The following is lifted from the LA Daily News.
'Unit's' military expert has fighting words for Bush
By David Kronke, TV Critic
Eric Haney, a retired command sergeant major of the U.S. Army, was a founding member of Delta Force, the military's elite covert counter-terrorist unit. He culled his experiences for "Inside Delta Force" (Delta; $14), a memoir rich with harrowing stories, though in an interview, Haney declines with a shrug to estimate the number of times he was almost killed. (Perhaps the most high-profile incident that almost claimed his life was the 1980 failed rescue of the hostages in Iran.) Today, he's doing nothing nearly as dangerous: He serves as an executive producer and technical adviser for "The Unit," CBS' new hit drama based on his book, developed by playwright David Mamet. Even up against "American Idol," "The Unit" shows muscle, drawing 18 million viewers in its first two airings.
Since he has devoted his life to protecting his country in some of the world's most dangerous hot spots, you might assume Haney is sympathetic to the Bush administration's current plight in Iraq (the laudatory cover blurb on his book comes from none other than Fox's News' Bill O'Reilly). But he's also someone with close ties to the Pentagon, so he's privy to information denied the rest of us.
We recently spoke to Haney, an amiable, soft-spoken Southern gentleman, on the set of "The Unit."
Q: What's your assessment of the war in Iraq?
A: Utter debacle. But it had to be from the very first. The reasons were wrong. The reasons of this administration for taking this nation to war were not what they stated. (Army Gen.) Tommy Franks was brow-beaten and ... pursued warfare that he knew strategically was wrong in the long term. That's why he retired immediately afterward. His own staff could tell him what was going to happen afterward.
We have fomented civil war in Iraq. We have probably fomented internecine war in the Muslim world between the Shias and the Sunnis, and I think Bush may well have started the third world war, all for their own personal policies.
Q: What is the cost to our country?
A: For the first thing, our credibility is utterly zero. So we destroyed whatever credibility we had. ... And I say "we," because the American public went along with this. They voted for a second Bush administration out of fear, so fear is what they're going to have from now on.
Our military is completely consumed, so were there a real threat - thankfully, there is no real threat to the U.S. in the world, but were there one, we couldn't confront it. Right now, that may not be a bad thing, because that keeps Bush from trying something with Iran or with Venezuela.
The harm that has been done is irreparable. There are more than 2,000 American kids that have been killed. Tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis have been killed ñ which no one in the U.S. really cares about those people, do they? I never hear anybody lament that fact. It has been a horror, and this administration has worked overtime to divert the American public's attention from it. Their lies are coming home to roost now, and it's gonna fall apart. But somebody's gonna have to clear up the aftermath and the harm that it's done just to what America stands for. It may be two or three generations in repairing.
Q: What do you make of the torture debate? Cheney ...
A: (Interrupting) That's Cheney's pursuit. The only reason anyone tortures is because they like to do it. It's about vengeance, it's about revenge, or it's about cover-up. You don't gain intelligence that way. Everyone in the world knows that. It's worse than small-minded, and look what it does.
I've argued this on Bill O'Reilly and other Fox News shows. I ask, who would you want to pay to be a torturer? Do you want someone that the American public pays to torture? He's an employee of yours. It's worse than ridiculous. It's criminal; it's utterly criminal. This administration has been masters of diverting attention away from real issues and debating the silly. Debating what constitutes torture: Mistreatment of helpless people in your power is torture, period. And (I'm saying this as) a man who has been involved in the most pointed of our activities. I know it, and all of my mates know it. You don't do it. It's an act of cowardice. I hear apologists for torture say, "Well, they do it to us." Which is a ludicrous argument. ... The Saddam Husseins of the world are not our teachers. Christ almighty, we wrote a Constitution saying what's legal and what we believed in. Now we're going to throw it away.
Q: As someone who repeatedly put your life on the line, did some of the most hair-raising things to protect your country, and to see your country behave this way, that must be ...
A: It's pretty galling. But ultimately I believe in the good and the decency of the American people, and they're starting to see what's happening and the lies that have been told. We're seeing this current house of cards start to flutter away. The American people come around. They always do.
I hope your next incarnation is kinder to others than this last one was. You were a hideous fuck in this one.
A rape trial just concluded with the three perpetrators being sentenced to six years. The following is the statement that the victim read to the court before sentencing.
"Your honor, I would like to describe my life before and after July Fourth. Before July Fourth I was a normal 16-year-old teenager. I was outgoing, cheerful, loving, compassionate and trusting. I had many friends and enjoyed spending my time with them. I was very athletic and I was on the volleyball, track and cross country teams at my high school. I was a straight a student. I was always grateful for my friends and family.
