American Gulf War Pilot's Body Found in Iraq

BY Stephanie Gaskell

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Remains of Scott Speicher, Navy pilot shot down in Gulf War, found in Iraq. U.S. Navy Capt. Michael Scott Speicher has finally come home.
Nearly two decades after his F-18 fighter jet was shot down by enemy fire during the first Gulf War, Speicher's remains were found in a grave in the vast deserts of western Iraq.
President Obama said the news "is a reminder of the selfless service that led him to make the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom."
On Jan. 17, 1991, Speicher, 33, was struck by enemy fire as the U.S. military began its air assault against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, becoming the first casualty of the war.
His whereabouts remained a mystery until early last month when an Iraqi man led U.S. Marines to a remote grave in Anbar Province.
The man said he was there the day Speicher crashed and that he died instantly and was buried by Bedouins. Speicher's exhumed body was flown back to the U.S. last week.

Read about Capt. Speicher's life here

"Positive identification was made by comparing Capt. Speicher's dental records with the jawbone recovered at the site," Pentagon officials said.
"My thoughts and prayers are with his family, and I hope that the recovery of his remains will bring them a needed sense of closure," the President said.

Speicher's widow, Joanne, who has since remarried, and his children Meghan and Michael, Jr., said they reacted to the discovery "with appreciation and sorrow." "Capt. Speicher was a brave and wonderful father, husband, and naval officer who responded without hesitation when his country needed him," they said in a statement.

"We thank the active duty men and women whose diligence has made this happen, and hope that this process has prevented another of our service men and women from being left behind...

We will miss him, and will never forget. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers."

'Missing in action'
The discovery closes a long and painful chapter for the Speicher family and the U.S. military. After the crash, Navy officials listed Speicher, 33, of Jacksonville, Fla., as "missing in action." At the end of the war, his status was changed to "killed in action, body not recovered."
In 1995, with the help of the International Red Cross, military investigators were able to search the crash site and again determined Speicher was dead.

Just months before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, Speicher's status was changed once again, this time to "missing in action/captured."
The investigation heated up after U.S. troops found the initials "MSS" scrawled on the wall of a prison in Baghdad and his name was found on a list of prisoners being held in Iraq.
Speicher's family had been critical of the military, saying it didn't do enough to find him in the hours after he crashed 18 years ago.

A high school classmate said the family's biggest fear was that Speicher had been taken alive and tortured."This whole thing has been so surreal for all of the people who have known Scott," said Nels Jensen, 52, who lives in Arkansas. "Never again will our military likely not send out a search and rescue party for a downed serviceman."
Gen. Raymond Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, sent his condolences to the Speicher family.
"We reiterate our commitment to find and account for all military members and civilians who have gone missing in the service of our nation," he said.

Iraqi police arrest high-ranking member of U.S.-allied movement

But Mullah Nadim Jibouri says his detention is not related to his activities as an Awakening leader.
By Hameed Rasheed and Liz Sly
Reporting from Baghdad and Samarra, Iraq -- Iraqi police have arrested a senior member of the U.S.-allied Awakening movement in Salahuddin province, the American military said Sunday, continuing a crackdown that has left many of the Sunni Muslim paramilitary fighters seething with anger.Mullah Nadim Jibouri, an Awakening leader in the town of Duluiya, 55 miles north of Baghdad, was detained Saturday along with two of his brothers, the military said. Full Story Here

Obama tries to unite Iraq factions..he probably will

In Baghdad, Obama Presses Iraqi Leader to Unite Factions
By STEVEN LEE MYERS and HELENE COOPER

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq — President Obama made an unannounced trip to Iraq on Tuesday, his first visit as commander in chief to the site of one of the two wars he inherited and must now see through to an end.

Reiterating his pledge to end a war he opposed from the start, he told a cheering crowd of American troops that it was time for Iraqis “to take responsibility for their country and for their sovereignty.” Later, with a hint of impatience in his words, he urged Iraq’s leaders to unite the country’s deeply divided ethnic and sectarian factions and to incorporate them all into government and security forces.

