[Balog]

An Army officer is charged with assault for threatening a detainee.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20031028-113335-6042r.htm

[esheato]

"Said his wife, Angela, who lives in Fort Hood: "My husband is a top-of-the-line officer. My husband is an African-American. He has had to overcome a number of things to get where he is."

What's this have to do with anything?

Back to the story, what he did obviously wasn't right, but it worked, and in that situation, I really can't fault the guy. Almost retired, and doing what needs to be done to get the job done. Let him resign and fade away.

esheato...

[Pilgrim]

"Said his wife, Angela, who lives in Fort Hood: "My husband is a top-of-the-line officer. My husband is an African-American. He has had to overcome a number of things to get where he is."
What's this have to do with anything?
Very little, but it alerts the Jesse Jacksons of the world that a brother needs help.

Back to the story, what he did obviously wasn't right, but it worked, and in that situation, I really can't fault the guy. Almost retired, and doing what needs to be done to get the job done. Let him resign and fade away.
Not quite that easy. He is retirement eligible, but if he resigns his commission he loses his pension. To receive his pension he has to request retirement and have it approved by the Secretary of the Army.

He was offered a deal to resign his commission or face court martial. If he resigns, not only does he give up his pension, he also escapes the jurisdiction of a court martial. As a retired officer, he can be recalled to active duty to face prosecution for crimes committed while on active duty.

Pilgrim

[Gunhamr]

Prtomote him to Bird Colonel and give him a bigger
pistol; something like a 1911A1 in 45ACP.

[manwithoutahome]

I think he is justified:

The plot to kill was against HIM! He was the target, he was scared and the threat was immenent. This is a true case of self defense even though the traitor lived (only by the grace of this Colonel).

M

[TheeBadOne]

This is a complex matter and a classic example of "shades of grey" in a black & white world.

[Gunhamr]

Not too complex if you are in a war zone and the
other man is out to kill you. Kill him first!!!!!!

Or as Gen. Patton once said, "Don't give your life
for your country, make the other bastard give his."

A few "prisoners" were shot "while trying to escape"
in the islands during WWII. War can be hell.

[Holly76201]

I think Col. West deserves a promotion or at the least a Citation.
He quite probably saved the lives of his men and innocent civilians who may have been around during the planned terrorist. We are losing too many of OUR servicemen and women daily to these dam* attacks!!:cuss:
I think it was a justified interrogation technique merely by its effectiveness. And is anyone but me wondering why an Iraqi POLICEMAN was associating with the terrorists?
Seems I've heard or read of similar techniques being used in Israel or by Israelis and in Nam. As long as they don't kill the prisoner I don't have a problem with it. Terrorists don't deserve to have the same rights duiring an MILITARY investigation as suspects do in a criminal investigation.

Holly

[Justin]

Moving to L&P

[Sean Smith]

An informant reported that there was an assassination plot against Col. West, an artillery officer working with the local governing council in Saba al Boor.

Sorry, folks, but LTC West was a moron. It isn't the job of artillery officers to perform interrogations. The 4th Infantry Division he's assigned to has the entire 104th Military Intelligence Battalion supporting it (and who knows who else), but this cannon-cocker decides to take an interrogation into his own hands with a couple of Joes and an M9? Not real smart as a rule... the Army doesn't dump money into training folks in CI interrogation techniques so some guy who doesn't know a KUBARK manual from a Julia Child cookbook can bugger it up. And the fact that the interrogation is public knowledge (and thus propaganda fodder for the enemy) means that it WAS buggered up, by the way.

My guess would be that he allowed the fact that the attack was directed at him personally (as his e-mail to the Times stated) to impair his judgement. Apparently he didn't see the need to "aggress" detainees when only soldiers were getting blown away, but once his name comes up on the hit list he suddenly becomes gung-ho about personally questioning the locals.

I'd be surprised if he doesn't get publically ground into hamburger for the good of the overall mission, though if the mentality of third-world folks in general is any indication, the Iraqis probably consider roughing the guy up a non-event.

[Sean Smith]

Some additional thoughts:

The interrogation was, by definition, a failure, since it became public knowledge and propaganda fodder for the enemy.

The beating and death threats got them a nugget of useful information from the guy. Had they turned the guy over to professionals, they could have gotten information on the entire terrorist organization that the guy worked with, and maybe even made a double agent out of him. Because the interrogation itself was amateurishly bungled, and because the fact that the guy was interrogated is public knowledge, the bad guy in question is useless to us now. LTC West did us the great disservice of destroying a source utterly to get one crumb of data from him.

I would be alot more sympathetic to his point of view if it was a plot to kill off a bunch of his solders and he over-reacted. But it would have still been a mistake.