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July 9, email to Ted Koppel, Nightline, ABC

ATTENTION TED KOPPEL, et al.

Dear Ted, I’ve sent along this piece, which sets forth my views of the cover-up of the 3/7 Cavalry disaster at the Baghdad International Airport on Friday night (our time), April 4.  I wrote the piece on April 13, after waiting a week for the president to make the proper announcement.  I send it because I believe it will help you to put the puzzle together.

I believe that a bit of digging will reveal that there is a cover-up afoot, and that the 3rd Infantry Division has to be kept in Iraq (and silenced) until someone has the guts to go after the facts of the body count for the Battle of Baghdad.  It seems like a job for an independent media source…  I hope you guys are interested in the piece now.  I faxed it after talking with your news department on April 13, but maybe you haven’t seen it.

In a story a week or two ago (the New York Times, I believe) wives at Ft. Stewart, Georgia (the home post of the 3rd Infantry Division) were quoted as saying that they compared their prescriptions for amusement, and that many of them were receiving psychiatric prescriptions from post medical personnel.  In other words, they were being drugged to keep them complaisant.

The Times ran a July 4 story stating that recently an Army colonel had to be escorted from a near-riotous group of 800 military spouses at Ft. Stewart because the 3rd Infantry Division has been repeatedly detained in theater since mid-May, when they were first expected home.  The 3rd Infantry Division combat arms units – especially the 3/7 Cavalry – sustained heavy (and as yet unreported) casualties at the Baghdad Airport on April 5/6, but the administration is covering it up.

Believing that a disaster had happened from the time it happened, I took up a collection, then took a three-week bicycle ride from Texas to Ft. Stewart, Georgia (1000 miles, give or take a few) to deliver it.  When I arrived I met with a senior post chaplain (and Green Beret), Colonel Dennington, to discuss theory.  He refused to deny it and, (brother officer to brother officer), let me know I was right.  He gave me to understand that silence isn’t the same as lying.  I thought about explaining that there were lies of commission and lies of omission…

Captain May

 

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