I had an extremely close relationship with my parents. My home life was great, and I felt comfortable and confident with the woman I was growing into. I had goals and dreams. I was determined to get a scholarship and go to NYU, New York University. I had dreamed of going there since I was a little girl. I wasn’t going to let anything get in my way. Very abruptly this all changed.
On July Fourth, the woman I was blossoming into and the dreams I was determined to succeed were all taken from me. I was ripped of my adolescence, womanhood, hopes, goals, dreams, and my life. All that I was and the woman I was becoming was savagely thrown away by three men. Three men brutally assaulted me not only with their bodies, but with foreign objects also. All the while I was unconscious and never even given a chance to fight back. Cowardly, they had to make sure I was knocked out cold before they sexually assaulted me, because they knew I would have said no if I was conscious.
I will relive forever in my head the morning that my father got a call from the Newport Police Department telling him they had a videotape of his daughter being gang-raped. I remember waking up to my parents standing over me, the look of horror and disgust in their eyes. My father asked me what happened on July Fourth and I told him, "I don’t know," because I couldn’t remember what happened to me.
That is when he grabbed me and he held me in his arms and tears rolled down his cheeks. He proceeded to tell me a videotape was given to the police that unveiled myself being brutally gang-raped by three men, the three men that I gave all my trust to and thought were my friends.
As the words slowly rolled out of his mouth, I began to shake violently. Before I could make it to the bathroom I collapsed on the floor, started vomiting. I was going into shock. My parents had to help me calm me down. After awhile I was able to stand up, but I couldn’t feel anything. I was numb to any thoughts and feelings. And unknown to me, I was going to stay numb for many years to come.
But at that moment, I didn’t want to believe what I had been told. This could not be possible, the detectives had to be mistaken. I was convinced my so-called friends were not capable of such a crime. But as I was rushed to the hospital to be examined by forensics, I was hit with the realization that I was no longer dreaming, this was real. My entire existence had been taken from me and thrown out by the choices and hands of three men I had given my friendship and trust to.
Since that day my life has and never will be the same.
The first few months directly following the assault I was in a severe state of depression. I would stay in bed most days and never leave my room. Sleep was difficult to get because it was always interrupted by nightmares of the events that had happened.
These three men haunted my dreams and still do. I wake up many times in a cold sweat, crying and screaming. When I gave up on trying to get a decent sleep, I would sit facing my bedroom wall, covered with pictures of my previous life. The pictures of the people I had called friends for so many years would begin to blur. The tears would stream down my cheeks as if I would never cry again. My eyes were always puffy. My nose was always sore.
I would ask God when was this pain going to stop, or if it every would. I sadly started to lose my faith in God, wondering why such a horrific and life-numbing event could happen to anyone. I spent many months in a daze. I felt like a thousand knives were stabbing me. These knives were not only stabbing my heart, but they were penetrating my soul. The woman I was had been lost forever. The people I had called friends left me alone and abandoned. Reality hit me when I realized my life and dreams had been destroyed and my so-called new life and dreams would have to be put on hold until they could be determined.
That is why we are here today, your honor. I haven’t been able to truly live since these men sexually assaulted me. I wouldn’t be able to until I feel safe and secure that they are behind bars for numerous years. When you make a decision on the amount of time you’re going to sentence these men to, I would like to tell you a little bit the about the harassment, intimidation and torture these men have done to me these last three years. I guess assaulting me and videotaping it wasn’t enough for them. They had to continue to make my life and my family’s life a living hell since. I feel that instead of showing remorse for their crimes, they have continued to assault me since every day since July Fourth.
The harassment and torture started immediately after the assault became known to the public. It started with private investigators sitting in front of our house day in and day out, watching our every move. Our family’s privacy was completely eliminated. The private investigators got worse when they began watching my parents at their places of work. One day I was driving home and a private investigator began following me. I panicked. I did not know what to do. I called my mom on her cell phone for help. All she could do was tell me to drive to the police station and try to calm down. In the parking of the police station the private investigator cornered me and began taking pictures of me.
I was still on the phone, hysterically crying for my mother’s help. I will never forget the terror and helplessness I heard in her voice. It tore me to pieces. These men have ruined me and my life, but now they are also ruining the lives of people that I loved the most. I had to stop driving alone because I was always being followed. I had to live a life in which I had to have permission to move, and my every move had to be observed for my safety. I didn’t understand – "Why were they still torturing me? Wasn’t that one night enough for them?" I guess not, because the harassment and intimidation continued.
The next big event was when fliers were placed in all the mailboxes, local stores of my neighborhood. They asked for anyone with information on the Newport Beach assault that occurred on or about July Fourth to call a number. That flier said my last name. My family never sent out the fliers like they portrayed. It was the families of these three men. Now my entire neighborhood knew I was Jane Doe, the 16-year-old girl that was gang-raped.
