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Title: U.S. Soldier Who Killed Herself--After Refusing to Take Part in Torture
Source:
Editor and Publisher
URL Source: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/e ... .jsp?vnu_content_id=1003965876
Published: Apr 25, 2009
Author: Greg Mitchell
Post Date: 2009-04-25 08:40:57 by Ada
Keywords: None
Views: 2143
Comments: 61
U.S. Soldier Who Killed Herself--After Refusing to Take Part in Torture With each new revelation on U.S. torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and Gitmo, I am reminded of the chilling story of Alyssa Peterson. (April 23, 2009) -- With each new revelation on U.S. torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and Gitmo (and who, knows, probably elsewhere), I am reminded of the chilling story of Alyssa Peterson, who I have written about numerous times in the past three years but now with especially sad relevance. Appalled when ordered to take part in interrogations that, no doubt, involved what we would call torture, she refused, then killed herself a few days later, in September 2003. Of course, we now know from the torture memos and the U.S. Senate committee probe and various new press reports, that the "Gitmo-izing" of Iraq was happening just at the time Alyssa got swept up in it. Alyssa Peterson was one of the first female soldiers killed in Iraq. A cover-up, naturally, followed. Peterson, 27, a Flagstaff, Ariz., native, served with C Company, 311th Military Intelligence BN, 101st Airborne. Peterson was an Arabic-speaking interrogator assigned to the prison at our air base in troubled Tal Afar in northwestern Iraq. According to official records, she died on Sept. 15, 2003, from a "non-hostile weapons discharge." A "non-hostile weapons discharge" leading to death is not unusual in Iraq, often quite accidental, so this one apparently raised few eyebrows. The Arizona Republic, three days after her death, reported that Army officials "said that a number of possible scenarios are being considered, including Peterson's own weapon discharging, the weapon of another soldier discharging, or the accidental shooting of Peterson by an Iraqi civilian." And that might have ended it right there. But in this case, a longtime radio and newspaper reporter named Kevin Elston, not satisfied with the public story, decided to probe deeper in 2005, "just on a hunch," he told me in late 2006 (there's a chapter about it in my book on Iraq and the media, "So Wrong for So Long"). He made "hundreds of phone calls" to the military and couldn't get anywhere, so he filed a Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] request. When the documents of the official investigation of her death arrived, they contained bombshell revelations. Here's what the Flagstaff public radio station, KNAU, where Elston then worked, reported: "Peterson objected to the interrogation techniques used on prisoners. She refused to participate after only two nights working in the unit known as the cage. Army spokespersons for her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques Alyssa objected to. They say all records of those techniques have now been destroyed." According to the official report on her death released the following year, she had earlier been "reprimanded" for showing "empathy" for the prisoners. One of the most moving parts of that report is: "She said that she did not know how to be two people; she ... could not be one person in the cage and another outside the wire." Peterson was then assigned to the base gate, where she monitored Iraqi guards, and sent to suicide prevention training. "But on the night of September 15th, 2003, Army investigators concluded she shot and killed herself with her service rifle," the documents disclose. A notebook she had been writing was found next to her body. Its contents were redacted in the official report. The Army talked to some of Peterson's colleagues. Asked to summarize their comments, Elston told me: "The reactions to the suicide were that she was having a difficult time separating her personal feelings from her professional duties. That was the consistent point in the testimonies, that she objected to the interrogation techniques, without describing what those techniques were." Elston said that the documents also refer to a suicide note found on her body, which suggested that she found it ironic that suicide prevention training had taught her how to commit suicide. He filed another FOIA request for a copy of the actual note. Peterson, a devout Mormon, had graduated from Flagstaff High School and earned a psychology degree from Northern Arizona University on a military scholarship. She was trained in interrogation techniques at Fort Huachuca in Arizona, and was sent to the Middle East in 2003. A report in The Arizona Daily Sun of Flagstaff -- three years after Alyssa's death -- revealed that Spc. Peterson's mother, Bobbi Peterson, reached at her home in northern Arizona, said that neither she nor her husband Richard had received any official documents that contained information outlined in Elston's report. In other words: Like the press and the public, even the parents had been kept in the dark. Tomorrow I will write about Kayla Williams, a woman who served with Alyssa, and talked to her about her problems shortly before she killed herself, and also took part in torture interrogations. She observed the punching of detainees and was forced to take part in one particular tactic: prisoners were stripped naked, and when they took off their blindfolds the first thing they saw was Kayla. She opted out, but survived, and is haunted years later. Here's what Williams told Soledad O'Brien of CNN : "I was asked to assist. And what I saw was that individuals who were doing interrogations had slipped over a line and were really doing things that were inappropriate. There were prisoners that were burned with lit cigarettes." All of this only gains relevance in light of the current debate over whether those who were "just following orders" in torture routines should be held accountable today. * Greg Mitchell's latest book is "Why Obama Won." His previous book on Iraq and the media was "So Wrong for So Long." He is editor of Editor & Publisher.
