Subject A - Prologue

Prologue:

Subject A is a high ranking officer in the ANA and is a really, really bad man. Later in this entry, I’ll refer to him as the spawn of the devil. I may not have been too far from the mark in describing him that way.

Aaron has also been writing about this guy and what’s been happening. Be sure to click on “My Heros Blog” link in the right hand column so you can get his perspective on what’s been happening. Aaron uses the moniker of “Malfoy” to name our guy. In my correspondence with my fellow JAGs, we’ve been using the name “Subject A” so I’ll continue using that as a reference.

Since I took this entry off line, my friend Steve Esplin has started his blog. His first entry deals with this guy. Click on Trooper Man's Blog in the right hand column.

Looking back over the hours and days I took to write this entry and seeing the epic that it has begun, I’m now going back and editing it. Not for length. In fact, I’ve added to it. What I will do though, is try to break the saga into smaller, easier to handle parts. To that end, I’m going to break this up according to days.

Subject A used to be a commander at another garrison but was relieved of command for committing crimes against his soldiers. He would beat them. One of the soldiers lost a kidney due to the severity of the beating. He would rape his soldiers. He would steal from them. Those of a particular ethnicity/tribe (Pashtun) seemed to be the focus of his brutality. Despite his criminal behavior, he was never punished. He was simply transferred to here to the 201st Corps. The main reason he has never punished is because of his high, political connections. He was at one time a driver for Burger King, (not his real name) who is now is a high ranking minister in the Ministry of Defense. Burger King has been protecting Subject A from prosecution for many years.

I was recently told of an incident that took place several months ago, prior to his transfer here. There was a gathering of high ranking officers, including Burger King, MGM (our ANA Corps Commander, 2-star general), other ANA ministers and high ranking US Generals. At that meeting a soldier confronted Subject A and accused him of beating his soldiers. The soldier turned to the rest of the group and asked how many of them had been beaten by Subject A. Many in the formation raised their hands. Did anything happen to him? No. I don’t know if it was because of this confrontation, but shortly thereafter he was transferred and reduced from Brigadier General Rank to that of Colonel. He continues to wear the General rank though. He’s that arrogant. In the mind of Burger King, Subject A had been punished enough. Nice system of justice, don’t you think?

I heard about Subject A the first day that I met with the ANA and US Mentors. We were doing turnover and I sat in on a turnover brief. One of the US soldiers said that Subject A was a high ranking officer that needed to be taken out back and shot. He proceeded to tell us many of the details I’ve outlined above. The first day I met the ANA SJA, I was told about Subject A. He confirmed the stories that I had heard from the departing Americans. It became my personal crusade to get Subject A prosecuted.

The SJA had the results of the investigation from Subject A’s previous command. He had over 30 witness statements detailing the atrocities committed by Subject A. I kept pressuring the SJA to refer the case for prosecution but he was reluctant. He kept telling me that Subject A was too powerfully connected and that nothing could be done. Yet at the same time, he was constantly lamenting the fact that the problems in his country stemmed from the fact that everyone at the top was corrupt; the top meaning the Ministry of Defense on down. I kept telling him that we needed to start somewhere and the case against Subject A seemed to be the perfect case to start with. While he agreed with me, he would not do anything more about sending the case to the prosecutor for prosecution. He wanted MGM’s approval.

My boss, COL Vitali, arranged a meeting with me, MGM, my boss and the SJA. During that meeting, I presented the case of Subject A and why it was a good case for prosecution. For almost an hour I made my case, outlined MGM’s role and responsibility and urged that he be prosecuted. MGM kept agreeing with me and I thought I was making progress. When I was done, he began to tell me about his country and how powerful men get placed into positions of power. He said it was based on a person’s tribe and how loyalty ran, not to the country, but to the tribe. That’s when I first realized that I was dealing with the Gadianton Robbers. (I’ve used that term in the past. For those of you not familiar with that term, and I apologize for not explaining it sooner, but the Gadianton Robbers were a band of men that lived in the ancient Americas. They sought for power within the government, made oaths to protect each other from detection and used murder and crime to achieve their ends. They ultimately proved the destruction of an entire nation. If you’d like to read more, you can read about them in The Book of Mormon.) He told me of the corruption and how it is rampant throughout the military. As he continued to talk, I knew where this was going. He smiled, looked me in the eye and told me that I needed to be patient. He also said that there was nothing to be done at this point. He thanked me for my concern, shook my hand and escorted me from his office.

Well that was a couple of weeks ago. And with that ends the prologue to this story.