Hoaxers calling relatives of US soldiers
national |
miscellaneous |
news report 
Friday April 11, 2003 20:18
by Josef
More G.I. wives get hoax casualty calls
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., April 10 (UPI) -- Wives of Camp Pendleton Marines involved in the war in Iraq have been receiving crank calls from individuals claiming to work for the Red Cross who regretfully, and falsely, inform them that their spouses had been killed in action.
In a statement, Camp Pendleton reminded military families that genuine casualty notifications are not made by telephone or by the Red Cross.
"Individuals falsely identifying themselves as Red Cross representatives have made prank calls to Camp Pendleton spouses claiming that their loved ones overseas have been killed," the Marine Corps said in a brief statement. "The Marine Corps does not utilize the Red Cross for casualty notification. Marine Corps and Navy representatives conduct all casualty notifications in person for Camp Pendleton."
Camp Pendleton is the home base of the 1st Marine Division, which battled its way into Baghdad and continues to engage Iraqi resisters.
"I honestly can't even fathom someone with that mentality," a Marine wife named "Julia" told The San Diego Union-Tribune Thursday. "I can't even go there in my mind."
"I would assume that a young spouse could believe that kind of call and her world could be shattered," she added.
The Red Cross said last week that families of service members in Michigan, Delaware and Alabama had reported receiving similar calls following the outbreak of the war.
Copyright © 2001-2003 United Press International
Comments (13 of 13)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13...but whats it got to do with ireland and/or the war?
or are you trying to say that anti-war activists promote this kind of behaviour?
that some anti-war people will balk at nothing and that they're not all hippy trippy flower people. Many impressionable young people view these pages and I don't want them to be wary.
... is called 'overgeneralisation'. You take one example of terrible behaviour and generalise it to cover many millions of anti-war activists around the world.
"A murderer voted Fianna Fail, therefore all (or most or many) Fianna Failers are murders" type-of thing.
The same thing applies to the 'hippie trippy' stupidity.
Are you a thug? After all, many thugs support the war.
Somehow I don't think so. But, based on real evidence I think think its fair to say that you are hard-of-thinking.
my IQ is only 155. I just want those who have a romantic view of the peace movement to be wary of a "few bad apples".
Yes I have been phoning US army relatives and preparing them for the bloody obvious. Its great fun. It beats crank calling republicans and issuing death threats against them.
when President Bush is in Hillsorough.
bomb scares are phoned in almost every day of the week in the north. its a little game people play up north. just the fact that it was done while bus was here it was blown out of proportion. in fact, i don't mean to sound like a conspiracy theorist here, but it wouldn't surprise me if there was no haox at all, if it was just shite to discredit the anti-war movement.
ha ha how man palastinians killedd today by davids nazis
I did NOT post the previous comment.
Gosh Josef is getting a bit carried away again.
There are probably murders and rapists among the peace movement too (after all, you are talking about many tens of millions of people worldwide). Why don't you warn people about those 'bad apples' too? Its just as irrelevant.
Your posting is irrelevant and malicious and deliberately exploits people's ignorance of logic and analytical thought to promote perceptions that are untrue. The vast, vast, vast, vast majority of peace activists would not do such a thing. You likely know this, and yet you deliberately spread an opposite and untrue perception. In other words, you are trying to trick people into believing lies.
Its like Bush mentioning the words 'Iraq' and '9-11' eight times during his state of the union address. There is no connection in reality, but by creating one in perception we have a situation in which 42% of Americans believe thast Saddam Hussain was personally responsible for 9-11.
Whatever one thinks about Iraq, about war or about peace, this should be disturbing, as it is deliberate manipulation of people and an attack on truth.
Logic and analytical thought shoud be taught explicitly in schools. Society would be a lot safer for it.
It now turns out that the statue of Saddam taken down for the TV cameras was in fact a look-a-like and not the real statue.
US sources say they not only expect to capture Saddam but also at least 10 of his look-a-likes which the media have told us are everywhere in their effots to make Saddam look sufficiently menacing and ingenious to warrant our emotional hysteria.
What's the bets it was all a load of American lies?
With all those lookalikes how will they know which one to put on trial?
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