U.S. Soldier Killed Herself After Objecting to Interrogation Techniques

Alyssa Peterson, 27, a Flagstaff, Az., native serving with C Company, 311th Military Intelligence BN, 101st Airborne, died in Iraq on the 15th September 2003 from what the army said was a "non-hostile weapons discharge."

It now transpires that Peterson killed herself shortly after she objected to interrogation techniques being used in the prison at the American air base in Tal-Afar in northwestern Iraq where she worked as an Arabic-speaking interrogator.

Journalist Kevin Elston uncovered the story after making several attempts to get the tale out of a reluctant military. Indeed, it was only after he filed a Freedom of Information Act request that the true story regarding Miss Peterson came to light.

"Peterson objected to the interrogation techniques used on prisoners. She refused to participate after only two nights working in the unit known as the cage. Army spokespersons for her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques Alyssa objected to. They say all records of those techniques have now been destroyed...."

She was then assigned to the base gate, where she monitored Iraqi guards, and sent to suicide prevention training. "But on the night of September 15th, 2003, Army investigators concluded she shot and killed herself with her service rifle," the documents disclose.

The Army talked to some of Peterson's colleagues. Asked to summarize their comments, Elston told E&P: "The reactions to the suicide were that she was having a difficult time separating her personal feelings from her professional duties. That was the consistent point in the testimonies, that she objected to the interrogation techniques, without describing what those techniques were."

Elston said that the documents also refer to a suicide note found on her body, revealing that she found it ironic that suicide prevention training had taught her how to commit suicide. He has now filed another FOIA request for a copy of the actual note.

So what exactly were the interrogation techniques that she was asked to participate in? And what does the army mean that "all records of those techniques have now been destroyed?"

People's minds have not been washed. There were other people there who no doubt remember the techniques and her precise objections to them.

What were they?

Now there may be no link at all between what she was asked to do and the taking of her own life, but it still seems essential that her specific objections should be made public. Or have her objections been "destroyed" as well?

The one thing that links Abu Ghraib and every US security centre appears to be the harshness of the interrogation techniques that are being employed. In this case, they were presumably so harsh that Miss Peterson refused to have anything to do with them.

With both Bush and Cheney loudly shouting that the US "Don't do torture" - even as Cheney appears to support waterboarding - it is vital in a democracy that we find out what specifically this young woman was objecting to, if only to find out if Bush and Cheney's loud protestation are with or without merit.

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tag: Iraq, United, States, Abu Ghraib, waterboarding, Alyssa Peterson, suicide, interrogation techniques, Tal-Afar,