Winter Soldier Preview: Poisoning Prisoners

Minneapolis-St. Paul's Citypages carries the story March 5:

A Soldier in Winter
A 24 year-old veteran seeks redemption for atrocities committed during the Iraq war

Jen, who does not want her last name used for fear of legal action, is nervously contemplating the day a few years back when, as a guard for a U.S. enemy prisoner of war in Iraq, she purposely poisoned two detainees.

Robin at Chickenhawk Express with the necessary deconstruction and questions here and the crtical background and follow-up here that the regular media always seems to miss.

Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs covers the story and posts in the comments at #794:

A reader with contacts in the IVAW has now emailed me and CONFIRMED that "Jen" is Jennifer Spranger. And the IVAW is scrambling to figure out how to handle this

The story also says of another IVAW member, identified by name:

Army Reserve Sergeant Tom Dati, who served with Jen in Iraq and confirms many of the details of her account...

This one reads like a woven mixture of fact and the screenplay of Silence of the Lambs, and that "confirms many" is of course, wide open.

And call this IVAW's MacBeth Effect:

Planners have also organized a verification team of 12 combat veterans to fact-check testimony before the event, filing Freedom of Information Act requests for military records and talking with battle buddies of those who plan to testify in order to further substantiate the claims.

That is of course the type of thing IVAW didn't do with MacBeth before they gave him a platform and sent him out talking and representing IVAW to media. And of course, when others suggest that type of vetting of IVAW "testifiers" like filing FOIA requests for military records, it's a shameful attack on their veterans! And one has to admire that wording "in order to further substantiate the claims", as opposed to "in order to find out what stands up to scrutiny".

And if Jen is Jen Spranger, she was secretary of the IVAW Milwaukee Chapter in which Big Punisher Jonathan DeWald was president until recently, and may now be president herself.

And yes, there is most certainly potential legal liabilities in this one, but IVAW members should fear not, as they are getting legal counseling from the National Lawyers Guild, widely known for their dedication to causes if not their legal competence.