Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Support our troops

FORT CARSON, Colo. — Four soldiers with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team were fined and demoted for an Iraqi convenience store break-in that netted about $20 worth of cigarettes, soda pop and candy, according to recently released files.

Other charges involving nine 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment soldiers who allegedly robbed Iraqis they stopped at a checkpoint near their base in western Iraq were not prosecuted because Army investigators could not find the alleged Iraqi victims, according to documents obtained Tuesday by the Gazette of Colorado Springs.

“None of the Iraqi civilians could be identified and interviewed as there were no check point records,” investigators wrote last August.

An inch thick file gives detailed accounts of alleged misbehavior but doesn’t identify investigators, commanders, or the accused because criminal charges were not filed, said Lt. Col. Johnathan Withington, a spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, which oversees the units based at Fort Carson.

Witnesses said the nine soldiers from the 2nd Squadron’s howitzer battery stole thousands of dollars from Iraqis held at gunpoint during searches for weapons, contraband and guerrilla fighters.

[...]

Of the four soldiers who were punished in the convenience store robbery, one was kicked out of the Army after shooting himself in the foot to avoid punishment for allegedly stealing $100 in Iraqi currency during a house-to-house search, the report said.

“The 4th Infantry Division and the Army take allegations of criminal conduct seriously,” Withington said of the investigations.
  Army Times article

That's what they always say. That's what they said about the Abu Ghraib tortures.

...but hey....

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