US Troops are arrogant and stupid

Atrocities in Iraq: 'I killed innocent people for our government'
By Paul Rockwell -- Special to The Bee
Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, May 16, 2004
"We forget what war is about, what it does to those who wage it and those who suffer from it. Those who hate war the most, I have often found, are veterans who know it."

- Chris Hedges, New York Times reporter and author of "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning"

For nearly 12 years, Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey was a hard-core, some say gung-ho, Marine. For three years he trained fellow Marines in one of the most grueling indoctrination rituals in military life - Marine boot camp.

The Iraq war changed Massey. The brutality, the sheer carnage of the U.S. invasion, touched his conscience and transformed him forever. He was honorably discharged with full severance last Dec. 31 and is now back in his hometown, Waynsville, N.C.

When I talked with Massey last week, he expressed his remorse at the civilian loss of life in incidents in which he himself was involved.

Q: You spent 12 years in the Marines. When were you sent to Iraq?

A: I went to Kuwait around Jan. 17. I was in Iraq from the get-go. And I was involved in the initial invasion.

Q: What does the public need to know about your experiences as a Marine?

A: The cause of the Iraqi revolt against the American occupation. What they need to know is we killed a lot of innocent people. I think at first the Iraqis had the understanding that casualties are a part of war. But over the course of time, the occupation hurt the Iraqis. And I didn't see any humanitarian support.

Q: What experiences turned you against the war and made you leave the Marines?

A: I was in charge of a platoon that consists of machine gunners and missile men. Our job was to go into certain areas of the towns and secure the roadways. There was this one particular incident - and there's many more - the one that really pushed me over the edge. It involved a car with Iraqi civilians. From all the intelligence reports we were getting, the cars were loaded down with suicide bombs or material. That's the rhetoric we received from intelligence. They came upon our checkpoint. We fired some warning shots. They didn't slow down. So we lit them up.

Q: Lit up? You mean you fired machine guns?

A: Right. Every car that we lit up we were expecting ammunition to go off. But we never heard any. Well, this particular vehicle we didn't destroy completely, and one gentleman looked up at me and said: "Why did you kill my brother? We didn't do anything wrong." That hit me like a ton of bricks.

Q: He spoke English?

A: Oh, yeah.

Q: Baghdad was being bombed. The civilians were trying to get out, right?

A: Yes. They received pamphlets, propaganda we dropped on them. It said, "Just throw up your hands, lay down weapons." That's what they were doing, but we were still lighting them up. They weren't in uniform. We never found any weapons.

Q: You got to see the bodies and casualties?

A: Yeah, firsthand. I helped throw them in a ditch.

Q: Over what period did all this take place?

A: During the invasion of Baghdad.


'We lit him up pretty good'
Q: How many times were you involved in checkpoint "light-ups"?
A: Five times. There was [the city of] Rekha. The gentleman was driving a stolen work utility van. He didn't stop. With us being trigger happy, we didn't really give this guy much of a chance. We lit him up pretty good. Then we inspected the back of the van. We found nothing. No explosives.

Q: The reports said the cars were loaded with explosives. In all the incidents did you find that to be the case?

A: Never. Not once. There were no secondary explosions. As a matter of fact, we lit up a rally after we heard a stray gunshot.

Q: A demonstration? Where?

A: On the outskirts of Baghdad. Near a military compound. There were demonstrators at the end of the street. They were young and they had no weapons. And when we rolled onto the scene, there was already a tank that was parked on the side of the road. If the Iraqis wanted to do something, they could have blown up the tank. But they didn't. They were only holding a demonstration. Down at the end of the road, we saw some RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) lined up against the wall. That put us at ease because we thought: "Wow, if they were going to blow us up, they would have done it."

Q: Were the protest signs in English or Arabic?

A: Both.

Q: Who gave the order to wipe the demonstrators out?

