U.S. MILITARY MIGHT HAVE STRETCHED THE TRUTH THAT IRAQI GIRL SUICIDE BOMBERS WERE MENTALLY ILL

It comes as no surprise to a former GI like myself that the U.S. military would shade the truth about the two young girls who were suicide bombers in Baghdad which left 99 dead and over 125 wounded were mentally ill and suffered from Downs Syndrome.

Not just in Iraq, but in many wars, the U.S. military has twisted the truth to make it appear as though the enemy was stooping to new lows in carrying out suicide bombings.

Some of it is true such as the Japanese Kamikaze pilots in World War II, and the hordes of Chinese troops who led Banzai suicide charges in the Korean War (I was a Cpl. E-4 in the United States Army Combat Engineers during the Korean War), but often times an overly enthusiastic U.S. military officer will release to the press a story that begs for further confirmation.

This, apparently is exactly what has happened in the twin suicide bombings at a Baghdad, Iraq pet market last Friday that killed 99 Iraqi citizens.

A top U.S. General said the young girls who carried out the suicide bombings were mentally ill and suffered from Downs Syndrome.

But were they?

A full-scale investigation is now underway to try and determine the real truth about the two girls who strapped explosives to themselves and went to a Baghdad pet market where they were blown up by a remote control device.

Commentary by Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, a blog that brings readers news and commentary about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

FORENSIC EVIDENCE CASTS DOUBTS ON U.S. GENERAL'S STORY


Although most U.S. media are reporting it as a fact that the pet market bombers on Friday were women with Down Syndrome, and probably used unwittingly, McClatchy continues to remind us that this is unconfirmed.

Excerpt:A top U.S. general said yesterday that the perpetrators of Friday’s suicide bombings in Baghdad - the deadliest attacks in the capital in nine months - might have been mentally impaired teenaged girls who carried out the attacks unwittingly.A British forensic expert cautioned, however, that suggesting the two bombers suffered from Down syndrome based on photographs of their severed heads was "dangerous."

He noted that the heads would have suffered massive trauma when the bombers’ explosives detonated.

"The diagnosis would have to be more scientific than that," said Bob Lamburne, director of forensic services for the British embassy here.Questions about the bombers’ mental capacity came as Iraqi officials raised the death toll from Friday’s bombings of two pet markets in Baghdad to 99, making them the deadliest attacks in the capital since April.

At least 125 people were wounded, and some might die from their injuries, authorities said.

At a news conference, Army Maj. Gen. Jeff Hammond, who commands U.S. forces in Baghdad, showed reporters photos of the bombers’ heads, which typically are blown from the body in suicide attacks.

He said the broad foreheads, flattened noses and almond-shaped eyes were all suggestive of Down syndrome. "These two women were likely used because they didn’t understand what was happening and they were less likely to be searched," Hammond said.

But Hammond also acknowledged that authorities had yet to identify the two women and that there was no other evidence of their mental condition.

He declined to allow photographers to duplicate the photos, though video of one of the women’s heads is available on the Internet.

Lambourne, who helped open Iraq’s National Forensics Institute in Baghdad last year, said the violent explosion that rips a head from its neck would also affect muscles, bones and arteries and could distort the face. The explosion likely would exert pressure on the face similar to G-forces experienced by pilots, Lamburne said. "It would be dangerous to make that conclusion based on photos," he said of Down syndrome speculation.