If Gen. Petraeus says things are rosy, they are. Questioning his integrity is an attack on all the men and women who serve in our military. The same holds true for the brave Army investigators who, when confronted with the evidence surrounding Lavena Johnson’s death, ruled it a suicide.
The photographs revealed that Lavena, a small woman, barely 5 feet tall and weighing less than 100 pounds, had been struck in the face with a blunt instrument, perhaps a weapon stock. Her nose was broken and her teeth knocked backwards. One elbow was distended. The back of her clothes had debris on them indicating she had been dragged from one location to another. The photographs of her disrobed body showed bruises, scratch marks and teeth imprints on the upper part of her body. The right side of her back as well as her right hand had been burned apparently from a flammable liquid poured on her and then lighted. The photographs of her genital area revealed massive bruising and lacerations. A corrosive liquid had been poured into her genital area, probably to destroy DNA evidence of sexual assault.
http://waronyou.com/2008/08/us-military-covers-up-murder-says-soldier-beat-herself-to-death/
Just so she is not forgotton…
This reminds me of all the Army recruiting commercials we have been inundated with… We send kids off to this insanity and expect what?
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php/topic,719.0.html
Just an example of the media/Military’s ability to lie to preserve false truths -
Sign the Petition @
http://www.lavenajohnson.com/
After an investigation, the Army declared LaVena’s death a suicide, a finding refuted by the soldier’s family. In an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Lavena’s father pointed to indications that his daughter had endured a physical struggle before she died – two loose front teeth, a “busted lip” that had to be reconstructed by the funeral home – suggesting that “someone might have punched her in the mouth.”
The military said that the matter was closed.
Little more on LaVena’s death was said for many months until a recently televised report on KMOV in St. Louis disclosed troubling details not previously made public:
* Indications of physical abuse that went unremarked by the autopsy
* The absence of psychological indicators of suicidal thoughts; indeed, testimony that LaVena was happy and healthy prior to her death
* Indications, via residue tests, that LaVena may not even have handled the weapon that killed her
* A blood trail outside the tent where Lavena’s body was found
* Indications that someone attempted to set LaVena’s body on fire
And yet, the Army continues to resist calls by LaVena’s family and by local media to reopen its investigation.
We have seen with other military deaths that the Army has engaged in an insulting game of deny and delay when it comes to uncovering embarrassing facts. Only when public and official attention is brought to bear on the matter – as happened, eventually and with great effort, with the case of Army Ranger and former professional football player Cpl. Pat Tillman – do unpleasant truths come to light.
Sign the petition, educate yourself, etc. Just don’t remain ignorant about these type of situations
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php/topic,56784.0.html
American Women Raped in Iraq by “Lawless” KBR Grunters
http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/20080826_us_milita…ides/
/ / Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by seven fellow KBR employees at Camp Hope in Baghdad. Jones’ rape occurred nine days after Lavena Johnson was found dead in a KBR tent at Balad Air Base. Jones was drugged, raped and beaten \ \
See? As King I would call for the immediate execution of ANY grunter who stood in our way to seek Justice against these ‘lawless’ bushite enemy forces of the demonic antichrist.I don’t know if there’s anything I hate more than a genuine thieving bushite rapist, a godless enemy of American virtue who supports zionist McCain for a hundred more years of lawlessness through warfare further against US Innocent,as the yet to be even fairly represented minimally by honest paper balloting.
/ / Remarkably, a rape test was not performed on the body of Lavena Johnson although bruising and lacerations in her genital area indicated assault. \ \
/ / the autopsy report—written after the July 22, 2005,autopsy at Dover Air Force Base and signed on Aug. 9,2005 by associate medical examiner Lt. Cmdr. Edward Reedy and by chief deputy medical examiner Cmdr. James Caruso \ \
http://www.militarycorruption.com/lavenajohnson.htm
MILITARYCORRUPTION.COM DEMANDS TRUTH
BE TOLD IN MURDER COVER-UP – PFC LAVENA
JOHNSON RAPED AND BEATEN TO DEATH IN IRAQ
BOTH EYES BLACKENED – NOSE BROKEN
FRONT TEETH SMASHED IN – GUNSHOT TO HEAD
LYE POURED ON GENITALS – BODY SET ON FIRE
YET PENTAGON WOULD HAVE YOU BELIEVE
YOUNG WOMAN COMMITTED “SUICIDE” BECAUSE
SHE WAS “DEPRESSED” – ARMY INVESTIGATORS HID
EVIDENCE OF VICIOUS ASSAULT FROM PARENTS
DR. JOHN JOHNSON USED F.O.I.A. TO OBTAIN
CD-ROM PIX OF DAUGHTER’S BATTERED BODY
We’ve seen some blatant examples before of how the military covers-up murder by calling it “suicide” (see related stories box below), but this case – the brutal death of PFC LaVena Johnson at Balud, Iraq in 2005 – is the most disturbing of all.
