FEMALE SOLDIER COMMITS SUICIDE AFTER WITNESSING TORTURE METHODS IN IRAQ

Torture methods claimed life of US soldier

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 07:22:30 GMT
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=92588&sectionid=3510203

A US soldier who worked as an interpreter in Iraq's prisons has shot herself dead after witnessing harsh interrogation methods by the US military.

Alyssa Peterson from Arizona shot herself with her service rifle at Tal-Afar air base in northern Iraq on September 15, 2003, the Independent reported on Sunday

Peterson had protested to her superiors about the torture tactics that were very different from the ones she had known in training and had asked to be reassigned before the incident.

The cause of her death was kept secret for two years, and the mystery of what Peterson witnessed, and the content of the notes she made, still goes on.

An Arab-speaker, Peterson was assigned to work as an interpreter at interrogation sessions in a unit known as "The Cage." After only two nights, she refused to take further part in the sessions and was reassigned, according to the Independent.

Her family was told she had died from a "non-hostile weapons discharge." The army revealed Peterson had killed herself after Arizona reporter Kevin Elston investigated the case.

The army refused to say what interrogation she objected to, and maintain that all documents relating to methods used at Tal-Afar have been destroyed.