David Phinney

there is another officer currently under cid investigation since approx sept 2006 for having classified information on computers which he brought to his base residence; he is wanting to retire this june and they have yet to bring charges against him; he too has had pornographic material on his computer and helped to save the career of an elisted person who is third degree sex offender listed on the nc sex offender registry site

If he is found guilty they should execute him. And do it ASAP and let the world know that the US doesn't tolerate TREASON!! This man should get what he deserves and that's a IED in the chest.

The porn charge reminds me of the famous scene in "Casablanca" where the French Vichy Colonel uses gambling as a pretext to shut down Humphrey Bogart's club, pretending it was news to him. Virtually EVERY American soldier possesses pornography. The authorities know that any time they want to go after a soldier for any reason, they can add "possession of pornography" to the charges as a sure-fire "Gotcha!"...or even use it as the sole charge. I think they did it to their erstwhile Muslim translator at Gitmo too when they falsely and paranoiacally thought he was an enemy.

Well, at least he wasn't on the front line. You know how prison wardens are always picked from the cream of the crop. Give me a break. I am really interested to see the details about him giving a cell phone to prisoners. That sounds rediculous. What would a Lt. Col. be doing even looking at the prisoners, let alone giving them fruit baskets and cell phones.

I'm really curious to know who this guy ticked off enough to have them go through his sock drawer. Anyway, these charges don't sound that bad, considering this guy has given his free life away to serve our country over seas for the last few years.

That's more of a sacrifice than most of us have given. Give the guy a break. I think that even if he is guilty of some of these charges, he is not guilty of ALL of them. If this guy serves time in prison over this, it is a shame. He obviously had done something right to work his way up the ranks to LT Col.

If this is the LTC Steele I knew at the 99th Regional Readiness Command, I find it difficult to believe he is guilty of these charges. I worked with him and found him to be a fine officer.

I served with Bill Steele for many years and have maintained a friendship with him. He like to help people and likes to "be liked" NO WAY were these maliscious wrong doing. He is probaly only guilty of poor judgement

Sorry Gentlemen I might only have known LTC Steele for a year in Iraq but if you doubt his guilt you dont know the man as well as you think. I will promise you that if asked SEVERAL HUNDRED SOLDIERS will travel anywhere in the world to testify against this man. MYSELF included. They should add the charge of drawing and pointing a loaded weapon at two soldiers on separate occasions!!! They should add the charge of negligent homicide for the loss of an Artillery Soldier when he interfered with the Medic attempting to save his life! They should charge him with many things, but if history holds true he will never see a conviction unless they talk to his staff, or unless they actually have all of his emails and documents off of his computer PROVING ALL OF THIS.
Maybe, just maybe they have pictures of him with the detainees. Maybe they have proof that he treated the detainees better than the Soldiers!!! Maybe, the fact that everyone in his camp knew he was sleeping with the interpreter, and the fact that it was passed on to the IG by several Soldiers; aided in this whole mess. Maybe they should add the charge of willfully endangering a convoy by attempting to interfere with the recovery effort. Yes, he did attempt to stop a US Convoy from providing aid to another US convoy, which had been hit by an IED. By no means should he be convicted of anything he has not done, but that is for the courts to decide. Maybe some of the Soldiers he wronged will get their justice after all. It is however a shame it took so long to get done. Oh, my last comment. It doesn’t mention in this post that LTC Steele was almost relieved of command in theater for some of the things he is now charged with….. I am sure he is/was/could be a wonderful man, but that’s not what he showed in Iraq.
Either way, Iraq is not all a bad place and a lot of good things are happening there!!!

I've known Bill Steele for years, knew him as a Deputy Sheriff when he got into trouble for attempting to arrest a Deputy from another county for drunk driving. Served on civic commitees and watched him do volunteer work during storms.

Bill Steele is a top-notch guy, not by any means a traitor, and I sure hope the full story gets out. This man is being railroaded by the military in an effort to cover up something they are afraid will get out about wrongdoing at Camp Copper by officials Bill had under investigation.

This miltary "grand jury" is about as fair as the Salem Witch trials. The Military accuses, then gets to pick the judge, jury, prosecutor and defense attorney... nice set-up! Get the rope!

Well, I will say this. If they charge Bill for this issue on the non monitored phone. They had better get the old dame that was in charge in the MP unit running Cropper at the same time, because she did the same damn thing. I worked with the MI unit at Cropper. And many times we argued with her in giving phone privileges and not telling us so we could monitor the call. Yes, they had a soldier present, but that is not the same as monitoring if you know what I mean ??

She was even on TV. Talk about aiding the enemy.

I was under his command from March 2006 to March 2007 and I can tell you from first hand knowledge that everything that he is accussed of actually happened. There are a couple of other things that I don't see listed here so I won't mention them. One thing is for sure...he treated the detainees alot better than his MP's!

