fallen

[Dan Scanlan <coolhanduke@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Editor & Publisher via Truthout - Nov 1, 2006
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/110106R.shtml

Revealed: US Soldier Killed Herself After Objecting to Interrogation
Techniques

By Greg Mitchell

One of the first women to die in Iraq shot and killed herself after
objecting to harsh "interrogation techniques."

The true stories of how American troops, killed in Iraq, actually
died keep
spilling out this week. On Tuesday, we explored the case of Kenny
Stanton,
Jr., murdered last month by our allies, the Iraqi police, though the
military didnt make that known at the time. Now we learn that one of the
first female soldiers killed in Iraq died by her own hand after
objecting to
interrogation techniques used on prisoners.

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."

She was only the third American woman killed in Iraq so her death
drew wide
press attention. A "non-hostile weapons discharge" leading to death
is not
unusual in Iraq, often quite accidental, so this one apparently
raised few
eyebrows. The Arizona Republic, three days after her death, reported
that
Army officials "said that a number of possible scenarios are being
considered, including Peterson's own weapon discharging, the weapon of
another soldier discharging or the accidental shooting of Peterson by an
Iraqi civilian."

But in this case, a longtime radio and newspaper reporter named Kevin
Elston, unsatisfied with the public story, decided to probe deeper in
2005,
"just on a hunch," he told E&P today. He made "hundreds of phone
calls" to
the military and couldn't get anywhere, so he filed a Freedom of
Information
Act request. When the documents of the official investigation of her
death
arrived, they contained bombshell revelations. Heres what the Flagstaff
public radio station, KNAU, where Elston now works, reported yesterday:

"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.

The Army talked to some of Peterson's colleagues. Asked to summarize
their
comments, Elston told E&P: "The reactions to the suicide were that
she was
having a difficult time separating her personal feelings from her
professional duties. That was the consistent point in the
testimonies, that
she objected to the interrogation techniques, without describing what
those
techniques were."

Elston said 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. He has now filed another FOIA
request
for a copy of the actual note.

Peterson's father, Rich Peterson, has said: "Alyssa volunteered to
change
assignments with someone who did not want to go to Iraq."

Alyssa Peterson, a devout Mormon, had graduated from Flagstaff High
School
and earned a psychology degree from Northern Arizona University on a
military scholarship. She was trained in interrogation techniques at
Fort
Huachuca in Arizona, and then sent to the Middle East in 2003.

The Arizona Republic article had opened: "Friends say Army Spc.
Alyssa R.
Peterson of Flagstaff always had an amazing ability to learn foreign
languages.

"Peterson became fluent in Dutch even before she went on an 18-month
Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints mission to the Netherlands in
the late
1990s. Then, she cruised through her Arabic courses at the military's
Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif., shortly after
enlisting in
July 2001.

"With that under her belt, she was off to Iraq to conduct
interrogations and
translate enemy documents."

On a "fallen heroes" message board on the Web, Mary W. Black of
Flagstaff
wrote, "The very day Alyssa died, her Father was talking to me at the
Post
Office where we both work, in Flagstaff, Az., telling me he had a
premonition and was very worried about his daughter who was in the
military
on the other side of the world. The next day he was notified while on
the
job by two army officers. Never has a daughter been so missed or so
loved
than she was and has been by her Father since that fateful September
day in
2003. He has been the most broken man I have ever seen."

An A.W. from Los Angeles wrote: "I met Alyssa only once during a weekend
surfing trip while she was at DLI. Although our encounter was brief, she
made a lasting impression. We did not know each other well, but I was
blown
away by her genuine, sincere, sweet nature. I dont know how else to
put it -
she was just nice.... I was devastated to here [sic] of her death. I
couldnt
understand why it had to happen to such a wonderful person."

Finally, Daryl K. Tabor of Ashland City, Tenn., who had met her as a
journalist in Iraq for the Kentucky New Era paper in Hopkinsville:
"Since
learning of her death, I cannot get the image of the last time I saw
her out
of my mind. We were walking out of the tent in Kuwait to be briefed
on our
flights into Iraq as I stepped aside to let her out first. Her smile was
brighter than the hot desert sun. Peterson was the only soldier I
interacted
with that I know died in Iraq. I am truly sorry I had to know any."