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U.S. Troops Executed Iraqi Civilians

September 2, 2011


This cell phone photo by a resident of Ishaqi from 15 March 2006 shows the bodies of Iraqi children executed by U.S. troops. The bodies of the five children are wrapped in blankets and laid in a pickup. A State Department cable quotes the U.N. investigator saying an autopsy showed the residents of the house had been handcuffed and shot in the head, including children under the age of 5.

"This is where the monsters come from. The same monsters who will be policing our streets if martial law ever comes to America." (They already are.* CB)
- Reader response to "WikiLeaks cable: U.S. troops handcuffed, shot Iraqi children in raid"

From a report by Matthew Schofield of McClatchy Newspapers:

A U.S. diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks provides evidence that U.S. troops executed at least 10 Iraqi civilians, including a woman in her 70s and a 5-month-old infant, then called in an airstrike to destroy the evidence, during a controversial 2006 incident in the central Iraqi town of Ishaqi...

The cable also backs the original report from the Joint Coordination Center, which said U.S. forces entered the house while it was still standing. That first report noted: "The American forces gathered the family members in one room and executed 11 persons, including five children, four women and two men. Then they bombed the house, burned three vehicles and killed their animals."

* One of the comments below the Raw Story piece about this massacre talked about the "monsters" that have been created by this war.  Two of the Hoffman Estates undercover cops who brutally attacked me at my home in 2006 were Iraq War veterans (Military Police) who acted like they were on a military mission, not a police task.  The first question I asked when I addressed the police chief the day after I was assaulted was:  "What is the military background of these men?"  Just imagine what American society will be like when 200,000 more of these traumatized vets come home.  We will undoubtedly see many more family tragedies like the mass murder by a vet in Virginia and Pennsylvania last week.  Many of these vets will become COPS because that is the kind of training they received in the military.  This is a loss that can not be counted.


Capt. Leonard Egland killed his estranged wife and three others before committing suicide on August 27. Captain John Leonard Egland was an 18-year U.S. Army veteran who had served extended missions in both Iraq and Afghanistan. 

A Bollyn.com reader comments: 

Spot on.  Men faced with the brutality of unjust conflicts suffer unquantifiable psychological damage.  My older brother was Marine Special Forces.  His job was to dig out the Vietcong from their wormlike caverns.  When he finally returned home intact (feeling guilty about his brethren shipped in pine boxes) I was instructed as a teenager to awake him for breakfast.  When he didn't answer calls and door knocks I entered his room.  He immediately leapt from his bed and pinned me to the ground.  His fist was inches from my face and his other hand was choking me as I tried to remind him I was his brother,not his enemy.  He came to his senses finally and simply uttered that I should never awake him again. 

I've seen what false wars do to good men. You have my support.  B.K.

Sources: 

Ferguson, David, "WikiLeaks cable: U.S. troops handcuffed, shot Iraqi children in raid", TheRawStory.com, 1 September 2011
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/01/wikileaks-cable-u-s-troops-handcuffed-shot-iraqi-children-in-raid/

King, Larry, "Army veteran's violent breakdown bucks demographics", Philadelphia Inquirer, 30 August 2011
http://articles.philly.com/2011-08-30/news/29945407_1_buckingham-township-police-glass-door-pane

Schofield, Matthew, "WikiLeaks: Iraqi children in U.S. raid shot in head, U.N. says", McClatchy Newspapers, 31 August 2011
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/08/31/122789/wikileaks-iraqi-children-in-us.html