Updated January 23, 2008:
New details have emerged on how 2 US soldiers, Pvt. Kristian Menchaca and Pvt. Thomas L. Tucker, were killed in Iraq. The 2 men were captured and taken prisoner by Iraqi Al Qaeda at a checkpoint on a bridge over a canal. The location was near where a canal meets the Euphrates River on the outskirts of the town of Karagol, near Jurf As Sakhr, in the Triangle of Death.
For the location of the Triangle of Death, see the map in my prior post on the Death Triangle, one of the best on the Internet.
A Marine stands guard in Yusufiyah next to a young Iraqi boy in this photo from December 2004. Menchaca and Taylor were seized in Karagol, about 17 miles south of Yusufiyah. Their bodies were found in Jurf as Sakhr, a larger town next to Karagol. Yet many news reports are insisting that the men were both seized and found in Yusufiyah, which is a ways to the north.
A US soldier takes aim at unknown targets in Yusufiyah in December 2004 as an Iraqi girl peeks around the corner.
An Iraqi man preparing to vote in Yusufiyah in January 2005 is frisked by election guards. The despicable Sunni terrorists actually attacked polling places in this town where people were trying to cast votes.US soldiers were tipped off by Iraqis, who were the first to find the bodies. The Iraqis warned US troops that the bodies may be boobytrapped. Early Monday evening, June 18, US troops discovered the bodies of the soldiers. The bodies were lying in a ditch by the side of the road near a power plant in Jurf As Sakhr.
Troops heeded the warnings of the Iraqis that the bodies may be boobytrapped, so they established a perimeter and waited until dawn to call in a bomb squad. Consequently, it took 12 hours to remove the bodies because there were a large number of roadside bombs scattered along the road and near the bodies.
What is interesting about this piece of information is that it flies in the face of the raging pro-terrorist rhetoric fulminating our way from the Idiot Wind known as the Rightwing Blogosphere. In the past few days, I read call after call on these blogs to carpet bomb the entire Triangle of Death, to level the whole area, to nuke it, and in general to kill civilians randomly in the area.
The basis for these calls was supposedly that the Death Triangle civilians almost all support the killers of the soldiers. The truth, as usual, is much more complicated.
Being complicated, it is hence beyond the capacity of most rightwingers, who believe rather than think, who lack critical thinking skills, who are afflicted with extreme levels of intellectual dishonestly and who demonstrate a general dislike of science, education and intellectuals.
For more on this dynamic, see the superb essay, Thinkers Versus Believers, by Tony Ward, a Political Science professor at Pitzer College in Claremont, California.
Now let us look at the facts in this case.
- A local gave an excellent description of the attack on the US soldiers, including descriptions of the attackers, the weapons they used, the outcome of the attack, and the vehicles used to drive the POW's away.
- Locals informed US troops that they heard that the POW's were being held in Jurf as Sakhr. It turns out that that is precisely where they were held.
- When locals discovered the soldiers' bodies, they promptly informed US troops and warned troops that the area was probably booby-trapped.
- Although there are clearly many guerrilla supporters in the area, including supporters of Iraqi Al Qaeda, news reports on the town where the abduction occurred, Karagol, describe Iraqi Al Qaeda Headquarters in the area a place where locals live in utter terror of Iraqi Al Qaeda.
- Considering that any cooperation with US troops is often met with threats, beatings, torture, and frequently death, wouldn't you say that the citizens above were cooperating with US troops, and hence putting their lives at risk?
US troops cross a river (possibly the Euphrates) or more likely a canal, on Monday, June 19, in a sadly futile search for the missing 2 US POW's. The soldiers' bodies were found later that day in Jurf as Sakhr, not Yusufiyah as countless reports insist. Although crossing a river with all that equipment looks like a drag, in 130-degree temperatures it might actually be refreshing.Initial reports by an Iraqi defense official said the 2 men were killed "in a barbaric way" and there were "signs of torture on their bodies". Later, IAQ released a statement that credited the new circus freak leader of the Islamofascist IAQ, Abu Hamza al-Mujaher, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, with "slaughtering" the POW's himself.
