Canadian sniper cleared of desecrating al-Qaeda body

National Post ^ | February 8, 2003 | Stewart Bell

[Clive]

A Canadian sniper up for the Bronze Star medal for his combat role in Afghanistan has been cleared of allegations he desecrated the body of a dead al-Qaeda fighter, the Defence Department said yesterday.

Military investigators lacked evidence for charges against Master Corporal Arron Perry and another Canadian, following allegations soldiers cut the finger off an enemy combatant and staged a "trophy" photo of the body.

The investigation also examined claims a soldier defecated on a second body. Master Cpl. Perry had been suspended pending the outcome of the probe, but was returned to duty yesterday in Edmonton.

"After a thorough investigation by the National Investigation Service, the evidence wasn't sufficient to support charges in that case," said Captain Mark Giles, a Department of National Defence public affairs officer.

Master Cpl. Perry, a member of Edmonton's 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, said he was relieved the investigation had concluded.

"I'm glad finally it's done," he said.

The sniper was part of a small group of Canadian soldiers who directly engaged the Taliban and al-Qaeda during a tour in Afghanistan. He has been credited with helping save soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division pinned down by enemy fire in Shah-i-Kot Valley.

The Canadians' sharp-shooting on al-Qaeda machine-gun nests and mortar positions were chronicled in Soldier of Fortune magazine. U.S. commanders have since recommended the snipers for Bronze Stars recognizing heroic or meritorious service.

But a few weeks after that triumph, Master Cpl. Perry was sent home under a cloud of suspicion. Allegations surfaced in mid-March that he had interfered with a body and there were reports of a photograph showing a dead enemy fighter with a cigarette in his mouth and a small sign on his chest reading "f--k terrorism."

But the investigation centred on claims a soldier had taken a finger from the body.

"The photos, while being perhaps inappropriate, that was not the main focus of the investigation. The main focus was the allegations of interfering with the dead body," Cpt. Giles said. "It's as much moral as it is legal. We always want dead bodies, whether they be enemy or friendly, to be treated with dignity."

Military investigators dug up the corpse and searched tents at the Canadian military base, seizing a knife. DNA tests were conducted to see if the knife could be tied to the body, but no link was established.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

...the reality is I don't really give a damn. A dead body is nothing more that a pile of rapidly rotting meat....

So you didn't give a damn when the Somalis dragged an American corpse through Mogadishu?

Don't trouble yourselves, everybody, I'll do a Donozark and write your responses for you:

...oh, those poor Somalis. The heat of the battlefield, how could Byron be so judgmental, he's never been in the army, he could never understand how right it is, to desecrate enemy dead.....

[Byron_the_Aussie]

..Aussies don't need to interfere with enemy dead to show what tough guys they are."

Nah, they just shoot POW's and German missionaries....

That kind of thing happens in war, Mosby. No-one's denying that.

But the Breaker was tried, sentenced, and shot for his crime. So there's no comparison, with the Perry case.

Unless.... a bunch of good ol' boys like yourself sat around afterwards, like the hicks in Mississipi Burning, yukking it up about how much fun it is to shoot unarmed missionaries?

[Byron_the_Aussie]

...I really do not know what has happened to you of late, Byron. Have you been lightning struck?....

Thought for the day:

"The most powerful weapon we have - indeed the most powerful weapon that any people can have - is truth. If we ever find ourselves in a position where we cannot tell the truth, or where we feel that the telling will injure us, we will have sacrificed that most powerful weapon." - President Dwight Eisenhower

[sit-rep]

When picking oranges, do not discard the ones that happen to fall into your hands.

Of course not...

"It happens with freedom of speech issues with the homos and the femmies."
Doesn't seem that anyone is restricting your speech here.

er....I hope I am interpreting this correctly... And, you forgot to add the other part of this quote. The part about the second amendment!!

I have realistic expectations s-r.

Well, I won't put any of my money in the pot LG... These clowns, IMHO, ain't no better than the next bunch. GW may have his head extracted a lot farther than Clinton did, personally I still mumble under my breath on occasion..."Who will protect us from our protectors??"

Meaning that this is the only place where I live, and the only place that I concern myself with.

Kinda hard these days ain't it?? I know what you're saying. With regard to Perry, maybe a letter of reprimand, maybe take a stripe, maybe twenty days extra duty, would have takin care of this. Tarnishing the guys rep by trying him is wayyyyyyy over the line IMO.

The chaplin needs to toughen himself up a bit. Ten to one he was nowhere near the hot zone. If he was, I'd bet he'd be a different kinda guy...

Good chattin with you again, see ya the next time our paths cross...

SR

[swarthyguy]

>>I am refraining from making the obvious commentary here,

Why're you refraining? Hasn't stopped you so far. Go ahead, make it.

[Luis Gonzalez]

Hasn't stopped me from what?

Show me, expose my transgressions.

Detail my attacks on this soldier, it shouldn't be difficult, the thread is still up.

Put up the post and the quotes.

Come, let's see what you've got.

[swarthyguy]

>>I am refraining from making the obvious commentary here,

Don't refrain, let it all hang out. Don't be shy.

What is the obvious commentary here?

[Luis Gonzalez]

I never made a commentary on Perry, his case was tried and he was found innocent...these things happen.

I still hold however, that when anyone does something they know for a fact is against the law, they should be tried, in accordance with the law...soldier, baker, or candlestick maker.

It doesn't work that way all the time, but we can't walk away from the practice simply because it isn't perfect.

