Related post: http://sfcmac.com/update-on-the-new-republics-man-in-iraq/
I received correspondence from Mrs. John Hatley (in the comments at the above link), and wrote a final summation of the travesty against 1SG John Hatley.
This is happening right in conjunction with Scotty ‘Fabulist’ Beauchamp’s recent sob story in the “Radar Online”:
Link: http://sfcmac.com/the-last-gasp-of-the-new-republics-man-in-iraq/
What. A. Coinkidink.
In March or April 2007, three noncommissioned United States Army officers, including a first sergeant, a platoon sergeant and a senior medic, killed four Iraqi prisoners with pistol shots to the head as the men stood handcuffed and blindfolded beside a Baghdad canal, two of the Soldiers said in sworn statements.
After the killings, the first sergeant — the senior noncommissioned officer of his Army company — told the other two to remove the men’s bloody blindfolds and plastic handcuffs, according to the statements made to Army investigators, which were obtained by The New York Times.
The statements and other court documents were provided by a person close to one of the Soldiers in the unit who insisted on anonymity and who has an interest in the outcome of the legal proceedings.
Scotty, is that you?
After removing the blindfolds and handcuffs, the three Soldiers shoved the four bodies into the canal, rejoined other members of their unit waiting in nearby vehicles and drove back to their combat outpost in southwest Baghdad, the statements said.
The Soldiers, all from Company D, First Battalion, Second Infantry, 172nd Infantry Brigade, have not been charged with a crime. However, lawyers representing other members of the platoon who said they witnessed or heard the shootings, which were said to have occurred on a combat patrol west of Baghdad, said all three would probably be charged with murder.
1SG Hatley was Scotty ‘Fabulist’ Beauchamp’s First Sergeant when he wrote his fairy tales for The New Republic.
……In their sworn statements, Sergeants Mayo and Leahy described the events that preceded the shooting of the Iraqi men, who apparently were Shiite fighters linked to the Mahdi Army militia, which controlled the West Rashid area of southwest Baghdad.
The same Mahdi Army which the NYT cheered from the sidelines.
Link: http://sfcmac.com/the-difference-between-victory-and-defeat-msm-style/
After taking small-arms fire, the patrol chased some men into a building, arresting them and finding several automatic weapons, grenades and a sniper rifle, they said. On the way to their combat outpost, Sergeant Hatley’s convoy was informed by Army superiors that the evidence to detain the Iraqis was insufficient, Sergeant Leahy said in his statement. The unit was told to release the men, according to the statement.
“First Sergeant Hatley then made the call to take the detainees to a canal and kill them,” Sergeant Leahy said, as retribution for the deaths of two soldiers from the unit: Staff Sgt. Karl O. Soto-Pinedo, who died from a sniper’s bullet, and Specialist Marieo Guerrero, killed by a roadside bomb.
“So the patrol went to the canal, and First Sergeant, Sgt. First Class Mayo and I took the detainees out of the back of the Bradley, lined them up and shot them,” Sergeant Leahy said, referring to a Bradley fighting vehicle. “We then pushed the bodies into the canal and left.”
Sergeant Mayo, in his statement, attributed his decision to kill the men to “anger,” apparently at the recent deaths of his two comrades.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/world/middleeast/27abuse.html?scp=1&sq=Hatley&st=cse
Here’s what’s really fucked about this. The Soldiers chased down the terrorist cocksuckers who fired at them and found their weapons cache, but that wasn’t sufficient evidence. What. The. Fuck. Who came up with that idea? A JAG REMF?
We should stop taking prisoners. There’s no point in it. The enemies we capture get more condolence from a sympathetic media than the bravery it took to capture them.
I wonder if the asshats who gleefully jumped on this story would have the same opinion about the execution of Nazi troops. The similarities between Islam and Nazis are striking. Same M.O.; they spread their brand of fascism by terror, propaganda, and brutal oppression.
Not only that, when the slugs are transported to GITMO in order to extract information that will help save American lives, Soldiers are slandered and attacked by leftwingnuts for doing their duty. If they are released, they pick up where they left off. We’re damned if we do, damned if we don’t. All things considered, summary executions might not be a bad idea.
Bottom line for this story:
Even after Beauchamp was outed as an abject fraud, the leftwingnuts are more than willing to believe any story that portrays Soldiers as wanton murderers.
This is simply more requisite, sensationalist, anti-military crap from the NYT.
Hate to burst the nihilists’ bubble, but it’s highly improbable that 1SG Hatley ever gave such an order. The likely truth? These Soldiers did this on their own and decided to defer responsibility for their actions.
Like Beauchamp.
