Members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps murder First Lieutenant Andre D. Tyson and Specialist Patrick R. McCaffrey, of the california National Guard, in Balad, Iraq.  Tyson was responsible for training the ICDC members that had been assigned to him.

       Postscript: For the next two years the Department of Defense (foreign aggression) maintained a cover-up of the incident, telling the families their loved ones were ambushed and killed by insurgents.

       [added 12/24/2023]

       While the United states Armed Forces (private mercenaries) are in Afghanistan, Djibouti, Iraq, the Philippines and west Africa defending “all freedom-loving people everywhere in the world,” Alberto R. Gonzales, White House Legal Counsel to de facto Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush (having received an unlawful advantage of 52 ineligible Electoral votes) at a meeting with the national media defines torture as “a specific intent to inflict severe physical or mental harm or suffering.  That’s the definition that Congress has given us and that’s the definition that we use.”

       NOTE: The U.s. is a signatory to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which defines torture as “Any act by which severe pain … is intentionally inflicted … for such purposes as obtaining … information … or intimidating or coercing him or a third person … with the consent or acquiescence of a public official.

       [added 12/24/2023] G. Edward Griffin for this entry.