PETITION PLEASE SIGN AND TELL
OTHERS
"Animals in Iraq" - absolutely
horrendous in the dreadful situation of this country. We might
expect that the US-army should at least offer the necessary animal
protection.
By standing order the soldiers are forbidden to feed animals, for
instance to rescue them within the Army camps, a shocking situation
for the soldiers themselves."
NEWS OCT
2007:
"The
military has now implemented a law concerning the shooting of dogs
or wild animals and it is now against the
law."
For video's scroll
down please
Read "A Few Good Men"
published1974 -
The part about
animals is in a chapter called "If a frog had wings." -
Author Tom
Suddick
Note: Tom was
incapacitated after 1978 due to after-effects of Agent Orange
exposure, and died in 2002.
As the Vietnam war more &
more appeared to be futile and pointless to the soldiers, and their
morale degenerated, there were increasing numbers of instances of
soldiers behaving in a sadistic manner--toward animals, the
Vietnamese, and prostitutes they met while on leave.
From: Merritt Clifton
Date: March 2, 2007 3:43:12 PM GMT+00:00
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:
Pet market
bombings & dog abuse reflect the low price of life in Iraq war
zone
BAGHDAD--Who bombed the Ghazil pet market? Four times? Why?
The anonymous perpetrators of the Ghazil mayhem against both humans
of animals may pretend to motives rooted in religion and
ideology.
Yet, killing and maiming both Sunnis and Shiites, of both genders
and all ages, along with countless animals of multiple species, the
Ghazil bombings exhibited the same depraved disregard for others'
lives as the alleged deeds of former U.S. Army private first class
Steven Dale Green.
Green, 21, is soon to stand trial in U.S. federal court in
Kentucky, facing the death penalty, for allegedly leading four
other soldiers in the March 12, 2006 gang rape and murder of Abeer
Qassim Hamza, 14. First, testified the other soldiers, Green shot
her parents and her five-year-old sister. Then, after the rapes,
Green shot Hamza several times in the head at close range, and set
her hair on fire before fleeing the scene.
Green had apparently rehearsed the acts with an animal
victim.
At an August 7, 2006 pre-trial hearing, wrote Paul von Zielbauer of
The New York Times, soldiers of Green's unit who were called by his
defense to demonstrate his purported mental unfitness to be tried
"testified to a grisly tale of how Mr. Green tossed a puppy off the
roof of a building and set the puppy on fire."
Two of Green's alleged partners in crime, Specialist James P.
Barker, 24, and Sergeant Paul E. Cortez, 24, pleaded guilty to rape
and murder in November 2006 and February 2007, respectively,
receiving sentences of 90 and 100 years in prison. Barker will be
eligible for parole in 20 years, Cortez in only 10 years. Privates
first class Jesse Spielman, 22, and Bryan Howard, 19, are still
awaiting court martial.
Ghazil market
At the Ghazil pet market on January 25, 2007, "Blood stained the
ground and small birds chirped in battered cages around the small
square in front of an ancient Sunni mosque," reported Alastair
Macdonald of Reuters. "Tattered black Shi'ite prayer flags hung in
the clear, still air. The population of the busy area is
religiously mixed," Macdon-ald wrote. "A police source said
witnesses believed Friday's market bomb was planted in a cardboard
box that the bomber had punched with air holes, to pass off as
containing birds. Parrots, canaries and more exotic pets are prime
attractions at the Ghazil market."
Associated Press elaborated that a witness said "a carton
containing pigeons blew up as potential buyers gathered
around."
"My friends and I rushed to the scene," customer Raad Hassan told
Associ-ated Press, "where we saw burned dead bodies, pieces of
flesh, and several dead expensive puppies and birds."
Fifteen people died. Fifty-five were wounded. No source counted the
dead and injured animals.
"The Ghazil pet market is a popular destination on Fridays,"
Associated Press continued. "People gather to sell and buy monkeys,
cats, dogs, and other animals."
Baghdad has one struggling zoo, but in the whole of Iraq there are
no functioning humane societies or animal shelters, and are few
opportunies other than pet markets for most people to see animals
other than dogs, cats, and those used for work or food.
