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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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July 28th,
2009 - Crime Rate of Veterans in Colo. Unit Cited News article from the
Washington Post Summary
of the Fort Carson 2nd/4th Brigade Combat Team Killings |
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Crime Rate of
Veterans in Colo. Unit Cited Soldiers Tell Newspaper of Sharp Rise in Violent Incidents After Iraq
Deployments By R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post July 28, 2009 Soldiers returning from Iraq
after serving with a Fort Carson, Colo., combat brigade have exhibited an
exceptionally high rate of criminal behavior in their home towns, carrying
out a string of killings and other offenses that the ex-soldiers attribute to
lax discipline and episodes of indiscriminate killing during their grueling
deployment, according to a six-month investigation by the Colorado Springs Gazette
newspaper. Members of the 3,500-soldier
Fourth Infantry Division's Fourth Brigade told the publication that the
brutal conditions in Iraq from 2004 to 2007 and the Army's failure to provide
proper treatment for stress were in part to blame for the incidents of rape,
domestic abuse, shootings, stabbings, kidnappings and suicides, the paper
said. Ten of the brigade's members
committed or attempted to commit homicides after their return from Iraq, a
rate said to be 114 times the murder rate in Colorado Springs, adjacent to
the unit's base. During their deployment,
some soldiers killed civilians at random - in some cases at point-blank range
- used banned stun guns on captives, pushed people off bridges, loaded
weapons with illegal hollow-point bullets, abused drugs and occasionally
mutilated the bodies of Iraqis, according to accounts the Gazette attributed
to soldiers who said they witnessed the events. The unit's casualty rate was
double the average for Army combat teams deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan,
the paper said. In December 2007, a member
of the brigade wrote senior Army officials about what he described as
"war crimes" committed by the unit, including the shootings and
dismemberment of a 16-year-old boy and several civilians. The Army told the newspaper
its investigators found no evidence to sustain some of these allegations.
Several soldiers involved in improper conduct were dishonorably discharged. The Army has taken a special
interest in the unit's troublesome track record, commissioning a task force
that examined eight of the homicides committed after soldiers returned home.
It affirmed in a 126-page report this month that "combat
exposure/intensity, leadership, and barriers to seeking care" may have
increased the risks of "negative outcomes" for ex-soldiers. Maj. Steve Wollman, who was
recently appointed as a spokesman for Fort Carson, said Monday he couldn't
"speak to the past, but in the present and future, we are working very
hard to provide the best behavioral health for our soldiers and their families."
He said efforts were being made to overcome the stigma attached to applying
for mental health treatment, a key problem cited in the Army's task force
report. © 2009 The Washington Post
Company External link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/27/AR2009072702331.html |