Witnesses In Army Trial Killed In Crash

[Robbien]

Source: Post Chronicle

Several U.S. Army soldiers killed in a helicopter crash in Iraq last week were to be witnesses in the homicide trial of their former superior.

Honolulu's KITV reported Sunday that some of the soldiers who died in the crash had been scheduled to testify in the trial of Sgt. 1st Class Trey Corrales, who is accused of orchestrating the death of an Iraqi detainee this year.

Corrales, who was in the same Hawaii-based platoon as the soldiers killed in Wednesday's crash, allegedly shot the detainee repeatedly June 23. He is accused of then ordering his subordinate and fellow defendant, Spc. Christopher Shore, to continue shooting the man. The detainee died from those wounds.

Read more: http://www.postchronicle.com/news/breakingnews/article_21299882.shtml

---

From this E&P article
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003631055

These soldiers were to testify AGAINST Corrales.

"Hours after the incident, Shore and four other soldiers agreed to tell their supervising sergeants about the shooting. They felt what happened was wrong."

[dailykoff]

1. No good deed goes unpunished.

At least not while the King of Texas is running things.

[AzDar]

2. Jeebus.

:tinfoilhat:

[ck4829]

3. Well, isn't that special?

[mirrera]

4. k&r n/t

[valerief]

5. It would be bigger news if they hadn't been rubbed out. nt

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. Anyone who is surprised, please raise your hand

Anyone?


Anyone?

[marmar]

7. I tried raising my hand, but it just wouldn't go up.....

Funny that.

[DFW]

8. No Cessnas available that day?

[villager]

9. A lot of grassy knoll witnesses "coincidentally" had "accidents" as well...

I guess the Bush family is loathe to give up a time-tested technique...

[krispos42]

10. Well, isn't that.... interesting

The soldiers decided to come clean hours after the shooting, not weeks or months afterwards. Sounds like they were going to give complete and wholehearted testimony.

And it wasn't ENEMY fire. Interesting clarification.

[Autumn Colors]

11. Gee, I'm so surprised.... NOT (nm)

[WhiteTara]

12. MIHOP

:shrug:

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. Screws fall out all the time...the world is an imperfect place...

:eyes:

[TheMadMonk]

15. Indeed. What is at question is the frequency with which it happens...

...to witnesses. The probability of statistically improbable events occurring around and in favour of Bush & his cabal approaches Unity.

[comtec]

28. OMG Sounds like something a mofia "Insurance man" might say (nt)

[alcibiades_mystery]

30. It's actually John Bender from the Breakfast Club (you fail

popular culture 101), so it was obviously meant sarcastically. You see, Bender actually removed the screw...

[Up2Late]

14. Not the first time something like this has happened.

Sort of reminds me of the old bushbodycount.com website

[Supersedeas]

33. and the GOP/Corp Media Establishment will bury this story too.

[Selatius]

16. It's just a coincidence that all the witnesses happened to be on the same helicopter.

Just a coincidence. Move along, people. Nothing to see here!

:eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes:

[sanskritwarrior]

18. So if it was his platoon?

where the fuck would they be during a mission? Show some respect we are crushed here at Schofield Barracks.........

[Selatius]

35. Gee, if I were top brass, those soldiers would not be in combat

I would've made damn sure they would've been debriefed the second apparent war crimes were committed and sent home ASAP. No, they took their jolly time, and now several witnesses are dead.

[sanskritwarrior]

48. So you would cripple an infantry battalion

just to allow them to testify at some unknown date? WOW that is nowhere near how the military works, Mission always comes first and thank god for that and for the fact that we don't have folks like yourself running the war. No offense friend but units fight and everyone fights until ordered not to do so. If those orders are legal (and they are) then putting those guys on the battlefield was not only the moral but the ethical thing to do in a warzone. You do not strip away combat power (especially scouts) to answer some god damn questions from JAG that might not be asked for 6 months.....I cannot seriously believe you wanted the 2-35 Infantry Battalion to take a squad of scouts and have them sit around and wait weeks or months to answer some questions...........God help us if we ever fight a war like that..............

