[Donut]

Collins accuser did not witness Iraq incidents

From The Times

THE US Army reservist who accused Lieutenant-Colonel Tim Collins of war crimes during the Iraq campaign did not witness any of the alleged incidents for which the British officer is being investigated.

Major Re Biastre, 37, a school guidance counsellor and part-time traffic policeman — who is still serving in Iraq — made the allegations after being publicly reprimanded and arrested by Colonel Collins for handing out sweets to Iraqi children in defiance of the British officer’s orders. Another US reservist who was attached to Colonel Collins’s regiment during the war accused Major Biastre of acting out of “spite”.

Colonel Collins is on leave after relinquishing command of his regiment, a scheduled move. He has let it be known that he is frustrated at not being able to talk about the allegations because of the investigation.

Major Stan Coerr, a US Marine reservist, said: “Major Biastre is the sole reason this is happening. It is his spite for Colonel Collins that started this whole thing. I loved Colonel Collins and would serve with him again. This whole thing is a travesty.”

Major Biastre, from Eden, New York state, made a 2,400-word statement to his US commanding officer in which he accused Colonel Collins of pistolwhipping an Iraqi official and neglecting Iraqi prisoners of war by depriving them of food. The statement was made several days after he had been publicly rebuked, arrested for insubordination and ordered to stand to attention for 45 minutes by Colonel Collins.

Major Biastre concedes in the statement, which has triggered a high-profile and politically sensitive investigation by the Ministry of Defence, that he did not witness any of the alleged incidents, which, if true, would be in breach of the Army’s rules of engagement and the Geneva Conventions. Major Biastre, a reservist and part of the US Army’s 402nd Civil Affairs Battalion, provoked the ire of Colonel Collins, the commander of the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Regiment, as he handed out lollipops to Iraqi children.

Colonel Collins, 43, who gained public prominence for his widely publicised and stirring eve-of-war speech to his men, had banned impromptu food distribution because he believed that civilian crowds could be used as cover for counter- attacks and that Iraqi children were in danger of being hit by military vehicles.

According to one report, when Colonel Collins first reprimanded Major Biastre for his actions, the American replied: “You do your job and I’ll do mine.”

In Major Biastre’s statement, obtained by a Sunday newspaper, he describes what happened as he began handing out lollipops: “I heard a British soldier coming at me screaming ‘What the f*** do you think you are doing? . . . I asked him who he was . . . he screamed as loud as he could that he was Lieutenant-Colonel Tim Collins of the Royal Irish. He told me, in very vulgar terms, to leave the area, spitting in my face as he did so.”

The statement, which was passed by the US Army to the British divisional headquarters in southern Iraq, thus triggering the investigation, begins by claiming that a feeling of anti-American resentment was harboured by many of the British officers.

“After hostilities commenced, many British officers began to express their resentment of Americans more openly. They questioned the need for Britain to be in the war and they characterised President Bush as a ‘cowboy’.

“They complained that British Prime Minister Tony Blair was acting as a ‘puppet’ of President Bush. They often claimed that the majority of the British public did not support Britain’s participation in the war.”

Major Biastre’s wife, Debbie, told a newspaper yesterday: “My husband is the most truthful person I know. He just wanted to give out candy. Colonel Collins clearly knew who my husband was. There was no need to yell, let alone use obscenities.

“Re was appalled by the lack of respect. He’s met a lot of very dedicated British soldiers. He is not anti-British, but he felt the episode demonstrated how there was contempt among some British officers for the Americans and perhaps an element of retaliation because two British soldiers had just become casualties of US friendly fire.”

According to Mrs Biastre, her husband heard allegations about Colonel Collins while he was made to wait outside his office. Mrs Biastre said: “He believes he had no choice but to report what he and his men had been told.”

Colonel Collins let his frustration at the investigation be known through intermediaries yesterday . “I feel as though I am being hung out to dry,” he was quoted as telling friends. “I’m being treated as though I should be sitting in the dock at the Nuremburg trials alongside my chums Herman Goering and Adolf Eichmann listening attentively into my earpiece the hideous deeds I have supposedly committed. I’m in a very difficult position because I cannot talk publicly . . . I haven’t even had a chance to speak to the people carrying out the investigation into these allegations.”

The Iraqi at the centre of the claims is Ayoub Yousif Naser, a member of the Baath party and a leading official in Rumaila, an oil village 30 miles west of Basra. Mr Naser told The Times that Colonel Collins subjected them to a mock execution, ordering his men to put him and his son against a wall and ordered a soldier to kill them. Colonel Collins denies the claims. Mr Naser conceded to The Times that he lied about possessing weapons to British forces. Locals said Mr Naser was widely feared in the area.

Lieutenant-Colonel Collins is being investigated by the Army’s Special Investigations Branch for alleged breaches of the Geneva Conventions over his treatment of Iraqi prisoners of war and a civic leader. This comes after a complaint by a US officer.