U.S. Soldier Murdered By Iraqi Police -- And Then the Cover-up
An article in today's Washington Post reveals that an American soldier was ambushed and killed this month in Baghdad by our alleged allies in the local police. What it doesn't say is that the official reports on his death by the U.S. military were complete distortions.
By Greg Mitchell
(October 31, 2006) -- USA Today revealed in a front page story on Monday that a study of several hundred American deaths in Iraq turned up at least seven cases where families were given the wrong information about how their loved ones died (most of them, it turned out, were killed by friendly fire). Now, on Tuesday, The Washington Post reveals that a U.S. soldier was ambushed and murdered by our friends in the Iraqi police.
My additional digging now shows that the military willfuly covered up this significant detail in releasing the news of his death to his family and to the press.
The Post story by Amit Paley visits the Sholeh police station in Baghdad, where posters "celebrating Moqtada al-Sadr, head of the Mahdi Army militia, dot the building's walls.” One rainy night this month, it seems, the Sholeh police set up an ambush and killed Army Cpl. Kenny F. Stanton Jr., 20, said to be a “budding journalist.” At the time, Paley writes, Stanton and other members of the unit “had been trailing a group of Sholeh police” escorting known Mahdi Army members.
"How can we expect ordinary Iraqis to trust the police when we don't even trust them not to kill our own men?" asked Capt. Alexander Shaw, head of the police transition team of the 372nd Military Police Battalion.
This made me wonder how the Pentagon reported his murder to the press and, presumably, his family back home in his native Hemet, Calif.
More at the link
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003317039
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