'Anti-war vet' charged with fraud

A man who claimed in an anti-war video to have "slaughtered" hundreds of civilians while serving with the Army Rangers in Iraq faces federal charges of falsifying his record.

Jesse MacBeth, 23, alleged in a 20-minute production by a 1970s antiwar activist he personally killed 200 civilians, many of them at close range, while on patrols with the Army Rangers during 16 months in Iraq before being discharged due to wounds.

But MacBeth's discharge form contradicted his claims, showing he never went to Iraq and was kicked out of the Army after six weeks at Fort Benning, Ga., because of his "entry level performance and conduct."

The complaint in U.S. District Court in Seattle charges him with one count of using or possessing a forged or altered military discharge certificate, and one count of making false statements in seeking benefits from the Veterans Administration, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.

"He approached us in early 2006, posing as a war veteran. He seemed very emotionally distressed about his experiences," said Amadee Braxton, a spokeswoman for Philadelphia-based Iraq Veterans Against the War. "We later found out he had fabricated a lot of his military record and that he was somebody who had mental problems. We hoped that he would get those issues dealt with."

Wearing a green camouflage overshirt in the tape, MacBeth said he was telling his story to atone for killing innocent civilians. Titled "Jesse Macbeth: An Iraq Veteran Speaks Out," the tape first aired in April on Seattle public access television on the show "Indymedia Presents" and later was posted online.

"Do whatever it takes to make them fear you," he claimed commanders told him and his fellow soldiers in the 3rd Ranger Battalion. "You won't be charged."

According to MacBeth's claims, Rangers would lie in wait in mosques to slaughter hundreds who came to pray, and children were regularly executed in front of their parents in order to extract information.

"We would go into people's houses and plow down entire families," he said. "We would interrogate people. If we didn't like the answers that they gave, then we would kill the youngest child. If they gave more answers that we didn't like, then we'd move on to the rest of the family. They could've been innocent people.

"They would actually feel the hot muzzle of my rifle on their forehead," MacBeth said.

Army spokesman Paul Boyce noted several red flags in the videotape, including "numerous wear and appearance issues with the soldier's uniform – a mix of foreign uniforms with the sleeves rolled up like a Marine and a badly floppy tan beret worn like a pastry chef."

When the military said it had no record of MacBeth's service as a Ranger, he complained, "They did the same thing to John Kerry."

MacBeth spoke last year at an anti-war rally in Tacoma, Wash., sponsored by Iraq Veterans Against the War and other organizations, but IVAW later repudiated him.

The charging papers say MacBeth collected more than $10,400 in benefits to which he was not entitled, the Seattle paper reported. He claimed he was shot in Iraq and suffered post-traumatic stress disorder.

LaMont E. Stokes, an agent with the VA's Office of the Inspector, interviewed Macbeth in the Pierce County Jail in Tacoma, where he has been serving a sentence for fourth-degree assault, the Post-Intelligencer said.

Macbeth admitted to Stokes he falsified the documents because he was homeless and wanted to "sucker" anything he could out of the government.

The paper said Macbeth also is wanted by the Safford County sheriff's office in Arizona for illegal credit card use.

“And we get to the real reason he did this: “Macbeth admitted to Stokes he falsified the documents because he was homeless and wanted to “sucker” anything he could out of the government. “

Follow the money...works every time.”

....well, not perzactly EVERY time.

I know for a FACT that the Project 112/SHAD Veterans have been denied a fair shake at the VA-DOD for going on 4 DECADES.

What grinds MY gears is that people who really WERE used as Human Test Rats by the U.S. Government can’t get decent medical care OR monetary compensation....and yet outright FRAUDS like this clown waltz through “the process”....???...!!!

I’ve read several of these articles and due to having to produce “documentation” it almost seems as if this guy had someone on the INside helping him jump through the hoops.

What is PARTICULARLY aggravating is that the Project SHAD/112 Veterans simply can’t even GET their Service Medical Records or their COMPLETE personnel files.....seems “national security” would be breached if the DOD were to fess up.

