Soldier warns "Investigate if I die" then is found dead.

reply to post by BlueRaja


Wow, you are pretty naive. Don't you understand that one of the easiest ways to conduct fraud is the issuing of bogus payments, to say, nonexistent soldiers?

Originally posted by BlueRaja

I can only assume

Umm....you can, but I wouldn't.

that most or all of you have never been in the military.

Assumptions lead to the assumer looking
foolish.

You, Sir fit the bill.

For folks who want to Deny Ignorance, you sure wear your biases on your sleeves.

Want to see my arms ?
Why should I wear sleeves ?

She may very well have discovered somebody doing something illegal(on their own or even a group of folks acting on their own), but it wasn't the "mission" of the unit to do anything illegal.

I agree. Please see my OP to
this thread.

It could also have to do with her sexuality/improper relationships/love triangles, etc..

Personally, I doubt it.
But, maybe.

She may have just killed herself as what it appears to be the case. I think it only prudent to see the results of the investigation, before making judgement calls.

I concur.

But, having been in the s**t, I see a frag.

Maybe I'm just jaded.

Regards,
Lex

Originally posted by uberarcanist
reply to post by BlueRaja

 

Wow, you are pretty naive. Don't you understand that one of the easiest ways to conduct fraud is the issuing of bogus payments, to say, nonexistent soldiers?

You're right. 15yrs in service, and I have no idea what I'm talking about. And your personal experience with what a Finance unit does(can do) in the military would be exactly what? Finance units don't pay soldiers. DFAS pays soldiers. There are way too many eyes on things for a unit downrange to make up soldiers, with fake SSNs, bank routing numbers, and all the other info that would be necessary, and then to get access to that money from a bank, assuming all the watchdogs(and rest assured DFAS pays attention to money matters like a hawk, not to mention folks higher up who would want to know who and where these extra soldiers that magically appeared in theater came from.). Additionally, these fake soldiers would have to be assigned to some unit, so then questions would be asked of those units as well, with regards to their manning and daily stats. So yes, I'm calling BS on that theory.

reply to post by Lexion


Thanks for the kind words, and clear reasoning. I'm not saying she wasn't killed by a coworker, or that somebody might have been doing something illegal. What I am saying is that the notion that a Finance unit has anything whatsoever to do with drug trade is utterly moronic. I did say that it was prudent to wait for more info before making SWAGs. To take almost no info, and infer that there's a rogue Finance unit inventing soldiers to fund drug traffickers with the money they're withdrawing from fake bank accounts, and this unit is working for Bush(as he's obviously responsible for all ill in the world), is simply ludicrous. I would hope that if any of you ever had to go to court, that your jury wasn't comprised of folks that are as open minded as some that post here. You all reach a verdict, and then try to work your way backwards to confirm it, rather than waiting for info and facts, and then going where the evidence leads, even if it is contrary to your opinions.

reply to post by BlueRaja


So, you're saying that the DoD never cooks the books?

Originally posted by uberarcanist
reply to post by BlueRaja

 

So, you're saying that the DoD never cooks the books?

Well, not in the way some people are thinking. This troop was a grunt working in a finance unit. The worse thing she could do is get a list of names and SSNs and do some identity theft.

reply to post by jerico65


What if they got her to do something beyond her job description? Because of her low status there wouldn't be as much fallout if she had to be eliminated later on.

reply to post by uberarcanist


The point you are missing here is that Finance units have nothing to do with what you suspect may have happened. It's not a matter of asking some E-4 to do something like make up soldiers, to get extra money to pay drug traffickers. That simply is not possible. Somebody she worked with may very well have been doing something illegal, and I'm not gonna dispute that possibility, but it wasn't a rogue National Guard Finance unit, financing unsavory types.

A-Finance units don't deal with money. They make sure the proper paperwork has been processed to make sure that soldiers aren't having pay issues with DFAS(especially since National Guard and Reservists always have more issues than Active duty due to the fact they are always coming on and off activation orders) Also downrange there are issues to make sure don't get dropped(i.e. hostile fire pay, separation pay, tax exempt, etc..).

B-Finance units don't "make up" soldiers in theater
Before a unit deploys, active or reserve, their manning roster has gone up, before they ever get their deployment orders. Manning is closely watched/tracked, in the event any augmentees are needed to replace casualties. Each unit has to send up daily status reports on manning, sit reps, etc.. to the higher supported command(who in turn has to send that up to it's higher supported command). DFAS also keeps an eye on all stats very closely, as anyone who's ever been in service knows that if you get overpaid mistakenly, DFAS WILL get their money back(of course if they underpay you, it WILL take a while to get that resolved). They will catch an individual who improperly used their government credit card to buy a snack at a gas station, so you can bet that phony soldiers with no prior history in the military finance database will definitely catch their attention.


Has the DOD been guilty of inaccuracies/screw ups? yes!!!
Do they intentionally commit felonies? absolutely not!!!

Please don't cite Pat Tillman as evidence of nefarious activities. His death was regrettable, but certainly unintentional. Could the reporting have been handled better? Most certainly, but I don't believe that there was any malicious intent to mislead his family. It did highlight deficiencies in areas(reporting, methods to minimize the likelihood of friendly fire, etc....).

reply to post by BlueRaja


Until we know who killed her and why, I'm not willing to let DoD off the hook.

Originally posted by BlueRaja
The point you are missing here is that Finance units have nothing to do with what you suspect may have happened.

You are making the assumption that she discovered whatever it was she discovered during the course of her normal job activities.

Who's to say she wasn't poking around? Maybe even in places she shouldn't have been. Maybe she tripped over something that was where it shouldn't have been.

Whole plots have come undone over something as simple as leaving the original in a copy machine.

reply to post by BitRaiser


I'm not disputing that she may have found out that a/some coworker(s) had done something illegal, or that they may have killed her. What I'm saying is that I'm not buying that there was a DOD program using her National Guard Finance unit to do something illegal, that she found out about, and was then eliminated by the government.

Originally posted by uberarcanist
reply to post by BlueRaja

 

Until we know who killed her and why, I'm not willing to let DoD off the hook.

I'd rather find out who/why she was killed before stating matter of factly who is at fault. You obviously have issues with the military, but that's not evidence of wrongdoing on an organizational level.

Originally posted by uberarcanist
American complicity with opium production in Afghanistan.

Base personal taking kickbacks from local "growers" to not raise their crops. In exchange for personal favors, cash, intel, "women" or whatever else they wanted. The policy probably has support from upper command do to the need for SF to integrate in the local community to try and get intel and actionable recon on high priority targets.

A necessary evil.

And much like the swift leak or whatever they were called that caused the intranet for ALQ to go dark. It is something that the media does not need to be blasting all over front page.

She got axed for allowing her moral code to over-ride the "mission".

And as other posters have said its not something advisable in an active combat theater.

(I wouldn't put it past our government that the Base Finance office was probably asked to convert "dirty money" pretty often)

[edit on 15-10-2007 by robertfenix]

This just released today...

Christopher Grey, chief of public affairs for USA Criminal Investigation Command, confirmed in an e-mail that the investigation into Durkin’s death is closed, with the cause ruled “self-inflicted.”

Death of Quincy soldier in Afghanistan ruled a suicide

WoW.
It sounds to me like you have a right to be killed if you know somthing you shuldent know. And you have the right to be killed because somone dont like you?

Is that hove the US run their army.