DHA-A,
I deployed with the 1st Armored Division during Desert Storm and the 101st Airborne Division in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I was an Intel Analyst working in forward units. When it comes to clues, you’re severely lacking.
Speaking of invasions, we invaded Germany, Italy, and a host of other countries after we were attacked in WWII. Only one was directly involved in Pearl Harbor—Japan. Your point is?
Here’s several points I’ve made repeatedly on this blog to clueless individuals who think that the threat of Islamofascism can be addressed by simply focusing on Afghanistan, which is conspicuously absent from your argument:
1. When you retaliate, i.e.: attack an enemy, it’s usually a good idea to hit them where they live and breed, as well as their allies. In the Middle East it’s something like this: Pick one.
Terrorists cross borders. They sure as hell crossed ours, didn’t they?
The 9/11 attacks preceded our invasion of ME countries, not the other way around.
One of the letters we intercepted from Ayman al-Zawahiri to the now in hell Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, specifically mentioned the establishment an Islamic Caliphate in the “heart of the Islamic world”, to include Iraq. He mentioned this as being vital to Al Qaeda’s war against Western civilization. Afghanistan was a side show. Despite this, you Dem sock puppets keep spouting the line that Iraq is a “mistake” because it diverted our attention away from the “real war” in Afghanistan. Well, looks like Zawahiri refuted that notion. Zawahiri also said that Afghanistan is “just the groundwork and the vanguard for the major battles which have begun in the heart of the Islamic world.”
Newsflash: Even after victory is officially declared in Iraq and Afghanistan, this war ain’t over by a long shot. Saudis and Egytpians, who comprised most of the 9/11 attackers, are only a small contingent. Jordan, Yemen, Syria, Iran, and Sudan, have all contributed to world-wide atrocities against Western civilization.
You need to read some history, DHA-A.
Terrorists are trained, funded, and supported throughout the Middle East. The Islamofascist vision of a world Caliphate will continue unless we kill them all off.
Our policy should be simple: you attack us, we annihilate you, your supporters, your country, everything.
That’s how you fight a “jihad”. But, I’m a former Soldier, not a politician.
2. No one, not even George Bush ever said that Iraq was directly involved in 9/11. What he did say, and the fact remains, is that Hussein was a WMD-wielding megalomaniac who supported al Qaeda, and a plethora of other terrorist groups. He thumbed his nose at every resolution enacted by the U.N. including Res. 1441, which in conjunction with Congressional approval, gave us the authority to use military force. You ought to read it some time. As a former Soldier who was there at the time, I’m damned glad we took out the sonofabitch before he had the chance to use what he had.
He was, just like the bulk of the Middle East, a threat to U.S. forces in the region. We have every right to be there and should have finished the job when I was there the first time.
Our Commander-in-Chief caused more American deaths than Saddam? Funny, I thought it was all those IEDs, firefights, and homicide bombings by the Taliban and Al Qaeda. You can thank them for the reason we are in this war to begin with.
3. I never tire of providing the clueless with facts and information:
In case you didn’t know, we found a substantial amount of hidden WMD along with documents and recordings in which Saddam Hussein emphatically stated his intention to continue WMD development and deception.
1) Declassified NGIC report:
http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/Iraq_WMD_Declassified.pdf
2) 1.77 metric tons of enriched uranium: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3872201.stm
3) 1,500 gallons of chemical weapons agents:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/13/AR2005081300530.html
4) Chemical warheads containing cyclosarin:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/07/02/international1018EDT0516.DTL
and: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,124576,00.html
5) Over 1,000 radioactive materials in powdered form meant for dispersal over populated areas:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3872201.stm
6) Roadside bombs loaded with mustard and “conventional” sarin gas, assembled in binary chemical projectiles for maximum potency: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120137,00.html
Looting of WMD facilities:
In the weeks after Baghdad fell in April 2003, looters systematically dismantled and removed tons of machinery from Saddam Hussein’s most important weapons installations, including some with high-precision equipment capable of making parts for nuclear arms, a senior Iraqi official said this week in the government’s first extensive comments on the looting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/international/middleeast/13loot.html?pagewanted=1
The UN admitted that Iraq had over six tons of anthrax, most of it weaponized, right up until the invasion.
Those weapons were previously unknown to U.N. inspectors; they were concealed. Those are weapons and materials Hussein was not supposed to possess, yet he did.
Link to where this (and more) is posted: http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/no-lies-about-iraq/
Oh yeah, and his terrorist connections:
He gave thousands of dollars to families of suicide bombers and in addition, Iraqi intelligence met with al Qadea operatives and provided with training camps in Northern Iraq:
The Mother of All Connections
From the July 18, 2005 issue: A special report on the new evidence of collaboration between Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and al Qaeda.
by Stephen F. Hayes & Thomas Joscelyn
07/18/2005, Volume 010, Issue 41
Source:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/804yqqnr.asp?pg=1
Saddam Hussein, as evidenced by the WMD found, his previous use, continued willingness to use them, and the documents discovered which connected him to terrorists, was a threat. The fact remains that the inspectors got absolutely nowhere with regard to full disclosure of Hussein’s WMD program.
