Posted on 06/20/2006 3:36:36 AM PDT by xzins
Moderator: Just Announced Fox News. They said it was coming from Reuters via the Iraqi Defense Ministry
The deaths of Army Specialist Patrick McCaffrey, 34 years old, and Lieutenant Andre Tyson, 1st Lieutenant Andre Tyson, 33 years old, were originally attributed to an ambush during a patrol near Balad in Iraq on June 22, 2004. But the AP has now learned that the Army's Criminal Investigation Division concluded, there was foul play.
After probing the circumstances of the death of these two soldiers for several months, the investigators have found that one or more of the Iraqis attached to the American soldiers on patrol fired at them. We're going to continue to watch this story, get more information as it becomes available -- a very, very disturbing story related to what's going on in Iraq.
I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
It's a level of barbarism showing a thirst for blood -- the bodies of two American soldiers found booby-trapped in a field of bombs, so badly mutilated, the military can't I.D. their faces. The details are tough to hear, especially for their families.
Our Ed Lavandera is in Houston with more on this developing story.
What a horrible story it is, Ed.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been a long day here in Houston, Wolf, where the family of Kristian Menchaca got the call early this morning, as they started hearing the reports out of Iraq that two one of the -- one of the two missing soldiers in Iraq was indeed their loved one.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): The details of Army Private 1st Class Kristian Menchaca's last moments alive are so horrifying that his family could not restrain their anger for his killers.
MARIO VASQUEZ, UNCLE OF PRIVATE 1ST CLASS KRISTIAN MENCHACA: Make them pay for what they did. You know, don't think that it's just two more soldiers. And don't negotiate anything. They didn't. They didn't negotiate it with my nephew. They didn't negotiate with Tucker. You know, make them pay.
LAVANDERA: Menchaca, Private 1st Class Thomas Tucker, and Specialist David Babineau were attacked by insurgents last Friday. Babineau was killed. Witnesses say Menchaca and Tucker were taken hostage. From the moment they disappeared, Menchaca's brother struggled to imagined what the young soldiers must be battling.
CESAR VASQUEZ, BROTHER OF PRIVATE 1ST CLASS KRISTIAN MENCHACA: I was mentally preparing myself, you know, for -- for bad news, but I never thought that he would actually get kidnapped. I mean, one thing is being killed. Another thing is getting taking by terrorists and getting tortured every day.
LAVANDERA: In Oregon, supportive neighbors in Thomas Tucker's hometown have put up ribbons and messages for his family. Tucker's parents released a statement saying they realized he gained a much larger family through this ordeal than he had when he left home to help free the Iraqi people and protect his country from the threat of terrorism.
Menchaca's family says they are focusing on helping Kristian's mother and young wife cope with the loss.
M. VASQUEZ: You pray for tranquillity in among yourself. And, you know, you have to accept reality, even though I didn't want to at the beginning. But you have to. And we pray.
LAVANDERA: Menchaca's uncle, Mario Vasquez, wants the killers hunted down and punished.
M. VASQUEZ: I hope they are still looking, you know? Used those 8,000 soldiers they were using to look for my nephew and Mr. Tucker, use that 8,000 soldiers to find who was responsible for this, and to -- and to hurt whoever gets in the way.
LAVANDERA: Kristian Menchaca's family says that after he would leave the Army, he had plans and dreams of becoming a Border Patrol agent. He leaves behind a grieving mother, an extended family here in Houston, in Brownsville, and in West Texas as well, as well as a wife that he married just a few weeks before he was deployed to Iraq -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Our deepest condolences to the families.
Ed, thank you very much for that.
Let's get some more now on what exactly happened.
We will turn to our senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre.
The details are very, very grisly, specifically the allegation that the new supposed leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was directly responsible. What are you hearing, Jamie?
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's the claim made on an Islamist Web site that traditionally broadcasts messages from the insurgency, the claim, that the replacement for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a man named as Abu al-Masri, personally killed these two soldiers.
That's the claim. The U.S. military is not verifying that. And they are not releasing many details about the deaths, except to say that the bodies suffered -- quote -- "severe trauma," and that DNA tests were needed to complete the final identification process, an indication the bodies were not identifiable by -- by -- in the way they were found.
They were found last night, just about dusk, along a road in Yusufiyah. But the bodies had been booby-trapped. And the route to the bodies had been lined with IEDs, explosive devices. And, so, the military had to wait sort of overnight before they could recover the bodies and send them back to the United States for their final identification -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Jamie, as you know, this is an extremely dangerous area south of Baghdad, Yusufiyah, the Triangle of Death, as it's called.
These three soldiers, one soldier who was killed in the incident, the two that went missing, now dead, what were they doing at a checkpoint presumably in one of the most dangerous of areas of Iraq by themselves?
MCINTYRE: That's the big question now, and it's one that the military is asking itself, and one that a military official confirmed to CNN is being looked into.
You know, there were -- there were reports initially that maybe there had been a diversionary attack. Now they believe that the -- the three soldiers were essentially there by themselves, as you said, in a very dangerous and vulnerable position. That's going to be part of the investigation.
BLITZER: Jamie McIntyre, at the Pentagon, thanks very much.
In that case, the U.S. military now says 19 IEDs have been planted near the wreckage, slowing recovery of the remains of two pilots for half a day. A radical Islamist Web site that usually carries messages from the insurgency boasted that al Qaeda's new leader in Iraq believed to be Egyptian Abu al Masri, personally killed the soldiers.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/20/ldt.01.html
we need to NAME these "journalists", not just call them the very generic MSM.
