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The strange death of Pvt. Johnson
PFC. LaVena Johnson (1985-2005)
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"They don't care. They put on a uniform and they say 'honor' and 'integrity' but they have no morals, no honor and no integrity and I don't even know how they sleep at night. --Linda Johnson, mother of Pvt. LaVena Johnson.
Pvt. LaVena Johnson, 19, was excited to tell her mother that she was definitely going to be home from Iraq for Christmas, her favorite time of year. The next day she was dead.
The casualty liaison told the Johnson family their daughter had committed suicide; she was found dead in her barracks with a gunshot wound to the head. However, two other separate contacts later told LaVena's father, Dr. John Johnson, that she was found dead in a civilian contractor's tent. The tent was on fire, according to the witness who discovered her body.
This was back in July 2005. Over the years, more information has slowly come to light. Some of the evidence that contradicted the Army's version of events was horribly revealing.
In addition to being a doctor, Johnson is also a veteran. He knows an M-16 is 40 inches long and that his daughter was 5'1". She would have found it impossible to get such a weapon into her mouth and squeeze the trigger. Even if she did, the force of an M-16 exit wound at close range would have done much more damage than the small neat bullet wound on her left temple. The bullet would is now believed to have come from a small-caliber pistol. On top of that, the Army's own gunpowder residue tests indicate she may not have even handled the M-16 that they said killed her. And the bullet that killed her was never found.
As Johnson's family and friends began collecting evidence through the Freedom of Information Act and other sources, their suspicions grew. It turned out the young woman's M-16 rifle was found perfectly parallel to her body, which was found inside a burning tent. A witness said he heard a gunshot and when he went to check found the tent on fire and a body inside.
Using the Freedom of Information Act, they finally located a CD of photographs. "It was a horrible sight" said Dr. Johnson of the uncensored color photos of his nude daughter. The photographs revealed that LaVena, barely 5 feet tall and weighing less than 100 pounds, had been struck in the face with a heavy blunt instrument, perhaps a rifle butt. Her nose was smashed and her teeth were shoved backwards. One elbow was distended. The back of her clothes were covered with debris, indicating she had been dragged from one location to another. The photographs showed bruises, scratch marks and teeth imprints on the upper part of her body. The right side of her back and her right hand had been set on fire, apparently a flammable liquid was poured on her and then lighted. Her genitals revealed massive bruising and lacerations and a corrosive liquid - possibly lye - had been poured in her vagina, probably to destroy DNA evidence of a sexual assault.
Despite the bruises, scratches, teeth imprints and burns on her body, Lavena was found completely dressed and lying in the burning tent. There was a blood trail from outside the civilian contractor’s tent to the inside of her tent. She apparently had been dressed after being attacked. Her attacker had placed her body into her tent and set the tent on fire.
Investigator records reveal that members of her unit said Lavena told them she was going jogging with friends on the other side of the base. One unit member walked her to the PX where she bought a soda and then, still in her Army workout clothes, went on by herself to meet friends and work out. The unit member said she was in good spirits with no indication of personal emotional problems.
Army investigators initially assumed Pvt. Johnson's death was a homicide, and indicated that on their paperwork. But shortly into the homicide investigation, the investigators were ordered to stop the homicide investigation and classify her death as a suicide.
Dr. Johnson said several of LaVena's colleagues in Iraq told him she had been murdered. One friend of LaVena's said the Army was actively covering up for his daughter's murderer. Two others said she had a great deal of money on her person at the time of her murder, but her family received only three pennies found on her. Also her military debit card was missing and never found, though she had used it just hours before her body was found. When Dr. Johnson mentioned the money military investigators refused to respond.
Despite all the evidence, the Army says the Pvt. LaVena Johnson case is closed. The Johnsons say they received a letter from the House Armed Services Subcommittee concluding the investigation and supporting the Army's version of events.
According to Col. Ann Wright, a retired 29-year veteran of the U.S. military who is now working with the Johnson family, 98 female soldiers have died in the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of those, 40 have been "non-combat related." Of those, 19 have been suspicious. After investigation, 13 of the 19 suspicious deaths were ruled suicides.
Col. Wright tells the stories of 15 suspicious deaths of military women deployed overseas since 2003 that still require investigation; eight are classified as suicides.