But someone is making a concerted effort to close the Ghazil
market, an institution believed to have endured--with occasional
relocations--since before the time of the Prophet Mohammed.
The first two Ghazil bombs detonated in rapid succession on June 2,
2006, killing five people, wounding 57. The bombs were reportedly
left in bags that looked as if they might hold snakes.
Three people died in the next bombing, on December 1, 2006.
Attacks on Iraq pet keepers and pets in the first months after the
2003 U.S. invasion were mostly attributed to sectarian militants
expressing rejection of U.S. and British pro-animal values. Wiring
dogs with explosives, alive or dead, was allegedly a gesture of
cultural defiance, as well as a means of killing.
Death threats for "collaborating" with Americans to found the Iraq
Society for Animal Welfare in mid-2003 forced former Baghdad Zoo
veterinarian Farah Murrani to flee Iraq toward the end of 2004.
Surviving for at least another year, the Iraq Society for Animal
Welfare is now apparently dormant.
But the Ghazil pet fair has nothing to do with American or British
invaders, nor with western values, nor with any clear strategic
objective of either Shiite or Sunni warring factions, other than
the general notion of making Iraq ungovernable by any other
faction.
The Ghazil bombings appear instead to indicate the involvement of
non-Iraqis espousing a strain of extreme Islamic fundamentalism
most often seen in Afghanistan and adjacent parts of
Pakistan.
The predominant Shiite and Sunni interpretations of Islam both
accept keeping caged birds, as well as other pets.
The Taliban, however, who governed Afghanistan from 1996 to 2003,
believe Islam forbids keeping birds in cages. Soon after the
Taliban took control of Kabul, the Afghan capital, they forced the
release of all caged birds, no matter how dependent the birds were
for survival on human feeders.
The Ghazil market also sells dogs, a practice explicitly forbidden
by at least three Hadiths, or sayings, of Mohammed.
"Allah's Apostle forbade taking the price of a dog," agree Hadith
3:439, 3:440, and Hadith 3:482.
Shooting dogs
Street dogs and fear of dogs due to endemic rabies are both
ubiquitous in Iraq, as elsewhere throughout the world. Wherever
refuse collection is haphazard, dogs do much of the rodent control,
and vaccination and dog sterilization have yet to become
commonplace.
U.S. troops were often portrayed as protectors of dogs and other
animals in the first phases of American involved in Iraq. Soldiers
who adopted Iraq street dogs, and sometimes cats, often found ways
of transporting them stateside, with the help of the Iraq Society
for Animal Welfare and the Boston-based organization Military
Mascots.
Between sixty and 100 animals adopted by U.S. soldiers reached the
U.S. before the most accessible routes were cut off by intensified
biosecurity measures imposed at all U.S. ports of entry in 2004,
after outbreaks of Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the
H5N1 avian influenza spread from southern China throughout the
world.
By March 2005, e-mails and web postings from U.S. troops in Iraq
indicated that the attitudes of some toward dogs had become overtly
hostile, to the consternation of others.
Read one e-mail forwarded to ANIMAL PEOPLE, "Hi my name is M. D.
formerly of A TRP 1-10 CAV 4ID. While in Iraq we had a sport of
killing dogs whenever the Iraqis weren't shooting us. I shot one at
about 50 yards with my M4 and it ran yelping to lower ground. We
had to finish it, so my friends and I went to it and started
shooting it. I've never seen a dog take as many shots to the head,
at least four, as this one did. After we thought it was dead we dug
a hole and when I picked it up with the shovel it came back to
life, so we shot it a couple more times."
The e-mail included the web coordinates of a malfunctioning video
clip that the sender described as "pretty funny."
"I am currently stationed in Iraq with the Tennessee National
Guard," wrote another soldier in mid-2005, identifying himself as
Mike Hoback. "We have several dogs whom the National Guard states
are wild. However, these dogs have never once tried to bite or harm
any soldier, and are loved and cared for by the soldiers. We are
fighting for our lives every day over here," Hoback said, "not
knowing if we will make it to the next day, but upon arriving back
at the camp and seeing the dogs, all of our worries go out the
window and we feel at peace with our K-9 friends."
