121 war veterans linked to killings, report finds
Paper says murders tied to soldiers are soaring; military questions
premise
Sun., Jan. 13, 2008
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22638403
NEW YORK - At least 121 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have committed a
killing or been charged in one in the United States after returning from combat,
The New York Times reported Sunday.
The newspaper said it also logged 349 homicides involving all active-duty
military personnel and new veterans in the six years since military action began
in Afghanistan, and later Iraq. That represents an 89-percent increase over the
previous six-year period, the newspaper said.
About three-quarters of those homicides involved Iraq and Afghanistan war
veterans, the newspaper said. The report did not illuminate the exact
relationship between those cases and the 121 killings also mentioned in the
report.
The newspaper said its research involved searching local news reports, examining
police, court and military records and interviewing defendants, their lawyers
and families, victims' families and military and law enforcement officials.
Defense Department representatives did not immediately respond to a telephone
message early Sunday. The Times said the military agency declined to comment,
saying it could not reproduce the paper's research.
Methodology questioned
A military spokesman, Lt. Col. Les Melnyk, questioned the report's premise and
research methods, the newspaper said. He said it aggregated crimes ranging from
involuntary manslaughter to murder, and he suggested the apparent increase in
homicides involving military personnel and veterans in the wartime period might
reflect only "an increase in awareness of military service by reporters since
9/11."
Neither the Pentagon nor the federal Justice Department track such killings,
generally prosecuted in state civilian courts, according to the Times.
The 121 killings ranged from shootings and stabbings to bathtub drownings and
fatal car crashes resulting from drunken driving, the newspaper said. All but
one of those implicated was male.
About a third of the victims were girlfriends or relatives, including a
2-year-old girl slain by her 20-year-old father while he was recovering from
wounds sustained in Iraq.
A quarter of the victims were military personnel. One was stabbed and set afire
by fellow soldiers a day after they all returned from Iraq.