"If you can't kill the one you want..."

[lederhosen]

US snipers 'bait' Iraqis:

PENTAGON officials have encouraged some US military snipers in Iraq to target suspected insurgents by scattering "bait", such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, then killing Iraqis who pick up the items, military court documents claim.

The classified program is described in investigative documents related to recently filed murder charges against three snipers who are accused of planting evidence on Iraqis they killed... Members of the sniper platoon have said they felt pressure from commanders to kill more insurgents because US units in the area had taken heavy losses.

Buh?

Comments

[torin3.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine who has appearently been following this fairly closely says that the snipers are using a Nurnberg defense, and that the Army denies having any program of shooting civilians that aren't actively attacking.

Note that they are on trial for war crimes, including planting evidence on people they killed.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j1w0jKfeip0qU8GM70R5toW_Id7Q

[cerebralsilicate.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

Ah, the Kos Defence.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

the Army denies having any program of shooting civilians that aren't actively attacking.

I don't see that in the article you linked to. It says this:

"Boyce also said there are no classified programs that authorize the murder of Iraqi civilians or the use of "drop weapons" to make killings appeared to be legally justified, which is what Vela and the two other snipers are accused of doing." The latter part seems to be dealing with planting weapons after killing people; the former part is meaningless if you define somebody as an 'insurgent' the moment they pick up one of the baits, which is what's been alleged.

Not to mention that the Pentagon has a fairly long record of denying embarrassing stories and then quietly conceding a year or two down the track. As an example, back in the 2003 invasion the SMH reported that US aircraft were using napalm on Iraqi positions; the Pentagon rejected the story and declared that it no longer even stocked napalm, the usual cheer-squads accused the SMH of fabricating the whole thing... and then some time later when the story had died down, the Pentagon acknowledged that they had used something which behaves like napalm, and which plenty of aircrew called napalm, but technically wasn't napalm because the formulation was slightly different (I think it may have had a different trade name). I try not to buy into conspiracy theories, but the Pentagon's PR department have repeatedly shown themselves to be willing to say whatever it takes to make a bad story go away.

Note that they are on trial for war crimes

Actually, the guy who testified about the 'baiting' program is not one of the ones on trial, he's their platoon captain. No doubt it would look very bad for him if three guys under his command were convicted of murder, but he's not personally facing charges AFAIK.

[mdsteele47.livejournal.com]

These are the sorts of things that happen when an institution successfully convinces their members that the enemy is not a group of human beings with a set of basic rights.

Some military people might argue this is exactly what you need to establish to successfully begin a campaign. I argue that it's a sign that it's time to end one.

[psychowoof.livejournal.com]

These are the sorts of things that happen when an institution successfully convinces their members that the enemy is not a group of human beings with a set of basic rights.

So sad that my mind just read this as referring to academia. So sad that such an interpretation is accurate in regards to academia.

But, psychologically speaking, yes, it is much easier to attack "them" if "they" are some ambiguous group of bad guys rather than individuals with basic rights. Unfortunately, I think it is a fact of how the human brain works in categorizing social information. It all comes back to "us v. them".

[scascot.livejournal.com]

"If you can't kill the one you want..."

Kill the one you're with?

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure the baiting program is a different issue than the planting-evidence allegations. Unless the 'planted' evidence is really just bait that would-be insurgents picked up, and the random shooting of civilians never happened... but more likely, it's just something that turned up during the investigation of the real crimes.

The bit I read about it said the 'bait' was planted in places where civilians had no business being, usually on or around army bases.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Nobody's claiming (AFAIK) that the planting-evidence bit was an authorised part of the baiting program; my understanding is that items provided for the baiting program were used for planting, and I think the defence is claiming that authorised baiting is evidence of a trigger-happy attitude and a desire to increase body counts.

the 'bait' was planted in places where civilians had no business being, usually on or around army bases.

That doesn't make much sense - presumably insurgents hoping to attack a base would bring their own weaponry and explosives, rather than just going in on the off-chance of finding some lying around?

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

"This is usually done in locations where people are looking to harm soldiers," he said, suggesting the bait was left inside or on the perimeter of US military "locations" to target insurgents trying to steal ammunition and materiel.

From:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/usiraqmilitarysnipers;_ylt=AnedjfsHjOQDJNjZxdIls7IDW7oF

The idea (as I understand it) is that you make it look like something that a thief could get away with stealing, and not something someone discarded that an innocent bystander might pick up, so that you're only summarily executing thieves. Which is still fairly harsh.

[hacked2death.livejournal.com]

As Bill Hicks once said..

We're like Jack Palance in the movie Shane, throwing the pistol at the sheep herder's feet: "Pick it up."

"I don't wanna pick it up mister, you'll shoot me."

"Pick up the gun."