A couple of months ago,when I got my copy of Rolling Stone in the mail,I kind of scrolled through the features and saw a story titled,"The Kill Team:The Photos The Pentagram Doesn't Want You To See." Of course being me,if someone tells me that some big government secret is underfoot,hell yeah I wanna see it! And something called the kill team? Uh huh. Yep.

I was completely unprepared for what it was.

Near the Afganistan provance of Kandahar, soldiers of the 3rd Platoon,out of the Fifth Striker Brigade from Fort Lewis,WA were going through the desert,on what seemed to be nothing more than what they'd seen plenty of before:a whole lot of nothing. But this time,the soldiers on the patrol were expectant;edgy. Something was going to happen. They'd been talking about doing something for months and now was going to be the time. During late night hash smoking sessions,they wondered about killing innocent Afganis. How could it be done with justification? Was there a way to hide the ammo? Could others be trusted to keep their mouths shut? Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs seemed to have the answers. He'd have to have been thinking about this for quite some time,as this type of attack could in no way be carried off on the fly.

And now the unit officers were aside talking to the village elders. The team was becoming excited,it would be soon. Across the field of poppies to the other side,they saw a young man,only 15 years old. He showed no fear and engaged in no threatning behavior. Cpl.Jeremy Morlock and Pfc. Andrew Holmes crouched down behind a low wall with their weapons and threw a grenade. As it exploded,they both opened fire,killing the boy instantly. When witnesses ran to get the town elder,his shock and grief were unimaginable:the boy,Gul Mudin,was his son.

The killings didn't end there. Gibbs showed his "Kill Team" how to collect weapons to use as "drops" so when they executed someone,they could claim they were engaging in combat,not killing people because they felt like it. There was a weapon there,proof they were under attack. There were photos: grotesque images of dead bodies,decapitated heads,severed limbs. There were videos. Links will be posted but view at your OWN RISK. Don't say you weren't warned. Soon,the members of the team were cutting off the pinky finger of victims to keep for "trophies". One soldier was deeply troubled by all this: Spc. Adam Winfield.The killings continued.They circulated the photos. They mutilated the corpses.

Adam tried to tell his father back home in WA what was going on but says Gibbs had threatned him and he feared for his life. His father tried on multiple occasions to help by contacting military officials,who have whitewashed that over very nicely. And the coup de gras? The one man brave and strong enough to try and end what was esentially premeditated murder is sitting in prison now. There has been a documentary made about the kill team,mostly focusing on Winfield. This just really makes me weep for humanity. What happened to our heros? I ask you. I was married to an Army man and he served his country faithfully and proudly. He never wavered in his belief that this nation was the finest and at the time,I was so very very proud of him. He was a defender of the faith that makes this nation great. I guess that is why this grieves me so badly. In the words of my homegirl Laurie Fowler,"We are at war to stop terrorists. Not to become them ourselves."

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-kill-team-20110327

http://news.yahoo.com/kill-team-squad-murders-civilians-soldier-000010484.html

http://killteammovie.com/