Tag: military

US soldier shoots himself to avoid Iraq

Posted on By 3arabawy

Via AP:

A soldier who recently returned from Iraq has admitted he paid someone $500 to shoot him in the leg so he could avoid returning for another tour.
Jonathan Aponte, 20, claimed he had been robbed and shot but changed his story when police questioned him, authorities said. Aponte, who was facing another eight-month tour, had been scheduled to leave last Monday.
“As far as being shot at every day, I think it’s better,” Aponte told WCBS-TV in an interview that aired Friday. “Mentally I can’t do it anymore. I can’t handle it anymore.”

U.S. military deaths in Iraq at 3,610

Posted on By 3arabawy

Capitalism is Cannibalism

From AP…

As of Wednesday, July 11, 2007, at least 3,610 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,966 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military’s numbers.
The AP count is one less than the Defense Department’s tally, last updated Wednesday at 10 a.m. EDT.
The British military has reported 159 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 20; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Romania, South Korea, one death each.

Argentine priest in Dirty War trial

Posted on By 3arabawy

Dirty War

From Al-Jazeera…

A Roman Catholic priest has gone on trial in Argentina charged with involvement in kidnappings, murder and torture while the country was under military rule from 1976 to 1983.
Heavy security surrounded the courthouse in La Plata as the trial got under way on Thursday, with defendant Christian Von Wernich wearing a bullet-proof vest.
The Roman Catholic priest is charged with participating in seven murders, 42 kidnappings, and 31 cases of torture while he was chaplain to the Buenos Aires police force.
He is accused of using his religious position to obtain confessions from prisoners who were held at secret detention centers.
The case has raised questions about the church’s role during Argentina’s so-called Dirty War and although Von Wernich is the first priest to face trial for crimes, about 20 others are alleged to have worked with the military government.
“Von Wernich would visit prisoners after horrific torture sessions and asked them to trust him, to give him information in exchange for an improvement in the conditions of their detention,” Carlos Zaidman, a survivor of one of the detention camps, said.