[Selatius]

49. Now you're being fucking dishonest

You're saying that removing three or four soldiers from the battlefield because they're material witnesses in an alleged crime is going to cripple an entire battalion? You're insane. We're not talking about an entire corp of scouts, but a small number of them. Where did I say the entire unit had to be removed from the battalion????????

[sanskritwarrior]

51. So you're saying taking away 4 scouts

i.e. two scout teams will not seriously degrade a BATTALION's ability to do its job? Yeah actually it would hurt a lot, Those 2 blackhwaks represented more than 50% of the Battalion's scouts. 4 Blackhawks would be all their scouts so 4 X 10= 40 give or take a few. You wanted to strip away at least 10% of their combat power...............That is insane........and very honest.....

[MadMaddie]

41. I was thinking the same thing....

[dflprincess]

45. Given how incompentant the current regime is,

I'm surprised all the witnesses didn't commit suicide.

[sanskritwarrior]

17. Wow

how typical from some people.......

Helicopters do crash, the 2-35 Infantry Battalion still has missions to run, the Scouts are outside the wire more than anyone......And there are still plenty of people to testify against the SFC........So please we are hurting in Hawaii, don't post this conspiracy crap.........It cheapens the loss we feel, they died because a helicopter had a bad tail rotor, not because of some master plan by a Sergeant First Class trying to clear his name......For fucks sake show some respect..........

[NW_BEAST]

19. I concure, we do need to show some respect to the men

who were lost, and we do need to respect that loss as deeply and seriously as possible. Bad things happen to good people. I'll keep my suspicions to myself.

For now, out of respect for the dead.

[Zhade]

47. Respecting them means asking questions, not silencing them.

NT!

[nikto]

20. R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Please show the same respect you would for any suicide
victim who shot themself several times in the head.

Aintcha' got no manners?

[sanskritwarrior]

22. I'm sorry do you have proof

that a SFC was able to sabotage a helicopter? Bad things happen in Iraq to people all the time, if you can't prove there was a conspiracy to kill these guys, please kindly shut your frapping mouth, we are hurting and this crap just enrages me.......You don't know anything about what happened, you don't know what we at Schofield Barracks are going through.....Conspiracy theory crap with no proof is disgusting........

[Henny Penny]

23. It is understandable that you find this kind of thing upsetting.

But questioning the causes of the event does not show any disrespect to your fallen comrades.


You say "Conspiracy theory crap with no proof is disgusting........" when in fact it is almost always simply a genuine attempt to get at the truth by examining all the relevant facts. Sometimes people take a wrong turn in their searching, but I think on the whole it is a good thing that people care enough to try and analyse these events. It is certainly preferable to "some people died.... move along...".

No-one intends any disrespect to the men that died in the crash, to you or anyone in your barracks.

[frogcycle]

27. the remarks here are not analysis

they are just mouthing off

sanskritwarrier, my condolences to you and your comrades for the loss of these men

[AllyCat]

43. So sorry for your loss.

I don't feel that those here are trying to disrespect the soldiers who were killed. It's just we don't trust this administration as far as we can throw them. When I read this, I didn't think it was the sargeant who caused the helicopter to crash, I thought it was the neocons trying to make sure they didn't have another detainee abuse scandal and decided to take out those who had some conscience and tried to come clean about it.

Again, I'm so sorry this has happened to your comrades. They showed they were real soldiers by deciding to go against the system and testify to bring some justice to a horrible situation.

[Nihil]

50. Strawman hiding behind an emotional shield.

> I'm sorry do you have proof that a SFC was able to sabotage a helicopter?

No-one here has suggested that "a SFC was able to sabotage a helicopter".
The suggestion was that the helicopter had been sabotaged, not that one of
the people who benefits from this "accident" was directly responsible.
Stop trying to mislead people.

