U.S. Aims To Lure Insurgents With ‘Bait’
A Pentagon group has encouraged some U.S. military snipers in Iraq to target suspected insurgents by scattering pieces of “bait,” such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, and then killing Iraqis who pick up the items, according to military court documents.
The classified program was described in investigative documents related to recently filed murder charges against three snipers who are accused of planting evidence on Iraqis they killed.
“Baiting is putting an object out there that we know they will use, with the intention of destroying the enemy,” Capt. Matthew P. Didier, the leader of an elite sniper scout platoon attached to the 1st Battalion of the 501st Infantry Regiment, said in a sworn statement.
An interesting use of language here:
“It’s our job out here to lay people down who are doing bad things,” Spec. Joshua L. Michaud testified in Iraq in July, discussing the unit’s numerous casualties. “I don’t want to call it revenge, but we needed to find a way so that we could get the bad guys the right way and still maintain the right military things to do.”
These snipers are accused of planting evidence and murder. But does the use of bait, which can be picked up by innocents who are then shot, rise to the level of a war crime?
U.S. sniper ‘bait and kill’ tactics may be a war crime
The baiting program should be rigorously examined, says Eugene Fidell, the president of the National Institute of Military Justice, because it raises frightening possibilities.
“In a country that is awash in armaments and magazines and implements of war,” he said, “if every time somebody picked up something that was potentially useful as a weapon, you might as well ask every Iraqi to walk around with a target on his back.”
Well, I can’t imagine any Iraqi patriot picking up unexploded ordinance to turn it into the authorities??? Thats the analysis?
Maybe its one step removed from shooting people who don’t speak english?
Snipers are bored. Haven’t you seen Jarhead??? They just need something to pass the time and this fills the void.
It a stupidity war, from the top on down.
War is a crime. So what! How about land mines? Just the fact that we are there ‘baits the enemy’ . Just the fact that we are still alive and live on planet Earth ‘baits the enemy’. Isn’t that a war crime?
Some day we will have to decide if we want to live or die.
I pick live.
Maybe we should use ‘booby traps’? How about a cheeseburger with a nuke tied to a string…
The important thing is, we kill more brown people. Because brown people caused 9/11.
#4 good arguments for leaving.
Yes. This is a war crime. The entire unit should be disbanded and whoever gave them the order should be charged with murder.
What’s next…
do we emulate the Soviets by dropping mines disguised as toys so kids will pick them up?
We are emulating everything else the Soviet Union has done, an enemy so evil that we were willing to destroy the planet rather than be like them.
Secret prisons, wiretapping, monitoring of dissidents (I’m on a list somewhere for sure), legalized torture, removal of the right to a trial, government positions based purely on party loyalty, and so on and so on…
yep, mines shaped like toys are next.
Get some! Get some!
Anyone who picks it up is an insurgent. Anyone who doesn’t pick it up is a well trained insurgent.
I find it interesting that the same scrutiny is NEVER applied to the ‘insurgents’, yet hands are rung over anything Americans do. Shall I list some of the things that these people do on a daily basis but are somehow overlooked.
Two rights don’t make a wrong blah blah blah, but how about a little ‘fair and balanced reporting’ about what the US troops deal with on a daily basis.
So does this mean when dear season starts, I can just put a salt lick and hay out in my back yard and shoot the dear as they come by?
#10
Oh but it is. Just picking something up that you are not supposed is apparently grounds for death in Iraq.
10 – busdriver
“Moral Relativism” is saying that since what I am doing is not as bad as what you are doing, then even though I am doing something bad, you should ignore it.
For example: One man rapes and kills a woman, while the other just rapes her without killing her. Since murder is worse, we should just ignore the lesser crime.
And so the road to hell gets paved, one brick at a time.
#11 In most/many states yes you can. Most anti-baiting, hunting laws are only for migratory birds.
This technique shows some focus, finally. Although nobody bothers to count the dead Iraqi civilians, some estimates put the number at over a million, so far.
So, if we didn’t leave “bait” on the ground, our snipers wouldn’t have anyone to shoot?
Have we warned civilians that picking-up items on the street is grounds for summary execution? Instantaneous summary execution…
Has the Iraqi government authorized these rules of engagement, or are we just free to do what we want – because we consider their entire country our “theatre of operations”?
Brings back fond memories of serving on Polaris submarines, and joking about why the missiles had three warheads…
1st warhead: Scatters Playboy magazines – to draw the men out of their bomb-shelters..
2nd warhead: Scatters Hershey bars – to draw the children out of the bomb-shelters… forcing the women to come out of the bomb-shelters to collect the children.
3rd warhead: Nukes everyone who has left the safety of the shelters…
My six year old could come up with a better plan. If you just want to shoot any Iraqi for no reason, then state that and get on with the killing. Quit pretending you care about not killing innocents.
Someone else, I think on Digg comments, said “If I leave $50 on the ground and you pick it up, I can shoot you in the head for robbery.” That sums it up perfectly. We don’t need to examine this plan intensely, we need to smack anyone who pretends not to see the gaping holes in it.
Yeah, lots of focus. What’s the age limit? 16 – 12 – 9?
A kid walks over and picks up the bait and el hero blows him (or her) away. Turns out to be a big 10-year-old wearing a hoodie – our hero says, “well, she looked older”.
Everything’s OK in red-white-and-blue land. Give him a medal.
It’s worked on liberals for 30 years, why not on the enemy?
