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Posted

People,

Do you know Alyssa's story?

Alyssa Peterson was an an active Mormon (former missionary to Holland) who three years ago was serving in the U.S. military as an arabic language specialist and interrogator in Iraq.

Alyssa was killed in "firearm accident," three years ago in Iraq, according to the U.S. government. Apparently, this was another lie. The truth is that Alyssa committed suicide -- in a battle between her religious conscience and her government.

Unbelievably, her own government was forcing her to torture the people she was interrogating, and it was too much for Alyssa. It seems the only way she could think of to resolve the conflict between what her government was requiring of her, and what her religious conscience required of her, was to kill herself.

---

Original story (may require subscription):

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/se...t_id=1003345862

Reprint:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1102-05.htm

---

Something is very, very wrong.

Is her church wrong? Or is her government wrong?

Which is it?

Church members of good conscience must ask themselves these very uncomfortable questions, and answer them, before Tuesday's election.

On November 7, Americans will decide what's SO WRONG with this picture that a good and decent American like Alyssa felt she had no other choice but to take her own life rather than live with the orders she'd been given to torture people in the name of the United Stated of America.

May we make the right choice this Tuesday ... and may God have mercy on us.

Thank you.

Pass it on.

===

Posted

The news story does not jibe with the version we were given in your post. She was not "forced" to do anything; she refused to participate in a form of interrogation witrh which she was uncomfortable (not necessarily 'torture'), and was reassigned.

she objected to the interrogation techniques, without describing what those techniques were

It makes nice sensationalism, but sounds like she had other personal issues if she was willing to kill herself.

Posted

They didn't; suicide is usually classified as "non-hostile weapons discharge". Suicide is a personal thing, so it is done this way to protect the victim's privacy. Not quite the conspiracy the article was trying for.

I also question the source of your "news" story. ;) A bit on the sensationlist side.

Posted

People,

Do you know Alyssa's story?

Alyssa Peterson was an an active Mormon (former missionary to Holland) who three years ago was serving in the U.S. military as an arabic language specialist and interrogator in Iraq.

Alyssa was killed in "firearm accident," three years ago in Iraq, according to the U.S. government. Apparently, this was another lie. The truth is that Alyssa committed suicide -- in a battle between her religious conscience and her government.

Unbelievably, her own government was forcing her to torture the people she was interrogating, and it was too much for Alyssa. It seems the only way she could think of to resolve the conflict between what her government was requiring of her, and what her religious conscience required of her, was to kill herself.

---

Something is very, very wrong.

Is her church wrong? Or is her government wrong?

Which is it?

Church members of good conscience must ask themselves these very uncomfortable questions, and answer them, before Tuesday's election.

On November 7, Americans will decide what's SO WRONG with this picture that a good and decent American like Alyssa felt she had no other choice but to take her own life rather than live with the orders she'd been given to torture people in the name of the United Stated of America.

May we make the right choice this Tuesday ... and may God have mercy on us.

Thank you.

Pass it on.

===

Well, It's a tragic thing when someone takes their own life....it's obvious she was not in the right state of mind when she did this. However, when I read the article and your post there is a tad bit of conflict, you say she was forced to torture people, but in the article it doesn't say anything about her doing anything of the sort, just that she didn't agree with the armys interrogation techniques and was transferred. When someone commits an act of sucide it's usually along time coming, they usually suffer for years and then something snaps and the deed is done. It's too bad the Armed Forces has such a bad record of passing info down the line but I think you are reading way way too much into this story.....almost like it's some kind of conspiracy. The Army screwed up when they informed her parents thats all. You have to ask yourself....what does it gain the Army to lie about this woman committing suicide? Nothing............exactly!

I can however read between the lines in your post....it's obvious you think our Government is at fault for all the American deaths since this war began 5+ years ago. What is it up to now? Like 2000+ American lives in 5+ years? Yes that's tragic and sad, but, remember Iwo Jima? 28,000 casulities and 6800 killed in just 36 days of fighting for a small worthless piece of rock. Did Americans blame the Government? No they rallied around eachother, the people of America were one and now they are seperated politically and that is sad. You believe if we vote in a whole bunch of Democrats we would be exiting Iraq and Afganistan fairly quickly. Personally because the Democrats have such a hatered for anything George Bush (they didn't when this all started) it doesn't surprise me that they would feel this way, anything opposite of Bush's plans is fine with them regardless of the outcome and that is a political mess. Unfortunately, I think the Republicans will loose seats in Congress and the the House and the Demos will be in majoity after this Tuesday. But you won't see us exiting these countries anytime soon because these Democrats really care less about Iraq than they do about being in control of the Government.

Posted

IM always HO, this is the worst kind of sleaze--taking a personal tragedy--one wrought with unknowns--and turning it into a last-minute political commercial.

YUCK!

No, my friend, the worst kind of sleaze is actually creating a personal tragedy by doing ungodly and inhuman things like torturing people.

Peterson was right to refuse to participate.

The article doesn't really give us enough information to draw any conclusions about the reason she may have killed herself. Her fellow soldiers said she had a difficult time with the issue of the "interrogation" techniques. Those statements alone, however, are not proof that's why she killed herself.

The Army was sensible simply to reassign her rather than try disciplining her. However, she may have done something at their request before refusing to continue that she couldn't reconcile herself to. Or maybe she did not actually do anything, but knowing they were using such techniques distressed her greatly. Or maybe her suicide had nothing to do with it.

In any case, torture is evil, I'm proud that an LDS soldier refused to do it, and I think we should do all we can to see that torture is no longer used.

Dror

Posted

No, my friend, the worst kind of sleaze is actually creating a personal tragedy by doing ungodly and inhuman things like torturing people.

But was she asked to "torture" anyone? She may have found some of the aggressive techniques unsavory, but were they torture? I'm not sure we know that. Blatant torture is forbidden, but it seems we're in that borderline area where the question gets raised: Is this torture or 'aggressive interrogation?'

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