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#21. To: Deasy (#19)
The system was fine. The people failed.
Yes. So we'd better start talking about real change instead of reaction. Reaction is going to get us right back where we started. And the response to reaction looks like Obama or McCain.
Your reaction. History has clearly shown otherwise. I would challenge you to suggest changes to the original law and government structure that would prevent what has happened. One challenge to us in this debate is that we may not agree "what happened." We should try to define that as well.
There is corruption and oppression wherever you choose to look on this globe. I wish that I had time to anwer you properly today. As it is, I don't. Please try to maintain your sense of perspective.
Join 2x4 Tuesdays & protect your RKBA. This constant "for the children" argument is what brought about the nanny state to begin with.
“I would give no thought of what the world might say of me, if I could only transmit to posterity the reputation of an honest man.” - Sam Houston
I see this as an oversimplification. The west has a history of empire building leading to universalism. We're no different from the Greeks or Romans in this way. Our success leads to collapse.
I hope you have time later.
Exactly why TJ thought that revolution every twenty years, or so, would be a good thing. The founders understood the nature of man and power.
But not well enough to teach their children how to recognize when it was time to take action. For one thing, our original (if flawed) idealization of the individual permitted us to immediately cede power to the original aristocracy against which we had rebelled. They were exceptional individuals, after all. The right to be secure in our papers and properties was quickly given up to assuage their demands for empire. From laws that enshrine the individual in name only, we arrived at taxation without representation. Shay's crushed rebellion, and the failure to address the problems of taxation without representation, spelled the end to the Republic as the founding fathers had envisioned it. But we still had the American Dream.
That's why I almost didn't write that. I figured someone would say that. I also figured the people here would be smart enough not say it. Just because the nanny staters use it for their own purposes doesn't mean it doesn't apply to our purposes. They use it to excuse their shenanigans. I use it because I mean it. Or would you rather todays kids be left to deal with this god-awful mess? .
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The East does it too. It's not just a western thing. China and Japan weren't built in a day. You think on a macro scale, I think on a micro scale. Macro scales are too high-minded and therefore useless for me. Micro scale is more practical, IMO. I dont blame the west, east, north or south. I blame the greedy bastard traitors that have the unmitigated gall to think they are qualified to lead anyone into the fucking kitchen, much less lead a nation. That's who I blame. I dont know anyone in my personal life that wants to steal any other nations resources or to enslave or murder anyone because we want what they have. We "commoners" aren't the problem here. .