One case showed striking similarities to Pvt. Johnson's. Pvt. Tina Priest was raped and later found dead in her room. The military said she died from a self-inflicted bullet wound from an M-16. When Priest's mother questioned how that would be physically possible (Pvt. Priest was about the same size as Pvt. Johnson), the Army said Priest must have fired the weapon with her toe.
There is an online petition from the group ColorOfChange.org calling on the congress to push for further investigation of Pvt. Johnson's death. The group explains that this effort is about more than just Pvt. LaVena Johnson's case.
"LaVena's death is part of a disturbing pattern of cases where female soldiers have been raped and killed, and where the military has hidden the truth and labeled the deaths suicides. In virtually all cases, Congress has been slow to investigate or hold the military accountable in any way. Unfortunately, most families simply don't have the resources, time, and psychological strength to push back."
Andre Banks, deputy director at ColorOfChange.org said that the petition, which already has 25,000 signatures, hasn't been delivered to Congress yet. He said the House Oversight Committee hasn't agreed to have a hearing specifically about Johnson's death, but that a hearing on sexual assault in the military that is scheduled in the committee's National Security and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee may yield some news. "We're hoping LaVena's case will come up then."
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Oversight Committee chair, held a hearing last year on the military lying to the public in the cases of Cpl. Pat Tillman's death and Pvt. Jessica Lynch's rescue.
Those infamous cases had already received a great deal of media coverage by the time Rep. Waxman held the hearing. Before the hearing, Pat Tillman's mother Mary was quoted by The New York Times as dismayed by the treatment her son's case received, but also worried about what other military families could be going through. "This is how they treat a family of a high-profile individual." she said. "How are they treating others?" The fact that Pat Tillman was a well-known figure helped the truth emerge about the events surrounding his death.
The fact that Pvt. Johnson's father was a doctor with the courage and expertise to critically examine his own daughter's broken corpse might be the only reason the truth about her death might eventually come out.
Pushing for the truth from the U.S. military takes more resources than some people can afford. How many families without famous faces or special expertise have been lied to?
Military culture encourages lying about rape while the chances of being sexually assaulted by military personnel are increasing. The military has gone from covering up suicides to using "suicide" to cover up for murders.
The culture of deception that has flourished in the current administration clearly knows no bounds, not even the tearful anguish of military families that simply want to know the truth.
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I doubt its a matter of "lying" but rather "incompetence".
While I totally appreciate what our troops are doing for us, their sacrifice, and their honorable goals and objectives, you have to understand that the military is
a) A government entity and thus regulates itself (ie: unregulated)
b) Run by people who get credit for sticking around more than competency
This is not due to a "Bush Administration" but has gone on long before Bush, Clinton etc.
When I served, the upper management were a bunch of yokels who had clearly obtained rank by attrition of the competent individuals from the service into the private sector. I attributed this to the post-Vietnam attrition, but perhaps its endemic in any government run operation?
Just another reason to limit government wherever possible.
The FBI, House and Senate Armed Services Committees investigate murders in the military. The Army is under their rules and must answer to them. This case is not going away and I'm sure some heads will roll. It is a indictment of the Right Wing controlled media that this is trying to be pushed under the rug. However, the case has too much momentum to be stopped. I wonder who the scapegoat will be.
Thank you for bringing this horrific story to light. This kind of atrocity must not be ignored and must be investigated and prosecuted.
The two previous posts seem more concerned with the politics of this case. This is not about the government or the media. It's about Pvt. LaVena Johnson. It's about a young soldier who was beaten, raped and murdered while serving her country. To my mind, this makes her assailant(s) "enemy combatant(s)," and it makes those involved in the cover-up of her murder traitors.
LaVena Johnson (In Memorial) Where Is The Justice?
Just when you think you’ve heard it all,
Another name is slammed into a brick wall,
LaVena Johnson an Army Private First Class,
Is she the first? Certainly this PFC isn’t the last.
Is it any wonder Osama Bin Laden can’t be found?
With a criminal loose in our camp running around,
Destroying evidence, burning bodies, again & again,
Calling themselves soldiers, claiming they are men.
What a shame when the real enemy is on the same side,
Behind the color of camaraderie these cowards hide,
Punched in the face, loose teeth, she was only 5 feet 1,
The Army claims its suicide, that’s all, over and done.