Only a complete idiot or sycophantic career-centered officer would believe, or at least pretend to, that the 20 year-old enlisted woman from the suburbs of St. Louis, Mo. took her own life. All of the physical and photographic evidence indicate she was the victim of a vicious sexual attack. There is no way at all she could have inflicted on herself the horrendous injuries we are about to relate to you now.
The petite soldier’s body was found battered and burning on a cot in the tent of a civilian contractor assigned to the Iraqi installation. Both LaVena’s eyes were blackened, her nose broken, and her teeth smashed inwards. There were numerous scratches and bruises all over her nude body, and someone had poured lye on her genital area (perhaps in an effort to destroy any DNA evidence of rape or sexual assault).
The five foot tall GI had a bullet wound on the left side of her head (she is right-handed) and it appeared a flammable substance had been poured on her body and set afire.
Despite the obvious injuries that could not have been done by the victim, the Army has attempted to cover-up the cause of death with a specious “suicide” ruling.
“MY DAUGHTER WAS MURDERED,” SAYS VICTIM’S DAD, DR. JOHN JOHNSON
PFC Johnson’s family, and fellow service-members who fear retaliation from the military if their identity become known, agree the young woman did not, could not have killed herself.
“She was murdered,” says Dr. Johnson, who was shabbily treated by the Army from the moment he learned of his daughter’s death.
“We found out they had held back a color CD containing close-up photos of the body and other material relating to LaVena’s autopsy. When I requested in writing the disc be released to me, they flat out refused. That got me mad, and more suspicious of a cover-up, so I filed a F.O.I.A. (Freedom of Information Act) request, and finally got it released. What I saw made me sick and was so horrible I kept some of it from my wife at first, she has already suffered so to know how our daughter died.”
WHAT IS THE ARMY TRYING TO HIDE
AS TO HOW PFC LAVENA JOHNSON DIED?
WHY did the Army try and prevent Dr. Johnson from seeing the photographic evidence? WHO are they protecting? WHY did the Pentagon send six officers to Congressman William Clay’s office in Washington to try and convince (or perhaps, bully) the parents into thinking PFC Johnson was simply another “suicide.”
A retired female colonel who was willing to accompany the Johnsons was refused admittance to the meeting on the shaky grounds she wasn’t a relative. Dr. and Mrs. Johnson protested, but the Army wouldn’t budge.
An Army spokesperson, LTC Anne Edgecomb, arrogantly sniffed that the Johnson case “has been thoroughly investigated by the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigation Command (CID) and is considered CLOSED.”
Well we at MilitaryCorruption.com disagree. We smell a cover-up and demand a new investigation.
We urge Rep. Henry Waxman to convene a special Congressional investigation into ALL the suspicious deaths – covered up as “suicides” – that the military have hidden behind over the past ten years. In fact, President-elect Barak Obama should ORDER his hold-over Defense Secretary Robert Gates to investigate who killed PFC Johnson.
The retention of Gates is an unsettling development for the man who shouted “Hope and Change” on his way to winning the White House. Now Obama, soon-to-be commander-in-chief, can make a real difference by telling Gates to get to the bottom of this case and others. But will he?
Or will the Pentagon go on lying about such cases, even getting caught now and then, as they were when the deceit surrounding the Pat Tillman death in Afghanistan was finally revealed to the American people.
THE NEVER-ENDING GRIEF OF KNOWING A BELOVED DAUGHTER
WAS MURDERED IN IRAQ
“Every time I think of my beautiful baby,” Linda Johnson told MCC, ” I see her sweet smile and hear her lovely voice. They’ve taken her from us, but we won’t rest until we get the truth, no matter how long it takes.”
Dear reader, join us in prayer for the Johnson family. [Please go to the web site www.LaVenajohnson.com].] Imagine you waking up each day with the aching pain in your heart that not only did you lose a beloved daughter, but the military she sought to serve is complicit in covering up her real cause of death.
