Posted on 03/02/2005 7:19:21 PM PST by TexKat
From AP and local reports
March 3, 2005
Guardsmen from Douglas County were among those who discovered shallow graves in the Iraqi desert last weekend containing four bodies, apparently of Westerners.
The bodies showed signs of having been executed, said Oregon Army National Guard spokesman Maj. Arnold Strong.
"They found a polo shirt that had eight bullet holes in the back and lots of bloodstains," Strong said in a telephone interview with The Oregonian from Taji Camp, an Army base north of Baghdad.
The remains, which were handed over to the Army Criminal Investigation Division and the FBI, have not been identified publicly.
Oregon soldiers believe they were from Western countries, Strong said, based on the condition of the teeth and clothing.
An Iraqi informant alerted the U.S. military to the location of the remains. The informant claimed to have seen the bodies in September in "fresher condition" and believed they either were American or British based on their clothing and hair color, Strong said.
Seven Americans, most working for civilian companies, and a handful of civilians from other Western countries appear on lists of missing foreigners in Iraq.
Oregon Guard soldiers, nearing the end of their tour in Iraq, were getting ready to leave the country.
The members of the Guard's 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry have been serving in Iraq for nearly a year. Their last deployment was to Yusifiya, just south of Baghdad.
"This was literally the last company mission," Strong said.
Led by Sgt. 1st Class Manuel Annear of Roseburg, the platoon spread out across the desert sand near the site.
"Sometimes these things are booby traps," Strong said.
Soon, they came across the remains. The graves yielded two intact skulls, remnants of two others, plus fragments of vertebrae and some rib bones.
The remains were put in plastic bags and taken to a nearby Marine base.
Roseburg resident Kristin Riley, wife of company commander Capt. Eric Riley, spoke to her husband earlier this week, but she had not heard of their latest operation.
However, she said her husband was still exulting in the success of a previous mission, in which they recovered some weapons in a local cemetery and rounded up several suspected insurgents.
"I think it was a kind of a boost, a morale booster for them to have their last mission come off as well as it did," said Riley, referring to the Yusifiya mission as a whole. "He was probably the most up that I've heard him in a long time."
Strong reports that the unit captured at least a half-dozen suspected enemy combatants on Feb. 22, including a suspected terrorist leader and two of his deputies. The men were among 124 military-aged men who were rounded up for questioning, with the others released later.
Hidden in a number of above-ground cement graves were weapons caches, reports Strong, including mortar rounds, anti-aircraft rounds, bombs, and the explosive components of roadside bombs.
The cemetery is near the Al Qaqaa ammunitions depot southwest of Baghdad where approximately 377 tons of explosives were reported missing sometime after U.S. forces arrived in 2003.
The munitions found in the graves were later destroyed.
"They were pretty excited about it," Riley said, quoting her husband as saying, "'Even though it was really dangerous, it was awesome.'"
Even so, Riley is glad her husband and his comrades are coming home later this month. She said the news that the Guard would be operating outside the relative safety of Baghdad was greeted with less enthusiasm on the families' part than it was on the soldiers'.
"I know that for the families back here it was kind of like a punch in the stomach," she said. "But for them it was the opposite ... it was an adrenaline rush.
"They were getting out of Baghdad where they'd been for the last 12 months," she added. "They felt like they were really doing something."
If Bin Laden were alive why would they need to us a patchwork of past speeches?
Oregon Guardsmen on their last mission find remains thought to be those of four Westerners
Thursday, March 03, 2005
HARRY ESTEVE
Oregon Army National Guard soldiers found a series of shallow graves in southern Iraq over the weekend that appeared to contain the remains of four Western civilians, a spokesman said Wednesday.
The victims appeared to have been executed, said Oregon Guard Maj. Arnold Strong.
"They found a polo shirt that had eight bullet holes in the back and lots of bloodstains," Strong said in a telephone interview from Taji Camp, a U.S. Army base north of Baghdad.
The discovery was made Saturday. Strong said communication problems and chain-of-command delays prevented him from releasing the information before now.
The remains, which were handed over to the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division and the FBI, have not been identified publicly, and neither their nationality nor cause of death had been confirmed by late Wednesday.
But Oregon Guard soldiers who found them believe they were from Western countries, Strong said, based on the condition of the teeth and on the clothing, including the polo shirt and Levi's 501 jeans.
An Iraqi informant alerted the U.S. military to the location of the remains. The informant claimed to have seen the bodies in September in "fresher condition" and believed they either were American or British based on their clothing and hair color, Strong said.
If so, this could be a stunning find. Seven Americans and a handful of civilians from other Western countries appear on lists of missing foreigners in Iraq.
Among those reported missing are Army Pfc. Keith Maupin; Timothy Bell, a contract employee with Halliburton; Dean Sadek, a manager at the Baghdad airport; Roy Hallum, a contractor who was working for a Saudi firm; Sadeq Mohammed Sadeq, a Lebanese-American contractor; Aban Elias, an Iraqi-American engineer; and Kirk von Ackermann, a contractor.
Halliburton continues to list Bell among the missing, despite the recent find, said Melissa Norcross, a company spokeswoman. "We have no reason to believe these remains were his," Norcross said.
Efforts to obtain more details on the remains were unsuccessful Wednesday. "I don't have any information on it," said Capt. Patricia Brewer of the Coalition Press Information Center in Baghdad. "I can't confirm it in any respect." She said she had passed on a request for information to "higher headquarters" and was awaiting a response.
Strong told a dramatic tale of the discovery.
At 3 a.m. Saturday, soldiers from the Oregon Guard's 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry received word that an informant had provided details about the bodies to a U.S. Marine Corps interpreter. The informant said soldiers would find the remains near the Al-Qaqaa munitions depot, about 17 miles southwest of Baghdad.
That is the weapons depot that made headlines last fall following reports that as much as 377 tons of explosives disappeared from the site after the arrival of U.S. forces in 2003.
Oregon Guard soldiers, nearing the end of the one-year tour in Iraq, were getting ready Saturday to leave the country, Strong said. They were packing their gear, turning in their ammunition and cleaning their weapons.
"This was literally the last company mission," Strong said. Led by Sgt. 1st Class Manuel Annear of Roseburg, the platoon spread out across the desert sand near the munitions site, leaving room between each soldier.
"Sometimes these things are booby traps," Strong said.
Soon, they came across the remains. The graves, just outside a guard shack at the weapons depot, yielded two intact skulls, remnants of two others, plus fragments of vertebrae and some rib bones.
"The soldiers found evidence of foul play, including bloodstained clothing," Strong said. The remains were put in plastic bags and taken to a nearby U.S. Marine base. An Oregon Guard captain spoke to officials from the Army Criminal Investigation Division, the FBI and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Army investigators sent two helicopters to the site and took the remains back to Baghdad with them, Strong said.
Strong said he hasn't heard any further information on the remains. The Guard's role ended when the bags were turned over to criminal investigators, he said.
But he said it was a dramatic end to a long, often complicated mission.
"All these soldiers had an awful lot of pride" in making the discovery, Strong said. "They were involved in something that was very real."
Researcher Lynne Palombo contributed to this story. Harry Esteve: 503-221-8226; harryesteve@news.oregonian.com
In order to fill the pages of their magazine.
The indictment alleges that the Iraqi officers agreed to a fee of $3
million and required that Shaaban provide a sample of the information
before payment. The indictment doesn't indicate that Shaaban
provided any names or received payment.
The indictment also alleges that Shaaban:
Sought Iraqi support to establish a TV station in the United States that
would broadcast pro-Iraqi news
Sought an arrangement in which he would be paid a fee by Iraq to
organize volunteers to act as human shields to protect Iraqi
infrastructure during the 2003 war Broadcast messages of support for
the Iraqi government on Iraqi media stations, advocating support for
Iraq and encouraging others to resist the United States
The government has charged Shaaban with conspiracy; acting as a
foreign agent without notification; violations of Iraqi sanctions under
the International Emergency Economic Powers Act; unlawful
procurement of an identification document; and unlawful procurement
of naturalization.
Neosgirl, have you read this new magazine, from Iraq?
Nope, but I do plan on translating it...most likely this weekend. If there are any highlights I'll post them.
If any one is really interested, I can translate and post the whole thing for download somewhere.
peace and thanks for pinging me to this thread, it's great to see some of those pictures.
peace
neosgirl
Texkat posts this as a new thread each day.
I don't know where she finds the reports, that are for real and not more of the stuff that most see.
Yes, I will be interested in your take on the magazine, if
you get into it.
Should I post to this thread or will Threat Matrix be ok?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.