However, the Counterterrorism Blog recently noted that IAQ issued a statement that appeared to imply that the previous statement crediting the IAQ leader himself with the execution of the 2 POW's was not credible. The Webmaster of the Tajdeed Forum on which the announcement took place has recently been attacked by Saudi Al Qaeda as an informant for British intelligence.
On the other hand, one can clearly see the Iraqi Al Qaeda logo on the homepage of that forum. Furthermore, if you look around that forum you will see various banners, including a banner with the classic Saudi Al Qaeda logo. There is also a logo of a horse with Arabic writing next to it. Many Al Qaeda logos utilize a horse.
There is another banner on the site with a picture of Saudi Arabia next to an AK-47. I assume this page is associated with the Saudi Arabian Al Qaeda organization.
The language in the supposedly fake posting seemed to have intimate knowledge of the fate of 2 soldiers soon after they were killed, when almost no information about the deaths was available. That implies that even if the posting was fake, the posters clearly had knowledge of the killing of the 2 soldiers. The fact that the posters were intimately connected with the killers renders the debate largely moot.
US military spokesmen noted that the bodies were "remains" that were so badly disfigured and mutilated that they were not able to determine the cause of death. The bodies were sent back to the US for DNA identification and this morning the families of both soldiers were notified that the remains had been positively ID's as those of Menchaca and Tucker. There will also be an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death.
An article in the Houston Chronicle quoted a relative of Menchaca's as saying that an Army spokesman had told him on Tuesday morning that both men had in fact been decapitated. The MSM is now quoting Army officials confirming that one, or possibly both men were decapitated.
Apparently, the initial results of the autopsy are being leaked. According to a group called Sons of Washington, the decapitation of Menchaca and Tucker was the coup de grace, and was done while they were still conscious.
However, a New York Times article on Friday, June 23, quoted Menchaca's relatives as saying that the military had told them that both soldiers were probably killed in the gunbattle at the scene. The bodies were then desecrated afterwards to make it appear that they had been tortured to death. This would contradict a witnesses' statement who said he had seen guerrillas away from the scene and placing them in cars.
The relative also said that only one soldier had been decapitated, not both.
On Wednesday afternoon, a post on the Free Republic website quoted Fox News military analyst Colonel David Hunt as saying that the 2 men had had their toes and fingers chopped off and their livers and intestines were removed and spilled onto the ground. According to the blog Blue Star Chronicles, the men also had their tongues cut out.
A Fox News columnist, E.D. Hill, said that the soldiers had their hearts cut out, their eyes gouged out, their noses and ears cut off and their penises and testicles cut off and stuffed in their mouths. Malott's Blog said the soldiers were burned with cigarettes and had their arms pulled out of their sockets.
There are also reports that they were dragged behind vehicles.
The blog The Further Adventures of Indigo Red reports that they were covered in garbage and surrounded by several roadside bombs.
These guys sound like Hannibal Lectors, not guerrillas.
There are claims that the government is covering up the details of the torture done to Menchaca and Tucker to protect their families. That seems reasonable enough, but the details are bound to get out anyway.
Nice people, those Iraqi Al Qaeda guys.
This blog issues its deepest condolences to the friends and family of the 2 murdered soldiers.
Other soldiers were injured and killed in the search for Tucker and Menchaca. Spc. Joshua Gutierrez was driving a Bradley armored vehicle north of Iskandariyah (see my map linked in the first paragraph) as part of the mission to search for the troops when the vehicle hit a roadside bomb.
The cockpit area of the Bradley was engulfed in flames and Gutierrez was unable to open the hatch at the back to let the troops out. Nor could he get himself out, because both of his legs were broken.
But another soldier jumped out and pulled Gutierrez out of the vehicle. Gutierrez suffered serious injuries in the attack and had part of one of his legs amputated.
During the search, US troops swarmed into the area around Jurf as Sakhr, an area that has not seen many US troops in recent days. A resident said there was a Humvee in front of every house.
US forces are launching an investigation to determine why the soldiers' Humvee was alone outside their base. In Iraq, most US military vehicles, even Abrams tanks, tend to travel in pairs. Apparently, the other vehicles in the soldiers' patrol left Menchaca and Taylor alone while the other vehicles were inspecting traffic. This is possibly a violation of the Army procedure above that all US military vehicles travel at least in pairs.
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