A: Higher command. We were told to be on the lookout for the civilians because a lot of the Fedayeen and the Republican Guards had tossed away uniforms and put on civilian clothes and were mounting terrorist attacks on American soldiers. The intelligence reports that were given to us were basically known by every member of the chain of command. The rank structure that was implemented in Iraq by the chain of command was evident to every Marine in Iraq. The order to shoot the demonstrators, I believe, came from senior government officials, including intelligence communities within the military and the U.S. government.

Q: What kind of firepower was employed?

A: M-16s, 50-cal. machine guns.

Q: You fired into six or ten kids? Were they all taken out?

A: Oh, yeah. Well, I had a "mercy" on one guy. When we rolled up, he was hiding behind a concrete pillar. I saw him and raised my weapon up, and he put up his hands. He ran off. I told everybody, "Don't shoot." Half of his foot was trailing behind him. So he was running with half of his foot cut off.

Q: After you lit up the demonstration, how long before the next incident?

A: Probably about one or two hours. This is another thing, too. I am so glad I am talking with you, because I suppressed all of this.

Q: Well, I appreciate you giving me the information, as hard as it must be to recall the painful details.

A: That's all right. It's kind of therapy for me. Because it's something that I had repressed for a long time.

Q: And the incident?

A: There was an incident with one of the cars. We shot an individual with his hands up. He got out of the car. He was badly shot. We lit him up. I don't know who started shooting first. One of the Marines came running over to where we were and said: "You all just shot a guy with his hands up." Man, I forgot about this.


Depleted uranium and cluster bombs
Q: You mention machine guns. What can you tell me about cluster bombs, or depleted uranium?
A: Depleted uranium. I know what it does. It's basically like leaving plutonium rods around. I'm 32 years old. I have 80 percent of my lung capacity. I ache all the time. I don't feel like a healthy 32-year-old.

Q: Were you in the vicinity of of depleted uranium?

A: Oh, yeah. It's everywhere. DU is everywhere on the battlefield. If you hit a tank, there's dust.

Q: Did you breath any dust?

A: Yeah.

Q: And if DU is affecting you or our troops, it's impacting Iraqi civilians.

A: Oh, yeah. They got a big wasteland problem.

Q: Do Marines have any precautions about dealing with DU?

A: Not that I know of. Well, if a tank gets hit, crews are detained for a little while to make sure there are no signs or symptoms. American tanks have depleted uranium on the sides, and the projectiles have DU in them. If an enemy vehicle gets hit, the area gets contaminated. Dead rounds are in the ground. The civilian populace is just now starting to learn about it. Hell, I didn't even know about DU until two years ago. You know how I found out about it? I read an article in Rolling Stone magazine. I just started inquiring about it, and I said "Holy s---!"

Q: Cluster bombs are also controversial. U.N. commissions have called for a ban. Were you acquainted with cluster bombs?

A: I had one of my Marines in my battalion who lost his leg from an ICBM.

Q: What's an ICBM?

A: A multi-purpose cluster bomb.

Q: What happened?

A: He stepped on it. We didn't get to training about clusters until about a month before I left.

Q: What kind of training?

A: They told us what they looked like, and not to step on them.

Q: Were you in any areas where they were dropped?

A: Oh, yeah. They were everywhere.

Q: Dropped from the air?

A: From the air as well as artillery.

Q: Are they dropped far away from cities, or inside the cities?

A: They are used everywhere. Now if you talked to a Marine artillery officer, he would give you the runaround, the politically correct answer. But for an average grunt, they're everywhere.

Q: Including inside the towns and cities?

A: Yes, if you were going into a city, you knew there were going to be ICBMs.

Q: Cluster bombs are anti-personnel weapons. They are not precise. They don't injure buildings, or hurt tanks. Only people and living things. There are a lot of undetonated duds and they go off after the battles are over.

A: Once the round leaves the tube, the cluster bomb has a mind of its own. There's always human error. I'm going to tell you: The armed forces are in a tight spot over there. It's starting to leak out about the civilian casualties that are taking place. The Iraqis know. I keep hearing reports from my Marine buddies inside that there were 200-something civilians killed in Fallujah. The military is scrambling right now to keep the raps on that. My understanding is Fallujah is just littered with civilian bodies.