No, they’d MUCH rather see us dead.

Yeah, I said “us”.

Of the 10,000+ U.S. Servicemen used, abused, and discarded on a whim in these deadly Bio-Chemical human experiments....according to an FOIA request, only 29 Veterans have been adjudicated positively by the VA, for a total of 38 ailments. Never MIND that a good THIRD are already dead.

My personal “saga” is of no concern to anyone here....it just PROVES that there are FAR more serious inequities existant than what this fraud has been able to accomplish, with or without “help”.

What fries my circuits is that for all the concerned conversation, NO ONE is willing to help the Project SHAD/112 Veterans. Not YOU, not anybody.

So be it.

USN, 1967-70
Project SHAD 1969, USS Granville S. Hall, YAG-40
HUMAN TEST RAT

http://www.freedominion.ca/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14556

http://www1.va.gov/SHAD

PS: While this creep skated through the system unscathed making it hard for LEGITIMATE veterans of all descriptions to get treated fairly, I’ve endured being called a: liar, cheat, fraud, coward, whiner, phoney, psycho, quitter, wuss, and various unpostable epithets for three DECADES now for attempting to tell the truth

.....and, that’s just by other VETERANS....!!!

Thank you,

Have a nice day.

SOME times there’s more to the story than you will be ABLE to fathom:

Project 112/SHAD REPORT
Larry Pilkinton, 1938-2007

BY JACK ALDERSON, CHAIR

Larry Pilkinton served with the Project SHAD Technical Staff. I first met him when the light tugs were reorganized, and I and other new crew members reported in October 1964. The following is an excerpt from his obituary: “In 1964 he was selected for Project 112/SHAD, which was a top-secret project of chemical and biological warfare tests. He had various duties for SHAD, and in addition to his laboratory research work, he was assistant safety officer and exposed to many agents. He was injured in the line of duty but could not receive a medical discharge due to the top-secret nature of his duties. So after serving almost 13 years, he received an honorable discharge from the Navy.”

Now for the rest of the story: Larry was not on board the light tugs (LTs) but was assigned as part of the laboratory and support staff. After returning from the test called Shady Grove, Larry was sent to Hawaii’s Big Island as part of a land test. He told me that he was loading bomblets with nerve and biological agents. The next thing he knew was when he woke up back in Oahu at Tripler Army Hospital.

When we heard that he had been injured, a couple of the crew went to see him. However, they were denied entry by a Marine stationed outside his room. The next time we were in port we were informed he had died and that his family had shipped back to the mainland. Everyone on the staff thought of him dead, including those who worked closely with him.

It came as a great shock then when I received an e-mail from him in March 2006. He had read one of these columns in The VVA Veteran. In talking with him and his wife, Doreen, he told me that he had been shipped to Oaknoll Naval Hospital and placed in the psychiatric ward. He was told that he had a prior mental illness and his security clearance was revoked. His medical records had no indication he was part of the SHAD staff. Rather than going back to being a regular hospital orderly, he preferred to leave the Navy and restart his life as a civilian.

The Project SHAD Technical Staff members were carefully selected and all had final secret security clearances and, periodically, interim top secret. This means that background investigations had been performed. Why had this not come up with evidence of his prior mental illnesses? Why were his medical records devoid of PSTS information?

Agent Orange Committee chair Buzz Sawyer noted, “Larry died on February 13. Many of us feel his demise was related to the latent effects of his exposure to chemical and biological weapons on the Big Island in 1966. Because of the classified nature of his work, he died without establishing service connection to his illness or survivor benefits for his widow. The VA would only consider his prior mental illness.”

Sawyer added, “It is truly a shame that agencies of our government hide behind the veil of “national security” to cover up and block requests for information that may aid veterans in their quest for their rights. They check out our backgrounds thoroughly. But they obfuscate and they lie, and it is the veteran who gave honest and upright service who is hurt.”

It just ain’t right.

http://www.vva.org/veteran/0407/shad.html

http://projectshad.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1105

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