New questions surface on Petraeus' role in Col. Ted Westhusing's being "suicided"

[99th_Monkey]

Gen. Petraeus and a High-Level Suicide in Iraq
Posted April 1, 2008 | 12:34 PM (EST)

The scourge of suicides among American troops in Iraq is a serious and seriously underreported problem. One of the few high-profile cases involves a much-admired Army colonel named Ted Westhusing -- who, in his 2005 suicide note, pointed a finger at a then little-known U.S. general named David Petraeus. Westhusing's widow, asked by a friend what killed this West Point scholar, had replied simply: "Iraq."

Now there is a disturbing update on this case.

Before putting a bullet through his head, Westhusing had been deeply disturbed by abuses carried out by American contractors in Iraq, including allegations that they had witnessed or even participated in the murder of Iraqis. His suicide note included claims that his two commanders tolerated a mission based on "corruption, human right abuses and liars." One of those commanders: the future leader of the "surge" campaign in Iraq, Gen. Petraeus.

Westhusing, 44, had been found dead in a trailer at a military base near the Baghdad airport in June 2005, a single gunshot wound to the head. At the time, he was the highest-ranking officer to die in Iraq. The Army concluded that he committed suicide with his service pistol. Westhusing was an unusual case: "one of the Army's leading scholars of military ethics, a full professor at West Point who volunteered to serve in Iraq to be able to better teach his students. He had a doctorate in philosophy; his dissertation was an extended meditation on the meaning of honor," as Christian Miller explained in a major Los Angeles Times piece.

"In e-mails to his family," Miller wrote, "Westhusing seemed especially upset by one conclusion he had reached: that traditional military values such as duty, honor and country had been replaced by profit motives in Iraq, where the U.S. had come to rely heavily on contractors for jobs once done by the military." His death followed quickly. "He was sick of money-grubbing contractors," one official recounted. Westhusing said that "he had not come over to Iraq for this." After a three-month inquiry, investigators declared Westhusing's death a suicide.

Last March, The Texas Observer published a cover story by contributor Robert Bryce titled "I Am Sullied No More." It is featured in a chapter in my new book on Iraq and the media.

Bryce covered much of the same ground paved by Miller but added details on the Petraeus angle. Now, in the past few weeks, Bryce has added more in an update -- which explores whether Westhusing was murdered.

"When he was in Iraq, Westhusing worked for one of the most famous generals in the U.S. military, David Petraeus," Bryce observed last year. "As the head of counterterrorism and special operations under Petraeus, Westhusing oversaw the single most important task facing the U.S. military in Iraq then and now: training the Iraqi security forces."

Bryce referred to a "two-inch stack of documents, obtained over the past 15 months under the Freedom of Information Act, that provides many details of Westhusing's suicide....The documents echo the story told by Westhusing's friends. 'Something he saw drove him to this,' one Army officer who was close to Westhusing said in an interview.

Bryce concluded: "In September 2005, the Army's inspector general concluded an investigation into allegations raised in the anonymous letter to Westhusing shortly before his death. It found no basis for any of the issues raised. Although the report is redacted in places, it is clear that the investigation was aimed at determining whether Fil or Petraeus had ignored the corruption and human rights abuses allegedly occurring within the training program for Iraqi security personnel." Since then, the corruption and failed training angles have drawn wide attention although the Petraeus's role, good or bad, has not. (snip)

Since last March, when I wrote a story about the apparent suicide of Col. Ted Westhusing in Iraq, I had believed there was nothing else to write about his tragic death.

But in December, I talked to a source in the Department of Defense who met Westhusing in Iraq about three months before his death. The source, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, was investigating claims of wrongdoing against military contractors working in Iraq. After a short introduction, I asked him what he thought had happened to Westhusing. 'I think he was killed. I honestly do. I think he was murdered,' the source told me. 'Maybe DOD didn't have enough evidence to call it murder, so they called it suicide.'"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/gen-petraeus-and-a-high_b_94458.html

[villager]

1. How vast is the list of Bush-era "suicides" now?

I guess the "lone nut" assassination was becoming transparent.

The "private plane crash" -- affecting primarily Democrats in close election races -- was also becoming transparent.

on to the "suicide" as the next means of political silencing...

[99th_Monkey]

2. I was highly suspicious of this supposed "suicide" back in 05 when it happened.

and have been following the sporadic occasional reports and updates on the Westhusing case ever since then.

This article doesn't mention it, but others do... that it was inconceivable to his family and close friends
that he would have taken his own life, esp. since he just had a few more months left on his tour of duty.

This case has stunk to high heaven from the very start, but I hadn't until recently realized that Gen. Betrayus was
the "higher up" who was refusing to act on Westhusing's reports on the rampant corruption w/ military contractors
in Iraq.

I would love for this to become more widely known, and Betrayus to be publicly shamed into insignificance over it.

[melody]

4. Suicide has been used by the Bushites forever

Look at Danny Casolaro

[PinkyisBlue]

6. Look at Dr. David Kelly, the British microbiologist whistleblower.

[villager]

7. Exactly right. One of many "coincidental" "suicides..."

n/t

[AzDar]

8. Pat Tillman. Fragged.

[Cooley Hurd]

3. The shitstain on our national honor left by the criminal Bush admin...

...stretches for miles and miles. Colonel Westhusing's death shall NOT be in vain.

Enough of the corporocrats! Enough of the cover ups!:grr:

[melody]

9. I'm afraid this is a global pack of sociopaths. They're in every country. n/t

[fed-up]

5. in a nutshell: "duty, honor and country had been replaced by profit motives" nt

[moodforaday]

10. Suicide makes no sense

As a general and a philosopher, Westhusing must have been a well-informed individual. Put yourself in Westhusing's shoes and think of what you would want to do. He'd make a perfect whistleblower. If indeed he went to Iraq for experience, "to better teach his students", wouldn't he have wanted to return and tell the tale of what he saw there?

If it were typical for a thinking, educated person to commit suicide on witnessing an atrocity, there would be no-one left at DU after Abu Ghraib.

[99th_Monkey]

11. esp. with just a few months left in his tour of duty in Iraq

his family knows he was killed for not shutting up about his findings of massive corruption.

[Horse with no Name]

12. Does anyone really think that this cabal is planning on giving up the WH

next year?