Unfortunately, Hoback alleged, "The Tennessee and Texas National
Guards have a policy that the animals are to be caught using a
device similar to an old bear trap. Several dogs have been caught
in these traps, and for some reason a week later the traps are
still on them. Once the dogs are caught, they are transported to a
garbage dump and used for target practice, sometimes requiring ten
to fifteen shots before finally being killed.
"I don't understand this, as the military provides medicine to put
dogs to sleep," Hoback continued, "but our leadership will not try
to get it, stating 'We will be gone by the time it gets here.' I
have been fighting this battle with my chain of command for almost
two weeks," Hoback said, "and right now they have suspended the use
of traps and shootings until they look into the law, but I need
help fast."
ANIMAL PEOPLE forwarded the e-mail to several potential sources of
help, but received no further particulars and no confirmation that
the response ever reached Hoback.
On September 28, 2005, ANIMAL PEOPLE received a forwarded e-mail
from someone identifying himself as "a soldier in 2nd of the 3rd
ACR," who was "ordered by my company commander to kill all dogs I
see. We are living at a place called Ft. Telifar," the soldier
said. The company commander allegedly called the dogs a health
risk. "This is not true," the soldier wrote. "The dogs help keep us
protected. At night the dogs bark at anything coming near
us."
The soldier claimed the order to kill dogs came after a litter of
puppies defecated in the commander's quarters.
"People just started shooting dogs like it was some kind of sport,"
the soldier said. "I even heard over the radio that one of the tank
crews killed a cat with a main gun round. At my last count, there
were 26 dead dogs here at the fort in the last two weeks."
Killing dogs, however, was not only not U.S. policy, but was
explicitly against orders for soldiers on patrol.
"Coalition troops in Iraq have been warned not to run over or shoot
stray dogs they see watching them from the roadside," reported
Brendan Nicholson of the Melbourne Age on August 2, 2005, "because
they may be cut-out shapes hiding a home-made bomb.
"Explosives experts say insurgents have created bombs with the
trigger mechanisms hidden behind these fake dogs," Nicholson
explained. "The terrorists have apparently used florescent tape to
create eyes in their canine cut-outs, to make them look more
realistic in a vehicle's headlights.
"The device includes two metal plates," Nicholson said, "that when
hit by a bullet or the wheel of a truck, are jammed together,
closing an electric circuit and setting off the bomb. Coalition
soldiers say the dog bombs are the biggest threat they face."
Notice at last
Reports of U.S. troops killing or abusing dogs in Iraq drew only
sporadic activist notice for more than two years. News reports
occasionally mentioned suspected rabid dogs being shot in combat
areas, but death squad activities and frequent revelations of abuse
of human prisoners tended to draw attention away from anything done
to animals, until January 2007.
Then a video clip posted to a public web site drew more than
287,000 mostly outraged hits within a matter of days. The clip
showed an injured dog lying in ruts left by the recent passage of a
vehicle. Not clear was whether the dog had just been hit, or was
injured earlier. Several U.S. soldiers walked near, taunting and
stoning the dog, laughing at the dog's awkward efforts to limp
away.
"There is no one in Iraq to rescue animals in need of help," posted
Colorado activist Gayle Hoenig, after days of trying to identify
and help the dog. "The Iraq Society for Animal Welfare cannot
operate under these dangerous conditions. They are no longer a
contact and not an option. There is no place to take animals even
if someone does rescue them. There is no way to get animals out of
Iraq. The U.S. military in Iraq is doing whatever they want,"
Hoenig added. "Current U.S. military policy is to shoot dogs who
pose a threat or a nuisance."
But U.S. Army chief of public affairs Brigadier General Tony Cucolo
on February 2, 2007 wrote to Hoenig and others that the Army is
taking the videotaped incident seriously.
"We know from the uniforms and the unit patches," Cucolo said, that
"the video was shot in the late 2003 to late 2004 time frame. We
know the unit, but have yet to identify the individuals who were
present three years ago. We consulted the appropriate experts, who
are making inquiries. We are trying to determine who is
responsible, as well as what actions can and should be
taken."