At some time there has to come a tipping point. We have exposed the “suicide” cover-ups in the Col. John Sabow; USMC; Col. Philip Shue, USAF; and Navy CPO Tom Traylor cases. Soon we will expose the phony “suicide” ruling in the case of Army National Guard CPT Gordon Hess, whose dead body was found on a running trail at Ft. Knox. Ky, with 26 deep and several fatal stab wounds to his upper torso.
No finger prints were recovered from the knife the Army claimed Hess used to kill himself. He too was labeled a “suicide,” and his widow back in New York State fought the Army as long as she could. But in the end, the liars at the Pentagon had their way, and until now, the case has been largely forgotten.
We won’t let it be ignored any longer. And we urge all others who know of similar cases to contact us at once at staff@militarycorruption.com. Thank you.
“LAVENA LOVED HER FAMILY VERY MUCH AND
HAD PLANS FOR THE FUTURE,” MOM SAYS
Private Johnson joined the Army “in a spirit of patriotism and adventure,” her mother, Linda, told a MilitaryCorruption.com reporter. “She wanted to do something for her country and chose to enlist in the Army,” the mother said. “Her father (Dr. John Johnson) and I wanted LaVena to go straight on to college like her older brothers. She was an honor roll student in high school and would have done well. But when we saw how determined LaVena was to go into the military, we reluctantly agreed.”
A loving daughter from a very religious, close-knit family, PFC Johnson worked in a communications unit and was able to keep in almost daily telephonic contact with her parents back home.
“I spoke with LaVena the day before she died – July 18, 2005 – and she was her usual bubbly self, making plans for the future and telling us how much she loved and missed her family. The next day the Army sent people to our home to tell us she was dead.”
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php/topic,58495.0.html
KBR Women Employees Raped in Iraq
The fact that Lavena Johnson’s body was discovered in a KBR tent raises questions.
Many KBR women employees have been raped in Iraq. One law firm in Houston has 15 clients with sexual assault, sexual harassment or retaliation complaints against Halliburton and its former subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root LLC (KBR), as well as against the Cayman Island-based Service Employees International Inc., a KBR shell company (Karen Houppert, “Another KBR Rape Case,” The Nation, April 3, 2008).
Two female employees of KBR who were raped while in Iraq have testified before Congress. On her fourth day in Iraq, July 28, 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by seven fellow KBR employees at Camp Hope in Baghdad. Jones’ rape occurred nine days after Lavena Johnson was found dead in a KBR tent at Balad Air Base. Jones was drugged, raped and beaten, and the injuries she suffered were so severe that she had to have reconstructive surgery on her chest.
Jones reportedly was taken back to the KBR area, where she was placed into an empty shipping container under KBR armed guard for almost 24 hours without food or water or the ability to communicate with anyone. The military doctor who examined her turned over the “rape kit” photographs and statement to KBR. Jones persuaded a guard to allow her a phone call, which she made to her father. Her father promptly called their Texas congressional representative, Ted Poe, who then called the State Department in Iraq and demanded her immediate release. Jones was rescued shortly thereafter and quickly left Iraq. Congressman Poe again contacted the State Department and the Department of Justice in an effort to launch an investigation, but both departments ignored the requests and even refused to contact Poe for the next two years. The “rape kit” and the photographs of and statement from Jones taken by a military doctor disappeared.
Jones testified Dec. 17, 2007, before the House Judiciary Committee on “Enforcement of Federal Criminal Law to Protect Americans Working for U.S. Contractors in Iraq”.
The nonprofit foundation Jones created after her ordeal, the Jamie Leigh Jones Foundation, has been contacted by 40 U.S. contractor employees alleging that they are the victims of sexual assault or sexual harassment on the job and that Halliburton, KBR and Service Employees International Inc. have not helped them or have obstructed their claims (Karen Houppert, “Another KBR Rape Case,” The Nation, April 3, 2008).
Dawn Leamon was another civilian contractor employed by KBR who was raped allegedly by KBR employees. She was the sole medical provider at Camp Harper, a base near Basra in southern Iraq. Leamon reported being raped anally by a U.S. soldier in January 2008 while a KBR employee forced his penis into her mouth. She says she was told to keep quiet by her KBR supervisor and by the military liaison officer. Her laptop computer was seized within hours after she e-mailed a civilian lawyer. She testified on April 9, 2008, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the hearing “Closing Legal Loopholes: Prosecuting Sexual Assaults and Other Violent Crimes Committed Overseas by American Civilians in a Combat Environment”.
