Mystery surrounds death of soldier

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Boston Globe

The Massachusetts National Guard soldier from Quincy who died in Afghanistan Friday was found with a single bullet in her head lying near her church on a secure military base, her family said yesterday after a briefing from Army officials.

The Department of Defense said in a statement yesterday that Ciara Durkin's injuries came from a "non-combat related incident" that is under investigation. The statement contradicts a Sunday statement from the Massachusetts Army National Guard that said Durkin, an Army specialist, was killed in action. A guard spokesman said the term was meant to imply that Durkin was deployed in Afghanistan at the time of her death.

"We're completely in the dark," said Pierce Durkin, the soldier's 28-year-old brother. "Patience is probably dissipating."

Family members, who are pushing for more information from Army officials, are girding for the possibility that Ciara (pronounced Kee-ra) Durkin was killed by a fellow service member, intentionally or accidentally, at the Bagram Airfield. They said they are confident that she did not commit suicide.

"The family has been going over this several times," Pierce Durkin said. "There is nothing to indicate that it could have possibly been self-inflicted."



Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2007/10/02/mystery_surrounds_death_of_soldier/

---

Anyone noticed there have been a number of mysterious deaths of female soldiers - most from Iraq, of course this one is from Afghanistan. Rape and murder? Then I've also read that female soldiers are being sexually assaulted and harassed. Some are getting bladder and urinary infections or dehydration because they don't want to drink liquids cause they don't want to venture out at night to the latrines.

Last week a caller to a local liberal talk station called and said a female soldier family member was scared of going overseas with her unit cause a number of soldiers are criminal gang members. Then a local women who works in the court house called in and said it was about time this story got out. That recruiters are appearing in the court house bargaining with judges and the prosecution to get criminals off the hook saying they've enlisted and the they want them in the military. She said some of the criminals have committed violent crimes.

On edit here's what I was referencing:

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/48992/

[Warpy]

1. yeah, and pinheads want to draft our daughters into this

The more of this stuff that gets out, the better.

[Sequoia]

4. Women should NOT go to war. PERIOD!

I was in the miltary during peace time and even then there were those guys whose "wife doesn't understand me" and who would back you into a corner.

[kimmylavin]

7. So...

Women should not be able to serve because men can't control themselves?

[Quantess]

18. They can serve if they want to. I haven't heard differently.

Personally I wouldn't recommend it, though.
However, your point was taken.

[BB1]

22. Yup. Sounds idiotic, doesn't it?

But it's right. War makes animals of men. men eat animals for breakfast, lunch and diner. Which means they beasically eat each other.
Putting women in the same deathtrap as those men, will definitely endanger them.

(it's no different from the jails you have. You go to jail, you get raped by Bubba. You go to Iraq, you get raped by platoonmembers or other guys on the compound. As long as the superiour officer doesn't protect the women, they're game.)
War isn't pretty. Start blaming those who started it, not those who got caught in it.

[Javaman]

27. As guy, sadly, war does do that.

read up on the Nazi's advance into Russia and the Russians counter attack and advance into Germany. It will give you night sweats.

[BB1]

30. or some lighter reading: Kane and Abel

Jeffry Archer wrote it, I believe.

[janetle]

2. Good Lord! I keep thinking I've heard it all.....

......and then more horrors out of this ridiculous "war" surface.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Surely hope her family will get an answer to who did this someday. So sad. n/t

[L0oniX]

5. Ho hum ...just another frag from some military asscarrot

[Jackpine Radical]

9. What in God's name

is THAT sposed to mean?

[chill_wind]

6. "Killed in action". Note the subsequent obfuscation.

"The statement contradicts a Sunday statement from the Massachusetts Army National Guard that said Durkin, an Army specialist, was killed in action. A guard spokesman said the term was meant to imply that Durkin was deployed in Afghanistan at the time of her death."

"Killed in action" while deployed. "Found lying dead inside her secure military base" while deployed. Yeah, real confusing.

We'll just report that she was "killed in action" and hope we can get away with it until we can buy some more time.

