Killed US Soldier Warned Family: Investigate If I Die

sweetpotato

WTF?? This is pretty scary. Has anyone heard anything about this? Until now, I know I sure hadn't!


Killed US Soldier Warned Family: Investigate If I Die [VIDEO]
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/64413/

A finance officer in Afghanistan said before her death, "I discovered some things I don’t like and I made some enemies because of it."


This (blog) post, written by David Edwards and Nick Juliano, originally appeared on Raw Story.



Ciara Durkin warned her family before returning to Afghanistan, "If anything happens to me, you guys make sure it gets investigated."

What seemed a joke at the time could have been eerily prescient as Durkin, a National Guard specialist, was found dead, shot once in the head, within the fortified walls of Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. The Pentagon is releasing no details aside from confirmation that Durkin's was a "non-combat" death.

"We just want full disclosure," Durkin's sister Deirdre said on CBS's Early Show Thursday.

Now Durkin's family is demanding an independent investigation and has enlisted the help of Sens. John Kerry and Edward Kennedy, who represent their home state of Massachusetts.

Although Durkin was gay, her family does not believe her death had anything to do with that. But Durkin, who worked in a finance office, told her family that she had uncovered some information that would upset other military officials.

"She was in the finance unit and she said, 'I discovered some things I don’t like and I made some enemies because of it.' Then she said, in her light-hearted way, 'If anything happens to me, you guys make sure it gets investigated,'" Durkin's older sister, Fiona Canavan, told The Patriot Ledger. "But at the time we thought it was said more as a joke."

Durkin died last Friday of a single gun-shot wound, but the Army has not said whether a weapon was found near her body. The Defense Department says it is investigating the incident, according to reports.

The family told Television interviewers that they didn't believe Durkin killed herself because she seemed upbeat on a recent trip home. Only hours before her death, Durkin left her brother a cheerful voicemail and sang happy birthday to him, the family told ABC News.

“(The military) is definitely holding back,” Canavan told the Boston Herald. “As to why we can only speculate.”

David Edwards is the Video Editor and Nick Juliano is writer for Raw Story.

© 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/bloggers//64413/

jlew24asu

so much to this story we dont know. hopefully you keep us posted.

g under p

Who knows how far this story will go especially when we are talking about military finances.

Peace

my2hands

scary indeed...

RolandTD20Kdrummer

he must of got hold of some of that bad opium just like when the V.C. sprayed all the weed in Nam...

poor bastard...

DriftingByTheStorm

i'm guessing this person either uncovered diverted off-the-book funds that were going to black ops,

or discovered where that "missing money" went ...

... probably to the same place as above ... ie ... off-the-book black-ops ...

:(

god help this administration if the public ever got wind of the TRUE cost of the War In Iraq ...

... i guess when the constitution declared that congress must, from time to time, report a FULL account of ALL public funds used for government, they meant the government could pick and choose which funds it deemed appropriate for public consumption.

For anyone who doesn't know, they teach you in your second year of accounting (and in government & nonprofit accounting) that the government doesn't really audit itself and that it deems quite a bit of its financial information to not really be of concern enough to publish ... unless in footnote form ... and there are all kinds of military funds that do not get disclosed at all ... or get disclosed in lumpsum form with no information and are rolled up in general funds ...

ie. . . you would never know you were looking at war spending.

:(

gue_barium

I dread the way DOD is going to spin this.

Marbles

A friend of my son's was taken captive a few years back, and they made him do a video to send to the US. He was saying hello to all sorts of people who don't exist, so we were wondering if this was supposed to be some sort of code to someone. We still don't know.

gue_barium

Unbelieveable (well, not really), I did a search and in the preview it says the Army first reported her killed in action...
I'll get the link.

gue_barium

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15046409

All Things Considered, October 5, 2007 · Army National Guard Spc. Ciara Durkin died in Afghanistan on Sept. 28.

The military's first statement said Durkin, 30, died "in action." But she died inside Bagram Air Base — with a gunshot wound to the head.

That first statement was a mistake that made for a bumpy start to the investigation into Durkin's death.

Durkin, a specialist with the Massachusetts National Guard, had been in Afghanistan since February on a yearlong tour. Her family says she often visited the chapel at the sprawling Bagram Air Base north of Kabul. The Army found her body outside that chapel last Friday night.

Those are some of the facts. But the gaps between the facts show how a mix of mistakes, grief and rumors can create layers of confusion rather than understanding.

'We Need Answers'

It is not that there is a lack of hard information. It's just that the Army isn't sharing much of it. And that has been hard on her family.

Maura Durkin, one of Ciara Durkin's sisters, put it this way, in an interview with WCVB-TV in Boston: "We need answers; we'd like answers. We want to know how our beloved Ciara spent the last moments of her life and why was she taken from us."

Chris Grey, a spokesman for the Army's Criminal Investigation Command, says Army investigators were on the scene within minutes of the shooting.

The Army notified Durkin's family about her death early last Saturday. They gave few details.

The Massachusetts National Guard issued a release that Durkin "died in action" in Afghanistan. That was a mistake, and it's regrettable, says Maj. Jack McKenna, speaking for the Massachusetts Guard.