Let's go after them one by one, name by name, lets destroy their career and their reputations, as they do to our troops and our CIC
God bless your son, and you and your husband.
I thank you all.
I thought it might be, but this was addressed to West Point on Social Studies, so I was confused. I did not know if it was right to call it an "After Action Report" if it was being addressed to Academic Professors (though Colonels) at West Point. Very bad of me...
I think the point Cafferty is making is that if the News Reporting goes against what the military is doing, then it is a bad situation.
The classic example is the Tet Offensive in 1968. Some say that LBJ listened to Walter Cronkite and ignored what others were telling him about the Vietnam War.
The Tet Offensive was a disaster to the VC, but Jane Fonda, John Kerry, and others made it into a Communist victory.
I consider the fact that General Cafferty is pointing out the animosity show how utterly pathetic the US Media is. Fox News has been the exception, which why it is number 1.
But I won't argue that Cafferty is a liberal PC General. He was very glowing in his praise of the performance of US Troops, and he made some other interesting points (that foreign fighters and other terrorist groups are beeing badly whipped in Iraq).
Your point is well taken about Cafferty being a liberal PC General, but I consider it important that our troops seem to have righteous anger at the US Media, which should be on their side.
It was totally irresponsible of NBC to put the grieving Uncle of one of these servicemen on TV this morning. What a person says at a time of grief (the Uncle) should be taken with a grain of salt. THAT IS WHY NBC WAS IRRESPONSIBLE.
Oh well, I guess I can play any of the three stooges these days (Larry, Moe, or Curly).
I do make mistakes, maybe it can be some humor in a thread that is very, very sad...
God bless America!
Don't worry about the AAR thing. I've had over 20 years reading army stuff, and it just sort of gets into your pores after a while.
Thanks for all the good info.
It is excellent stuff.
Fox news this AM detailed to some extent the scope of the mutilation these fine soldiers suffered. Simple beheading would have been a mercy, comparatively speaking.
There is a sickness in my soul, and unmitigated anger at not only the doers, but the likes of Murtha.
ED was pretty angry this morning -- and good for her. She is outraged at the silence from the left on these disgraceful torturous murders. Where is Murtha condeming the terrorists for killing in cold blood -- oops, wait a minute, he reserves those statements for our Marines. I'm beyond disgusted with the liberals and the media -- last night on LKL Jane Harmen blamed the deaths of these troops on President Bush and his policies. Yup...she did, she didn't blame the terrorists. Indicating yet again, that the democrats can never again be put in a place of power to make decisions to protect this country. When the democrats openly state that our country is the enemy, and not recognize the real enemy -- the terrorists -- they must be stopped from gaining any power. The debate in the senate today should be interesting, I'm sure Sessions will come out swinging, as will Kyle and others. Too bad I have to go to work!
..However, I heard McCafferty say very strongly TODAY! that he believed Haditha is a hoax! and that our men in the brig need to be released NOW!
That doesn't sound very PC to me.
I happened to notice today that my local newspaper had a rather vague wire service story "blaming" the killing on the fact that the soldiers apparently had no backup and mentioning as an aside the fact that the bodies appeared to have been mutilated. This story is already going away.
I don't like the idea of dwelling on the hideous things that were done to these men (the few details I have seen have been here and not in the press), but we already see the press sanitizing it and making it vanish because it might make the terrorists look bad. I am completely disgusted. These men died truly horrible deaths, from what little I have seen, and their fellow citizens are not even being allowed to be angry about it or to do anything but look for some way to "blame" George Bush.
These torture murders were committed by vicious Islamic terrorists using the same tactics (skinning, beheading, disemboweling, etc.) that they used against the British in Afghanistan more than a century ago and in fact have used for 1400 years. We are facing an ancient enemy of civilization that understands only one thing: superior force. But Murtha and his ilk are undermining our resolve and condemning the very people who are protecting our country and the world from these psychotic fanatics. And America sleeps through this, protected from the truth by a press that has given its allegiance to the terrorists and anyone who hates us, and doesn't realize that our civilization and all our lives - theirs included - are on the line.
When will anyone use the expression "Prisoner of War" in conjunction with our troops who were murdered?
I know some will say that al-Qaeda is not signatory to the conventions, but that doesn't prevent the discussion from going the other way around. When we have their prisoners, they are assumed to be afforded all the rights of POWs. In fact, there is the expectation that any detained person be treated humanely. We follow that.
In fact we go to extreme lengths. They get lawyers, Korans, prayer rugs, chaplain visits, food, recreation, and Red Cross visits.
Will they call our troops "POWs?"
I have not heard even one MSM outlet or politician or commentator use the expression.
Why?
I see that you were an army chaplain. Can you offer words of reassurance to thise of us who have loved ones in theater in Iraq right now? I had to turn off the TV, and am still trying to get myself under control after hearing the description of the atrocity. My heart aches so much for the families of these men.
I confused McCafferty with McInerny....
It was McInerny on FOX this morning.
So sorry!
Me too. I was so upset when E.D. was telling the story this morning on Fox, she was lived. I am beside myself this morning. I'm outraged and I hope no one wants to discuss this at work because I will just not be able too right now. ....................... :(
The word of assurance is that God is in control and prayer changes things. Pray for the victory of our troops. They are on the side of the angels. Their presence in Iraq is just and it is necessary.
With God in control, with prayer a significant intervention, with our cause just and necessary, then victory is within reach if we pray.
God has said in the past, "2Ch 7:14 - If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
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