http://news.yahoo.com/s/oneworld/20080516/wl_oneworld/45361605671210979234;_ylt=AuQy0TgODQReJHVaaeITmIME1vAI
Iraq Veterans Describe Atrocities to Lawmakers
Aaron Glantz, OneWorld US
Fri May 16,2008
WA****NGTON, May 16 (OneWorld) - Antiwar veterans of the U.S. wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan took their case to Capitol Hill Thursday, baring their
souls
with stories of killings of innocent civilians, torture, and wrongful
detentions.
"On several occasions our convoys came upon bodies that had been lying on
the road, sometimes for weeks," said Marine Corps veteran Vincent
Emanuele,
who served in al-Qaim near the Syrian border in 2004 and 2005.
"When encountering these bodies standard procedure was to run over the
corpses, sometimes even stopping and taking pictures, which was also
standard practice when encountering the dead in Iraq," he told the
Congressional Progressive Caucus, which organized the hearing.
Emanuele also said that U.S. military personnel often took "pot shots" at
cars passing by.
"Our rules of engagement stated that we should first fire warning shots
into
the ground in front of the car, then the engine block, and the wind****eld.
That is if the car was even moving in the first place," he said. "Many
times
cars that actually had pulled off to the side of the road were also shot
at."
Thursday's hearing was an outgrowth of an event in Maryland earlier this
year called "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan - Eyewitness Accounts of
the Occupations." For four days in March, dozens of veterans of the two
wars
testified about atrocities they personally committed or witnessed while
deployed overseas.
At the time, many of the veterans expressed a desire to take their case to
Capitol Hill. Thursday they got their wish.
Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), the co-chair of the Congressional
Progressive Caucus, addressed a panel of veterans at the start of the
hearing.
"We now have an op****tunity to hear not from the military's top brass but
directly from you," she said, "the very soldiers who put your lives on the
line to carry out this president's failed policies."
Nine veterans of the Iraq war told their stories before members of
Congress
and a packed gallery. One of the veterans had also served in Afghanistan.
About 40 veterans were in the audience.
The veterans spoke about extremely lax rules of engagement handed down by
commanding officers, which they said virtually guaranteed atrocities would
be committed, and which in turn created a violent backlash among Iraqi
people and a continued cycle of violence.
Former U.S. Army Capt. Luis Carlos Montalvan served directly under Gen.
David Petraeus in 2005 and 2006.
"We have beaten our drum to try to raise the issue of the dereliction of
duty committed by a number of generals who have been promoted and promoted
again and continue to perpetuate the lies [that] paint a rosy picture of
the
situation in Iraq," he said.
Montalvan said he personally witnessed U.S. military personnel carrying
out
waterboarding, the mock-drowning interrogation technique that has long
been
considered torture by U.S. courts.
Former Srgt. Adam Kokesh presented a picture of himself standing, smiling,
in front of a dead Iraqi civilian that another marine had shot.
"This is a picture that I'm very ashamed of, having posed with this dead
Iraqi as a trophy picture," he said. "But what felt awkward to me at the
time was not so much that I was taking the picture, but the fact that I
had
not killed this man and I was taking a trophy from somebody else's kill."
Kokesh said the person in the trophy photo was an innocent civilian whose
car was accidentally "lit up" by marines.
Kokesh referenced similar photos that surfaced during and after the
Vietnam
war -- some of which were presented at a "Winter Soldier" gathering
organized by Vietnam veterans 37 years ago.
"At the first Winter Soldier investigation in 1971, one of the Vietnam
veterans held up a similar photograph and said 'Don't ever let your
government do this to you. Don't ever let your government put you in a
position where this attitude towards death and disregard for human life is
acceptable or common.' And we are still doing this to service members
every
day as long as these occupations continue," he added.
Kokesh said his Marine Corps Civil Affairs team, including a major, was
present when the trophy photo was taken. Numerous other marines also
snapped
their picture with the corpse, he said.
Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War hope this week's hearing will
spark
an investigation by a full Congressional committee and speed the end of
the
wars.
--
Pucker your lips for the Apocalypse!
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