"Her smile was brighter than the hot desert sun."

She was Army specialist Alyssa Peterson, 27, a Flagstaff, Az., native serving with C Company, 311th Military Intelligence BN, 101st Airborne. Peterson was an Arabic-speaking interrogator assigned to the prison at our air base in troubled Tal-Afar in northwestern Iraq. According to official records, she died on Sept. 15, 2003, from a “non-hostile weapons discharge.”

Greg Mitchell has the rest of the story in Editor & Publisher...

“Peterson objected to the interrogation techniques used on prisoners. She refused to participate after only two nights working in the unit known as the cage. Army spokespersons for her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques Alyssa objected to. They say all records of those techniques have now been destroyed….”

She was was then assigned to the base gate, where she monitored Iraqi guards, and sent to suicide prevention training. “But on the night of September 15th, 2003, Army investigators concluded she shot and killed herself with her service rifle,” the documents disclose.

Yeah, it gets worse. Kevin Elston, the reporter who did the digging and filed the FOIA request that exposed the story says "...that the documents also refer to a suicide note found on her body, revealing that she found it ironic that suicide prevention training had taught her how to commit suicide."

Spec. Peterson may have pulled the trigger, but make no mistake about it, these men killed her.



God damn them to Hell. As literally as may be possible.

God. Damn. Them.


Hat tip to CoolAqua.