Again, he was not the only one. Consider every country in the Middle East a threat until proven otherwise.
3. I know one thing for certain about “headlines” in the liberal media: they’re always designed to denigrate the military and undercut the mission in favor of the enemy. Pay attention to the source: The New York Times. Anyone with even one iota of media sophistication can figure out that the NYT has been a Fifth Column participant for years.
None of us, including the Chapn’ was there when 1SG Hatley and his Soldiers chased down the enemy who fired on them. I’ll say this much, given the ridiculous ROE and the brutal tactics of muslim terrorists that get a free pass in the MSM, my benefit of the doubt goes to the Soldiers. So should yours, and the Chapn’s. The families of those he murdered??? Those ‘families’ are part and parcel of terrorist support in Iraq (what there is left of it). You don’t think they knew their relatives were involved in terrorist activities? Those families support their terrorists; far more than you and the Chapn’ support the Soldiers who have to fight them.
Talk about clueless.
I don’t sound like a war vet? Tell you what sweetpea, when your experiences come anywhere close to the 30 years, two wars and a so-called ‘peacekeeping mission’ I’ve served in, or when you’ve accumulated enough of your own experience to develop a realistic, informed perspective on military tactics and geo-political knowledge, you can talk about so-and-so not being a war vet, just because you don’t like my ‘HOOAH’ approach.
When you’re old enough, you’ll realize that the American Soldier isn’t always the bad guy portrayed in the liberal MSM.
When you get out, we’ll compare DD214s.
SFC MAC
I deployed with the 2nd BCT (the BDE has since re-flagged to the 172 INF BDE) and I worked at the DHA-A (Division Holding Area Annex). All of the 1-18’s detainees were brought to the DHA-A. Many times the units that brought in the detainees would “trump” up the charges against the detainees they captured.
Sadly enough you don’t actually know this story. You, as you spoke about the Chaplin, are just spouting off with half of the story. Being there and knowing what happened gives me different insight.
You spout about the Iraqi’s but you have no clue. We as Americans would be out on the street killing Iraqi’s if they invaded our country as we have theirs. They are only trying to save themselves from us. We have no right to be in their country. No Iraqi did anything to warrant us even being there but we are. We are the ones in the wrong.
Please don’t spout about the World Trade Center because if you actually know the facts then you’d know that not one Iraqi was involved. You would also know that there were a few Saudi’s involved but they are our allies. Why aren’t we actually going after the ones that had something to do with the bombing?
We have invaded Iraq and countless Americans and Iraqis are being killed just because we started something that we should not have. After reading up on what actually happened on 11 September 2001 read up on what President Bush has had to say about it. He has said on more than one occasion that he was mistaken that they had nothing to do with the bombing. All he says now is that Sadaam needed to be taken down. I ask WHY? What threat was he to us? Our own Commander in Chief has caused more deaths to Americans than Sadaam has.
I apologize for the tangent but you actually have no idea what really happened that night. All you know is what you’ve read in the headlines. Those NCOs’ were wrong. Just as the Chaplin stated, they scream the NCO Creed at the top of their lungs but they would do something like this. If they wanted justice then we have a way of going about it as Americans and as those that wear the uniform.
We can be as mad as we want in America but we still can’t break the law. Regardless what you say we took an oath when we joined that we would never behave in such a manner. Those NCOs’ broke that and should be punished.
I am apart of the 172 INF BDE and I speak with MSG Hatley on occasion. He is a nice guy, he obviously let his emotions get the best of him and he made a huge life changing mistake. Not only will his family be without him now the families of those he murdered will too. This was his choice and now the families of those murdered, his family, the families of his team, his unit, his BDE and the Army have to deal with the consequences.
You say you’re a war veteran but you sure don’t sound like one.
Chappy,
Wow. This is certainly a first. An Army Chaplin giving an indignant lecture to a retired Army NCO/war veteran.
That’s okay, Sir. I’m up to the task.
I’m agnostic and I don’t have a ‘religion’. I have a more straightforward, realistic, pragmatic approach to this problem-filled world.
First of all, Chapn’, your approach to everything is from a religious perspective, as required by your position. Unfortunately, it’s clouded your perspective. You must divest yourself of the notion that we are fighting an enemy who honors the Geneva Convention or can even find Geneva on a map.
