Murder Campaign Driving Gay Men Out Of Iraq

October 09, 2009

Although it is not common knowledge to the average reader, Iraq is, and has been for a very long time, an extremely homophobic society.  Gay men who live there with their sexual orientation do so at great risk, and are in near constant fear of being tortured or murdered because of their sexual preference.

Historically, the idea of making or allowing their same-sex preference to be publicly known has typically been out of the question, and still is.  But in the past year or so, things have gotten much worse for outing gay men in Iraq, regardless of whether the disclosure was of their own doing or otherwise.  There has been a marked increase in media condemnation of gays, in which conservative Iraqis commonly refer to gay men as the third sex, and they are now being routinely condemned in mosques.  The growing problem, however, goes far beyond mere condemnation for what many homophobes there call unnatural sexual intercourse.  An unparalleled campaign of organized murder seems to have taken hold there, and is not showing any signs of diminishing according to a recent report put out by the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Although murders of gay men have occurred in Iraq in the past, now they are being gunned down in the streets by a variety of militia, mercenaries, or other armed soldier types, and videos are being made of the murders which are then circulated widely throughout the country via mobile phones and other methods.  In the past, such murders did not include the making of videos, and people typically did not talk about them.  Now, the murderous campaign is intended to literally put the fear of death into gay men, and it has been very successful in that regard.

Click here to continue reading this story >

Was Spc. Megan Lynn Touma Murdered by Zodiac Copycat?

June 30, 2008

The case officially began on Saturday, June 21, 2008 when a maintenance man at the Fairfield Inn by Marriott, located in the 5000 block of Morganton Road in Fayetteville, North Carolina complained to an assistant manager about a foul odor emanating from the vicinity of Room 143.  When the assistant manager investigated, a "Do Not Disturb" sign hanging on the room's door was observed.  It was approximately 11:25 a.m., and since the registered guest's checkout time of noon was fast approaching after a more than week-long stay, the assistant manager entered the room.  There was no longer any doubt about where the foul odor was coming from.  The body of a young woman, whose demise was not immediately known, was found in the bathtub of the motel room.

According to a Fayetteville police affidavit for a search warrant, the room was registered to Spc. Megan Lynn Touma, 23, an Army dental specialist who was being reassigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, located a few miles slightly northwest of Fayetteville, from the U.S. Army Dental Clinic in Bamberg, Germany.  She had arrived in Fayetteville on Thursday, June 12, and had checked into the motel a short time later after turning down Army accommodations.  She was last seen on that same day at Fort Bragg at a day's end formation.

Although the police affidavit mentioned that the bed in the room had been pushed a small distance from the wall, according to the Fayetteville Observer, and that the nightstand and lamp next to it were awry, there was no mention of a struggle having occurred there.  Keys belonging to a 2008 Trailblazer that had been rented from Enterprise Rent-A-Car were found lying on top of the dresser.  Aside from what was contained in the public information document, including the fact that the cops were looking for items such as weapons, articles of clothing, cellular telephone, digital camera, computer, and so forth, the police played it close to the vest and were not releasing additional information at that time.  They had also instructed motel employees not to talk to the press.

According to Fort Bragg officials, Touma apparently was divorced, but information about her former husband was not released.  It was possible, said an official, that she may have been recently engaged to be married again, but no substantiation of that possibility was released.  Maj. Angela Funaro, public affairs officer for the base's 18th Airborne Corps, told reporters that Touma was born in Seoul, South Korea, but had also resided in Cold Spring, Kentucky.  She had joined the Army in 2003.  Shortly after joining, she had been stationed at Fort Drum, New York, until being sent to Germany in 2005.

By the time that she arrived at Fort Bragg, she was 7 months pregnant.

It appeared that Touma had been dead approximately two days by the time her body was found, and the condition that her body was in due to decomposition made it difficult to immediately determine how she had died.

"I just want to express, on behalf of the entire U.S. Army, our deepest, heartfelt sympathies to the family and loved ones of Spc. Megan Touma," Funaro said.  "We are saddened by her tragic death and the death of her unborn baby…by all accounts, she performed honorably…we want to convey the pride we feel in the job Spc. Megan Touma was doing serving our country."

Among the awards and decorations that Touma had been awarded during her Army career were the Army Achievement Medal, Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and the Army Service Ribbon.

At first it seemed like a typical homicide investigation—until a smudged envelope containing a letter confessing to Touma's murder and promising that there would be more to come, arrived at...

Continue Reading Was Spc. Megan Lynn Touma Murdered by Zodiac Copycat?

Megan Lynn Touma photo credit: NCwanted.com

A Crime of Passion and Tragedy

March 05, 2008

In what appears to be a crime of passion fueled by jealousy, pretty 22-year-old Spc. Ivette Gonzalez Davila, a soldier stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington, has been arrested on allegations that she killed two fellow soldiers, a man and a woman, and then took the married couple’s six-month-old baby back to the barracks with her. The victims, Timothy and Randi Miller, ages 27 and 25, respectively, were killed in their off-base home in the community of Parkland, Washington, sometime Saturday evening, March 1, 2008, according to reports by The Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

According to Ed Murphy, a Pierce County, Washington deputy prosecutor, Davila purportedly told another soldier that "Randi Miller was in a relationship with Davila’s ex-boyfriend, another soldier, who had apparently chosen Randi Miller over Davila." Davila, a specialist in the I Corps and a member of the Fort Lewis color guard, is expected to be charged with the killings on Wednesday, March 5, 2008. If charged with aggravated murder and kidnapping, Davila, originally from Bakersfield, California, could face the death penalty.

According to published reports, Davila had posted messages on the victims’ MySpace pages earlier in February 2008 in which she had indicated that she was coming to their home to visit. The postings, police allege, indicate that she knew both of the victims, both of whom were sergeants and had done tours of duty in Iraq. Timothy Miller, originally from Gardnerville, Nevada, had been in the Army for 10 years, and had been making plans to join up with the Nevada State Police following his military service. Those who knew the couple said that both appeared very loving, and that both lived for their daughter. They were described as a hard-working couple, and very reliable. Family members discounted the possibility that Randi Miller had been having an affair, as Davila had apparently believed.

"They had a beautiful marriage," Randi’s father told reporters...

To read the complete article, click here.