Suffering from terminal frustration and a Congress imposed official defeat, the Pentagon has reared their ugly heads, looking for excuses and scapegoats.

Lt Col Steele, who had the audacity to oppose holding three US citizens serving as FBI undercover informants filled the bill. The three informants were caught up in an Army "sweep" of Baghdad and subjected to months of intense interrogation at Camp Cropper even as they begged daily for their interrogators to verify their status with the FBI. Held incommunicado without hearing, without charges being filed, and without notification of anyone.

Not content with opposing the imprisonment and daily interrogation of the three FBI informants who had been attempting to ferret out who was selling munitions to the terrorists, Lt Col Steele had the guts to ignore an order to release the three "without paperwork" after months of illegal confinement and instead wrote up standard release documents.

The three lived a virtual Hell during their confinement, with their interrogators ignoring their pleas to verify their status with the the FBI, proceeding instead to use food deprivation, water deprivation, intense light and deafening music 24-7 to break these three men psychologically.

The three are now suing the US Army and using the release papers signed by Lt Col Steele to prove their confinement and total denial of rights.

And this my friends, is exactly why the Pentagon has their undies all knotted up and wants to discredit and punish Lt Col Steele. They are doing everything they can to screw Steele for being a man of integrity, with sadly, the co-operation of the mainline Press.

It was alleged that Steele was having sex with an interpreter at Cropper. She was transfered to Camp Bucca. A married officer would have the sense to stay away from her. But instead, Steele convoyed to Bucca several times and was seen dining with this linguist at the Bucca DFAC. After dinner, they were seen heading towards her quarters. I cannot say if he had an affair with her or not, but who takes an entire convoy 1/2 way across Iraq to see a woman you've been accused of having an affair with? Later, when this linguist was terminated, Steele pulled out all the stops to try and get her reinstated including, but not limited to, calling other officers and asking them to vouch for her and calling the Titan office asking for her to be reinstated. Serious abuse of power.

Steele went out with us one time and was a total joke. He took off his armor and was unarmed in a guard tower, alone with the IP outside the wire. We saw him letting the IP use his cell phone that day. Our Sgt. pinned him to the ground and lit him up as it would be our ass if something happened to him. He was a complete moron. It was well known he was fraternizing with the enemy in ways he shouldnt. They need to fry his ass. So all you clowns who talk of him being a man of integrity need to shut the f up. He is a scumbag moron who is going to get what he deserves.

Man, whoever Robert W. Adrian was, (the individual who made the comment earlier) I bet I know you, bet we served under the same unit. Cause you couldn't have known about some of those things without being there with me! And YES ladies and gentlemen, Billy Steele is a dirtbag, and won't receive his due punishment. What he needs is his ass kicked by all the soldiers he screwed over at Cropper! FUCK YOU STEELE. Here's to the democracy patrol.

Ltc.Steele was an idiot while he was in charge of cropper. Everybody saw him f ing up and no one did a dam thing about it. The one officer who did was sent home earlier. His Whole staff stood by and let him f soldiers over. All the cared about was their ncoer @ oer being good. They need to look in to his whole chain of command and bust all their asses for letting these happen. But once again the military will let all this slide.

So, I love the comments and everyone should keep them coming... especially those who had to deal with Steele's BS over there. He is definitely a cocksucker who will be deserving of much more than he ever receives. I don't think he will get his just deserves even if he were to get the DP. Just so those that know about him can see I speak the truth I would like to give a shout out to Bahar, his little FB. F him and all those who would support him. If he was such a great guy here in the states as a police officer it just shows that he needed his wife to put him in check and when she wasn't there he was his true self, a dirt bag. To all of us soldiers that had to deal with his shit for the year I would like to propose a future toast. If he is convicted I am sure we will hear about it. 24 hours after it happens raise your beer and toast the military finally doing something right by taking down the problem, not the soldier.

This is directed toward Jason Zinith (commentor from above.) Clearly you are not military for you don't know anything in how the military works, it shames me to have Americans like you that say such things as "Anyway, these charges don't sound that bad considering this guy has given his free life away to serve our country overseas for the last few years." Thats about as ridiculous as saying hey that guy over there just robbed a bank but he helped the old lady cross the street when he was done... How does letting detainees have a unmonitored cell phone not sound that bad?? For being one of the many soldiers that was under his command for the time that this was all going on, I find it very sad that he was willing to put all of our lives at risk and yes he is guilty my eyes are proof of what this man did among many other soldiers from my company, whom I have noticed several commented above. Also you asked what would a LT. COL even be doing looking at a prisioner, I go back to my begining statement that clearly you don't know much about the military so you really shouldnt comment. I will tell you why he would come into our compound
~ One he is trying to help the Iraqi's if you were not smart enough to pick up what he is being charged for.
~ Two when ever you are in charge of something like running a prison camp it is part of your dutys to walk through on occasion to make sure operations are moving smootly, although those were not his intentions.
The fact is, is that this man broke the laws of the UCMJ which at least 200 of us know that he did we our living proof, and this man endagered all of us on numerous occasions many which I am not allowed to speak of. He should be tried for allot more then he is and if you ask anyone from my company what ever punishment this piece of crap gets its not nearly what he deserves.

col steele was a hard ass commander in Fort Campbell during the time i was station there. We all deployed with the Rakkasan to Iraq in late 2005,when did things start going down hill for him?

