The informant's information was proven accurate when a part of the battallion that West was travelling in was ambushed. At that point, coalition members went back to the informant and extracted additional information on another attack on West's battalion along with the name of an Iraqi security officer that was aiding in the planning of the attack. In other words, the security officer was a spy.
The security officer was detained and interrogated and no usable information was gleened from him. At that point West asked for two soldiers to go in with him and he advised them that it might get ugly.
In order to convince the spy to talk, the Lt. Col. first shot his fire arm in the direction of a munitions barrel and then the spy's head was held to the barrel while West shot another warning shot. At no time was the gun pointed at the spy, he was not hurt and the Lt. Col. was between his gun and the detainee.
At that point, the detainee talked and as a result of that information, arrests were made and an attack on West's battallion was avoided.
West reported the events to his commanding officer and the proper reports were filed and there was nothing more done until a "routine" paperwork check otherwise known as a lawyer poking his nose where it doesn't belong. West now faces aggrevated assault charges and a possible court martial.
The story gets better. There are people in every organization who don't get the mission. Not only have these outrageous charges been brought against an officer who put his life on the line to save his men, but he is getting pressure to resign his commission and leave the Army with no retirement in order to avoid going to prison.
There was no harm done to the detainee other than scaring him. There are those that say this kind of behavior makes us no better than the terrorist. They are wrong. We try other methods before using foce, they don't and terrorist will kill you if you cooperate or not. If the choice is between doing what you have to do to protect your men or allowing them to be attacked when you could have stopped it, there is no choice. You protect your men.
Some have said there is politics here. That West has ruffled some feathers somewhere. Is it just a coincidence that the commanding officer of the investigating team in stationed at the same base in Kansas with West. Conspiracy theories will abound when a charge like this is made and is so clearly out of step with what is the right thing to do.
Lt. Col. Allen West should be honored not harrassed. There are those that can intervene and fix this and they should. Lt. Col West should be promoted and then allowed to retire with full honors. God bless you Col. West and God bless America!!
Martha Zoller is the host of The Martha Zoller Show aired every weekday on WDUN AM 550 and streamed live on the web at wdun.com. You can see her regularly as a news analyst on local and cable TV news. Email her at [email protected] with your comments.
