Posted on 09/28/2006 6:45:17 AM PDT by kinghorse
Exclusive: U.S. Troops Abandoned Me, Says Convoy Driver September 27, 2006 11:16 AM
Brian Ross and Rhonda Schwartz Report:
A dramatic home video obtained by ABC News shows U.S. troops apparently abandoned a truck convoy after it came under insurgent attack in Iraq last year.
Three unarmed Halliburton truck drivers were executed at point-blank range once the troops left, according to a surviving driver, Preston Wheeler, of Mena, Ark., who taped the scene.
"They was murdered. To me, they was murdered," Wheeler told ABC News in an exclusive interview to be broadcast Wednesday on World News and Nightline.
THE BLOTTER RECOMMENDS Check out Videos in the Brian Ross Video Section on the Brian Ross Page Video Exclusive: Caught on Tape: Ambush in Iraq Escaped Top al Qaeda Leader Killed in Iraq The tape shows an armored personnel carrier leading the trucks that Wheeler says was from the Virginia National Guard.
Once insurgents opened fire and disabled four trucks, the personnel carrier can be seen racing ahead.
"They left. They, I don't know where they went, they're nowhere to be seen," Wheeler said.
Wheeler says it was 45 minutes before a U.S. military force returned. By then, Wheeler says, he had seen two drivers shot at point-blank range. He identified them as Keven Dagit, of Jefferson, Iowa, and Sascha Greener-Case, of Sierra Vista, Ariz.
A Pentagon spokesman said the military had no immediate comment on the incident.
The tape documents the final 15 minutes of the convoy's run out of Camp Anaconda, near Balad, Iraq.
Wheeler says the military commander took a wrong turn, and the convoy ended up in a neighborhood known as an insurgent stronghold.
Wheeler says Halliburton did not provide any of the drivers with maps or even rudimentary drawings of the location.
He says when he was hired by Halliburton he was promised the trucks would be equipped with bullet proof glass and armed guards every third truck.
"That's a lie, it's a gimmick, a sales pitch," Wheeler said.
Wheeler says he was told not to talk to the press. A Halliburton security guard wanted to delete the video of the ambush so that it would not become public, he says.
"He was afraid it was going to get on the Internet," Wheeler says.
A spokesperson for Halliburton declined to discuss the specifics of Wheeler's accusations and tape. The spokesperson says its employees sent to Iraq are fully informed of the risky nature of the assignment.
Wheeler was hit by two AK-47 rounds and suffered serious damage to his right arm.
Two months after the ambush, Halliburton notified him he was fired, citing a "work-related" injury.
I thought this was a pretty dead on post from the site.
Truth be said, the military guys (Virginia National Guard) wimped out of the fight! They should have immediately strafed the neighborhood from where the ambush was staged. Unless the US troops make it very costly on the immediate neighborhoods for attacks to be staged on them, this kind of thing will continue to happen. Big Carrots and a Very Very Big Stick is what is need from the military. Construct first world class facilities for cooperating areas and be very very lethal towards non-cooperating areas is the way to go.
My comment. Our rules of engagement suck. Somethings broke when we can't just drop a hellfire on the heads of those savage aholes throwing the cement blocks on the dead guy. That video from the drone should have ended in a flash damn it!
I can tell by the deafening silence that people are uncomfortable about this. Also I understand we have since changed tactics and gone more to a air ferrying system so this is a lot of "yesterday's news".
But heck, the opposition has this and it needs to be discussed. This aint Al Qaeda folks. No way. It's a mentally diseased, callous human known as the Iraqi Arab. Sick.
now viusalize what would have happened to that neighborhood during WWII....instant and utter distruction.....we seem to be Vietnamizing Iraq.....too much compassion...not enough conservatism.
Good verbal skills
War is Hell, and imperfect.
I was told by Brit Hume last night that the two U.S. armored vehicles at the rear of the trucks stayed and fought until the end.
LLS
He's a truck driver, not a linguist.
I'm not sure what obligation the VNG has to protect private contractors in Iraq....but it sure doesn't make them look too good.
That was a very difficult video to watch/listen to. Whose bright idea was it to NOT ARM these truck drivers before sending them into a war zone?
It looks less as if the leading military vehicle abandoned the trucks as it looks as if it sped up to get out of the ambush zone when the whole convoy came under attack.
Good to know. I tell you if Bush wanted to pull back to the Green Zone and major bases and let those f'ers go at each other until they got their fill of killing, it's okay by this observer. That and offering the country mice of Balad and similar hamlets a free lifetime supply of blankets circa 1870.
That would be the definition of going to the mat for your party. Doubting this guy is motivated by Clinton worship. He's pissed that he's not gotten more attention and finally decided to cash in on his video. That driver's a damn brave cat I'll give him that.
Mena is the little town which supposedly had all the CIA flights in and out of Nicaragua during the Contra days.
Clinton was governor and some reports and rumors put him in league with the CIA on this. That would be unusual for Clinton, no? Except that the complete reports and rumors were that the CIA mercenaries weren't flying back empty but were loaded with enough coke to fill even Clinton's nose.
I saw my nephew again this past week. And each time I see him a little more creeps out about reality over there. He has little to no respect for Iraqi's. He really believes that they do not want what Freedom has to offer them. He says what is in them starts way down deep when they are kids.
It's the difference between WWII and what we're fighting now. People involved in the conquest and conquered nations of Europe had some idea of what Freedom was. There was some sort of sufficient population that knew what to do, to get back on its feet. There is not even a rudimentary grasp of Freedom in Iraq according to my nephew.
Iraq has left him even more confused about the world, astounded at the evil that is out there. He is equally astounded at the ignorance of the American people about the threat we face.
Convoys are one of the most dangerous things to do in Iraq. You are a big ole slow moving target. We don't know what the ROE was for this particular convoy and whoever was in command had to make the decision of how much risk he was going to put his men in. Things he had to consider was they disabled the trucks, the number of the enemy, and was there an IED buried along the roadside(might be why the moved away from the area)?
I am sorry this guy went through what he did and people died, but decisions had to be made. If the ambush was over a roadside bomb and they didn't move away, they would ALL be dead.
He's a truck driver.
What were you expecting, a Shakespearean soliloquy?
Somebody who could speak a respectable form of English, not like a moron.
I've heard worse. At least it wasn't ebonics.
Let me see should we draw conclusions from a Treason Media hit piece or the strategic geniuses ready to share their genius? mmmmm, I don't think so.
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