I dare say that if you were ever captured by the practitioners of the ‘religion of peace’ you wouldn’t have the chance to eke out the first line in the Lord’s Prayer before they brought the sword down across your neck.
Just ask Nick Berg….
My suggestion for summary executions was only half-serious. It’s borne out of the frustration of witnessing the lop-sided way in which the military is portrayed in the leftist media and by their comrades in the House and Senate.
Islamofascists understand us better than we understand them. Your naiveté is indicative of our typical American ‘play by the rules’ mindset. War is and always has been a brutal thing, on all sides.
Your indignation should be vented toward terrorists and other enemy combatants who don’t have ROE. They couldn’t care less about our ‘American values’, Chapn’. As a matter of fact, that’s part of the problem. They know we are restricted (at times) by a ridiculous set of Marquis of Queensberry rules while they enjoy a no-holds barred approach. Don’t think that just because we achieved victory in Iraq and Afghanistan, that the Islamic terrorists are done. Given the fact that they are bred, trained, indoctrinated, and funded throughout the Middle East, this war ain’t over by a long shot. We will no doubt sink back into comfortable complacency, while they continue to plot and carry out atrocities and more attacks against Western civilization, America in particular.
The charges brought against 1SG Hatley and his Soldiers are trumped up to say the least.
Regardless of the outcome, they will bear the scars of doing what they had to do in order to stop the terrorist scumbags from taking any more American lives, while the Islamic propagandists on MEMRI and Al Jazeera get more mileage out of this travesty.
THAT IS SHAMEFUL.
‘Just like the enemy’….yeah, right.
The Four Pillars of the NCO Corps: Courage, Candor, Competence, and Commitment.
I have the Courage to stand up for my beliefs, the Candor to state them, Competence as a war vet and former Intelligence Analyst with a strong background and experience in counter-terrorism, and the Commitment to carry on the mission, through word and deed, of the preservation of my country.
And the purpose of the United States Army as proscribed in FM 3-0 Army Operations:
In blunt terms, that means we break things and kill bad guys.
I too, am a registered Republican, Chapn’. I joined up in 1976, and served for 30 years combined. (10 Reserve, 20 Active). I served through the Cold War, in Desert Storm, in Bosnia, and in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I retired from Active Duty in 2006. Although I am not entirely pleased with them, I will vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin because they are much better than the alternative.
I suppose you can do your part and pray with all of your might that Barack Hussein Obama never makes it into the White House. With the terrorist and radical leftwing friends, admirers, and associates he’s accumulated, the prospect of him as Commander in Chief should have you spinning like Linda Blair’s head in the The Exorcist.
I’ve said this before and it bears repeating: On 12 September 2001, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, for starters, should have been leveled into parking lots. But, I’m a former Soldier, not a politician or a Chapn’.
The anger in my heart is justified and my observations are re-affirmed every time I read or hear of the outrageous bullshit being heaped on Soldiers just trying to do their jobs and accomplish the mission.
Since you’re in Iraq as we speak, this is an appropriate adage:
“Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!”
Take care Chapn’
HOOAH!
SFC MAC
SFC McElroy — you wrote “We should stop taking prisoners. There’s no point in it. The enemies we capture get more condolence from a sympathetic media than the bravery it took to capture them…. All things considered, summary executions might not be a bad idea.”
As an Army Chaplain in Iraq at the moment, I find it hard to believe that a senior NCO could spout such a load of crap.
If YOU want to become just like the enemy, Sar’nt, go ahead. But I, for one, believe that if we become them, they’ve already won.
Just because *they* don’t abide by the tenets of the Law of War and Rules of Engagement is not sufficient warrant for memers of the United States
Army (or Air Force or Marines or Navy or Coast Guard — or our contractors) to abandon our values as Americans! We are Americans, and we’re better than that, Sar’nt.
Have you forgotten your NCO Creed, which says, “… [I] will at all times conduct myself so as to bring credit upon the Corps, the Military Service and my country regardless of the situation in which I find myself. I will not use my grade or position to attain pleasure, profit, or personal safety”?
By advocating the lawlessness you’re espousing, Sar’nt, and the disrespect of our Constitution involved in the notion of summary executions, you are, in fact, dishonoring yourself, and bringing discredit upon the United States Army — even if you’re retired. You’re advocating using your position (having a weapon, wearing a uniform) to attain “personal safety” through “summary executions” — in direct contradiction to the NCO Creed you supposedly ascribe(d) to.
How shameful!
As a registered Republican, and proud officer in the United States Army, having joined up after 2001, I’m appalled at the sentiments you have expressed in writing, and urge you to rethink your postions.
With so much anger and resentment in your heart, perhaps you might talk with a Chaplain….
May God bless you and keep you, Sar’nt.