Pray For Pfc. Thomas Lowell Tucker & Pfc. Kristian Menchaca

** Update: US Soldier’s Bodies Found. They had been tortured! (more below) **

Outside the Beltway goes further. The soldiers were “Barbarically Killed!”

Even knowing what little we know at this point, this already puts Ted Kennedy’s Abu Ghraib into perspective.

As usual, The Anchoress has powerful words on this very sad story.

* * * * *
Pfc. Thomas Lowell Tucker, 25, of Madras, Oregon, and Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, Texas, both members of the 101st Airborne Division, have been missing since Sunday night after an attack southwest of Baghdad. They are still missing.

Family members of Army Pfc. Kristian Menchaca are scared that he is being hurt and say Menchaca is proud of the work he is doing and so are they,
WZZM VIDEO


Pfc. Kristian Menchaca (Left) and Pfc. Thomas Lowell Tucker.

His brother says that he is afraid that Kristian may be getting tortured,
WZZM Video HERE

Tony Snow said this to the White House gaggle about the updates President Bush is getting on the missing soldiers:

Q Any update on the missing soldiers, Tony?

MR. SNOW: Nothing. We have just — apparently an al Qaeda-related group has today issued something claiming responsibility, but there is no confirmation, and I just had our NSC guy call back to the White House. So we have absolutely nothing new on it, at this point, beyond what General Caldwell had to say in his briefing.

Q Can you tell us a little bit about the President’s briefing on this, over the course of the weekend, and how he’s being kept apprised?

MR. SNOW: Well, he’s being kept apprised regularly by aides. I mean, I can’t tell you exactly who’s doing it at what juncture, but he’s being kept regularly apprised of what’s going on and what we know.

Hopefully, President Bush will say something more about this very soon!


Pfc. Thomas Lowell Tucker

Here is the public statement from the Tucker family:

“He joined the U.S. Army stating that he wanted to do something positive and was stationed at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky as a member of B Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.”

“In a recent telephone message that remains on the telephone answering machine, Thomas sent the following greeting. ‘Be proud of me Mom, I’m defending my country. Tell sis and my nephews hello for me, I’m OK, I’m on my way.'”

Here is that message that Pfc. Tucker left on his parent’s answering machine:

“Hey Mom, I love you… I love you too, Dad. …Be safe and I’ll be back, and you know, be safe while I’m gone. You know, be careful out there on the road. I worry about you guys, too… I’m going to be OK. Everything’s going to be OK. I’m going to defend my country. Be proud of me. I love you guys. I know that you love me. I am going to call as much as I can. And, I love you once again. Talk to you later. Goodbye.”

God keep them safe and don’t have them suffer.

In other news… A suicide bomber killed two people this morning at a Senior Citizen’s Home! And, over in Afghanistan, the Taliban is using children as human shields!
Lord, the inhumanity!

** Press Conference at 8:00 AM Eastern. (ABC has live video)
Blogs of War has a roundup on this sad news.
Powerline notes that the uncle was interviewed by the media(?)
Michelle Malkin has a roundup on the news and a sad update.
Riehl World View is following the story.
Scared Monkeys have a roundup on the news.
Q and O has thoughts on the original mission the soldiers were sent on.
Sister Toldjah has a wish for the killers.
Captain’s Quarters has thoughts on the tactical shift in the game plan.
Andrew Olmstead has clear thoughts on the deaths.
The Futurist has thoughts on the 5th column supporting the terrorists.

Update: The soldiers had been tortured!

Two bodies, believed by Iraqis to be those of two American soldiers who went missing last Friday, have been found south of Baghdad. The U.S. military has not yet confirmed whether the bodies are those of the two soldiers.

Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed said the bodies of Army Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Army Pfc. Thomas Lowell Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore., were found on a street near a power plant in the town of Youssifiyah, just south of Baghdad. A source in the Iraqi Ministry of Defense told FOX News that the bodies were found by civilians; one source also said the bodies showed signs of torture.

CNN reports the bodies were found in a town 50 miles south of Baghdad:

Iraqi officials said the bodies were found in the town of Jurf al-Sakhar, 50 miles (
80 km) south of Baghdad.

Pray for their families.

ABC reports Al Qaeda in Iraq put out a statement on the slaughter of the two soldiers:

“We give the good news … to the Islamic nation that we have carried God’s verdict by slaughtering the two captured crusaders,” said a statement in the name of the Mujahedeen Shura Council, the umbrella group for five insurgent organizations, including al-Qaida in Iraq.

The statement, which could not be authenticated, said the two soldiers were “slaughtered,” suggesting they had been beheaded. The Arabic word used in the statement, “nahr,” is used for the slaughtering of sheep by cutting the throat and has been used in past statements to refer to beheadings.

Oh, this is so disturbing!

Jamie Allman asks:

“If our missing U.S. soldiers wind up on another terrorist video so the Ilsamo-fascists can further their anti-American agenda, how soon will it be before some of our American politicians use the video to further their anti-Iraq agenda?”

I doubt they will need the video, Jamie.

And, how about this?… Wizbang reports that the uncle in the news today is a screaming Leftie… I guess we can’t be surprised anymore with the depths the media will go to promote their agenda.

This seems like a strange day for the US to be discussing Geneva Conventions, or maybe not?

Update 2: This story gets worse… The bodies of these two young Americans were booby-trapped with explosives. Dear God!

And, Powerline, notes that there is another uncle of Kristian Menchaca who feels differently than the one that is making headlines throughout the day.

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

You can email Jim Hoft here, and read more of Jim Hoft's articles here.

 

Thanks for sharing!