All I wanted was to stay anonymous, but to no surprise, they didn’t allow that to happen either. It was around this time that I lost all my friends. They all ran from me because they didn’t know how to act. I was treated by others like the one with an incurable disease, although I was the victim. I was lonely and I had no one left. I was even witnessing my family slowly collapse and my parents’ marriage of many, many years began to fall apart. Why was I being treated like the perpetrator of the crime? Didn’t people realize I was the victim?
I spent the summer before my junior year in high school locked away from the world, trying to give a reason why such a thing had happened to me, or anyone else for that matter. The things these men did to me and were continuing to do to me were so cruel and inhumane. I never would have wished this even on my worst enemy. I was in counseling multiple times a week, but the pain only increased. I experienced emotions and feelings I never knew existed. I felt angry, hurt, betrayed, lost, abandoned, worthless, and most of all, dirty. The people that used to be there for me had hidden themselves because they were unsure how to react to my cruel experience and all the intimidation. I spent all my days at home crying and severely depressed.
After everyone in my neighborhood found out my identity, my family and I thought it was best for me to transfer to a new high school and start off fresh where no one knew who I was. I was in such fear of the new kids in my new school finding out who I was. I registered at my new high school under a different name. These men had not only taken my life, but now they had taken my identity and who I was. The first few weeks of my junior year went as planned. No one knew about my past, but that quickly changed when people hired by these men came to my school and stood in the parking lot screaming out my real name as I was walking with my friends. I was stopped by a man who served me papers right in front of my new friends. Then he proceeded to tell them who I was. I wanted to curl up and die. So much for no one knowing.
In less than a week the students, staff and teachers all knew my history and real identity. I wasn’t safe anywhere, and I had nowhere else to run, so for my last two years of high school I felt like an outcast. Now they took away two more of my happiness. I kept wondering if this would ever stop. To know surprise, it didn’t. These three men continued to destroy every day my life with no guilt or shame. They slandered my name and image all over the press and media. The abuse continued up to the first trial, where I was also abused on the stand when I testified. I’m not sure how I stayed strong enough to get through that. Maybe it’s because I would do whatever it takes to see these men pay for their crimes.
There were many days I questioned if I should testify because I was so scared of what they would do. They seemed to be going to any lengths to intimidate me and I didn’t know where or if they would ever draw the line at some point. But I testified and continued to watch my family and I be abused.
The worst day of my life was when I heard the verdict of the first jury. I was in my room waiting for the verdict. I remember my mom walking into my room. She sat next to me on the bed and hugged me, looked me in the eye and said it was a hung jury. I felt my stomach drop and my heart being ripped out of my chest. There was no way this could be true. My mom had to be mistaken. When she started to cry I knew she wasn’t. I was in such shock I didn’t know what to feel. I became hysterical and started screaming.
All my anger I had towards these men and the verdict came out. I thought I was going crazy. Why didn’t anyone believe me? Couldn’t they see I was like a rag doll? I was so unconscious. I’m the victim here. All I could ask was, "Why?" I just wanted to die. If I was dead, everyone’s lives would be better. Maybe things would be normal if I was gone. The thought of suicide began to cross my mind numerous times a day, but I was stronger than that. I was not going to let these men win. They had already taken everything from me. I wasn’t going to let them take my very last breath also. So once again I told the district attorney I would testify in the second trial. I was numb to the abuse by now because it became so prevalent.
Before the second trial I was asked if I wanted to see the videotape of the assault. I was terrified. What if I watched it and it literally put me into a mental institution? I spent many weeks deciding. I knew that if I saw the video I would be able to express my feelings better to the jury while testifying, but I also knew how real it would make the assault to me.
In my heart I knew I had to see it with my own eyes, to be able to know exactly what these three men did to me, so I chose to watch it. I remember my mouth started burning while I was watching the video because it was so dry from hanging open in disbelief. I cannot and don’t think I will ever be able to describe what I felt while watching that video. I remember asking myself, "When did I become a piece of meat and not a human being to these men? How could any sane human do these things they did?" They did things not even savage animals would do. They violated me in every way possible.
As I watched that video, I remember feeling two distinct feelings. I remember becoming furious at the animals that were attacking me because no human could do such a thing. And I remember feeling my soul and inner being completely deteriorating. I was empty. They had now taken every last bit of who I was and no longer felt human. I was like a lifeless and feelingless doll that these men thought they could use and abuse in any way they wished.
