A Father's Attempt to Warn the Military about U.S. Servicemen Killing Afghan Civilians for Sport

Summary: POGO sat down to speak with Chris and Emma Winfield, the parents of Army Specialist Adam Winfield, one of five soldiers charged with the murders of three Afghans in January, February and May. Spec. Winfield reportedly contacted his parents after the first incident, saying that he was being harassed and that his squad leader had gotten away with murder. Chris Winfield says he tried to warn the Army after communicating with his son, but says several Army offices, including the Army Inspector General and the Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID), did not respond to their voice mails. As reported by ABC News, the Army says that it conducted an internal investigation in response to the Winfields' story, and determined that the Winfields did not call the Army Inspector General. Regarding the interaction between Winfield and CID, the Army told ABC: "The evidence shows that he called several numbers on a Sunday. He spoke to one individual for approximately 12 minutes. He did call the Army Criminal Investigations Division, but he did not leave a message and did not follow a prompt to call the 24-hour MP desk." Chris Grey, a CID spokesperson, also told POGO that the CID office at Fort Lewis “could find no record of a message left by Mr. Winfield,” although the office admits Chris Winfield has produced phone records showing a one-minute phone call with the CID office. Nonetheless, because POGO has long taken an interest in issues related to blowing the whistle and the inspector general system, we thought this story merited exploration.