[frogcycle]

16. this is a tragic and ugly situation, but the KIA report is not disingenuous

the distinction is whether by "hostile" or "non-hostile" means; combat-related or non-combat related. A LOT of the KIA are "non-hostile." That includes accidents, heart attacks and other illnesses, murders, suicides, fratricides. Deaths within the theatre of operations, which includes Kuwait, Bahrain, ships enroute to/from the area are all KIA.

Here's the release:

DoD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Spc. Ciara M. Durkin, 30, of Quincy, Mass., died Sept. 28 at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related incident. She was assigned to the 726th Finance Battalion, Massachusetts Army National Guard, West Newton, Mass.

The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.

For more information related to this release, media may contact the Massachusetts National Guard public affairs office at [phone].

Just like hundreds of others.

And yes, I have seen quite a lot of mysterious deaths of females. One last month was a murder/suicide when she tried to break off a relationship with a married soldier 10 years her senior.

[lonestarnot]

8. Prollee not increasing, just getting out more. Disgusting! Enrages me!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

10. Saw that in court yesterday

A third DUI, an injury in the car he hit, previous record as a gang banger, but the Marines sent a high ranking NCO to plead with the court that he was turning his life around by enlisting - and the court handed him over to the marine.

the family of the injured guy was pissed.

[motocicleta]

11. This keeps coming up, and deserves attention.

K n R

[Maq]

12. Personal sexual repression in a war zone damn near impossible

Abbie Pickett (left) with fellow soldier Spc. Heather Homewood at the ‘spider hole’ where U.S. troops found Saddam Hussein in December 2003


...But another factor may be that many women soldiers have been victims of sexual abuse. Patricia Resick, director of the Women's Health Sciences Division of the VA’s National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, says that women who join the military are more likely to have family sexual abuse histories than women in civilian life. That may even drive some to join, Resick says....


Other women vets were sexually assaulted while in the service. Pickett, for example, says she was sexually assaulted by an older officer when she was 19. She regrets now that she didn’t report it. Sexual abuse and combat stress is a sure recipe for PTSD because the disorder is more common and worse for those who have suffered an earlier trauma—especially something personal, according to PTSD experts. “PTSD doesn’t just come from having a near-death experience but how personalized it is,” Resick explains. ...
...They haven’t reached Pickett yet. “The closest place I have to go for help is 90 miles a way,” she says. “You have to make it easy for troops. Especially when it’s hard enough just to get up in the morning.”


SOURCE: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8471505/site/newsweek/
By Martha Brant
Newsweek
Updated: 8:03 a.m. ET July 5, 2005

[tocqueville]

13. how come this is a recurrent US forces problem ?

while it's more an exception in other modern western armies where women serve even in combat ?

This is not new :

Sociologist and criminologist Professor Bob Lilly makes unprecedented use of military records and trial transcripts to throw light on one of the overlooked consequences of the US Army’s presence in Western Europe between 1942 and 1945: the rape of an estimated 14,000 civilian women in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. By focusing on a group of men - the 'greatest generation' - more commonly idolized in the Western historical imagination, the study makes an important and original contribution to our understanding of sexual violence in armed conflict. Taken by Force speaks as often as possible through the protagonists themselves and examines the differing social contexts prevailing in each country where the crimes were committed. Attention is also given to the racial dimension of this issue: the disproportionate number of black GIs prosecuted and the relative harshness of their sentences when convicted.

http://www.palgrave-usa.com/catalog/product.aspx?isbn=023050647X

Even if most rapes were committed in Germany, no US soldiers were prosecuted there except in some bestial murder cases. Eisenhower was much tougher for the rapes in France (5000) and the UK. Anyway most of the executed were black "of course". I have no record for Japan but there are plenty of reports from Okinawa.

The documentary made from the book has been banned in the US, and shown at very late hours in the UK and France. I saw it. Lilly interviewed some victims himself (now in their eighties) specially a French woman raped at the age of 14. The conversation turned rapidly very akward, it wasn't for feeble minds. The young woman at the trial then asked mercy for the rapist, but he was executed.

The US soldiers weren't the only ones to commit rapes during WWII of course, but they are pretty much in the top list.

But in this (supposed) case it has to do with rapes WITHIN the US forces. My take is that the sexual double standards (because of religion) in the States are a main explanation to that behaviour.

[MisterHowdy]

14. they look so cute

so young too.
This makes me cry.