A part of me died that day, a part that I don’t know if I’ll ever get back. The part that was lost as I watched three men I called my friends and trusted completely, abuse, assault and torture me. All the while they laughed and rooted each other on and smiled like it was the best day of their life. I can still hear their disgusting comments and evil laughs in my head. It makes my insides turn and my head ache. It reminds me that those three men are not me. They are sexual predators that deserve numerous years behind bars. I will never forget how I felt when I heard the verdict being read and these men were found guilty for their crimes. It was a relief like I’ve never felt. I bursted into tears of joy. Justice was finally being served, and today is where my justice is finished. These men will never be punished to the extent that I feel they deserve, but multiple years behind bars is settling enough for me.
I would like to remind you, your honor, before you sentence these men, that they are not men. Only inhuman beings can do what they did to another person. They are inhumane beings that are a threat to society and should not get the privilege of living in society with normal human beings. These men took my adolescence. They took away what was supposed to be the best years of my life. They took away my adolescent years and forced me to become an adult before it was time. They caused me to spend my time in and out of meetings with detectives, attorneys and district attorneys when I should have been out with my friends. They violated my body in every way possible and forced it to continue to be violated by doctors to try and correct the damage these men have created on me. I will spend the rest of my life in counseling, hoping someday I can deal with what they did to me.
For the rest of my life I will have restless nights filled with nightmares caused by them. For now I have very little self-esteem and I trust no one because these men took those things from me. I also feel unlovable due to the abuse I endured. I pray one day I will get these securities back, but I know that will only be after many more years of counseling.
These men also took my family’s lives, which slowly can be repaired. These men stole a part of me. They took a part of me I will never get back. I’ve come to the realization that part of my soul will be lost forever. But what hurts the most is throughout all this pain, suffering and abuse these men have put me through, they have shown absolutely no remorse. It just makes it clear to me they deserve many years in prison. I will never be who I was before July Fourth because these men unconsensually took that woman from me. I will be affected by their actions for the rest of my life. But I can live with that if I feel justice is served. With any luck, many years behind bars will give them plenty of time to think about what they did and maybe begin to feel some kind of remorse for their crimes.
Thank you, your honor."
American Special Forces, SEALs and recon Marines are modelled on the United Kingdom's Special Air Service and Special Boat Service. The soldiers and sailors of the SAS and SBS are exceptionally qualified and extremely tough. They are not generally known for disobeying orders nor are they known to be cowards in any way. When one of a group of such soldiers raises his hand in disgust and says that he can no longer carry out his mission because he believes it to be illegal and morally repugnant, one should take note.
The following is from the Telegraph of London:
SAS soldier quits Army in disgust at 'illegal' American tactics in Iraq
By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent
(Filed: 12/03/2006)
An SAS soldier has refused to fight in Iraq and has left the Army over the "illegal" tactics of United States troops and the policies of coalition forces.
After three months in Baghdad, Ben Griffin told his commander that he was no longer prepared to fight alongside American forces.
Ben Griffin told commanders that he thought the Iraq war was illegal
He said he had witnessed "dozens of illegal acts" by US troops, claiming they viewed all Iraqis as "untermenschen" - the Nazi term for races regarded as sub-human.
The decision marks the first time an SAS soldier has refused to go into combat and quit the Army on moral grounds.
It immediately brought to an end Mr Griffin's exemplary, eight-year career in which he also served with the Parachute Regiment, taking part in operations in Northern Ireland, Macedonia and Afghanistan.
But it will also embarrass the Government and have a potentially profound impact on cases of other soldiers who have refused to fight.
On Wednesday, the pre-trial hearing will begin into the court martial of Flt Lt Malcolm Kendall-Smith, a Royal Air Force doctor who has refused to return to Iraq for a third tour of duty on the grounds that the war is illegal. Mr Griffin's allegations came as the Foreign Office minister Kim Howells, visiting Basra yesterday, admitted that Iraq was now "a mess".
Mr Griffin, 28, who spent two years with the SAS, said the American military's "gung-ho and trigger happy mentality" and tactics had completely undermined any chance of winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi population. He added that many innocent civilians were arrested in night-time raids and interrogated by American soldiers, imprisoned in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, or handed over to the Iraqi authorities and "most probably" tortured.
Mr Griffin eventually told SAS commanders at Hereford that he could not take part in a war which he regarded as "illegal".
He added that he now believed that the Prime Minister and the Government had repeatedly "lied" over the war's conduct.
"I did not join the British Army to conduct American foreign policy," he said. He expected to be labelled a coward and to face a court martial and imprisonment after making what "the most difficult decision of my life" last March.
Instead, he was discharged with a testimonial describing him as a "balanced, honest, loyal and determined individual who possesses the strength of character to have the courage of his convictions".
Last night Patrick Mercer, the shadow minister for homeland security, said: "Trooper Griffin is a highly experienced soldier. This makes his decision particularly disturbing and his views and opinions must be listened to by the Government."
The MoD declined to comment.