This blog from a man charged with guarding our prisoners and getting the really bad guys to talk - awesome...humbling:
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Chief Wiggles -- Straight from Iraq. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The online journal of Chief Wiggles.
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Sunday, June 08, 2003
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One of the officers, whom I have grown quite close to, who is an infantry commander, told me through his friend that he had a gift for me. Of course I told him that I didn't need a gift of any sort, just the news that they would be leaving would be enough of a gift. But of course they were determined to present me with his gift. He gave me his prayer beads, 103 prayer beads, which really took me by surprise, since I know how much those mean to him. The prayer beads are like a part of them, as a baby would hold on to a pacifier, they are forever counting and rubbing their beads. I was so touched by his gesture of kindness that I was almost brought to tears. It was a special moment.
Aside from just feeling good about helping these men, they are providing us with lots of valuable intel. They even coax each other to provide us with more and more answers to what we are in need of. We have had some great discussions lasting several hours, way into the night at times.
Not all the prisoners are in good standing with us. We have a few guys whom we treat in a very different manner. We have one really bad high-ranking officer that I am working. We are running a few other kind of approaches with them to see how they will react. I can't say much more than that right now, but lets just say that he needs some special care. He is mine, all mine, and I will find a way to make him talk, no joking. Actually it is not that easy and I am constantly praying during the interrogation that I will be inspired to know what might work next. I am humbled by the responsibility, knowing that I am going to need some special help to get some of these nuts to crack.
Once in a while we travel down to the port to check in on the Brits, so we can eat some of their food. We also check in with the Spanish troops to see if we can't buy some steaks and chicken off of them. The Spanish troops have a large boat in the port, with several hundred troops. We are hoping to have a party this Friday, kind of a birthday party for me, which is on June 9th, and a Friday the 13th party, and a party for some new arrivals we had today. We don't need much of a reason to have a party, it is just we don't have many fixins for anything, but we make do. We have established some supply lines and gotten close to the right people, as you know it is all about whom you know.
It was good luck fairy time again, so I went out to the guards at the cages and bought them drinks and chips. They really deserved it, after all they put up with out there, the smell, the prisoners, the heat, etc.
We had a bunch of prisoners come in one night this week, around 36, which took my team until about 1:30 in the morning to completely screen. We have really been putting in some hours, doing our thing and writing up all of our reports, don't forget about that, nothing happens until a report is written and sent off. So today, being Sunday, I gave my team a day off, to just do what ever they wanted. We were all at our burn out point, if we didn't take some time to regroup.
Well tomorrow is another big day, with lots of fun and games planned for all, so I can hardly wait. I have the opportunity to work with the one high-ranking bad dude that has committed so many crimes against these people. I really hope that I can break him down to the point where we can start getting him to divulge some real hard facts, but I believe it is going to take some time.
http://chiefwiggles.blogspot.com/
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Former POW, U.S. Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson listens to speakers during a Capitol Hill tribute for her sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus during ceremonies on Capitol Hill Thursday, June 12, 2003. Specialist Johnson, seated, was captured in Iraq at the same time as former POW Jessica Lynch.
Army Sgt. Michael E. Dooley, 23, of Pulaski, Va., is shown in Desert Camouflage Uniform at Fort Carson, Colo., in March 2003. Dooley was shot and killed in an ambush on an American checkpoint in western Iraq near the Syrian border Sunday, June 8, 2003. Dooley was the eighth fatality among soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, based at Fort Carson, and the ninth Fort Carson soldier killed overall.
Corporal Michael Sturgeon, 29, of the British Army's 23 Amphibious Engineer Squadron, looks at the 'Al Mansur', the luxury yacht of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, which finally keeled over and sank in the Shaat al Arab waterway at Basra, Iraq, Thursday June 12, 2003. The vessel, which is nearly 400 foot long and was reputed to be able to accomodate some 200 guests, was heavily bombed by coalition forces in the war, since when it has regularly been set on fire and looted by local people.
US Central Command confirmed that a F-16 fighter crashed southwest of Baghdad.
Lieutenant General David McKiernan, commander of all ground forces in Iraq, confirmed that the US-led coalition was conducting a "very lethal" assault on Saddam Hussein loyalists in western Iraq.