According to charging documents, an Afghan named Gul Mudin began walking toward the soldiers. As he approached, Cpl. Jeremy N. Morlock, 22, of Wasilla, Alaska, threw the grenade on the ground, records show, to create the illusion that the soldiers were under attack.
The military always seems to sigh and wish they had heeded warnings. Whether we're talking about Abu Ghraib or Blackwater's killings or black prisons in Afghanistan, our military, military intelligence and a variety of intelligence agencies have made America responsible for some of the most horrific, brutal, and inhuman acts imaginable and then go to great lengths to cover them up.
For weeks, according to Army charging documents, rogue members of a platoon from the 5th Stryker Combat Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, floated the idea. Then, one day last winter, a solitary Afghan man approached them in the village of La Mohammed Kalay. The "kill team" activated the plan.
One soldier created a ruse that they were under attack, tossing a fragmentary grenade on the ground. Then others opened fire.
According to charging documents, the unprovoked, fatal attack on Jan. 15 was the start of a months-long shooting spree against Afghan civilians that resulted in some of the grisliest allegations against American soldiers since the U.S. invasion in 2001. Members of the platoon have been charged with dismembering and photographing corpses, as well as hoarding a skull and other human bones.
The subsequent investigation has raised accusations about whether the military ignored warnings that the out-of-control soldiers were committing atrocities. The father of one soldier said he repeatedly tried to alert the Army after his son told him about the first killing, only to be rebuffed. ...Washington Post
Ignored warnings. There's something particularly terrible in learning that the military "ignored warnings" agagin. But then, why should we be surprised? President Bush "ignored warnings" and then began two brutal, unnecessary wars in which brutal, unnecessary crimes are committed.
In this case as in the past, the military was given plenty of warning. There's a record of the Army trying to avoid investigation. One of the soldiers involved told his father about it. The father tried over and over again to warn the Army.
Finally, he said, he called the Fort Lewis command center and spoke for 12 minutes to a sergeant on duty. He said the sergeant agreed that it sounded as if Adam was in potential danger but that, unless he was willing to report it to his superiors in Afghanistan, there was little the Army could do.
"He just kind of blew it off," Christopher Winfield said. "I was sitting there with my jaw on the ground." ...
...Eight days after Winfield tried to warn the Army, according to charging documents, members of the 3rd Platoon murdered someone else.