How many before shooting themselves bust their own lip,
Severe enough to the point it needs more than one stitch,
Surprisingly they didn’t say she tried to saw herself in half,
Which lie would be easier to swallow? You do the math.
So, how did that chemical burn get on her private parts?
Oh yeah, maybe a tattoo, some kind of new wave art,
Why would someone waste time getting rid of DNA?
Just maybe without detection they’re free to get away.
The U.S. Army actually tried lying, hooray for her dad,
He gave that crap the smell test and oh did it smell bad,
7/19/05 her dead body found in a contractor’s tent, HBR,
Broken nose, black eye, shot in the head and body scars.
Military personnel or civilians aren’t we on the same side?
Who is the American Government protecting, why that lie?
Had to be someone with pull to get her alone, you’d think,
I don’t have to be standing next to skunk to know it stinks.
Where’s Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, the infamous NAACP?
She could not have been more violated, do you not agree?
A 19-year-old honor student should be shown more respect,
But, this is how she’s being treated. Hey! What the heck?
Can’t call it racial because all women are treated the same,
Even academies and bases in the states there is this claim,
We are truly near the end of days soon God will work it out,
Vengeance will certainly be more than a punch in the mouth.
The Uniform Code Of Military Justice aka the U.C.M.J.,
But, where is this promise for LaVena, her assailant got away,
Judging by the condition of her remains, she put up a fight,
Now John and Linda Johnson are paving the road to right.
Funny thing though, seems they have a roadblock in Iraq,
It’s from the U.S. Army, who supposedly has their back,
The saying, “with friends like these who needs enemies?”
Guess the Army thinks first the perpetrator said, “please?”
Here's a little something to me that is simply down right scary,
The hole in her head was from a pistol, which she did not carry,
Oh yeah, if you think that's something how does this fact sound?
The fatal bullet that went through her head was never even found.
If there ever was this kind of incompetence in World War II,
Adolph Hitler or his off spring would be telling us what to do,
Oops, I don't mean us because there'd be no Blacks or Jews,
And only if the Furor liked Mexican food maybe a Hispanic or 2.
Whomever, wherever, whatever, an injustice did occur,
We can’t make it right for others without justice for her,
Hey, White House, the most powerful office in the world,
Do you have the gonads to speak out for this Johnson girl?
A petition was signed that is over twelve thousand strong,
The Army closed the case anyway saying nothing’s wrong,
Nothing like U.S. Intelligence, it’s the reason for the attack,
If they hadn’t been storing WMD’s we wouldn’t be in Iraq.
I saw something on the Internet much sadder than sad,
Her mom distraught, shedding tears, clutching her dad,
Soldiers carrying LaVena’s body almost made me mad,
Draped over her lifeless casket was an American flag.
Apparently the stars and stripes blows in two directions,
There is one for neglect, another for promised protection,
As it laid over her body on that particular sun filled day,
Was it 1 of protection or 1 allowing the perp to get away?
Beware this incident is not about colors, Black or White,
Remember it’s a statement in the arena of wrong vs. right,
I wonder if her recruiter bothered to make LaVena aware,
The same injustice suffered here is also allowed over there.
And here’s a timeless saying, which is entering my mind,
There’s even a movie with the title, “Behind Enemy Lines,”
Now that the light is shining on a lie that 3 years rang true,
Who will step in & accomplish what the enemy refused to do?
For every ranking Army official who signed off on this case,
Nothing less than a court martial is what each 1 should face,
Upon their conviction exactly where should they have to go?
What about life in a cell behind barb wire fences at Gitmo.
Poems By Luke Easter
right wing controlled media?
Wow. How far left do you have to be to believe that!?!?
Good poem. A sad tragic story, as a mother I cry for her, and for her parents and famiily. As a woman I am disturbed and angered by the willingness to cover up and protect the animal that did this, and prevent the story from being heard. Women enlisting should be made aware of this. The man who did this will or has done it again, and anyone with a daughter/wife/mother/sister must worry even more about their safety than they already do.
Department of Defense statistics are shocking — one in three women who join the US military will be sexually assaulted or raped by men in the military. The warnings to women should begin above the doors of the military recruiting stations, as that is where many assaults on women in the military begin, by recruiters, before they are even recruited.
