Huffington Post did the right thing on murder-suicides report

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 13, 2014

Huffington Post did the right thing and pulled the reprehensible report on murder-suicides. They not only pulled it, they apologized.

Update from Huffington Post

Editor's Note A previously published article featuring a graphic that depicted data on violent crimes by veterans has been removed. The article was intended to call attention to the lack of evidence correlating post-traumatic stress disorder to violent behavior among veterans, and to highlight the insufficient mental health services available to them. It failed in these regards, and we regret that the data as presented in our graphic was incomplete and misleading.

PTSD is not the enemy no matter what reporters say but it seems as if too many others are simply stuck on stupid.

Huffington Post has done more to educate the public on the tribulations of our veterans than any other site. Time after time, especially during Suicide Prevention Month last year when they dedicated huge sections to the troops and veterans telling their stories and asking questions. Given the fact they screwed up on this one they turned around, admitted it and apologized, which far too many other news sites fail to do.

Take a good long look at the graphic supplied on the claim that murder-suicides are an issue.

It seems that the article on the Huffington Post ended up giving other reporters what they were searching for. Another headline to use to get attention while bringing the wrong attention to something that is not, repeat not, worthy of the veterans with PTSD. This was repeated on many sites last week and now it appears on PolicyMic but no one seems to actually look at the chart itself. They are actually lower than 2002.

I did a huge report in 2007 on military suicides and there was a rise in murder-suicides but most of them were tied to Lariam and other anti-malarial drugs.

The Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs will study the side effects of Lariam, a drug given to servicemen to prevent malaria, Pentagon spokesman Jim Turner said. The use of Lariam came up in investigations of murders and murder-suicides involving Fort Bragg soldiers in the summer of 2002, when four soldiers were accused of killing their wives. Two of those soldiers committed suicide immediately and a third killed himself in jail.

The three soldiers who killed themselves had served in Afghanistan, where Lariam is routinely used by U.S. troops. The fourth, who is still awaiting trial, did not serve there.

There was and still is a huge problem with Zoloft. In 1999 the FDA gave Pfizer approval for PTSD treatment. Many thought it was what veterans had waited for.

Of 187 patients in the study, 53 percent of those receiving Zoloft (the brand name of the generic sertraline) were much or very much improved at the end of 12 weeks, Brady said, and some patients showed benefits within two weeks.

But that good PR didn't last long,

Suicides and Homicides in Patients Taking Paxil, Prozac, and Zoloft: Why They Keep Happening -- And Why They Will Continue

Underlying Causes That Continue to Be Ignored by Mainstream Medicine and the Media "From almost the day that they were introduced in the late 1980s and early 1990s, sudden, unexpected suicides and homicides have been reported in patients taking serotonin-enhancing antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft. I'm not surprised this problem hasn't disappeared, nor will it unless we look deeper."

It seems that after the soldiers were murdered at Fort Hood, the press wanted to drag up everything possible to get their names in the spotlight.

How about the chart that shows suicides going up instead?

Marines
Navy, Marines suicides fell in 2013; attempted suicides by Marines jumped

TIME reported on the rise in military suicides as well up to 2012 in The Third Surge, Battleland by Mark Thompson.

But why pay attention to the real problem? Why pay attention to the fact that suicides and attempted suicides went up after the military started the bullshit of addressing deaths caused by war but not during it? Why bother to pay attention to the fact that while the number of enlisted military folks went down the suicide rate did not really go down? After all less to count means the number of suicides would have naturally gone down. They also didn't seem to concerned with the fact that attempted suicides went up.

Guess it is just easier to make soldiers look bad instead of the actually seeing what is right in front of their face. Considering how hard they are pushing this claim right now, it makes them all look really stupid while the site where it originated looks redeemed.

Fate of Sgt. John Russell in hands of military judge

Five killings at Camp Liberty in Iraq: Calculation or despair?
By Kim Murphy
May 11, 2013
Los Angeles Times

JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, WASH. — The court-martial of Army Sgt. John Russell concluded Saturday with a military judge asked to decide whether the 14-year Army veteran was deluded by depression and despair as he shot five fellow service members in Iraq, or was executing a calculated plan of revenge against psychiatrists who had blocked his hopes for an early exit from the Army.

In closing arguments after a week of testimony, Judge David L. Conn was presented two starkly different views of what drove Russell, 48, to seize his escort’s M-16 rifle and gun down five people at the Camp Liberty combat stress center at the Baghdad airport on May 11, 2009.

While the defense says Russell was suffering from organic brain damage, major depression and post-combat stress that was aggravated by hostile mental health workers, Army prosecutors argued Saturday that Russell had been trying to paint himself as mentally ill even before the murders in an attempt to win early retirement and had then struck back “in the language of revenge” when a psychiatrist refused such a diagnosis.

