Dear Mr. Wood,
Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns with us, and for taking my call this afternoon.
I understand your passion for those who serve in the military and share that respect with you.
I’m glad we had the discussion and hope you better understand our position. We believe that judgment on this case should be reserved until the matter is resolved in the tribunal.
Sincerely,
Kari
---------------------
Kari Sleight
Publisher
Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman
907-352-2255
http://www.frontiersman.com
Showing posts with label charges. Show all posts
Showing posts with label charges. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
E-mail to Wick Communications about Frontiersman
From: Larry Wood wood.lawrence.d@wood-alaska.com
To: john.mathews@wickcommunications.com; will.chapman@wickcommunications.com; kari.sleight@frontiersman
Sent: Tue, Jul 6, 2010 10:13 am
Subject: OP ed piece in Frontiersman: Reserve rush to judgment on soldker
To: Mr. John Mathews, CEO
Wick Communications, Inc.
http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2010/07/06/opinion/editorials/doc4c3298e9573ba548921296.txt
Read it.
Then tell me that the 6th Amendment is alive and well for our troops. Yes, they are presumed innocent under UCMJ.
The incident described has not been adjudicated nor has the Article 32 hearing taken place. The troops have been charged, and very likely have been placed under arrest.
One of those arrested grew up in this community.
How do you think his family feels about the hack job your paper did on their son?
He was tried in the press, not by the military.
Further, the failure to post the name of the person writing this hit piece against the military was an act of outright cowardice.
The prejudice shows in the comparison to the war in the RVN.
How many of our troops have been charged in 10 years of war with acts of violence against civilians in OIF and OEF?
How many have been convicted by military courts martial?
Maybe, three or four high level cases, and the rest thrown out.
I know troops who’ve been charged for a wrongful death in the conduct of operations against the enemy in hostile territory.
They are accused, have their weapons taken from them, put on quarters arrest until the battalion commander conducts his inquiry, after which, the issue either goes to brigade JAG, or higher if there is reason to believe that it is a wrongful death. Otherwise, the soldier is given his weapon back with an apology by the battalion commander, and returns to duty. What do you think that kind of treatment does to these guys and gals?
Oh, those poor Afghan “civlians”. Right.
Your writer made that determination, based upon what? I too read the charging documents.
Were these alleged victims civilians by day, enemy by night or on weekends?
Who really knows until the facts are heard before a military tribunal, but your writer cavalierly made definite statements as to their actual status without hearing any evidence.
Our enemy has no uniforms, nothing that gives them identification as a militia or regular unit of a hostile force.
There are no front lines.
This is war at its worst.
The ROE these guys fight under is the most restrictive in the history of armed warfare.
Our domestic police do not operate under such constraints as to the use of deadly force.
Yet, whomever decided that they have the righteous morality to stand in judgment before the facts are actually heard.
Had the individual who wrote this piece been other than a coward, we would have a name to demand an answer from as to why this outrage against the Morlocks and the honor of our military was committed.
Even my pieces submitted to that paper over the years bore my picture and name or at least my name. And, yes, I tend to be direct in my writing.
The Frontiersman and Wick Communications owe their readers and those soldiers accused an apology.
I suggest you make it so, if you have any courage and sense of justice.
I am 58 years old.
I grew up in Alaska.
I have never seen the Frontiersman publish such a demeaning and prejudicial article about our military.
If the troops accused did ‘bad’, then they will be convicted by a military courts martial, only after the facts are heard. Not by the press before the fact.
To do so the day after the 4th of July is an act of contempt on the part of the author and the failure to take credit for the piece by posting the name of the author, an act of abject cowardice on the part of the Publisher and Editor.
I demand that the Frontiersman and Wick Communications publically apologize to the community, the Morlocks, the other accused troops, and to all of our troops for this insult.
Best regards,
Larry Wood
Palmer, Alaska
Where I write:
Blog: Williwaw! Alaska! Alaska!
Anchorage Gubernatorial Examiner for Examiner.com
Websites:
Business: Terra Resources, Ltd.
Family: Wood Alaska
To: john.mathews@wickcommunications.com; will.chapman@wickcommunications.com; kari.sleight@frontiersman
Sent: Tue, Jul 6, 2010 10:13 am
Subject: OP ed piece in Frontiersman: Reserve rush to judgment on soldker
To: Mr. John Mathews, CEO
Wick Communications, Inc.
http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2010/07/06/opinion/editorials/doc4c3298e9573ba548921296.txt
Read it.
Then tell me that the 6th Amendment is alive and well for our troops. Yes, they are presumed innocent under UCMJ.
The incident described has not been adjudicated nor has the Article 32 hearing taken place. The troops have been charged, and very likely have been placed under arrest.
One of those arrested grew up in this community.
How do you think his family feels about the hack job your paper did on their son?
He was tried in the press, not by the military.
Further, the failure to post the name of the person writing this hit piece against the military was an act of outright cowardice.
The prejudice shows in the comparison to the war in the RVN.
How many of our troops have been charged in 10 years of war with acts of violence against civilians in OIF and OEF?
How many have been convicted by military courts martial?
Maybe, three or four high level cases, and the rest thrown out.
I know troops who’ve been charged for a wrongful death in the conduct of operations against the enemy in hostile territory.
They are accused, have their weapons taken from them, put on quarters arrest until the battalion commander conducts his inquiry, after which, the issue either goes to brigade JAG, or higher if there is reason to believe that it is a wrongful death. Otherwise, the soldier is given his weapon back with an apology by the battalion commander, and returns to duty. What do you think that kind of treatment does to these guys and gals?
Oh, those poor Afghan “civlians”. Right.
Your writer made that determination, based upon what? I too read the charging documents.
Were these alleged victims civilians by day, enemy by night or on weekends?
Who really knows until the facts are heard before a military tribunal, but your writer cavalierly made definite statements as to their actual status without hearing any evidence.
Our enemy has no uniforms, nothing that gives them identification as a militia or regular unit of a hostile force.
There are no front lines.
This is war at its worst.
The ROE these guys fight under is the most restrictive in the history of armed warfare.
Our domestic police do not operate under such constraints as to the use of deadly force.
Yet, whomever decided that they have the righteous morality to stand in judgment before the facts are actually heard.
Had the individual who wrote this piece been other than a coward, we would have a name to demand an answer from as to why this outrage against the Morlocks and the honor of our military was committed.
Even my pieces submitted to that paper over the years bore my picture and name or at least my name. And, yes, I tend to be direct in my writing.
The Frontiersman and Wick Communications owe their readers and those soldiers accused an apology.
I suggest you make it so, if you have any courage and sense of justice.
I am 58 years old.
I grew up in Alaska.
I have never seen the Frontiersman publish such a demeaning and prejudicial article about our military.
If the troops accused did ‘bad’, then they will be convicted by a military courts martial, only after the facts are heard. Not by the press before the fact.
To do so the day after the 4th of July is an act of contempt on the part of the author and the failure to take credit for the piece by posting the name of the author, an act of abject cowardice on the part of the Publisher and Editor.
I demand that the Frontiersman and Wick Communications publically apologize to the community, the Morlocks, the other accused troops, and to all of our troops for this insult.
Best regards,
Larry Wood
Palmer, Alaska
Where I write:
Blog: Williwaw! Alaska! Alaska!
Anchorage Gubernatorial Examiner for Examiner.com
Websites:
Business: Terra Resources, Ltd.
Family: Wood Alaska
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