Slain Guard member hinted at concerns (asked relatives to press for answers if anything happened)

[wicket]

What the HELL is going on?





LINK

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."

Delahunt, a Quincy Democrat, said his staff met yesterday with Army officials to find out how Durkin died. Kennedy's office said he had spoken to Army Secretary Pete Geren yesterday to relay the family's concerns.

The Defense Department says it is investigating Durkin's death, which it described as a "non-combat-related incident." Durkin's family says Army officials have told them she was found with a single bullet in her head, lying near the church where she worshipped on the secure Bagram Airfield.

The Army has not publicly disclosed whether a weapon was found near her body.

The Massachusetts National Guard initially reported that Durkin was killed in action, though a Guard spokesman later said the term meant only that Durkin was serving in Afghanistan at the time.

RIP Ciara

[Lost4words]

1. the crips and bloods have mirged and their name is US ARMY

[wicket]

3. Just like what they did to Tillman

n/t

[NOLALady]

9. What?

And I thought the Army trained the crips and bloods.

[babylonsister]

2. 'Secure' airfield my foot. I'm glad Kerry is persuing this. nt

[rox63]

4. Since she and her family immigrated from Ireland, they've also asked the Irish govt to investigate

She may have been a dual US/Irish citizen, which would give Ireland standing to investigate the death of one of their citizens.

[liberalla]

5. God, I hate this war

Can you imagine living like that? Seeing and hearing things that lead you to believe your life is in danger? Enough so that you communicate to your family to pursue an investigation if you die?

I hope we get the truth and soon.

RIP Ciara. You deserved better than this.

[wicket]

7. "RIP Ciara. You deserved better than this."

Amen to that

[Solly Mack]

8. I'll sign on to that statement as well

"RIP Ciara. You deserved better than this."

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. WAIT, I KNOW!

SHe was bravely leading her troops in the mountains of Tora Bora, when a group of heavily armed Taliban attacked them from all sides. They captured her, put her in an Afghan hospital, waiting for televised, highly promoted rescue mission from US troops. When that failed to happen, they put a gun up to her skull, shot her, then transported her corpse to outside her tent in Kabul, sneaking into the base, leaving no traces, weapons, or evidence.

Now the US military will call her a hero, and say it was suicide, from the gun later found locked in her footlocker, 350 yrds away.

[smiley_glad_hands]

10. Gangs in the army plus Afganistan's drugs = lots of money. eom

[bonito]

11. More details here

Specialist Ciara Durkin, 30, was shot in the head last week outside a chapel near her office at Bagram Airfield. The Department of Defense reported Durkin was not killed in action.

Durkin's sister, Fiona Canavan, told the Patriot Ledger on Wednesday that when her sister was home three weeks ago, she told her about something she had come across that raised some concern with her. "She was in the finance unit and she said, ‘I discovered some things I don’t like and I made some enemies because of it.’ Then she said, in her light-hearted way, ‘If anything happens to me, you guys make sure it gets investigated,’’’ Canavan told the paper.

According to the Ledger, Durkin was openly gay, but her family does not think her sexual orientation had anything to do with her death. Earlier newspaper reports indicated that the Durkin family said she may have been a target because she was gay.

Durkin's family told WBZ's Christina Hager on Tuesday that suicide is impossible. "She was at her proudest moment in her life, serving the U.S. Army, knowing two-thirds of her time in Afghanistan was over," said Canavan http://wbztv.com/topstories/local_story_276090457.html

[wicket]

14. Thanks for posting that

n/t

[DeepModem Mom]

12. K&R

[wicket]

13. kick

[Breeze54]

15. It hasn't been mentioned but she was openly gay.

That was mentioned by her sister and mom and that might be a reason she was offed!!

I think those were her concerns!!

That's why she told her Mom that if she did end up dead, then to demand an investigation.

Sounds to me like she was being threatened and/or harassed!

[bonito]

16. No did you read post 11

There's more to it.

Durkin was assigned to Task Force Diamond as part of a finance unit deployed to Afghanistan last November

[Breeze54]

17. Yes, I have read all the newspaper articles and watched it on my local Boston,MA news.

The finance questions may be a part of it but we don't know.
There could be a lot of reasons, including the one I mentioned.
Nobody will know what happened completely until they investigate
and even then we may not really know what and why it happened.