> Bad things happen in Iraq to people all the time

Believe it ... mostly to Iraqis too but since when have you cared?

> if you can't prove there was a conspiracy to kill these guys,
> please kindly shut your frapping mouth

Whoops people ... mustn't ask pointed questions or query whatever the
"official reason" happens to be today ...

> we are hurting and this crap just enrages me.

Fucking diddums. If you had EVER shown any respect for innocent Iraqi
civilians then maybe you would be justified in your whining. As it is,
tough titty.

> you don't know what we at Schofield Barracks are going through

Well with regard to the crash, some of "you at Schofield Barracks" will
be going through the same traumatic loss that any relative or close friend
of a fatality victim has gone through. In that sense, I extend my sympathies
to all of the bereaved family members.

> Conspiracy theory crap with no proof is disgusting.

You know what? Bullshit dismissal of questions, propaganda statements
and emotional blackmail are pretty damn disgusting too.

[lligrd]

25. Why Are So Many Afraid Of Investigations And Truth?

How is it that you think that NOT questioning a death that may be suspicious wouldn't be showing disrespect? If there is any question we should ivestigate, to do otherwise would, in my mind, be disrespectful.

[TheMadMonk]

31. I have all the respect in the world for the dead.

And indeed, this could well have been nothing but a tragic accident.

What is at question is the number of "tragic accidents" which happen to witnesses, whistle blowers and generally honest people around Bush & Co in specific and to a lesser degree around the USG (or its agencies) at any time. Anyone who dares embarrass the US (or those who think they personify it) is lucky if it's only their character which gets assassinated.

Short of actually proving malfeasance, there is no way of pointing to a given suspect event and say it was engineered. However it is possible to point to a pattern of such events and with a little mathematical legerdemain say with a certain degree of confidence that said pattern is not the result of pure chance.

Even as a legitimate accident, this event remains a part of this pattern and a good many people are going to take the lazy shortcut and assign a degree of certitude of foul play to this specific event that is unwarranted.

And hell even if no pattern existed at all, the question would remain a legitimate one.

If a witness dies an even remotely suspicious death then that death has to be questioned as a matter of course.


When a pre-existing pattern does exists, the question and uncomfortable intrusion unfortunately becomes as mandatory as an autopsy. Or bloody well should be, since any such pattern speaks to a systemic corruption. A blocking of investigation, because investigation could/would/should expose/embarrass a lot more than just the current villain caught with his fingers where they didn't belong. And rightly or wrongly, the unfortunate servicemen who lost their lives are going to get dragged right into the middle of this debate.


When you set about losing billions of dollars, even hundred thousand dollar toilet seats don't cut it. It takes tens of thousands of dirty "supply sergeants" all feverishly lining their own pockets to create the sort of smokescreen that lets you siphon off your cut of the lost monies, whether for personal use or spending on pies in the sky or other black ops.

In fact the whole US is so riddled with corruption that any serious and thorough investigation would destroy it as surely as any anarchistic uprising. And it is this fragility that the actual or character assassination of "boat rockers" protects.


You could free every toker and other non-violent offender in US prisons and still not have enough room to house the harvest that a complete and thorough investigation of US politics, corporations, bureaucracies and institutions would reap. It would be impossible to fill jobs as fast as they fell vacant and the only chance of starting with a clean slate politically would be to vacate all elected positions and disallow any candidate who has ever held any form of public office. A total rebuild of electoral procedures along the way to keep things clean past one or two election cycles would be a big help.

THAT unfortunately is what I see confronting the American people. A system so fundamentally broken, that the only way of fixing it is to break it altogether and somehow reassemble the pieces into a better whole. It was from such a fracturing of ways that rose the Magna Carta and the US Constitution. I suspect/fear/(and strangely rejoice) that such a time is coming. It is only to hope that fundamentalism in all it's guises becomes the casualty and not the victor.

[youngdem]

39. With all due respect, recent conduct by your fellow soldiers has earned the skepticism

Imprisoning and torturing whistleblowers, destroying their careers, demotions, etc.