Embedded reporters
Q: How are the embedded reporters responding?
A: I had embedded reporters in my unit, not my platoon. One we had was a South African reporter. He was scared s---less. We had an incident where one of them wanted to go home.

Q: Why?

A: It was when we started going into Baghdad. When he started seeing the civilian casualties, he started wigging out a little bit. It didn't start until we got on the outskirts of Baghdad and started taking civilian casualties.

Q: I would like to go back to the first incident, when the survivor asked why did you kill his brother. Was that the incident that pushed you over the edge, as you put it?

A: Oh, yeah. Later on I found out that was a typical day. I talked with my commanding officer after the incident. He came up to me and says: "Are you OK?" I said: "No, today is not a good day. We killed a bunch of civilians." He goes: "No, today was a good day." And when he said that, I said "Oh, my goodness, what the hell am I into?"

Q: Your feelings changed during the invasion. What was your state of mind before the invasion?

A: I was like every other troop. My president told me they got weapons of mass destruction, that Saddam threatened the free world, that he had all this might and could reach us anywhere. I just bought into the whole thing.

Q: What changed you?

A: The civilian casualties taking place. That was what made the difference. That was when I changed.

Q: Did the revelations that the government fabricated the evidence for war affect the troops?

A: Yes. I killed innocent people for our government. For what? What did I do? Where is the good coming out of it? I feel like I've had a hand in some sort of evil lie at the hands of our government. I just feel embarrassed, ashamed about it.


Showdown with superiors
Q: I understand that all the incidents - killing civilians at checkpoints, itchy fingers at the rally - weigh on you. What happened with your commanding officers? How did you deal with them?
A: There was an incident. It was right after the fall of Baghdad, when we went back down south. On the outskirts of Karbala, we had a morning meeting on the battle plan. I was not in a good mindset. All these things were going through my head - about what we were doing over there. About some of the things my troops were asking. I was holding it all inside. My lieutenant and I got into a conversation. The conversation was striking me wrong. And I lashed out. I looked at him and told him: "You know, I honestly feel that what we're doing is wrong over here. We're committing genocide."

He asked me something and I said that with the killing of civilians and the depleted uranium we're leaving over here, we're not going to have to worry about terrorists. He didn't like that. He got up and stormed off. And I knew right then and there that my career was over. I was talking to my commanding officer.

Q: What happened then?

A: After I talked to the top commander, I was kind of scurried away. I was basically put on house arrest. I didn't talk to other troops. I didn't want to hurt them. I didn't want to jeopardize them.

I want to help people. I felt strongly about it. I had to say something. When I was sent back to stateside, I went in front of the sergeant major. He's in charge of 3,500-plus Marines. "Sir," I told him, "I don't want your money. I don't want your benefits. What you did was wrong."

It was just a personal conviction with me. I've had an impeccable career. I chose to get out. And you know who I blame? I blame the president of the U.S. It's not the grunt. I blame the president because he said they had weapons of mass destruction. It was a lie.

One is left to ponder just what such actions are they accomplishing? Am I mistaken that the original goal was to apprehend Saddam? That was done months ago. The so-called Saddam loyalists or insurgents will still be present in Iraq after the June 30th handover. So why is the US and British military rading mosques?

American troops opened fire on anti-US protesters in the northern city of Mosul on Tuesday, killing at least 10. Hours earlier, 20,000 people marched through the southern city of Nasiriyah to oppose Washington's plans to install a puppet government. In Baghdad, the US military tried to prevent journalists from reporting on the third straight day of anti-US demonstrations.

Even as President Bush, speaking in the White House Rose Garden, was declaring that the Iraqi people were "regaining control of their own destiny," US soldiers were turning their weapons on civilians opposed to American and US-appointed rulers.

Witnesses told the Agence France Presse (AFP) news agency that 10-12 people were killed and perhaps 100 wounded when US troops fired on a crowd protesting a speech by Mosul's new American-installed governor. The shooting broke out as the governor was making a pro-US speech from the building housing his offices.