“It is time for us to transition to the Iraqis,” Mr. Obama told hundreds of American troops jammed into Al Faw Palace, an imposing sandstone building in an artificial lake that once belonged to Saddam Hussein. The uniformed crowd greeted that remark specifically with rousing applause.

Since becoming president less than three months ago, Mr. Obama has moved swiftly to reshape the war in Iraq. He announced plans to withdraw all combat forces by August 2010, as he sought to shift the military’s focus to the troubled war in Afghanistan.
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Army Private's Death is Suspect To Family, Friends

Who Killed Army Pvt. LaVena Johnson?

LAVENA JOHNSON, PVT, U.S. ARMY
Raped and Murdered aboard the Balad military base in Iraq
By Alicia Cruz

Senior writer

theblackurbantimes.com
LaVena Johnson, a high school honor student, decided to enlist in the Army to pay for college. On July 19, 2005, after serving eight weeks in Iraq, she was killed, eight days short of her 20th birthday. She died on what should be one of the safest places in the world: a military base.

Pvt. Johnson (posthumously promoted to private first class) was found dead in Balad, Iraq, in a tent belonging to military contractor KBR, the former subsidiary of Halliburton. Pvt. Johnson was the first woman from Missouri to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The U.S. Army has officially ruled her death a suicide, saying she shot herself in the head. Johnson's family was suspect from the beginning. having spoken to johnson days before her death, they knew that Johnson was far from sad let alone suicidal. She was returning stateside for the holidays and was very excited.

Eyebrows and questins were raised beginning with the viewing of their daughter's body at the funeral home. Johnson's mother and the mortician noticed suspicious bruises inconsistent with the report the Army gave the family. In an attempt to get the Army's version of this story, I telephoned the office of the Sergeants Major and was told that he could not comment on this blackurbantimes.com story or any other.

The Army claimed that a right-handed Johnson had shot herself in the head with an M-16 rifle, but the gunshot wound was on the left side of her head. Under the Freedom of Information Act, the family of LaVena Johnson requested copies of the autopsy report along with photos and that's when things heated up:

At 5-foot tall and weighing 100 pounds soak and wet, this petite woman had been struck in the face with a blunt instrument. Her teeth had been knocked out, her back and right hand had been doused with a flammable liquid and set afire. Her nose was broken and there were bruises, scratches and teeth marks on her upper body. Debris found on her body suggested that Johnson's body had been dragged. Her genital area was lacerated, bruised and there was a substance later proven to be lye that had been poured into her vagina.

What an odd and violent "suicide". Why torture yourself before you kill yourself? None of Johnson's family members bought the suicide claim and once the autopsy report and photos came in, they were convinced Johnson had been tortured, raped and brutally murdered.

And despite all this mutilation, she was fully clothed when her body was found in the tent, with a blood trail leading to the tent.

Despite the overwhelming evidence, the Army has refused to investigate. Through an online petition, ColorofChange.org demanded an investigation by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and keep the family in prayer.

Johnson's story is really several stories in one, and is about more than an individual Black woman who was raped and killed by her fellow soldiers. African Americans have fought in every war since the Revolutionary War, and often their country has been a far more formidable foe to them than the so-called enemy they were told to fight.

Often, youth of color, lacking opportunities at home and in need of money, look to the military as a career option and a way to pay for school. Perhaps these young people were channeling war resisters of a prior generation, such as Muhammad Ali, who once said, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong. ... They never called me nigger." That war was devastating to poor communities of all races, and the black community in particular, as their young men came home in the thousands in body bags, or maimed, traumatized, as dope fiends or completely insane.

It was this "cruel manipulation of the poor," as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called it, one that united people of different races "in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would never live on the same block in Detroit."

Forty years later, we find ourselves in another unjust and senseless war. This "home invasion" of Iraq, as Philadelphia veteran journalist Reggie Bryant aptly characterized it. And Johnson is a casualty of this war and her death runs the risk of being swept under the rug if something is not done about it.

