 0-6 my arse.

[Ispy4u]

Hey dip-stick that was me who know's the 1SG. And I never said he told me a damn thing about this case. William Terrell asked me if I took a poll of the "mudfeet" down there on how they felt about this thing. So I told him what I know from speaking with the 1SG.

If you're going to rant at least pull your head out of your rear so everyone can understand you.

[Pukin Dog]

Having retired as an 06 I am staunchly a proud member of those who believe that the military is unavoidably and must be a strong reflection of our civil society. This is not exactly a new idea.

If you really believe that, then I am glad you are gone. I admit that many feel as you do, and I intend to fight against your types with my last breath. Civil society knows as much about defending a nation as your average Communist. It is people holding your opinion that brought our Services Tailhook, Berets, Kara Hultgren, Dont-Ask, Dont-tell and other ridiculous examples of societal encroachment on the Military. None improved our Services, all were detrimental to moral, readiness and effectiveness.

I am sure you have heard the old saying; "the purpose of the Military is to kill people and break things". Many dont like it, but it happens to be true. It may not be that you are not reading enough, but only too much of the wrong things. I know enough about Politics to understand why there should always be a Chinese Wall between the goals of politicos and the goals of Armed Conflict.

I dont know what you did as an O-6, but your treatment on the ROE lacks experience. Not since Clinton has politics affected the ROE. TD, TOT, SR, TR and BDA determine ROE, which goes directly to the Theater Commander in country, where SOPs are presented to CINC and DOD but TOPs are figured out long before.

The age of an idea holds no bearing on whether it is a good idea. It aint like wine, my friend.

[Pukin Dog]

You claim to know the first Sargent of the 4th infantry who is giving you the true low down on the West case...yeah right!

Please show me the post where I made such a claim. You nuts can go on all day about where my information comes from. You can claim to know me, you can say whatever you want, it will only add to your embarassment as this case goes forward. I have not, nor will I ever share how I know what I know, and I will leave it to the future to determine my credibility. It was a nice try, though. Can you hear the applause? That's me.

[AndyJackson]

I must take exception to your characterization of the CG's action as ducking a decision. He made a decision!

I am second guessing the CG in a public forum, which is admittedly somewhat unfair - but then politics are unfair. Yes he made a decision. I said that. But it may have seemed like the easy decision. The decision was that LTC West will get a general court martial.

Duncan Hunter just told him that if he thought he was taking the easy way out by passing the buck to the board of officers who will sit on the court martial, he is wrong, and he is being asked to account for this decision.

I will grant that the CG may have reached the right deicison given all the facts of the situation. An inquiring Congressman, however and quite properly, wants to know.

[mdmathis6]

There is an authority though that could have had him arrested immediateley....right? He was accused of using threats of death on a prisoner...he should have been immediatley arrested and court martialed or accepted summary judgement...not offered a choice on retirement or courtmartial. The Military or some-one in the military was flouting its own principles of justice under the UCMJ. He accepted the court martial, and it has become very public...but is he confined at all? Is he in the brig? Some-one wanted this man to be publically embarrassed (because that is how the military has deteriorated), instead it shows every sign of back-firing on the military. It would have been better to have reduced his rank to Major as he asked, drummed him out on retirement, and try to quietly forget the whole thing... now we have a Clarence Thomas type charge being leveled at the military at a very critical time. Plus, our military is going to be known to our enemies as weak because we punish our most masculine warriors who practise 7th century tactics on 7th century terrorists with 21st century weapons.

[AndyJackson]

Not since Clinton has politics affected the ROE. TD, TOT, SR, TR and BDA determine ROE, which goes directly to the Theater Commander in country, where SOPs are presented to CINC and DOD but TOPs are figured out long before.

ROE's are often dictated and alway agreed to by the White House. It is how the White House keeps control of when combat starts, when it ends, and how and where it is conducted. It is pretty basic to the conduct of policy. If you did not know that then you do not know anything.

[Ispy4u]

I tried to clear that up for him in my #226.

[Pukin Dog]

All that seems clear, is that you are an apparent relic, unaware of how things are done TODAY. When, where and how, are relics of Johnson, Carter and Clinton, those great warriors.

The ROE is now in the hands of those know know best. CINC sets goals and conditions for victory. That is the extent of their wartime policy. It might take another 20 or so years. Were you current, you would know that ROE is no longer only strategic, static, inflexible, or non-conditional.

You are entitled to your opinion, but as I said, I am glad you and types believing as you do no longer command men. It was men, right? Dont answer, there is too much football on for me to keep up this dialog.

[Pukin Dog]

Wish I'd seen it before going off. I've been trying to keep up while watching 4 football games at the same time, (gotta love Direct TV) and I'm failing. You've got the ball, I'm leaving.

[blackie]

LTC West is a hero ~ Bump!

[AndyJackson]

is he confined at all? Is he in the brig?

Ae you saying he should be in the brig? Decisions about pre-trial constraint are determined based on danger and risk of flight, just like in a civilian case. An officer, under circumstances such as this are generally assumed not to require pretrial constraint.

[mdmathis6]

So you know the First Sargent...I blamed it on Pukin Dog who I apologized to. So what I said to Pukin'dog goes for you...If the First Sargent knows something of this case and is taliking to you...why the hell would you drop his name on line? You could be getting him into trouble! If you know him...I'd like to know what he would say when you tell him..."Uhhh look, uhh I got into some arguements with a few "dip sticks" at the free-republic site regarding the West Case and I told every body I knew ya and you were telling me everything about the case..."

And you are calling me a dip stick? At least a dipstick tells you what level the oil is at, I don't think you are telling us nothing!

[Leatherneck_MT]

Congress has oversight. There is no separation of powers issue here. They ARE the elected representatives of West and ALL Military Personnel. This is highly appropriate and long since past due.

[Ispy4u]

Yes I called you a dip-stick, dip-stick.

I never said the 1SG gave me any info regarding LTC West's case. I used him as a reference to William Terrel regarding the troops reaction to this, there is nothing at all wrong with that.

That is all I ever said. You miscomprehend things and make a fool of yourself not once but twice on the same subject.

Sheesh!

[MissAmericanPie]

Thank goodness some in Congress are willing to undo an injustice.