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We commoners are the ones who enable the pinnacle of the latest western model for empire to conduct its daily business. Our values, morals, and outlook facilitate this. I would also remind you that Japanese empire was exclusively for the Japanese. Other than the CoProsperity sphere propaganda, there was no serious talk about proselytizing the world to adopt the Japanese empire's religion or its political/economic model. The greedy traitors you talk about broadcast their demands on us daily from centrally owned and controlled media outlets. We buy the products advertised on their channels, so we are enabling them to do their business. Without the inherent gullibility of the American people, the elites would be lost. Yet since the times of the Mexican war, we've succeeded in persuading the average American that his interests are best served by supporting the "common" interests of the elites. Most of what I read on this site is a continual expression of longing for the "old days." Jewish interests used our open market system to come to dominate our foreign and economic policies, however. What would stop any other group from doing the same next time? Or what would stop Jews from doing it again? After all, most Americans believe there is something special about them. Our world wars were fought to protect their interests. We've shed blood for them, and they are part of our national heritage now. History would repeat itself if we ever succeeded in restoring the original republic. Soon, the media would be owned by a small elite, who would inform us as to what our best options were, carefully leaving out our real individual interests.
Without the We were dumb to start with. We believed that our values were good for everyone our empire encountered.
I don't believe that, and I don't believe that anyone on 4 believes it.
There are quite a few here who have expressed a belief in the universality of American values as described in our Declaration of Independence and other less concentrated documents.
Yes, but not at the point of a gun.
You're right. But I already said that we are a minority. We have separated ourselves out from the herd, as much as we can anyway. The only way we can prevent it from happening again, after we rebuild from the trainwreck most of us see coming, is to learn from the mistakes that have taken such a toll. But I am not an optimist. People forget history. I'd like to see it be done once and for all, but that wont happen, It's an ongoing process. It will never end until God wraps things up, IMO. That is the way it was made. He never promised us a rose garden. And IMO that is the way it should be. As bad as people are now (myself included), imagine how much worse things would be if this was a paradise and everything was handed to us on silver platters. Adversity keeps us honest. .
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Reaction without intent to start fresh with lessons learned is unhelpful at best.
Ah yes, natural history and prophecies handed to us by the Jews and their coreligionists.
It all depends on how you see the world. I wont try and convince you otherwise, other than to say that some of us aren't exactly kosher and marching in lockstep with churchianity. Some of us left that, same as leaving the worldly political systems behind that most people here have already done. In fact, I've been called a heretic a few times, here and elsewhere... lol! .
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I often agree with your comments, and do think that religion ought to be secondary to most discussions of these topics. But you must admit that a faith that is open to all, can lead to validation of concepts like welfare, open immigration, foreign aid, missionary outreaches leading to immigration, and such. Also, a faith based on another is going to necessarily prime the secondary faith's believers to accept the value of the first's. I could go on. All this universalism is embedded in American colonialism and exceptionalism.
Oh I'll go further than that. Much further. Religion is the cause of the vast majority of crimes that this planet has ever seen. Religion, as most know it today, is a curse. Christianity today bears no resemblance to Christs' teachings. None. They use his name in vain. They either think Christ has "saved" them from a non-existent "eternal hell", while chucking their enemies in "eternal hell" (That'll learn 'em that I WAS RIGHT!!!) to being a sugar daddy that wants them to be rich as kings and solve all their problems, if they would only send in $29.95 per month as a "seed" offering, etc. I could go on and on and on. I"ll spare you. .
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It may have kept YOU honest. But I witnessed what happened to former Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson last fall when "adversity" struck him and "honesty" seemed to be the farthest thing from his mind. In general, the previous administration seemed to deal with "adversity" by creating a new "reality" and an official many believe to have been Rove even told us early on that the problem with the administration's critics was that we lived in the "reality-based community." “I would give no thought of what the world might say of me, if I could only transmit to posterity the reputation of an honest man.” - Sam Houston
I dont know what kind of adversity you are writing about here. It seems that you think they are manufacturing their own adversity by fraudulently manipulating events. Which makes Paulsons' adversity a pathetic joke. I think we all know they do that. But it is interesting that someone high up admitted it so openly. This admission is true. We are always behind the curve. They act, we react, usually with incomplete or bogus information. But they are not God. They dont know everything. And this kind of arrogance has its own built-in blind spots. They think they are invincible. They aren't. They are like the captain of the Titanic telling the passengers how unsinkable it is. They are whistling thru the graveyard and putting on a happy face. That is not what I meant by adversity keeping us honest. What I meant is that by fighting them, we have to be honest. Truthseekers are handed nothing on a silver platter. We fight for every scrap. Dishonesty short circuits that process by blinding us to what we find. How often have you seen that in action? .
