Camp Liberty Update

Update

Sgt. John M. Russell of the 54th Engineering Battalion based in Bamberg, Germany was charged with five counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault in Monday's shooting, Maj. Gen. David Perkins told reporters.

[...]

Perkins said two of the dead were officers — doctors from the Army and Navy — and the others were enlisted personnel seeking treatment at the clinic. He did not identify the victims by name.

He said a probe has also begun into whether the Army has enough mental health facilities in Iraq to care for stress cases.

  Yahoo

Original post...

Neither the suspect nor any of the victims had been identified, but a defense official with access to the latest reports on the incident told CNN that the suspect had been a patient at the treatment center.

"Preliminary reports show the soldier was being escorted to the clinic, for reasons not yet explained," an Army official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Army Times.

"Once inside, he got into a verbal altercation with the staff and was asked to leave. The soldier and his escort got back into their vehicle and began to drive away.

"At some point during the drive, the soldier got control of his escort's weapon and ordered the escort out of the vehicle," the official said, according to the Times. "The soldier then drove back to the clinic, walked in and began shooting."

  CNN

I don’t know about you, but I’m not willing to believe this particular soldier hadn’t had some previous strong indicators that he should be given more attention than an escort to stress clinic.

Camp Liberty is tightly guarded, and U.S. troops are required to clear their weapons of ammunition while on the base. The only service members who have loaded weapons are those guarding high-ranking officers and military police.

Since I doubt the shooter was a high-ranking officer, the escort must have been an MP to have had a weapon on him that could be taken from him. I’ll bet there’s going to be some procedural adjustments at Camp Liberty.

Monday's attack marks the sixth incident in which a service member was killed by a fellow service member since the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

That’s not good. And neither is this:

At least 140 soldiers committed suicide in 2008, according to the Army, a considerable increase compared with the 115 cases reported the previous year and the 102 documented in 2006. The number is the highest since the military started tracking suicide data in 1980. The Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force also reported an uptick in suicides last year.

The number of soldiers who committed suicide during the first few months of this year is on pace to surpass last year's figure.

  WaPo

And neither is this:

Sexual assault cases in the military have risen significantly in recent years as well. A Pentagon report released earlier this year said 165 cases of sexual assault were reported among troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2008, up 26% from the year before.

Or this:

A 2007 FBI report on gang activity in the U.S. military found that members of nearly every major street gang were present in the ranks of the U.S. armed forces. Service members associated with Bloods, Crips, Black Disciples, Gangster Disciples, Hells Angels, Latin Kings, The 18th Street Gang, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Mexican Mafia, Nortenos, Surenos, Vice Lords and various white supremacist groups were documented serving at U.S. military installations at home and abroad.

  Time

Thanks to recruiting quotas and unethical leadership. CheneyBushRumsfeld at the top and Crips in the ranks. The new US Army.