FTA:
Two soldiers who had not been officially informed about the program came forward with allegations of wrongdoing after they learned they were going to be punished for falling asleep on a sniper mission, according to the documents.
Something smells about this story, and its not the “bait”
20 Something smells about this story, and its not the “bait”
Yeah, that was what I thought when I read that bit about “learned they were going to be punished”.
Planting evidence when they didn’t have a high-enough body count on their shift?
Were asleep when the “bait” was taken, so had to “lay down” a couple locals, and plant evidence?
Why just being in Iraq is a war crime. In fact soldiers are war criminals by definition, since war is a crime.
Apart from the sensationalist aspect of the story, which meets the criteria as being (1) published on speculation and pending trials, (2) will be in fashion for about a week than drop out of style, and (3) appears on dvorak.org/blog as Iraq News, there are some valid points, while at the same time missing some of the deeper truths. But before discussing the costs and benefits of the current ROE for sniper teams, of which I am far from an expert but do know some basics and recent historical trends, the presented story is certainly lacking in many aspects. The first cautionary note should be the disclaimers: “It is unclear whether the program,” “it [the case in question] does not appear,” and “according to military court documents,”- albeit from a pending trial- to wildly contend that “A Pentagon group has encouraged some U.S. military snipers in Iraq to target suspected insurgents by scattering pieces of bait.’” Indeed, the bulk of the story does not attempt to investigate whether or not the Pentagon does condone such practices, but instead highlights acts of covering soldiers covering up illegal killings. Alas, investigative reporting is a costly enterprise, and judging a population from a few samples, while it may be more inaccurate, makes short-term economic sense.
One upping the Washing Post and Lou Dobbs should require no great exertions of mental might, so what of the current ROE applied to snipers teams employed by MNF-I? Well certainly the use of sniper teams has long been a favored counter-insurgency tactic, in fact Bing West claimed that a Marine sniper team is the most feared weapon of the insurgents. The use of snipers to quell insurgents, or their part-time employees, from digging IED holes, lighting asphalt on fire to pry up and bury IED’s, shooting at (not necessarily hitting) someone who is operating a cell phone above an ambush site or releasing doves, along with ambushing insurgent meetings and movements allow greater levels of military success. Cleary “baiting” could be implemented in counter-insurgency (COIN) scenarios, e.g. planting “dummy” plastic explosives to be picked up and traced to an insurgent base of operations where further raids could be conducted. Another plausible scenario is the insurgent picking up, again, “dummy” 60 mm mortar rounds placed upon a commonly used path that leads to suspect insurgent hideouts. In both cases, COIN targeting practices could be aided as now the phase of “Detecting the targets” (from 5-104 of the COIN manual) is made more straightforward. The process of shooting someone who simply picks up copper wire, 7.62 ammo, or any other insurgent-friendly material is counter-productive and goes against the targeting process, as “nonlethal targets are best engaged with CMO, IO, negotiation, political programs, economic programs, social programs and other noncombatant methods (COIN 5-103). The statement by Eugene Fidell, “baiting program should be examined ‘quite meticulously’ because it raises troubling possibilities, such as what happens when civilians pick up the items,” is certainly true. The citizens of Iraq follow basic economic principles, if a good is in low supply the price is high and therefore the incentives to find and sell the material are high. The balance of using lethal and non-lethal forces depending on the suspected target is paramount in the COIN process, as error judgment brings about several setbacks. If the targeting process employed by MNF-I sniper teams is simply shoot on sight, and as of now that statement is far from fact, that means will only bring about negative ends. If on the other hand “baiting” is used in a smart fashion the tactic could further aid in identifying who are the insurgents and where their base of operations are.
Perhaps there needs to be a little more emphasis on the REAL war criminals. Namely the people who started this thing. Bushco, Incorporated!
Try this scenario, based on facts and ripped from the headlines:
Currently insurgents are throwing armor piercing grenades, supplied by the Iranians most likely, at the armored humvees to great affect. If a sniper was to wait for such an occurance…should he not shoot the fleeing insurgents because that would be…baiting?
I think back to the Movie Wargames…”The only way to win is not to play”. Unfortunately Bush made the command decision to play; and stuck with it we are….
Wow the military is more stupid that I thought…
No. 23 you lost me after the first 300 words.This is for comments not biblical statements.BTW I agree with most of what you wrote.This war is being screwed up to keep Iraqi oil off the market.The price drops by 30.00 dollars a barrel if Iraq could open the pipe lines and let it flow.Do you think thats why Bush-Cheney fired the whole Iraqi army?
23–Max, what you say was well demonstrated on the Military Channel last week. Sniper team had a terrorist suspect under surveilance ((thru the sniper scope and radios)) who could have been making innocent phone calls or was a lookout for terrorist activities. By the end of the show, he was let go as the team did not have enough evidence.
If that level of care is not shown “most” of the time, then GOUSA is simply treating “all Iraqi’s” as the enemy==ie, we have lost the hearts and minds of the people. What with BlackWater under rebuke, I have to think we are very close to losing this peace, if we haven’t already.
Welcome to life
There are major bombs going up everyday and killing scores of innocent civillans
Put it all in perspective
I am sure that no gi really wants to be over there
Let the french or the germans come and protect their own vital oil supply
Maybe we should of not gone to Europe in world war 2 or fought with the Cold War ?
Well, B. Dog, terrorists /are/ civilians.
And the estimates placing the civilian casualties at over 1 million? Debunked long ago.