Truth to Power

Army shreds friendly fire docs

New friendly fire coverup: Army shreds files on dead soldiers

Nov. 20, 2008 FORT CARSON, Colo. – Last month, Salon published a story reporting that U.S. Army Pfc. Albert Nelson and Pfc. Roger Suarez were killed by U.S. tank fire in Ramadi, Iraq, in late 2006, in an incident partially captured on video, but that an Army investigation instead blamed their deaths on enemy action. Now Salon has learned that documents relating to the two men were shredded hours after the story was published. Three soldiers at Fort Carson, Colo. – including two who were present in Ramadi during the friendly fire incident, one of them just feet from where Nelson and Suarez died – were ordered to shred two boxes full of documents about Nelson and Suarez. One of the soldiers preserved some of the documents as proof that the shredding occurred and provided them to Salon. All three soldiers, with the assistance of a U.S. senator’s office, have since been relocated for their safety.


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