Even more shocking are the deaths of women soldiers in Iraq and in the United States, following their rapes. The deaths of women who were first sexually assaulted then died, or were killed, are classified by the military as “non-combat related injuries” to which “suicide” is added.
94 US military women in the military have died in Iraq or during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Of the 94 US military women who died in Iraq or in OIF, the military says 36 died from non-combat related injuries, which included vehicle accidents, illness, death by “natural causes,” and "self-inflicted gunshot wounds", or "suicide". The military has declared the deaths of the Navy women in Bahrain that were killed by a third sailor, as homicides. 5 more deaths have been labeled as suicides and 15 more deaths occurred under extremely suspicious circumstances.
8 women soldiers from Fort Hood, Texas (six from the Fourth Infantry Division and two from the 1st Armored Cavalry Division) died of “non-combat related injuries” on the same base, Camp Taji, and three of them were raped before they were killed. Two were raped immediately before their deaths and another raped prior to arriving in Iraq.
Two military women have died of suspicious “non-combat related injuries” on Balad base, and one was raped before she died. Four deaths have been classified as “suicides.”
(more.....)
(...continued)
Other suspicious “non-combat related injury” deaths on Camp Taji include PFC Melissa J. Hobart, Sgt. Jeannette Dunn, Spec. Kamisha J. Block, Spec. Marisol Heredia and Spec. Keisha M. Morgan, who died February, 22, 2008. The circumstances of their deaths should be investigated further because of serious questions about the "investigations."
The US Army has classified the deaths of four other women as suicides. In the space of three months in 2006, three members of the U.S. Army who had been part of a logistics group in Kuwait "committed suicide." Two of them were women. In August 2006 Lt. Col. Marshall Gutierrez, was arrested at a restaurant in Kuwait and was accused of shaking down a laundry contractor for a $3,400 bribe. He was allowed to return to his quarters and found dead with an empty bottle of prescription sleeping pills an open container of what appeared to be antifreeze.
Major Gloria D. Davis, 47, assigned to the Defense Security Assistance Agency which handles the sales of military equipment to other countries, reportedly "committed suicide" in Baghdad on the day after she admitted to an Army investigator that she accepted at least $225,000 in bribes from Lee Dynamics, a military contractor in Iraq that reportedly bribed officers for contracts. Major Davis had a daughter, a son and a granddaughter. She had worked as a police officer, was a volunteer at women’s shelters and helped get disadvantaged African-American students into ROTC programs.
New York Army National Guard Sgt. Denise A. Lannaman, 46, assigned to a procurement office in Camp Arifjan, Kuwait that purchased millions of dollars in supplies. She received excellent performance ratings. On October 1, 2006, Sgt. Lannaman was questioned by a senior officer about the death of Lt. Col. Gutierrez. Sgt. Lannaman was told that she would be leaving the military in disgrace. She was found in a jeep dead of a gunshot wound later that day.
US Army interrogator Specialist Alyssa Renee Peterson, 27, was an Arabic linguist who reportedly was very concerned about the manner in which interrogations were being conducted. She died on September 15, 2003 near Tal Afar, Iraq in what the Army described as "a gunshot wound to the head, a non-combat, self-inflicted weapons discharge, or suicide". Spec. Peterson reportedly objected to the interrogation techniques used on prisoners and refused to participate after only two nights working in the unit known as "the Cage". Members of her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques Peterson objected to. The military says that all records of those techniques have now been destroyed. After refusing to conduct any more interrogations, Peterson was assigned to guard the base main gate where she monitored Iraqi guards. She was also sent to suicide prevention training. On the night of September 15th, 2003, Army investigators concluded she shot and killed herself with her service rifle. Family members challenge the Army’s conclusion.
US Army Sgt. Melissa Valles, 26, died in Balad from "two non-combat gunshot wounds to her abdomen." Her family does not believe their daughter Sgt. Valles committed suicide.
One suspicious non-combat death of a military woman occurred in Afghanistan. On September 28, 2007, Massachusetts Army National Guard Specialist Ciara Durkin, 30, a finance specialist, was found lying near a church on the high security Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, with a single gunshot wound to her head. She had recently told her relatives to press for answers if anything happened to her while she was deployed in Afghanistan. When she was home three weeks prior to her death, she told her sister about something she had come across that raised some concern with her and that she had made some enemies because of it. Members of her family also questioned whether the fact that she was a lesbian played a role in her death. They believe Ciara was killed by a fellow service member, intentionally or accidentally, and they are confident that she did not commit suicide.