The charges were denied by a US military spokesman, who said troops had first come under fire from at least two gunmen and fired back, without aiming at the crowd. "There were protesters outside, 100 to 150, there was fire, we returned fire," he said. "We didn't fire at the crowd, but at the top of the building."

Yet witnesses said US troops fired into the crowd after it became increasingly hostile towards the new governor, Mashaan al-Juburi. "They (the soldiers) climbed on top of the building and first fired at a building near the crowd, with the glass falling on the civilians. People started to throw stones, then the Americans fired at them," said Ayad Hassun, 37. "Dozens of people fell."

Hassun said the trouble broke out after the crowd interrupted Juburi's speech with cries of "There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his prophet." Juburi retorted, "You are with Saddam's fedayeen," to which the crowd chanted, "The only democracy is to make the Americans leave." Hassun said 20 US soldiers escorted Juburi back inside before firing from the building's roof.

Another witness, Marwan Mohammed, told AFP: "We were at the market place near the government building, where Juburi was making a speech. He said everything would be restored?-water, electricity, and that democracy was the Americans.

"As for the Americans, they were going through the crowd with their flag. They placed themselves between the civilians and the building. The people moved toward the government building, the children threw stones, the Americans started firing. Then they prevented the people from recovering the bodies."

According to a third witness, Abdulrahman Ali, the US soldiers opened fire when they saw the crowd running at the government building.

An AFP journalist saw a wrecked car in the square and ambulances ferrying wounded people to hospital, while US aircraft flew over the city at low altitude. As angry relatives of the dead and wounded voiced hatred of the American forces, a doctor at the city hospital, Ayad al-Ramadhani, said: "There are perhaps 100 wounded and 10 to 12 dead."

Another doctor, Said Altah, said: "Juburi said the people must co-operate with the United States. The crowd called him a liar, and tempers rose as he continued to talk. They threw objects at him, overturned his car, which exploded. The wounded said Juburi asked the Americans to fire."


Mass demonstration in Nasiriyah

Earlier Tuesday morning, some 20,000 people marched though Nasiriyah, chanting: "Yes to freedom... Yes to Islam... No to America, No to Saddam." They included leaders of the main Shiite Muslim opposition group, who boycotted the US-orchestrated gathering in the nearby ancient town of Ur to discuss forming an interim government.

The heavily guarded talks were attended by Washington's anointed ruler, retired general Jay Garner, and US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, together with representatives from Britain, Australia and Poland, which contributed forces to the invasion force, as well as about 60 handpicked Iraqis. Garner opened the conference, saying, "A free and democratic Iraq will begin today."

But thousands of people marched against US plans to install Garner and a token administration. "Iraq needs an Iraqi interim government. Anything other than this tramples the rights of the Iraqi people and will be a return to the era of colonization," said Abdul Aziz Hakim, a leader of the largest Iraqi Shiite group, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Ibrahim al-Jaafari, one of the leaders of al-Daawa Party, a Shiite group, turned down his invitation to the Ur talks, saying he opposed foreign intervention "exerting pressure on certain Iraqi opposition groups and favoring others."

Even some of those at the meeting said they did not want Garner leading the interim administration. "We will press for any Iraqi civilian administration regardless of what the Americans say. An administration by Garner is not acceptable," said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, an Iraqi physician.

Anti-US demonstrations were reported elsewhere in Iraq on Tuesday. In Kut, another southern city, hundreds of protesters blocked Marines from entering the city hall to oust a Shiite cleric who has declared himself in control there. Military officials have accused Said Abbas of being Iranian-backed and of making anti-American statements in local mosques.

Some 20 Marines from Task Force Tarawa decided against trying to enter the city hall after being confronted by 1,200 protesters, Lieutenant Colonel Jean Malone said. The protesters were shouting "No, No Chalabi!"?-referring to Ahmed Chalabi, the leader of the Pentagon-backed Iraqi National Congress.