When I read the comments from Joe American reading his news, I would say they got it right. LTC Steele is obviously a scapegoat for the CID who instigated an investigation based on misuse of funds only to find out that there was no case. An unaccounted for phone call, however, is aiding the enemy. Wait, that phone call was later accounted for... nevermind, charge him anyway - we'll find some evidence to support it later! Oh by the way, it was well known that Steele NEVER carried a cell phone on his person unless leaving the camp. Hmmmm, and didn't the detainees have the right to unlimited calls? Of course they did. How many prisoner riots occurred as a result of his handing out unmonitored phones? What did you say? None? If you PFCs and SPCs weren't such whiny assed babies you would realize that doing something like that would have caused the whole place to collapse. You could never know that HE WAS NEVER IN CHARGE OF ANYTHING - everything the prisoners received was directed from above; every movement made was directed from above. And when he didn't back you up it was because he was backing up decisions made by your senior NCOs; but it's easy to criticize from the bottom of the pile. In the same vein of not knowing what you are talking about, he had the interpreter (BS) moved once he heard the rumors. Visits to her were made twice - once at the request of a superior officer and he did not even see her, and a second time to visit the unit he left for the Babysitting Assignment, also to conduct unfinished unit business. So what if he visited with her at the same time? Jealous, little boys, that you were refused? It is obvious that your testimony is fueled by hatred instead of facts. Just remember, lies eventually come back to haunt the ones that tell them, and you will be the ones burning in hell. This soldier cannot be freed soon enough.

to :SGM at August 21, 2007 11:38 PM.

In reply to your posting, I can tell you first hand that LTC Steele did NOT have the linguist Bahar sent away after hearing the "rumors". She was MOVED to camp Bucca because her "interactions" with LTC Steele was causing alot of problems amongst the other linguists. She walked around as if she was the "head linguist" in trying to order the other linguists around and was constantly violating the rules by bringing her personal cell phone into the compound. After finding out from Bahar that she was being moved, LTC Steele tried everything he could to keep her at Camp Cropper. Needless to say his efforts were unrewarded. Also there was absolutely no need for LTC Steele to travel the 300 plus miles to Camp Bucca to take care of "unit business". There was frequent video conferences between all the TIFs and TF-134 along with easy methods to send and recieve items and documents if need be. From my stand point its pretty obvious why he went down there. ( and no, i am not one of those jealous little boys as you mentioned ) So in closing, I wanted to clarify on that one portion of your posting. I will honestly say that i do not hate LTC Steele ,but i truelly believe he is an idiot. I did not have to serve under him at Camp Cropper, but maybe if i had i would feel a little differently. Have a great day!

To SGM W
I cannot believe you are still sticking up for this guy. It has nothing to do with jealous soldiers. The guy is a shit bird. You and your BLD XO should be ashamed for you lack of action when we brought this to your attention. SGM, I had a lot of respect for the entire staff (minus Mahowald, he’s just a little prick with small-mans syndrome who was too big a pussy to ever leave the wire in a real convoy) but with you still defending him that respect is waning.

I’ve read these posts and I see that Steele has been portrayed as a hard ass, and usually as a prick, to boot. It has been my experience in life that you can be a hard ass, if you’re a fair hard ass. And, if you also follow the same hard-ass rules that you hold everyone else accountable to. Your troops, or your cops, will say that you’re a prick, but you’re a fair prick. I once had someone bid a shift to work for me and tell me exactly that.

I spent my time in the Army 40 years ago as the exec of an artillery battery, and then afterwards I did thirty years as a cop. I worked from the street to detective, and finally in the administration doing training, background investigations and hiring. My first love was working the street. Early in my career, I took my turn in the barrel working the jail. You learned early on that you didn’t get subverted by the inmates. Every cop learns that early, or their career ends in flames.

From the newspaper accounts and from what I’ve read here, this guy sounds like a screw up. He jeopardized his mission and his men with his conduct. I’m certain he had to know the consequences of what he was doing, if it came down to an internal investigation, and he disregarded the cost and the penalties.

I’ve seen people get screwed over, and I’ve seen people slide, but usually, you have to hand people the stick they’re gonna beat you with. And, from everything I’ve seen, this guy had a dump truck full of screw ups they could use. Not nickel and dimers. But, somebody should have been watching this early on and put a stop to his inappropriate conduct. Who was watching? Who should have been?

Just me on the outside lookin’ at what I see. Just my take on things.