Rep. Allen West, torturer, has this new ad hitting Patrick Murphy over a 2003 bar fight.
"Feb. 16, 2003, Fort Hood, Texas: Lt. Col. Allen West had just received deployment orders, and prepares his men to go to war. That night, South Beach, Miami: Patrick Murphy is thrown out of a club for fighting, covered in alcohol, and unable to stand. Murphy then confronts and verbally assaults a police officer. Patrick Murphy was arrested and taken to jail. Two men, a country in crisis — you decide."
Let's review
what happened when West went to Iraq.
Intent on foiling a reported plot to ambush him and his men, Colonel West, a battalion commander, made a calculated decision to intimidate the Iraqi officer with a show of force. An interrogation under way was going nowhere, Colonel West said in an interview, and he chose to take the matter into his own hands. [...] So Colonel West presided over what he considered a time-sensitive interrogation that grew steadily more abusive until he himself fired a pistol beside Mr. Hamoodi's head. [...]
Many months before the Abu Ghraib prison scandal raised questions about whether the military was permitting or tolerating the mistreatment of detainees, the Army pointedly rejected Colonel West's aggressive tactics during that single interrogation.
Expressing concern that his behavior could send the signal that abuse was acceptable as a means to an end, the Army relieved Colonel West of his command and contemplated court-martialing him on assault charges.
What's
more,
The military said that through his actions against the detainee, West "disobeyed laws, ignored orders ... and mortgaged future discipline in his unit. Without discipline, there is no trust, no cohesion, and no higher purpose for which we fight."
But the military also stated, "while his crimes merit a court-martial, mitigating factors were considered, including the stressful environment ... and Lieutenant Colonel West's record as an officer and commander."
Those mitigating factors included the intervention of
high-powered, pro-torture members of Congress, Sen. John Warner and Congressman Duncan Hunter, chairs, respectively, of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees. Otherwise West's ass would have been been in a military prison.
West has just made the fact that he was drummed out of the military for torturing a prisoner fair game in this election, not that it wasn't all along, and Murphy's campaign is on it.
“Allen West is now opening up what his military record was in 2003,” said Eric Johnson, a senior adviser to Murphy’s campaign. “In 2003, he was criminally charged by the military with assault and for violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice and was subsequently kicked out of the military. I find it odd that he’s trying to brag about that particular year of service. And he’s attacking Patrick Murphy for drinking as a teenager, which I think is a silly attack.”
Bar fight versus war crimes? The Florida voters will have to decide.
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