Iraq war veteran seking asylum in Canada tells refugee board of atrocities

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=fb0ed1d5-89b5-4608-87d6-c3977372a2ba&k=62732

TORONTO (CP) - A "trigger-happy" U.S. army squad leader shot the foot off an unarmed Iraqi man and soldiers kicked a severed head around like a soccer ball, a U.S. war deserter told an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing Thursday.

Joshua Key, the first U.S. deserter with combat experience in Iraq to apply for refugee status in Canada, told the board he witnessed numerous atrocities committed by U.S. forces while serving eight months as a combat engineer. snip

He recalled participating in almost nightly raids on homes of suspected insurgents in Ramadi and Fallujah as a member of the 43rd Combat Engineer Company.

He said that while the raids seldom turned up anything of interest, he often saw soldiers ransack the homes and steal jewelry or money, while superior officers looked the other way.

He also said several Iraqis were shot dead, and that they were cases of soldiers "shooting out of fear and inventing reasons afterward."

[MountainLaurel]

1. Hmmmm.

Thus far, Canada's reply regarding U.S. military asylees is that they joined up voluntarily, and thus can't claim persecution on that account and that official policy would change when the U.S. reinstated the draft. The issue of war crimes puts a somewhat different spin on it.

A link to another thread on this topic:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2198319

[Suich]

2. This is frightening.

What's going to happen to all of them when they return home? How in the world are they expected to resume their normal lives after experiencing something like this?

Thanks for posting this.