Mission of Conscience Accomplished: Battle of Baghdad Cover-up Exposed — A May Day Interview With Captain Eric H. May

A May Day Interview
With Captain Eric H. May

CRAWFORD On April 4, The Iconoclast published an interview with Captain Eric H. May, “Battle of Baghdad Cover-up Four Years Later.” In it, May described reports that a neutron bomb had been used at Baghdad Airport shortly after U.S. forces reached the city, on April 5, 2003, but that the event was covered up by the trumped-up rescue of Private Jessica Lynch.

Immediately following publication of the interview, the unexpected happened. Congress scheduled hearings to investigate the contrived stories of Private Jessica Lynch and Specialist Pat Tillman, hearings conducted this week, which provided damning evidence of a military engaged in propaganda. As the Iconoclast noted April 11, following the publication of Captain May’s Battle of Baghdad and nuclear warhead claims, Al Jazeera ran an interview with Iraqi General Al-Rawi, who was in command of Iraqi forces at Baghdad Airport. Al-Rawi confirmed May’s statements about the Battle of Baghdad, and the U.S. use of a neutron bomb at Baghdad Airport.

In a time when both military intelligence and public affairs officers seem to be masters of the art of not saying the truth, Captain May, who is a specialist in both areas, is a refreshing breath of candor. In the interview below, the Iconoclast continues to ask probing questions of this former officer, who consistently predicted a disaster if we attacked Iraq from 1992 on, then later, on a mission of conscience, exposed the cover-ups that hid the predicted disaster from the American people.

As a unique way to acknowledge and honor the fallen and unacknowledged soldiers in the Battle of Baghdad, Captain May formed Ghost Troop, an independent military cyber-cavalry unit aimed at fighting governmental propaganda a/k/a info-war. Commanded by Captain May, Ghost Troop consists of current and past high-level military professionals and police veterans with expertise in reading government strategies. As a former member of the “propaganda machine” himself, Captain May has expressed grave concern that the mainstream media, now owned by corporations that are part of the military/industrial complex, are selling the American people a bill of goods about the realities of the Iraq war.

The interview:

ICONOCLAST: How does it feel to be vindicated in your claims about Jessica Lynch and the Battle of Baghdad?

MAY: I’m ambivalent about it all. During the last four years, I’ve been ridiculed, abused and threatened by just about every level of the military structure, and my sanity has even been questioned all of this for making the very assertions that are now becoming transparent. I think it’s like the German philosopher Schopenhauer said: In the case of any radical idea, first they ridicule it, then they abuse it, and finally, when it has been proved, they just say, “No big deal,” and act like they’ve known all along.

On the one hand, I’m glad that the wall of lies protecting the Bush administration is crumbling; but on the other hand, I’m saddened that it has taken so long, and that there is yet so much left to do. I can’t but wonder how many lives American and Iraqi have been unnecessarily lost because the truth of an unnecessary, illegal war has been concealed, and I wonder how many more lives will be lost before the full truth of things is revealed.

ICONOCLAST: What do you think of General David Petraeus, the new commander of our forces in Iraq, who, just this week defended Administration Iraq war plans to Congress?