more on how we 'honor' our heroes

and i'm NEVER going to rest until we get justice for lavena johnson please read her story at that link or here
and sign the petition here to congressman waxman to get justice for lavena
she is but one of many. we cannot forget pfc nelson or pfc suarez or ANY of the brave men and women who died 'fighting for their country' in this (or any other for that matter) war. demand justice for ALL of our heroes. DEMAND THE TRUTH

New friendly fire coverup: Army shreds files on dead soldiers
Hours after Salon revealed evidence that two Americans were killed by a U.S. tank, not enemy fire, military officials destroyed papers on the men.

Editor's note: On Oct. 14, 2008, Salon published an article about the deaths of Army Pfc. Albert Nelson and Pfc. Roger Suarez. The Army attributed their deaths in Iraq in 2006 to enemy action; Salon's investigation, which included graphic battle video and eyewitness testimony, indicated that their deaths were likely due to friendly fire.

After Salon published Benjamin's Oct. 14 report, the Army ordered soldiers to shred documents about the men. As proof that they were ordered to destroy the paperwork, a soldier saved some examples and provided them to Salon.

By Mark Benjamin
Nov. 20, 2008 | FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Last month, Salon published a story reporting that U.S. Army Pfc. Albert Nelson and Pfc. Roger Suarez were killed by U.S. tank fire in Ramadi, Iraq, in late 2006, in an incident partially captured on video, but that an Army investigation instead blamed their deaths on enemy action. Now Salon has learned that documents relating to the two men were shredded hours after the story was published. Three soldiers at Fort Carson, Colo. — including two who were present in Ramadi during the friendly fire incident, one of them just feet from where Nelson and Suarez died — were ordered to shred two boxes full of documents about Nelson and Suarez. One of the soldiers preserved some of the documents as proof that the shredding occurred and provided them to Salon. All three soldiers, with the assistance of a U.S. senator's office, have since been relocated for their safety.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Oct. 14 was a long and eventful day at Fort Carson. The post had been in an uproar. The night before, Salon had published my article airing claims that two of the base's soldiers, Pfc. Albert Nelson and Pfc. Roger Suarez-Gonzalez, had been killed by friendly fire in Iraq on Dec. 4, 2006, but that the Army covered up the cause of death, attributing it to enemy action........




this video is hard to watch. be warned. it is nsfw either

i've not seen the video

nor will i. i will take the word of the written account. i wonder why the mothers and fathers and families and friends of our heroes cannot know the truth. if i was president i would NEVER STAND for that kind of treatment (then again, if i was president we would never be in iraq)

not much more to say other than to the friends and families of pfc suarez-gonzalez and pfc nelson, i am so very sorry for your loss

(as i am with EVERYONE's losses)

Friendly fire in Iraq -- and a coverup

The Army says no, but a graphic video and eyewitness testimony indicate that a U.S. tank killed two American soldiers. The mother of one soldier demands answers.

Editor's note: Mark Benjamin's friendly fire investigation contains 1) the main article, 2) video documentation and 3) the Army's own report on the killing of Nelson and Suarez.

By Mark Benjamin

Oct. 14, 2008 | PHILADELPHIA -- Once a cop, always a cop. Asked if she wanted to see a graphic battle video showing her son Albert bleeding to death, Jean Feggins, retired from the Philadelphia Police Department, said yes.

"Listen, I've moved dead bodies of people I don't even know," she told me, as she sat on a brown couch in the den of her West Philadelphia row house. "I need to know everything. Because he is not a stranger. That's my baby. That's my child."

When Pfc. Albert Nelson died in Iraq in 2006, the Army first told Feggins that he might have been killed by friendly fire, and then that it was enemy mortars. She says she never believed the Army's explanation. "I always felt like they were lying to me," she said. "I could never prove it."

"I would ask the casualty officer what was going on. I'd be told they are still working on the report," she said. "They were still doing their investigation. What could I do? It's the U.S. military. I had no control."............