Russell has already pleaded guilty to five specifications of murder, but the judge will determine whether the acts were premeditated, a key factor in whether he must serve life in prison or is eligible for parole.
read more here

Navy officer's widow sent care packages with deadly contents

'Unusual Suspects': Woman Poisoned Navy Husband Over Years Through Care Packages
(VIDEO)
Posted: 12/10/2012


"Unusual Suspects" looked at the bizarre story behind the death of Lieutenant Naval Officer Lee Hartley. He died mysteriously while serving. It turns out he was poisoned slowly over a long time, but his murder went unsolved for possibly even longer: 13 years.

Finally, an NCIS cold case unit confronted his widow, Pam Hartley, and she confessed to everything.

Pam had poisoned her husband by sending him care packages, including baked goods laced with rat poison. She wanted out of her "miserable" marriage, but didn’t want to give up the status of being a Navy officer’s wife, so she decided to be a Navy officer's widow.
read more here

Fort Bragg soldier who shot commander dies

Fort Bragg soldier who shot commander dies
By GREG BARNES
The Fayettville (N.C.) Observer
Published: July 1, 2012

Lt. Col. Roy L. Tisdale, commander of the 525th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 525th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade at Fort Bragg, N.C., was fatally shot by a member of his battalion around 3:30 p.m., June 28. COURTESY OF THE U.S. ARMY

The soldier who fatally shot his superior officer during a safety briefing on Fort Bragg and then turned the gun on himself has died.

Col. Kevin Arata, a Fort Bragg spokesman, identified the soldier as Spc. Ricky G. Elder, 27, of Hutchinson, Kan. Elder died Saturday at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, a nursing supervisor said.

Elder is accused of fatally shooting his battalion commander, Lt. Col. Roy L. Tisdale, during a safety briefing Thursday.

A third soldier, 22-year-old Spc. Michael E. Latham, was treated for minor wounds at Womack Army Medical Center and released.
read more here

Ft. Carson Killings: The New Casualties of War

HDNet World Report Investigates an Alarming String of Murders Committed by Iraq War Veterans



HDNet logo. (PRNewsFoto/HDNet)

DENVER, CO UNITED STATES




Three-part story examines a cluster of 15 murders and attempted homicides committed by current and former soldiers at Ft. Carson, Colorado


'Ft. Carson Killings: The New Casualties of War' airs on HDNet, Tuesday, June 2 at 9:00 p.m. ET


DALLAS, May 28 /PRNewswire/ -- HDNet World Report, HDNet's award-winning weekly news program, presents a dramatic report about a string of 15 murders and attempted homicides committed by soldiers currently (or formerly) based at Fort Carson, CO.


(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080324/HDNETLOGO)


One base. Four years. Three attempted murders. Twelve murders. Some of the crimes involved loved ones, some were random, but what the murders have in common is that they were all committed by men just back from the war zone. Most of these men are from the same brigade that served in Iraq for a total of 24 months -- the 4th combat team of the 4th Infantry.


But, what is causing these men to kill? Critics say that Iraq veterans are coming home with severe PTSD and other mental problems caused by combat stress, but the Army isn't doing enough to ease them back into civilian life.


HDNet correspondent Carol McKinley, who reported from Iraq while with Fox News, obtained an exclusive jailhouse interview with Kenneth Eastridge, one of the men convicted for his part in a murder. Eastridge served two tours in Iraq, and says he returned from war with PTSD but was offered little if any help by the Army.

go here for more
The New Casualties of War =

3rd ID soldiers allegedly killed by fellow GI

3rd ID soldiers allegedly killed by fellow GI

By Russ Bynum - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Sep 17, 2008 21:39:33 EDT

SAVANNAH, Ga. — A soldier was detained in Iraq after he allegedly opened fire on a superior and another unit member, killing them both, the Army said Wednesday.

The soldier was subdued by other troops, and medics tried unsuccessfully to save the wounded soldiers, said Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo, commanding general at Fort Stewart in southern Georgia, where the soldiers’ unit is based.

An Army spokesman said the shooting happened Sunday in Tunnis, Iraq. The slain soldiers and the alleged shooter, whose name was not released, belong to the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry Division.

The Army identified the slain soldiers as Staff Sgt. Darris J. Dawson, 24, of Pensacola, Fla., and Sgt. Wesley R. Durbin, 26, of Hurst, Texas. Both were assigned to the brigade’s 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/ap_iraq_deaths_091708/

Soldier kills Fort Hood officer

Soldier kills Fort Hood officer
Posted on: Monday, September 08, 2008, 11:18 AM
A Fort Hood officer was killed by one of his soldiers today, said Killeen police spokeswoman Carroll Smith.

Smith said the specialist's supervisors, the lieutenant and a staff sergeant, came out to speak with him this morning and a confrontation ensued at an apartment complex at 1807 N. Second St. in Killeen.

Killeen police received a 911 call at 8:39 a.m. referencing a man with a gun.

"As we were turning the corner, officers witnessed the soldier hitting his lieutenant," Smith said. Officers saw the soldier shoot the officer and returned fire themselves.

Witnesses said the specialist was hit by a few gunshots from police. Smith said an autopsy will confirm if police shot the soldier.

A news release from the Killeen Police Department said the specialist put his gun to his head and shot himself.

go here for more

http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=27759