[tocqueville]

15. they look clueless

this is a psy op pic. It will look strange in history books.

[Booster]

17. There's been way too many of these non-combative deaths of

our servicewomen. If our military can't protect these women from each other, then the top brass need to figure out how to protect them. My nephew's little tent has a separate zip up part for a pot. Hell, I would think these women could figure out how to go to the bathroom without having to venture out at night to go to the latrines, even if they have to go right in front of each other.

[burrowowl]

19. Strange, very strange ...

[hedgehog]

20. Some soldiers are attacking members of their own units.

Why are we surprised that Iraqis hate us?

[eridani]

21. There are enough families of survivors in that situation so that they ought to get together

Maybe with the Tillmans as well.

[PinkyisBlue]

23. Violent criminals are just what we need in the military.

If some of these violent military members are raping and killing US soldiers, can you just imagine how they are terrorizing the Iraqi civilians?

I can't believe how low our country has fallen in the pursuit of power and profits, where evil is called good, freedom is repression, war profiteers are military contractors, an illegal war and occupation is called a "fight against terror", rampant cronyism and partisanship are considered acceptable practices, media hype and sensationalism are called news, etc. Everything in this administration is the opposite of what its name implies, and if you accept what you hear and see on its face value, you will be getting a distorted view of the truth.

[Lost4words]

24. Already have that killer instinct. What good ambassadors these

criminals will be for our country.

[rox63]

25. An update: There's more to this than you think

An update on this story from today's Globe. Apparently, she had seen things that weren't right, and was starting to make some noise about it. She was part of a finance unit, so she would not have been likely to see combat. But she may have had evidence about the immense amount of corruption going on in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kin say soldier hinted at concerns
Senators, Delahunt ask for Defense Department probe

By Michael Levenson and Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | October 3, 2007

The Massachusetts National Guard soldier from Quincy who died Friday in Afghanistan asked her relatives to press for answers if anything happened to her while she was deployed, according to her family.

"She did say to us that she had concerns about things she was seeing when she was over there," Ciara Durkin's sister, Fiona Canavan, said in an interview with WGBH-TV. "She told us if anything happened to her, that we were to investigate it."

Questions surrounding Durkin's death prompted US Senators John F. Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy and US Representative William D. Delahunt yesterday to call for the Defense Department to thoroughly investigate the death of Durkin, a Quincy resident.

In a letter, Kerry urged Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates "to deploy your staff on this matter immediately, so that the answers and circumstances around Specialist Durkin's death are uncovered, expeditiously and thoroughly."

Read the rest here: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/10/03/kin_say_soldier_hinted_at_concerns

[Javaman]

26. Let me weave for you a very gruesome story that was happening

to russian soldiers in Afghanistan and in Chechnya.

A family friend was a doctor at a medical school. He would get cadavers for his students to work on. believe it or not, it's a very competitive business. Well, one day in the late 80's, he gets a call from a supplier of cadavers stating that he can supply him with what he needs at a competitive price.

Fantastic.

The bodies start arriving. Some in good shape some in a mangled state, but all usable for a variety of reasons.

He didn't put two and two together until it was almost to late but at the time the soviets were pulling out of afghanistan, the "supplier" stated that he was having shipping problems and their might be a delay.

Unperturbed, my friend stated that until the supplier was able to fulfill his full order, he would get the balance from another supplier. The other guy was okay with this and offered to pay for the difference in the price.

Things were going well, until the head of the medical dept stated he didn't really care for the arraignment and wanted to get the bodies from a single source to smooth out the paperwork.

No problem said my friend. He contacted the "supplier" and stated his reasons. By this time, the Russians were their own republic and were now down in Chechnya suppressing the population.

The "supplier" stated that all of the shipping problems had been cleared up and if given another chance, everything will be fine.

My friend told the head of the dept. The dept head was okay with this, considering the past record of this "supplier" was good beyond the shipping issues.

So the bodies began to flow in again. Only one problem this time. Many of the corpses that were coming in, seemed to have been killed with a single bullet to the back of the head. One or two would be okay with the amount of bodies that they were getting, but as time wore on, it was almost every other body.

At this point my friend told the head of the dept. they both agreed to 1) cancel the contract and 2) contact the FBI.

