Senior military investigator found dead in Iraq

[nomo]

<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article320111.ece">news.independent.co.uk/wo...320111.ece</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>A senior British military police officer in Iraq involved in the investigation of alleged abuse of Iraqi civilians by soldiers has been found dead at a camp in Basra.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>The body of Captain Ken Masters, the commander of 61 Section of the Special Investigations Branch (SIB), was found in his bed at the airport at the weekend. The death is being investigated by the SIB.<br><br>Defence sources said the death was "not due to hostile action and also not due to natural causes".<br><br>However, it is believed that investigators have not found a suicide note, nor firearms related to the incident. Capt Masters was not receiving any medical or psychological treatment.<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Friends and colleagues of Captain Masters, who was married with two children, said that his death had come as a "total surprise".</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>After his body was found early on Saturday evening a siren sounded over Basra camp, flares were fired in the air, and all military personnel were confined to barracks .<br><br>Despite being of middle-rank, Captain Masters was in charge of all serious incidents involving the British military in Iraq.<br><br>It was not immediately known which particular cases he had been personally involved in investigating. The British military is, however, looking into several dozen cases.<br><br>Seven members of the Parachute Regiment are on trial for the murder of an Iraqi teenager, Nadhem Abdullah.<br><br>Several Fusiliers have been convicted at a court martial in Osnabrück, Germany, of abusing civilians and photographing the acts.<br><br>Some soldiers have been charged in relation to the death of a hotel receptionist, Baha Musa.<br><br>A spokesman for the British forces in Basra said: "The commanding officer of 61 Section, Special Investigations Branch, Capt Ken Masters, was found dead last night at a military establishment in Iraq.<br><br>"The matter is now under investigation and until this is completed it will be inappropriate for me to make any further comment. It was not due to any hostile action. It was not down to natural causes."<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>A military source said "This has come as shock to us. Ken was not suffering from depression or anything that indicated that he would take his own life."</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br> <p>--<br>When all else fails... panic.</p><i></i>

[michael meiring]

Not natural causes, not enemy fir, and not indicitive of suicide. Whats left, instantanious DU poisioning, murder, assasination?<br><br>Maybe he was another one looking for his whistle to blow? <p></p><i></i>

[antiaristo]

Two contemporaneous events are worthy of note.<br>First, there is currently an appeal ongoing in the House of Lords. There is a judgement on the books that the Human Rights Act is applicable to areas under British control in Iraq. But the Ministry of Defence says it should not apply. That's the same Ministry of Defence that supported the jailbreak in Basra on the grounds that British law is the supreme law.<br><br>If the appeal does not overturn that judgement the Brits have problems. They can fuck with the HRA in Britain because the Brits are SUBJECTS by law. But Iraqis are more akin to aussies or Canadians - they are CITIZENS by law. All those murders are, well, murders. There must be an inquest. And that is a problem.<br><br>Second, there was a very serious leak last week of correspondence between Peter Goldsmith (attorney general) and Geoff Hoon (then Defence Minister). Goldsmith was complaining about all the cover ups (though his words were more diplomatic).<br><br>To put that in context. It's as though letters from Gonzales had been found implicating Rumsfeld in torture and demanding it must stop.<br><br>THERE'S NOTHING NATURAL ABOUT THIS. IT'S ALL IN THE TIMING. <p></p><i></i>

[michael meiring]

Anti aristo.<br><br>I think i am getting the hang of the way things work.<br><br>Is there a bookmakers offering odds that the appeal is not overturned? Time to fly out the appointed, hand picked government coroner, akin to the hand picked government coroner puppet for the Dr kelly 'autopsy'.<br><br>as a sidenote, the ministry of defense euphamism banded about freely..... money spent on defending britain £0.25p? maney spent on attacking countries.....£1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000000,? at a conservitive guess. <br><br>I bet thats why we have a ministry of 'defense' rather than a more accurate, ministry of attack.<br><br> <p></p><i></i>

[antiaristo]

Michael, <br>You got it right!<br><br>ps could you make the amount of money spent attacking other countries a little less please? It's screwing up the page.<br><br>pps the leaks are really flowing these days. People really ARE waking up <p></p><i></i>

[michael meiring]

anti,<br><br>hehe, that was me elongating the page was it?<br><br>I just need to focus more on the timing of events now. <p></p><i></i>

[antiaristo]

Michael,<br>You've still not fixed it. <p></p><i></i>

[michael meiring]

Anti, i dont know how to correct/ edit the post. <p></p><i></i>

[antiaristo]

Michael,<br>Underneath your name on every post you will see a clickable word "edit".<br>Go to the problem post and click edit.<br>The input box will automatically appear.<br>Reduce the amount of money by however many orders of magnitude.<br>Click the big button "edit post"<br>That should fix it. <p></p><i></i>

[michael meiring]

anti,<br><br>there dosant seem to be an edit box under my name, only a reply box, cant see the dit link anywhere, i think we are stuck with the figure, sorry. <p></p><i></i>

[antiaristo]

Michael,<br>Are you logged in? <p></p><i></i>