The case of Johnson raises yet another issue: Violence against women is a problem in the U.S. military, and other slayings and suspicious deaths similar to Johnson's are being classified as suicides. And Johnson is not the only woman to die a suspicious death on the Balad military base.

Retired Army Reserve Col. Ann Wright said 1 in 3 women who join the military will be raped or sexually assaulted by servicemen. Of the 94 military women who died in Iraq or during Operation Iraqi Freedom, 36 died from injuries unrelated to combat. While a number of them were ruled as suicides and homicides, 15 deaths remain that smell suspicious. For example, eight women from Fort Hood, Texas, died of "non-combat-related injuries" at Camp Taji, three of whom were raped before their deaths. Camp Taji is an Army base about 10 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Also, a number of female employees of Halliburton/KBR have been sexually harassed, assaulted and gang raped in Iraq. Their employment contract calls for such cases to be decided through arbitration rather than in a court of law. Halliburton and KBR, these war profiteers awash with money, even wanted one alleged rape victim to pay for their costs to defend themselves in arbitration. Lord have mercy ....

Now is the time that the family of LaVena Johnson, and all those other nameless women killed by the military, will find the justice they deserve.

LaVena Johnson web site

DOD stats on violence against women in the military

Papi's Home!!

By Alicia Cruz
Senior writer
theblackurbantimes.com
Ask any sister, brother, parent, family member or wife what it feels like the first time you see your Marine, Soldier or Sailor return home from a long or dangerous deployment...and I assure their answers will be "relief," or "exhilarating." Ask a child and the emotion, the response will melt your heart.

Boy's wrapped birthday gift is dad back from Iraq

DAYTON, Nev. – Gabriel Hurles' sixth birthday party wasn't a surprise, but his present sure was. The kindergartner was so engrossed in the cupcakes his mother brought to his class on Wednesday that he didn't notice the enormous wrapped box off to the side.
"That's one big, giant present," a 6-year-old classmate told him. "See what you got, Gabriel."
Gabriel peeled back the wrapping paper to find the surprise of his young life — his father, an Army mechanic back in Nevada on leave from his second tour in Iraq.
"It's my dad!" he announced to his classmates at Sutro Elementary School in Dayton, a few miles northeast of Carson City. "Hi, Daddy."

Photo By Scandblue Flickr

Army Spc. Casey Hurles, 23, hadn't seen his son since he left in June. When he learned his leave would coincide with his son's birthday, he hatched a plan to hide out in the 4-foot-tall box. "It was such a rush of emotion," said Hurles, who said he got butterflies in his stomach while waiting in the box.

Photo by BrandonBlog

After Hurles sat down and ate a cupcake with the birthday boy, teacher Dawn VanSickle presented him with a banner from the class that read, "Welcome Home. Thank you for your service."
VanSickle said she was happy to arrange the reunion in her classroom.
"One of the first things (Gabriel) shared about himself was that his dad was in Iraq and that he was waiting for his dad to come home," she said. "He talks about his dad all the time."
Hurles, who joined the Army four years ago, is a mechanic in the 1st Cavalry Division stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. He completed one tour in Iraq and is seven months into his second tour. He expects to finish sometime this summer.

Full Story

WE BROKE IT ON THE URBAN NEWS WEBSITES FIRST!!!Prez Bush Gets The...SHOE in Iraq!!

By Alicia Cruz
Staff writer theblackurbantimes.com
MSNBC has reported that during a press conference in Baghdad to discuss U.S. troop withdrawl from Iraq, an Iraqi reporter began throwing his shoes and hurling verbal insults at President Bush. The president was not injured, but his White House Press Sec is sporting a black eye from one of the flying microphones. Prime Minister Nuri attempted to protect the Prez from the flying Iraqi shoes while Secret Service and others subdued the shoe tossing, insult slinging journalist. For more follow the link:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

Photo courtesy of MSNBC