Press Release of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer

Boxer Works with Top Member of Armed Services Committee to Get Answers on Killing of California Guardsmen  

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today reached an agreement with Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), the Ranking Member of the Armed Services Committee, to work together to get answers to troubling questions raised by the Pentagon’s handling of the killing of two California National Guardsmen by the same Iraqi troops they were training.  

An investigation by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command determined in September 2005 that Sergeant Patrick McCaffrey and First Lieutenant Andre Tyson were shot and killed by members of the Iraqi security forces near Balad in 2004. 

Boxer and Levin are working together to obtain answers to the following questions:

According to his parents, there were two prior incidents in which Sergeant McCaffrey was fired upon by Iraqi security forces and the chain of command took no action. Why was nothing done? Are there other incidents where American troops are being shot at by the Iraqi forces they are training? 

Why, if the Army closed its investigation in September 2005, did it fail to inform the family until June 2006? Was there a cover-up of this incident? 

Why were the families denied official government reports on the events that led to the deaths of these two soldiers? The McCaffrey family needed the help of Senator Boxer’s office to make any progress in learning the truth.  

And, finally, how can the Department of Defense conclude that the incident is “extremely rare” when such incidents are evidently not being reported up the chain of command? Members of Sergeant McCaffrey’s unit told his father that insurgents were offering Iraqi soldiers about $100 apiece for each American they could kill.