Baghdad protests

For the third day running, hundreds of Baghdad residents gathered outside the Palestine Hotel, now a makeshift US military headquarters, in protest at the occupation and the failure of coalition troops to stem looting. As a dozen heavily-armed US marines looked on nervously, some 300 people pressed against the razor wire encircling the entrance, chanting slogans and brandishing handwritten placards.

"This is no freedom," they chanted. "No to America, No to Saddam." Many in the crowd yelled at the Marines, asking "Where is our future?" Others demanded, "Give us security." One hand-painted banner accused the Allied forces of "protecting the oil and leaving the stores, universities and hospitals"

A United Press International correspondent said demonstrators called for the evacuation of US and British "occupation troops" from Iraq, shouting "Death to America... Death to Bush." Previously banned political parties and new political groupings distributed leaflets urging Iraqis to close ranks and reject foreign occupation. Some groups held banners that read "Iraq First."

For the first time, US forces tried to prevent the media from covering the protests. According to an AFP correspondent, visibly-angered US military officials moved reporters and photographers about 30 meters from the hotel entrance.

"We want you to pull back to the back of the hotel because they (the Iraqis) are only performing because the media are here," said a marine colonel, who wore the name Zarcone but would not give his first name or title.

The angry crowd later moved to nearby Firdos Square?-where a statue of Saddam Hussein had been toppled just six days earlier in a media event staged by the US military. [See "The stage-managed events in Baghdad's Firdos Square: image-making, lies and the ?'liberation' of Iraq".] Despite the presence of three Marine armoured amphibious vehicles, the Iraqis chanted: "No, no, USA."

Saddam's statue was brought down on April 9 by a few dozen Iraqis and US Marines. The Western media widely portrayed the orchestrated event as a spontaneous act of jubilation and popular support for the American occupiers.

Predictably, the considerably larger protest in Firdos Square against US rule has received little or no coverage in the US and other Western media. Almost without exception, journalists employed by the major media organizations are continuing to uncritically promote the Bush administration's lies and distortions.

The US military is determined to keep it that way. Early on Tuesday morning, the US military conducted a further exercise in intimidation against the hundreds of journalists staying at the Palestine Hotel. On the pretext of hunting down "hardcore Iraqi fighters," Marines stormed through the hotel, searching rooms.

Soldiers kicked doors down, rousted journalists from their beds and pointed M-16s in their faces, footage from Associated Press Television News showed. Marines were seen guarding suspects in a hall and interrogating a man who claimed to be a cameraman. Four Iraqi men who did not have proper identification were reportedly detained.

The raids hit the 16th and 17th floors, where journalists with CNN, Turkish TV, Japanese TV and other networks were staying. A CNN producer, Linda Roth, said she opened her door to find armed Marines, who ordered her to get down while they searched her room without explanation.

Just last week, an American tank opened fire on the Palestine Hotel, killing two journalists and wounding three others. A number of correspondents have denied claims by US military commanders that enemy fire was coming from the building.

In response to the growing wave of popular discontent, US military commanders on Tuesday deployed 2,000 Iraq police officers in Baghdad under the direction of Major-General Zuhair al-Nuami, who headed the police force at Saddam Hussein's Interior Ministry. In the name of "liberation," some of the Baathist regime's most hated representatives are back on the street, supported by US soldiers.

In its riskiest attack yet against the forces of a rebel Shiite cleric, the American military called in an airstrike today to kill fighters standing about 160 feet away from one of the holiest shrines in Shiite Islam, military officials said.

The strike came after nearly a week in which tenacious insurgents supporting the cleric, Moktada al-Sadr, fought daily battles in downtown Karbala against soldiers of the First Armored Division. The insurgents have killed three American soldiers and wounded at least 55, frustrating American commanders who had hoped to break the insurgency by raiding a mosque used as a rebel stronghold last Tuesday.

After hours of debate on Sunday, commanders called in an AC-130 gunship, which began pounding away at insurgent positions with 40-millimeter cannon fire around 12:30 a.m. today.

An American officer on the scene said the insurgents had clustered on a street corner about 160 feet from the golden-domed Shrine of Hussein, dedicated to the martyred grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.