Free Republic

By Otto Kreisher COPLEY NEWS SERVICE 3:04 p.m. November 24, 2003 WASHINGTON – House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, has joined an effort to stop the Army from punishing an officer who used force to get information from an Iraqi policeman about possible pending sniper attacks against U.S. forces by insurgents. In a letter to the acting Secretary of the Army, Hunter and a senior member of his committee said they were "highly disturbed" that the Army was considering criminal action against Lt. Col. Allen B. West for his treatment of an Iraqi policeman who an informant...

I received this in email from The Federalist: "From the "Department of Military Readiness"... The Army's JAG Corps finally convened its Article 32 Board to hear charges against Lt. Col. Allen West this week, with Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno, 4th Infantry Division commander, presiding. Ironically, the hearing is taking place in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit. West, a 20-year artillery officer who was stripped of his battalion command last month, stands charged with aggravated assault and communicating a threat during his interrogation of an Iraqi insurgent -- the circumstances of which West himself reported according to regulation. Of apparently little consequence...

I recently wrote an article an published on FreeRepublic entitled Colonel West...you've got my back anytime. That article haas received a lot of attention and became a very good thread with people inside and outside the military analyzing and commneting on the episode in Iraq where this fine Lt. Colonel acted on his own volition in a time-sensitive, combat environment to extract information from an enemy spy within the coalition fomred and supported Iraqi Police Force. The method of intimidation Colonel West used to extract the information has become the center of controversy and is leading to military legal proceedings...

Freeper "Old Sarge" called into WHAS, 840-AM this morning, to pass on the perspective of his military career on the issue of LTC West of 4th ID in Iraq. Sarge suspects that the new host of WHAS's morning talk spot, Francene, is a lurker on FR.