When my friend tried canceling the contract, at first the supplier was very business like, but as my friend refused any of the suppliers counter offers, the supplier became very belligerent. At this point, my friend basically said, "look, the contract is done, if you want to take this up with the head of my dept, here is his name..."

The supplier hung up.

Initially the FBI checked into it, but nothing came of it.

But then, the death threats started. All sorts of phone calls, letters and various body parts started arriving in the mail of his and his dept heads home mail boxes.

The FBI, needless to say, reopened the case. Maybe they never closed it?

Long story short, if you haven't suspected by now, the Russian mafia was in the business of exporting bodies for medical study. Sometimes they couldn't meet their quota, so they had to become creative.

The gist of it was that the mafia was paying soldiers in Afghanistan and Chechnya to off other soldiers, cover up the crime, fix the paperwork and smuggle out the body.

I haven't seen my friend for years. He and his dept head were put into the relocation program.

I don't know what the outcome of the FBI investigation was, because it was never made public, as far as I know.

I always thought this would make a fantastic script for a movie.

[truedelphi]

29. That is some story, my friend

Speaking as someone who is appalled that innocent kittens are used in biology labs, I can only say Yuck.

We need an international PETA style organization except instead of concern for critters, concern for human beings.

I know the SF Chronicle had an OpEd piece on the fact that rich Bay Area people are going over to China to get the organs they need.

In letters to the editor that followed several days later, the attitude seemed to be, "What is more human than attempting to keep you own body functioning and too bad if that results in some pain or what not to some other individual"(I guess by "what not" they meant death) "And don't judge me if you haven't been there!"

Cavalier to say the least.

[zippy890]

28. important story - need to get the truth here

interview with family member here

http://www.here-now.org/shows/2007/10/20071003_1.asp

[riar]

31. Durkin is another whistleblower that was killed

I blog so that I can connect the dots for people who are too busy, and that means the majority of Americans. Here is my version of Durkin's death which has nothing to do with being a lesbian.

First of all, you must read the most scathing expose on the war yet, Rolling Stone's article by Matt Taibbi called "The Great Iraq Swindle." It is about the for-profit corps. like Blackwater, Custer Battles, KBR (spinoff of Halliburton), Bechtel, Parsons, etc., that are raping our U.S. Treasury of every last dime.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16076312/the_great_iraq_swindle.

This is one heck of a read and the biggest reason why that war is not ending any time soon. The convenient thing about this graft operation in Iraq, is that any whistleblower is easily threatened with being placed outside the safe zone with no weapons or defense. Oops another casualty of war...and the graft continues. Many choose not to be whistleblowers because they are paid handsomely. I know a receptionist that is making $200,000/year over there. After reading this RS article proceed to the next dot.

I turned on CBS morning news about 10 days ago and caught another expose although it was only about 10 minutes in length. A Dr. David Warner working in Afghanistan came forward with audio and video coverage of contracts that were never honored by some of the same corporations. They were supposed to renovate a hospital, and build new pipelines for water. He showed nothing was accomplished, but the contractor was paid millions. Oh, he was also warned by the Pentagon not to come forward with this info. What does the Pentagon care about one doctor over there? Remember his name, so that if he meets with some ill fate, I won't be the only one suspicious. Proceed to next dot.

I'm listening to Good Morning America report about Ciara Durkin this morning, and what could have possibly happened to her? As I turned around to leave the room I heard the word "finance!" This soldier had a desk job handling financial information. Is it just me or do these dots connect too well? I sent an e-mail to Sen. Kerry that his request to Gates to find out more about Durkin will fall by the wayside. Gates is operating on the wrong team if you know what I mean. The graft happening over there is beginning to get to the soldiers. Many soldiers are now coming forward and speaking out about the war. I think this will be Bush's Watergate in the end. This administration, the Pentagon, military personnel, and some of the biggest and smallest contractors have made away with billions. When one of the incidents of graft was brought to the Supreme Court's attention it was brushed away because the military knowingly signed off on it. When Custer Battles was questioned by Sen. Waxman if they plan to give their ill-gotten money back, they simply answered, "No." 12 billion dollars CASH on pallets has been sent to Iraq. 8.8 billion is still unaccounted for. Durkin died because she had ethics. She is a hero of this war that was not killed in battle.