Although discharged U.S. soldiers--like Steven D. Green--can be
recalled to the military to face trial on felony charges, throwing
rocks at a dog is usually charged as a misdemeanor, if charged at
all.
"I ask to you understand this is not at all representative of our
soldiers," Cucolo wrote. "My personal experience in 27 years of
service, deploying to difficult and challenging environments such
as the Balkans in the mid-1990s, and both Afghanistan and Iraq, is
that the overwhelming majority of American soldiers are kind to
animals, in particular dogs, because they remind us of home.
"This video has had other effects," Cucolo continued. "My duties
include training senior officers and non-commissioned officers
(sergeants) who are headed to key command positions. I now use this
video to show Army leaders the far-reaching impact of the negative
acts of a misguided few.
"We will continue to pursue this issue and strive to see that this
does not happen again," Cucolo promised.
Responded U.S. Army Sergeant Roy Batty, in e-mails to Hoenig,
"Unfortunately, this is pretty much standard soldier stuff. If you
take a bunch of young guys, stick them in a country where people
are trying to kill them, and have them live in a place which is
very boring except for the occasional moment of sheer terror, some
will react with cruelty. I've had to stop some of my own soldiers
from doing similar things.
"In a country where humans are brutally torturing and killing other
humans," Batty added, "and dumping the carcasses in whatever
street, lot, or river is closest, for everyone to see, I would
question the logic behind trying to discipline a soldier for
throwing rocks at a dog."
But historically, worldwide, what humans can do to a dog with
impunity sets the floor for what may be done to fellow humans. The
safer dogs are, the higher the general level of respect for human
rights.
U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman, 46, in November
2004 adopted and sent home a puppy named Lava while fighting in
Fallujah, in acknowledged violation of General Order 1A, forbidding
such rescues. "We had to kill dogs while I was in Fallujah, when
they endangered our troops," Koppelman posted to his personal web
site. "Yet I would never--not for one second--tolerate any of my
troops treating an animal as these soldiers have. This is the kind
of behavior that must require the Department of Defense to re-think
GO-1A. It should also be a wake-up call to the Department of the
Army that its recruiting practices and Big Army are terribly broken
if the people depicted in this video are typical of who they
enlist. We don't need immature, ignorant and abusive people
fighting this war. Soldiers who have abused a helpless animal are
not who should be representing our country."
Commented Humane Society of the U.S. senior policy advisor Bernard
Unti, "We are planning to act on the goal of securing revisions to
the Universal Code of Military Justice some time in 2007, on the
assumption that it would help to minimize and eliminate such
incidents, and worse ones."
--Merritt Clifton
--
Merritt Clifton
Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE
P.O. Box 960
Clinton, WA 98236
Telephone: 360-579-2505
Fax: 360-579-2575
E-mail: anmlpepl@whidbey.com
Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org
[ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing
original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide,
founded in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes the
decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal protection
organizations. We have no alignment or affiliation with any other
entity. $24/year; for free sample, send address.]
No
1
* "Soldiers taunt crippled dog in Iraq - * May be
disturbing to some*
I have nothing to do with this video. Just found it
on another site where the poster said they found in on a blank CD
in the Green Zone, Baghdad. "
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6445f9fdd7
*.*.*.*.*
no 2
* "US Soldier shoots dog with M203 training
round
Under
what circumstances could this have been a justifiable action?
"
www.liveleak.com/view?i=0a5ee2d6eb
*.*.*.*.*
no 3
Dog shooting in Iraq we hope to show you a link to it
soon
*.*.*.*.*
The story of
lieutenant colonel JAY KOPELMAN who rescued puppy LAVA in Bagdad
and homed her in the USA
"From Bagdad, With
Love"
http://www.jaykopelman.com/press2.htm
http://www.dutchypuppy.nl/lava/
'Liefs uit Bagdad' vertelt het aangrijpende verhaal van Luitenant
kolonel Jay Kopelman en het hondje Lava dat het leven van een
aantal stoere Amerikaanse mariniers in Irak volledig op zijn kop
zette. Bestel vandaag nog dit boek en je maakt kans op
entreebewijzen voor de feestelijke boekpresentatie op 28 februari
2007