[frogcycle]

46. no, actually, it has not

you are engaging in a form of -ism. Are you skeptical of all blacks because some sell drugs? All Italians because some are involved in organized crime? Think about it.

[Matilda]

21. Oh, my.

The coincidence(?) is creepy.

[liberal N proud]

24. Several?

You can't tell me this was an accident

And they continue the assault on America from within.

[madrchsod]

26. let me get this straight

george ordered murder all these people to protect one person? well that`s really convenient is`t it? george must be hiding something really big to go as far as to murder his troops to protect this one guy? what could this guy possibly know that george would make sure he would never stand trial? maybe this guy knows the secrets of 9-11 and is blackmailing george and his crew...you know the papers in a safety deposit box...ya that`s what this is all about ..this guys has the secrets and he`s blackmailing the president and the entire neocon movement....

[comtec]

29. Its probably not georgie

but someone just as corrupt in the region to keep what's actually going on there under wraps.. it's possible they were going to blow the lids off of all kinds of corruption of the military there.

Besides, with the GOP's history of "happy accidents" *cough paul welstone cough* it's not that much of a leap of faith as it once used to be. These people are beyond corrupt and it scares the living FUCK out of me! I have spent the better part of the last 7 years trying NOT to believe in conspiracy theories. i used to listen to Art bell for fun, you know, scare me Mr. Man, oohh yeah! But now.. too much is starting to make sense. I look back with the benefit of age and experience, and it's really starting to ACTUALLY scare the crap out of me. I love my home, but I'm starting to really be glad I don't live there anymore. Europe is starting to look better, the longer I'm here and the more I see georgie destroy our beloved democracy!

[leftofthedial]

32. weird coincidence

huh?

[dailykoff]

34. At least they weren't tortured first:

"Whistle Blowers in Iraq face US Torture"

link to story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20430153 /

discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1669320&mesg_id=1669320

Also:

"Iraq Whistleblowers Vilified, Demoted"

link to story: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/25/national/main3203792.shtml

discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2967066&mesg_id=2967066

[superconnected]

36. If there is more to this story,

"1st Class Trey Corrales, who is accused of orchestrating the death of an Iraqi detainee this year.

Corrales, who was in the same Hawaii-based platoon as the soldiers killed in Wednesday's crash, allegedly shot the detainee repeatedly June 23. He is accused of then ordering his subordinate and fellow defendant, Spc. Christopher Shore, to continue shooting the man. The detainee died from those wounds"

That in anyway means that the sgt 1st class was acting on orders from higher ups, then yes, the bush admin and the US army has something to cover up.

If there's nothing else, and it's only corrales acting independently then it looks like an accident.

I'll suspend judgement because I don't know more.

As far as a tail motor, gee I bet it takes a screw driver to fix or loosen. Helicoptors crash in the US all the time too, but usually there's more reason than faulty equipment.

Knowing why the copter crashed doesn't relinquish any suspicion here. All I can do is suspend judgement because I don't know enough either way.

[mitchum]

37. How convenient

[BreweryYardRat]

38. I'm gonna sit on the fence right now.

It COULD be a legitimate accident.

It COULD be an assassination by some officer(s) who was(were) worried about his(their) name(s) coming up in the course of the investigation.

So let's just wait and see if any more details come out.

[Doctor_J]

40. Like all those witnesses to 11/22/1963 who went toes-up suspiciously

Though this is way out there. Killing 5 soldiers to protect one?

[dflprincess]

44. Is there a case without this testimony?

Maybe there is some concern about what kind of deal the accused would cut if he thought he was going to be convicted.

[Ilsa]

42. Is Corrales Gonzo's brother-in-law?

Just asking, you know. Rumsfeld's and Cheney's sisters are probably too old.

[Felix Mala]

52. Why were they on active duty with a trial hanging over their heads?

[havocmom]

53. After this example of military justice, expect fragging instead of whistle-blowing

:cry: