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Bait and Kill

Jill

Well this is one of the more disturbing things I’ve read this week. Apparently soldiers in Iraq were instructed to plant fake weapons and then kill anyone who picked them up.

After visiting the sniper unit in Iraq, members of the Asymmetrical Warfare Group gave soldiers ammunition boxes containing so-called “drop items” like bullets, plastic explosives and bomb detonation cords to use to pinpoint Iraqis involved in insurgent activity, according to Capt. Matthew P. Didier, a sniper platoon leader who gave sworn testimony in the accused soldiers’ court hearings.

Captain Didier, in a sworn statement about the program that was obtained by The New York Times, described baiting as “putting an object out there that we know they will use, with the intention of destroying the enemy.”

After placing the bait, snipers observed the area around it, Captain Didier said in his statement. “If someone found the item, picked it up and attempted to leave with the item,” he said, “we would engage the individual, as I saw this as a sign that they would use the item against U.S. forces.” (Engage is a military euphemism for firing on or killing an enemy.)

Or it’s evidence that they’re in a war zone, their whole country is destroyed, they have no income, and if they see something on the street that looks like it could be of value, they’re going to pick it up. Or it’s evidence that they’re human beings, and human beings tend to be awfully curious, and occasionally pick things up off the street.

Children also tend to be awfully curious.

Christ. These are the kinds of practices that I associate with the most under-handed, morally bankrupt military regimes in history. These are not the kinds of practices that I want carried out in my country’s name. Although I suppose with things like Guantanamo and stripping habeas rights and secret prisons, we can’t really be surprised. But we’re supposed to be better than this, aren’t we?

The Washington Post has even more. It looks like a few soldiers are taking the fall for a broader policy.

6 thoughts on Bait and Kill

  1. When I saw this in the paper today, I thought about what would happen if you planted those weapons in a normal American neighbourhood.

    Surprise – people would pick them up.

    Because maybe they’re not sure what it is and want to take a closer look. Maybe they think it’s litter. Maybe they think ‘hey, free ammo for my legally owned gun’. Maybe they don’t want it near their house and want to move it before they contact authorities. Maybe they mistake it for something else. For goodness sake, the various reasons why a human would want to pick up an object is endless.

    It kinda reminds me of those landmines that are disguised as normal objects so people pick them up. There’s not a lot of difference.

  2. Yeah, personally, if I found some ammunition in the street, I would pick it up, too. Not because I want or use ammunition– but precisely because I am opposed to violence and weapons, and would not want someone who might actually use it to find it.

    I mean, I suppose that the “proper” thing to do would be to call the police and watch it until they arrive. But then you’d be working off of the assumption that the police would actually show up– a pretty unfounded assumption in a lot of America, let alone fucking Iraq. And when you find weapons in the street, who exactly stops to think rationally about the issue, anyway?

    But, you know, this is the U.S. military and the war in Iraq. So we’re obviously working off of a different set of standards regarding humanity.

  3. I pick up spent ammo shells around here all the time during duck season; the hunters just leave them where they fall. BAM!!!

    This made me sick, especially when I realized, as mom of a 9 and 12 year old, that KIDS DO PICK STUFF UP, because they don’t know what the hell something is. Jill got this one 100% right. (And my husband, when he read the story online at 6am, was surprised I had already heard about it)

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  5. There’s more to the story:

    The U.S. military alleges that Vela, on Hensley’s order, shot the Iraqi man twice in the head with a 9mm pistol after he had been taken into custody. …
    Vela and Hensley told investigators that the man had an AK-47 with him and that he posed a threat, but other soldiers have alleged that the AK-47 was planted next to Khudair after he was shot. …
    “That was done by one of the soldiers at the scene basically out of stupidity. The guys were trying to ensure that there were no questions at all about this kill,” Drummond said. “It was done to overly justify a kill that didn’t need justification.”

    They put wire on the street and take the man picking it up into custody. Then he’s shot and fake evidence planted even though that wouldn’t be necessary because the kill is justified. Justiwhat?

  6. Hensley were accused of leaving a spool of wire that could be used to detonate roadside bombs in a pocket of the man whom Specialist Sandoval shot in April, on Sergeant Hensley’s command.

    Because a man who picks up a spool of wire is a man who has murder on his mind.

    Fucksake.

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