As far as who is in power in DC today, and their actions, I look for them to move the chains...like in a football game, ten yards at a time. I look for first downs, and not for a touchdown on every play. It took an awful long time to get where we are, and it's going to take some time to get back, if we ever do.

God could have made the world in a moment, in the blink of an afterthought of an idea, but He didn't. Nor did He simply erase the board clean and start all over in similar fashion, He let it rain for forty days and forty nights, and waited for the waters to subside.

If He exhibited such patience, who am I to rush the tide of time?

See you soon.

[mosby]

"That kind of thing happen in war"

Jeez, kind of blase for a guy that's just spent 2 days ranting about a soldier who was acquitted of cutting a finger off a dead body. But you're talking about an Aussie atrocity, so its dismissed in a single post as "those kind of things happen in war". (for the the uneducated we're talking about some Aussie troopers in the Boer War who shot 6 Boers who had surrendered under a white flag, and an unarmed German missionary).

You're right, Morant was tried, sentenced and shot for his crime. However as I understand it he's a national hero in Australia. From here on in, you sanctimonious prig, whenever you refer in your sleazy way to "people like Perry and Calley", you should perhaps add, "and Morant". Or perhaps you can elicidate as to why Morant is different than Calley.

As I understand it the only hicks yukking it up about how much fun it is to shoot unarmed missionaries are your local Aussie variety. Yep, good old Breaker (interesting that you kindly refer to him by his nickname - is that an Aussie version of "Bubba"), he was a good old boy, but he was railroaded by those Brits.

[donozark]

"In war, truth is always the first casualty." Demosthenes(?).

In post 476 you stated (in response to terrorizing civilian population) "...our side did it too, especially the ARVNs." This implies (to me) that you believe the ARVNs committed a HIGH degree of terror against their own population. If not, I stand corrected. However, any exigencies they perpetrated were minimal compared to what the Communists did. Communists of BOTH camps-VC/NVA.

Regret you see me as an "opponent." What's THAT all about? I now fear perhaps you have been snake bitten?

[sneakypete]

How good would it have been for Al-Qaeda, to have a video of Perry to play on Al-Jazeera TV?

Perry cut the head off a living prisoner? The Islamic fundies in the 12th century had tv's?

[sneakypete]

So you didn't give a damn when the Somalis dragged an American corpse through Mogadishu?

I would have cheerfully killed every SOB in that town,and gone to bed and slept like a baby. That was a American,not a enemy. You are the one who seems to be having difficulty telling the difference between a American and a fundie Muslim enemy. Then again,this is to be expected. You or a loved one IS a fundie Muslim.

Don't trouble yourselves, everybody, I'll do a Donozark and write your responses for you:

...oh, those poor Somalis. The heat of the battlefield, how could Byron be so judgmental, he's never been in the army, he could never understand how right it is, to desecrate enemy dead.....

I didn't know you guys were allowed to take drugs.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

..however as I understand it he's a national hero in Australia...

That's not correct, Mosby. You're reading way too much into the movie version of events. Harry Morant is not a well-known figure in Australian history except amongst those who are actively interested in it.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

..this implies (to me) that you believe the ARVNs committed a HIGH degree of terror against their own population...

Yes. From my reading, they did. Not perhaps in a deliberate, Communist way, but certainly too often, in the random application of firepower against non-hostile targets. That definitely helped VC recruitment. But let's save it for another thread, I don't want to digress to any great degree from the topic of Perry. Cheers, B.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

..you are the one who seems to be having difficulty telling the difference between a American and a fundie Muslim enemy...

Not at all.

I'm the one who doesn't want Americans using 'fundie Muslim' tactics.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

..I would have cheerfully killed every SOB in that town,and gone to bed and slept like a baby....

No probs.

As long as you didn't break out the pen knife, pliers and camera in between the killing, and bed.

[OldCorps]

"So you didn't give a damn when the Somalis dragged an American corpse through Mogadishu?"

BTW, this debacle in Mogadishu was the direct result of the Clinton administration's political correctness. The 2 star commander on the scene in Somalia requested tanks and APC's for emergency reinforcement should the need occur. The request was denied by SecDef Aspin because "it might send the wrong message." So many parallels here with Johnson and MacNamara running the Vietnam war. I've often wondered if Aspin got his instructions from Hitlery or President Clinton on this decision.

The end result was something like 16 KIA and some 60 WIA just because Aspin didn't want to "send the wrong message."

As I have said many times, democrats in the oval office are a risk to the lives of US soldiers. They fundamentally do not understand the projection of military force as an instrument of national power. They give greater weight to perceptions of the enemy than to the protection of their own forces.

Just imagine what it would be like today if Al Gore had really stolen the election, or for that matter, actually won in Florida. He would be appeasing Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

God save us from the democRATS.

[mancub]

A soldier is trained to kill the enemy in any way he can and that is what he does. Once he is dead, what purpose is there in desecrating the corpse. I know the Canadian who did this, I've worked with some who were with him and they are probably some of the best soldiers known to man. Perry however is not a sniper, but rather a coward. In stead of standing up and accepting the consequences of his actions he took the cowards way out like he has at every other stumbling block throughout his short career as a soldier. If anyone thinks that what he did was a noble act then you have a problem. Hopefully you are a civilian and not a soldier who will be let lose on the battle field. If you are a soldier reading this remember, honesty, integrity and duty....kill your enemy when required and let GOD take it from there. I know what activities this man is involved with outside so for the safety of my family I cannot give my name. For the soldiers fighting for freedom GOD be with you and your families.