Loudmouth Republican Congressman Allen West from Florida committed war crimes while he served our armed forces in Iraq.
The case stems from an incident August 20 at a military base in Taji, just north of Baghdad, when West was interrogating an Iraqi policeman, who was believed to have information about a plot to assassinate West with an ambush on a U.S. convoy.
In testimony at an Article 32 hearing -- the military's version of a grand jury or preliminary hearing -- West said the policeman, Yahya Jhrodi Hamoody, was not cooperating with interrogators, so he watched four of his soldiers from the 220th Field Artillery Battalion beat the detainee on the head and body.
West said he also threatened to kill Hamoody. Military prosecutors say West followed up on that threat by taking the suspect outside, put him on the ground near a weapons clearing barrel and fired his 9 mm pistol into the barrel.
Apparently not knowing where West's gun was aimed, Hamoody cracked and gave information about the planned ambush on West's convoy, thwarting the attack.
And 7 years later he gets elected to the House of Representatives as a Republican. This would be more shocking news, but it's not the first time we've told you about war criminals that find a nice home in the Republican Party machine. In 2009 we wrote about Alabama Congressman Mike Rogers' campaign and congressional chief of staff Christopher Brinson.
Salon described Brinson's role as supervisor of two of the most well known torturers at Abu Ghraib, Lynddie England and Charles Graner.
Graner clearly felt that he had nothing to hide. When his company commander, Captain Christopher Brinson, and one of Brinson’s deputies, Master Sergeant Brian Lipinski, stopped by, Graner said, he made the other prisoners crawl to their cells while Brinson and Lipinski watched. Graner also said that, in addition to medics and his superior officers, lawyers from the Judge Advocate General’s Corps frequently visited the cellblock and saw the abuse that went on there. Graner interpreted their presence to be “implied consent that this was all O.K.,” he said. In fact, two days later, Brinson, who in civilian life is a top aide to Representative Mike Rogers, Republican of Alabama, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, issued a Developmental Counselling Form to Graner. Such a form is normally used for reprimands, but what Brinson wrote sounded more like a commendation: “CPL Graner, you are doing a fine job. . . . You have received many accolades. . . . Continue to perform at this level and it will help us succeed at our overall mission.”
As of Feb 2011, Christopher Brinson is still listed as Mike Rogers' congressional chief of staff. Your tax dollars at work. And Allen West has a platform to call the President a "low level socialist agitator." Boy that sure means a lot from a low life war criminal, who should be in a prison cell rather than the halls of Congress.
Crossposted From the Progressive Electorate
UPDATE: Democrats in Texas are thinking about going down this road? Unbelievable. I had planned to give $50 to the DNC, but now I'm not so sure. Running a D for Senate in Texas sounds like a waste of money to me anyway, but an Abu Ghraib torture linked Lt. General? C'mon.
