Posted on 09/05/2004 6:49:01 AM PDT by leadpenny
TIGER FORCE - Ex-officer may face justice for atrocities - Army lawyer calls for war-crime charge
By JOE MAHR, BLADE STAFF WRITER
Three decades after an Army platoon repeatedly executed unarmed civilians and prisoners in Vietnam, a military lawyer has recommended the unit's former commander be brought up on a war-crime charge. In what would be an unprecedented event, retired Maj. James Hawkins could face a military court-martial regarding his actions commanding a platoon known as Tiger Force that killed hundreds of unarmed men, women, and children 37 years ago, The Blade has learned.
As the scope of war crimes in Vietnam becomes a key question in the presidential election, the military lawyer recommended this spring that Army officials charge Mr. Hawkins, who led Tiger Force between July and November, 1967.
The recommendation came during a broader Army review of Tiger Force prompted by a four-part series in The Blade in October. The series revealed the platoon's seven-month rampage through Vietnam's Central Highlands in 1967.
(Excerpt) Read more at toledoblade.com ...
Looks like the "kerry defense" - yes, indeedy, there were atrocities committed in RVN - trying to come into play. Unreal that they dredge this up.
How interesting...Timing is everything.
So this is the article that is supposed to exonerate Kerry for his testimony before Congress.
Kerry's problem is that he claimed that war crimes were systematic, part and parcel of what soldiers did every day in Vietnam, and under government orders to do it.
It's my understanding that there's no statute of limitations on warcrimes and if I'm not mistaken there might be another confessed war criminal out there.
My brother, in Toledo, just alerted me to this article. I told him I was going to start a thread and that I thought I could predict the early comments. Thanks for supporting me.
BTW, Mr. Hawkins needs to get a list of everyone who is still alive and who were part of LBJ's administration and had anything to do with Vietnam. Robert Strange McNamara comes to mind first.
No, that would be much more eventful. It would go more like:
"Sorry for everything, I lied, I am a filthy , un-American Liar, I am dropping out of the campaign and turning it over Leiberman"
Army to interview witnesses of Vietnamese deaths
| ... The Blade of Toledo first reported in October that the Army's 101st Airborne Division Tiger Force killed civilians -- including women, children and elderly ... freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1078535/posts - 37k - Supplemental Result - |
Former Green Beret Tackles John F-in Kerry Again!
| ... and sent back to hospitals in "The World." Although You, Mr. Kerry, painted all of us Vietnam veterans with the yellow brush of My Lai and Tiger Force, most of ... www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1102180/posts - 37k - Supplemental Result - |
John "Ketchup" Kerry (P*ssed off VN Vet disagrees)
| ... sent back to hospitals in “The World.” Although You, Mr. Kerry, painted all of us Vietnam veterans with the yellow brush of My Lai and Tiger Force, most of ... freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1093501/posts - 54k - Supplemental Result - |
I don't remember any Tiger force in the central highlands. If I remember right the rock pile and Khe Sanh were in the central highlands. The HoBo woods is also there. I was around there back then but had little contack with anyone.
The Blade goes to bat for its guy.
On, Off, or grab it for a Media Shenanigans/Schadenfreude/PNMCH ping:
http://www.freerepublic.com/~anamusedspectator/
The Toledo Blade is as "left' as it can get. I live here and it's disgusting to read. I only take it because it's the only paper in town.
I was in the Highlands the entire year of 67 and did not hear of it either.
Did they kill them more than once? Or is this just badly worded?
When the series first ran last year I wrote a letter to the editor which they refused to print. My complaint was that in the entire series LBJ was never mentioned once. Nixon, and an implied cover up, was mentioned many times. I even had a phone conversations with one of the reporters. He was sympathetic but they still refused to run my letter.
My brother says the same thing - that it is a leftie paper. Of course, he still listens to milquetoast Mitch Albom on WJR also. (I know he's going to read this) Sorry Bro!
Funny you mentioned Leiberman. I thought he was the best man in the whole bunch. Doesn't have that Presidential appeal though.
I'd love to find out who is behind this and just now pushing it into play. One must know that if it is as clear cut as the writer is making it out to be, the JAG units at that time would have definately hung these guys.
I think the thing that is going to nail Kerry is whatever they find with the
investigation into the tinkering with his SS citation and his DD Form 214.
Lehman would have remembered signing an amendment to a SS citation
for a sitting US Senator.
I know what you're saying -- I agree that the (alleged) facts in this case don't fit the point Kerry was making in his testimony. Still, Kerry and his supporters have a black belt in moral relativism. They'll have no problem taking the facts and twisting them into some justification of Kerry's actions.
Words and facts don't mean anything to these people -- words and facts only exist so they can be used as a way to get and keep power.
The Rock Pile and Khe Sanh were, of course, very close to the DMZ in the northern part of I Corp. Maybe they were technically in the Highlands, but I've generally thought of the Highlands as centered on Pleiku and bounded by Dak To/Kontum in the North, An Khe in the East and Ban Me Thuot in the South. IOW, that part of II Corps. I need to get into maps to see where this Tiger Force was allegedly operating.
You could have been listening to my brother and I on the phone. We were trying to figure how this would play too.
FR's power, talk radio.....hugh difference-makers!
Jimmy Carter gave a blanket pardon to all who served in Vietnam and may have committed UCMJ crimes. The suit goes nowhere.
Pre-campaign he seemed like quite a decent guy, kind of the old style traditional Democrat. But he quickly lined up his positions on the issues with the DNC's to be on alGore's ticket, so his principles must not be real critical to him.
i live in perrysburg...this is one of the reasons we moved across the river....COMMIES in toledo....the blade charges a fortune for that lousy little piece o crap.we have the sentinel tribune from bg over here. it's small, but not as left wing.
Can you, or anyone else, post documentation of that? Thank you.
Does this apply to the Carter declaration????
Kerry's problem is that he claimed that war crimes were systematic, part and parcel of what soldiers did every day in Vietnam, and under government orders to do it.
No surprise that the Toledo Blade was given a Pulitzer last year for this. There are powerful interests working overtime to get this treasonous lout elected.
I call him Mitch "The Leftist B*tch" Albom.
Read your news on the internet. Its good for your blood pressure.
This could go both ways. SKerry admitted that he commited atrocities.
"The Toledo Blade is as "left' as it can get. I live here and it's disgusting to read. I only take it because it's the only paper in town."
Well, you have the Internet. Stop taking it and supporting it. Being the "only paper in town" is pretty weak excuse.
The Rock Pile was west of Dong Ha and Cam Lo, both Marine bases. Cam Lo was just a Fire Base. Khe Sahn was yet further west and a little to the south. All being in I Corps Area.
Just damn! F. Democrats.
I'm shocked that the Toledo Blade would run such a series of articles. Don't they know that the modern standard is that anyone who served was a hero and should not have his tour of duty questioned? Oh, Kerry must have taken the advice and hired on the old Clinton Cronies to do a slash and burn against his critics.
Thanks for the pings.
The original Toledo Blade story says Tiger Force consisted of 45 people.
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031022/SRTIGERFORCE/110190168
According to the VA, 3,403,000 service members served in the Southeast Asia theater.
http://www1.va.gov/pressrel/amwars.htm
IF the Blade story were 100% true (which I doubt), how would that prove that Kerry's '71 claim of pervasive, systemic war crimes to be true. Exactly what percent of 3,403,000 is 45?
At the time, Kerry said that his tetimony was based on the Winter Soldier circus, which has been shown to be mostly lies.
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