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Boil it down and well said. If it is not true, it is false. If it is not good, it is evil. Choose ye this day, whom ye shall serve.
Without reviewing the evidence I'd be more inclined to believe that this soldier was a liability and was "suicided" to prevent her from campaigning against the torture that she witnessed and they could not deny if she lived to tell of it. The fact that her so called suicide note is seemingly well documented while her journal and other possible evidence of what she found so disturbing is missing is highly suspicious. In short, the bastards have done it again. Pat Tillman was silenced because he was going public upon separation, And, too many women have been gang raped and murdered to cover crimes against them (or to protect the unidentified perps) including imprisonment in a shipping container, missing rape kits and other evidence, and a blatantly obvious hostility by commanders toward any women who dare file complaints no matter how ghastly their treatment.
This was the huge flaw in the Spanish POV regarding the American Indians. Colonialism is pretty much this definition. The English and French were less concerned with making the Natives into European cultures, by a little, and the Spanish lost control of the Indians, and their massive American possesions due to a large degree of this obsession. Not to mention the American Indians learned and were taught by the Spanish to loathe their rule by the fanatical Jesuits. One size fits all is not a productive approach to Empire building. Not that Empires should be built. Trade affiliations Yes, confiscatory economic structures are naturally resented. Spain could have easily had most of North America IF....
"Satan / Cheney in "08" You make me wonder if we're becoming a little like the Spanish. Our fanatical liberal Gramscians and our fantical "individualist" patriots think that they can instill great love of freedom among immigrants and nation-built foreign entities alike. I see they're wrong, but I can't convince them of it.
I do believe we may be. We certainly have the majestic royalty of Bush Cheney, who quite literally asserted their "Divine Mandate" to govern as they saw fit.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" It's good to find at least one person who understands the points I've been trying to make today. Thank you.
I appreciate your comments and presence, Deasy.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" Ladies and gentleman, that had to be stopped.
Pity the American teens that get caught up in this State Sponsored Narssisisum.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" Such thinking does not comport with my upbringing and its authors should be tried, convicted and incarcerated for the remainder of their natural lives at hard labor. There, fixed it.
"I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is Mass Psychology...It's importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda...Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated." Bertrand Russel, Eugenicist and Logician
Like the Iraq war itself, which was orchestrated and sanctioned by Israeli agents in the administration, the tactics used against prisoners are not based on traditional American mores but of the duals in the administration whose values are well characterized by Israel's criminal repression of Palestinians. Anyone joining, especially the military, needs to be aware of this "changed" situation as long as the Israeli lobby continues to have overriding influence on the US administration and particularly its foreign policy. And as Houndawg suggests the usual ploy of this criminal cabal, when faced with the prospect of incriminating evidence, is to silence witnesses and hide the evidence.
If it is not good, it is evil. Choose ye this day, whom ye shall serve. You forgot one: "Either you're with us ... or you're with the terrorists." (That's what it said on his teleprompter. Actually he pronounced it "terr'ists." This prompted a 10-year-old daughter of a co-worker of mine to ask her mom, "Why is there a war on tourism?") The distinction between good and evil becomes problematic when the person telling you he is good is actually not good and perhaps even evil. And it gets even worse when 17 million Southern Baptists (and tens of millions of other simple "evangelical" folk) view this man as almost a god himself and hang on his every word as if it were from the mouth of the Almighty.
“I would give no thought of what the world might say of me, if I could only transmit to posterity the reputation of an honest man.” - Sam Houston
American values include waging war on a nation that did nothing to us and was no threat to us? I sure hope not.
God is always good!
The Divine Negroe will not be out done !!!
Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces. De La Boétie
Which, of course, was predicted by the founders in at least two prophetic quotes: The government set up by the Constitution--"is likely to be well administered for a Course of Years and can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other." "The United States is Britain's very image and superscription . . . as true a gamecock as she and, I warrant you, shall become as great a scourge to mankind." Law Enforcement Against Prohibition I sure hope not. Me too !
Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces. De La Boétie
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams 
#22. To: Rotara (#18)
Everyone pretty much is at the place they deserve to be.
#23. To: Rotara (#21)
(Edited)
The system was fine.
#24. To: Deasy (#12)
www.righttokeepandbeararms.com
#25. To: PSUSA (#20)
If we dont do it, what kind of world will the kids inherit?
#26. To: PSUSA (#20)
We just failed to refine it because we are flawed too. But we could have at least put in a better effort.
#27. To: randge (#24)
I wish that I had time to anwer you properly today. As it is, I don't.
#28. To: Deasy. all (#14)
Our so-called liberty, which we thought we had won in the revolution, failed to last more than a generation.
#29. To: lodwick, Tatarewicz (#28)
The founders understood the nature of man and power.
#30. To: Sam Houston (#25)
This constant "for the children" argument is what brought about the nanny state to begin with.
#31. To: Deasy (#26)
(Edited)
I see this as an oversimplification. The west has a history of empire building leading to universalism. We're no different from the Greeks or Romans in this way. Our success leads to collapse.
#32. To: PSUSA (#31)
We "commoners" aren't the problem here.
#33. To: Deasy. all (#32)
Allow me to help out here -
inherent gullibility deliberate dumbing-down of the American people, the elites would be lost.
#34. To: lodwick (#33)
#35. To: Deasy. the thread (#34)
We believed that our values were good for everyone our empire encountered.
#36. To: lodwick (#35)
#37. To: Deasy (#36)
#38. To: Deasy (#32)
(Edited)
t the inherent gullibility of the American people...most Americans believe there is something special about them...e are enabling them to do their business... etc.
#39. To: lodwick (#37)
#40. To: PSUSA (#38)
It will never end until God wraps things up, IMO. That is the way it was made. He never promised us a rose garden.
#41. To: Deasy (#40)
Ah yes, natural history and prophecies handed to us by the Jews and their coreligionists.
#42. To: PSUSA (#41)
#43. To: Deasy (#42)
#44. To: PSUSA (#38)
Adversity keeps us honest.
#45. To: Sam Houston (#44)
(Edited)
#46. To: PSUSA, all (#45)
(Edited)
Truthseekers are handed nothing on a silver platter. We fight for every scrap. Dishonesty short circuits that process by blinding us to what we find.
#47. To: Ada (#0)
#48. To: Deasy (#36)
There are quite a few here who have expressed a belief in the universality of American values as described in our Declaration of Independence and other less concentrated documents.
#49. To: tom007 (#48)
#50. To: Deasy (#49)
You make me wonder if we're becoming a little like the Spanish.
#51. To: tom007, christine (#50)
#52. To: Deasy (#51)
#53. To: Sam Houston, TooConservative, Old Friend, Jethro Tull, christine, tom007 (#44)
The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''
#54. To: Deasy (#53)
and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''
#55. To: noone222 (#4)
(Edited)
But I ask you to recall that even torturing the children of supposed terrorists was authorized by these vermin, to the point of squeezing the testicles of little children in front of their terrorist parents. Such thinking does not comport with my upbringing and its authors should be tried, convicted and incarcerated.
#56. To: Ada (#0)
(Edited)
#57. To: lodwick (#46)
If it is not true, it is false.
#58. To: noone222 (#4)
We all know torture is wrong and flies in the face of American values and the law regarding the waging of war.
#59. To: tom007 (#50)
We certainly have the majestic royalty of Bush Cheney, who quite literally asserted their "Divine Mandate" to govern as they saw fit.
#60. To: Deasy (#12)
We started out our history based on opposition to empire, and then we became one almost overnight.
----Benjamin Franklin
----John Adams 
#61. To: RickyJ (#58)
American values include waging war on a nation that did nothing to us and was no threat to us?
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