Johnsons’ Quest Continues in Daughter’s Death
After two years of requesting documents, the family of Lavena Johnson received a set of papers from the Army that included a photocopy of a compact disk. Wondering why the copy was among the documents, Dr. Johnson requested the CD itself. The Army finally complied after a congressman intervened. When Dr. Johnson viewed the CD, he was shocked to see photographs taken by Army investigators of his daughter’s body as it lay where her body had been found, as well as other photographs of her disrobed body taken during the investigation.
The photographs revealed that Lavena, barely five feet tall and weighing less than 100 pounds, had been struck in the face with a blunt instrument, perhaps a weapon stock. Her nose was broken and her teeth knocked backward. One elbow was distended. The back of her clothes contained debris, indicating she had been dragged. The photographs of her disrobed body showed bruises, scratch marks and teeth imprints on the upper part of her body. The right side of her back as well as her right hand had been burned, apparently from a flammable liquid poured on her and then lighted. Photographs of her genital area revealed massive bruising and lacerations. A corrosive liquid had been poured into her genital area, probably to destroy DNA evidence of sexual assault.
Despite the bruises, scratches, teeth imprints and burns on her body, Lavena was found completely dressed in the burning tent. There was a blood trail from outside the contractor’s tent to inside the tent. She apparently had been dressed after the attack and her attacker had placed her body in the tent before setting it on fire.
Investigator records reveal that members of her unit said Johnson had told them she was going jogging with friends on the other side of the base. One unit member walked with her to the post exchange, where she bought a soda, and then, in her Army workout clothes, Johnson went on by herself to meet friends and to exercise. The unit member said she was in good spirits, showing no indication of personal emotional problems.
The Army investigators initially concluded that Pvt. Johnson’s death was a homicide and indicated that on their paperwork. However, a decision apparently was made by higher officials that the investigators would stop the homicide inquiry and classify her death a suicide.
Three weeks later, a final autopsy report from the U.S. Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, dated Aug. 13, 2005, said the cause of death was an intraoral gunshot wound to the head and the manner of death was a suicide. However, the autopsy report — written after the July 22, 2005, autopsy at Dover Air Force Base and signed on Aug. 9, 2005 by associate medical examiner Lt. Cmdr. Edward Reedy and by chief deputy medical examiner Cmdr. James Caruso — states much more in its opinion section:
The 19 year old female, Lavena Johnson, died as a result of a gunshot wound of the head that caused injuries to the skull and brain. The entrance wound was inside the mouth and injuries to the lips and oral mucosa were a direct result of the discharge of the weapon. The exit wound was located on the left side of the head. No bullet or bullet fragments were recovered. Toxicology was negative for alcohol and other screened drugs. The investigative information made available indicates that this was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. With the information surrounding the circumstances of the death that is presently available the manner of death is determined to be suicide.
The medical examiners revealed that they were basing their determination of suicide on “investigative information made available indicat[ing] that this was a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” not from medical evidence. They did not address what caliber of bullet entered her body — in fact, they stated that no bullet or bullet fragment was recovered, and they did not offer comments on what caliber of bullet would have made the entry and exit wounds.
The Aug. 25, 2005, report from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory in Forest Park, Ga., stated:
The characteristic gunshot residue particle indicated on Exhibit 5 (Gunshot residue kit (Item 9, Doc 775-05), the number is considered insignificant. Based on these results, the report concludes that the following possibilities exist, but the report makes no conclusion:
a. The subject did not handle/discharge a firearm. b. The subject handled/discharged a firearm but an insignificant number of gunshot residue particles were deposited on the hands. c. The subject handled/discharged a firearm that deposited a significant number of gunshot residue particles on the hand; however, due to washing, wiping, or other activity, the particles were reduced to insignificant numbers.
The medical examiners who did the autopsy on Johnson’s body did not mention any burns on her body, but when the family had gloves that had been glued onto her hands cut off by the funeral home employees in Missouri, they found her hands had been burned, and further examination showed her back was burned. A witness statement taken on July 19, 2005, states: “The witness [name redacted] … found the victim under the bench and verified there were no signs of life … related he saw the M16 lying across the victim’s body … he didn’t know what setting the weapon was on … he related everything was smoking, including parts of the body. He called for an ambulance and secured the scene.”
On April 9, 2008, Johnson’s parents flew from their home in St. Louis for meetings with members of Congress and their staff. They again went to Washington, D.C., in July 2008 and were briefed by Army investigators and the military medical examiner who conducted the autopsy on Lavena. The Army briefers maintained that her death was a suicide and were unable to answer Dr. John and Linda Johnson’s long list of questions. The Johnsons are asking for a congressional hearing that would force the Army to further investigate their daughter’s death.