McKenna said a guardsman on weekend duty — new to the job — got the first sketchy details about Durkin's death in Afghanistan. The guardsman assumed Durkin had died in combat and drafted a news release that said so. McKenna said there's been a lot of turnover at the public affairs office of the Massachusetts National Guard.

"We all are relatively new to this position … because all of our public affairs folks are actually serving in Iraq," he said.

Rumors Emerge

Durkin's family spent that first weekend confused and desperate for information. On Monday, the family got word that Ciara had not died in combat. But they were told little else, even though the Army had conducted a physical examination as part of its autopsy.

Three congressmen pressed the military on the family's behalf. So did the Irish government.

By midweek, rumors swirled around the case. Durkin was gay — did that play a role in her death? Or was it her job in the finance unit — helping soldiers and civilians get money on the base?

Military law expert Charles Gittins says there's a good reason the Army is willing to let rumors emerge rather than release preliminary information in a death investigation.

The picture of what happened in a death often changes as more facts emerge. If the military offers a preliminary conclusion and then it changes, that causes families to distrust the military.

Gittins was involved in the case of Pat Tillman, the Army Ranger killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004. For a month after his death, the military maintained that Tillman had died at the hands of the enemy.

Gittins says the Army's tradition is to withhold information until it knows all of the facts.

Army investigators spent four hours with Durkin's family Wednesday night. After that meeting, Durkin's family said they had confidence in the Army's investigation.

As for whether investigators are considering Durkins' death a suicide or a suspicious death, Army spokesman Chris Grey says that, for now, the cause of her death is "undetermined" — until investigators have collected all of the facts.

sweetpotato

Marbles wrote:

A friend of my son's was taken captive a few years back, and they made him do a video to send to the US. He was saying hello to all sorts of people who don't exist, so we were wondering if this was supposed to be some sort of code to someone. We still don't know.

wow. what happened to him? is he alive? is he home??

sweetpotato

gue_barium wrote:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15046409

All Things Considered, October 5, 2007 · Army National Guard Spc. Ciara Durkin died in Afghanistan on Sept. 28.

The military's first statement said Durkin, 30, died "in action." But she died inside Bagram Air Base — with a gunshot wound to the head.

That first statement was a mistake that made for a bumpy start to the investigation into Durkin's death.

Durkin, a specialist with the Massachusetts National Guard, had been in Afghanistan since February on a yearlong tour. Her family says she often visited the chapel at the sprawling Bagram Air Base north of Kabul. The Army found her body outside that chapel last Friday night.

Those are some of the facts. But the gaps between the facts show how a mix of mistakes, grief and rumors can create layers of confusion rather than understanding.

'We Need Answers'

It is not that there is a lack of hard information. It's just that the Army isn't sharing much of it. And that has been hard on her family.

Maura Durkin, one of Ciara Durkin's sisters, put it this way, in an interview with WCVB-TV in Boston: "We need answers; we'd like answers. We want to know how our beloved Ciara spent the last moments of her life and why was she taken from us."

Chris Grey, a spokesman for the Army's Criminal Investigation Command, says Army investigators were on the scene within minutes of the shooting.

The Army notified Durkin's family about her death early last Saturday. They gave few details.

The Massachusetts National Guard issued a release that Durkin "died in action" in Afghanistan. That was a mistake, and it's regrettable, says Maj. Jack McKenna, speaking for the Massachusetts Guard.

McKenna said a guardsman on weekend duty — new to the job — got the first sketchy details about Durkin's death in Afghanistan. The guardsman assumed Durkin had died in combat and drafted a news release that said so. McKenna said there's been a lot of turnover at the public affairs office of the Massachusetts National Guard.

"We all are relatively new to this position … because all of our public affairs folks are actually serving in Iraq," he said.

Rumors Emerge

Durkin's family spent that first weekend confused and desperate for information. On Monday, the family got word that Ciara had not died in combat. But they were told little else, even though the Army had conducted a physical examination as part of its autopsy.

Three congressmen pressed the military on the family's behalf. So did the Irish government.

By midweek, rumors swirled around the case. Durkin was gay — did that play a role in her death? Or was it her job in the finance unit — helping soldiers and civilians get money on the base?

Military law expert Charles Gittins says there's a good reason the Army is willing to let rumors emerge rather than release preliminary information in a death investigation.

The picture of what happened in a death often changes as more facts emerge. If the military offers a preliminary conclusion and then it changes, that causes families to distrust the military.

Gittins was involved in the case of Pat Tillman, the Army Ranger killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004. For a month after his death, the military maintained that Tillman had died at the hands of the enemy.

Gittins says the Army's tradition is to withhold information until it knows all of the facts.

Army investigators spent four hours with Durkin's family Wednesday night. After that meeting, Durkin's family said they had confidence in the Army's investigation.

As for whether investigators are considering Durkins' death a suicide or a suspicious death, Army spokesman Chris Grey says that, for now, the cause of her death is "undetermined" — until investigators have collected all of the facts.

thanks, gb. i'm going to periodically check on this, see if there are any updates. most likely it will get buried, which is even scarier.