In Bahrain, On January 16, 2007, US Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Jennifer A. Valdivia, 27, assigned to the naval security force for Naval Support Activity, Bahrain, was found dead 3 days after she was to report for duty on January 14. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service has classified her death as "a suicide". Valdivia was kennel master of the largest military kennel in the world. In 2005 she was named Sailor of the Year at the Bahrain Naval Base.
Although the data on the number of suicides in the military is vague and purposely underreported by the Veterans Administration, of 69 suicides of men in the military since 2002, 64 committed suicide in the United States, 1 in Kuwait, 2 in Iraq and 2 in Afghanistan.
Men are much more likely to commit suicide not in combat, but when they return from a combat zone.
Of the 8 alleged suicides of women in the military, 3 were in Iraq, 2 in the US, 1 in Kuwait and 1 in Bahrain. The question is, "why would women be more likely to commit suicide outside the US than back home?
The circumstances surrounding each of these "suicide" deaths merits further investigation. Only the Congress can compel the military to reopen these cases and conduct truly unbiased, thorough investigations.
Rational_Thinker: And who actually owns and controlls the liberal media? Why, radical left-wing outfits like AOL Time Warner, Disney, General Electric, News Corporation, Viacom, Vivendi, Sony, Bertelsmann, AT&T and Liberty Media. The media is overwhelmingly controlled by old wealthy white males of a decidedly conservative bent. Like Rupert Murdoch. Take for example, General Electric, the world's second largest defense contractor (donated 1.1 million to GW Bush for his 2000 election campaign). GE owns:
* NBC: includes 13 stations, 28% of US households.
* NBC Network News: The Today Show, Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, Meet the Press, Dateline NBC, NBC News at Sunrise.
* CNBC business television; MSNBC 24-hour cable and Internet news service (co-owned by NBC and Microsoft); Court TV (co-owned with Time Warner), Bravo (50%), A&E (25%), History Channel (25%).
Among other things, G.E. makes engines for F-16 fighters and Apache Longbow helicopters. As long as people perceive on NBC (and affiliates) that the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan is going well for us, orders for those engines will keep rolling in. If people begin to have doubts about the occupation, it could put a dent in GE's main business (hint: it's not light bulbs).Therefore, it is in GE's best interest to paint the war in as positive terms as possible in their nightly newscasts.
James Baker, perhaps the most media-savvy Republican around, owned up to the fact that any complaint about "the Liberal Media" was decidedly misplaced. "Oh, there were days and times and events we might have had some complaints, [but] on balance I don't think we had anything to complain about," he admitted.
Pat Buchanan, among the most conservative of conservative pundits, found that he could not identify any liberal bias against him during his presidential candidacies. "I've gotten balanced coverage, and broad coverage; all we could have asked. For heaven's sakes, we all kid about the 'liberal media,' but every Republican on earth does that," he confessed.
And even William Kristol, without a doubt the most influential Republican neoconservative publicist in America today, has come clean on this issue. "I admit it," he told a reporter. "The liberal media were never that powerful, and the whole thing was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures." Nevertheless, Mr. Kristol apparently feels no compunction about exploiting and reinforcing the ignorant prejudices of his own constituency. In a 2001 pitch to conservative potential subscribers to his Rupert Murdoch-funded magazine, Mr. Kristol complained, "The trouble with politics and political coverage today is that there's too much liberal bias.... There's too much tilt toward the left-wing agenda. Too much apology for liberal policy failures. Too much pandering to liberal candidates and causes."
How about too much hypocrisy?
Gen. Butler: Several quotes that seem apropos of the current Executive:
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"Power is usurped from the people, first by implementing fear, then it is maintained by slandering as 'unpatriotic' those who refuse submission." (Ramman Kenoun)
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"The cry has been that when war is declared all opposition should be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated. "(William Ellery Channing)
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"Before the war is ended, the War Party assumes the divine right to denounce and silence all opposition to war as unpatriotic and cowardly." (Senator Robert M. La Follette)
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"The occupation and robbery of a nation occurs under the illusion of freeing its citizens from brutal oppression." (Ramman Kenoun)