What Happened To Ciara Durkin?

Until last week, Ciara Durkin was a finance specialist serving in the Massachusetts National Guard, stationed at Bagram AFB in Afghanistan. Then she was shot in the head and found dead outside the Air Force Base. This story would usually just be another casualty report from the Afghani front of the "war on terrorism" except for the fact of what she told her family when she was home last month in Quincy, MA.

From The Patriot Ledger:

Fiona Canavan, Durkin’s older sister, said today that when her sister was home three weeks ago, she told family members that she had come across some things that concerned her and had raised objections to others at the base.

‘‘She was in the finance unit and she said, ‘I discovered some things I don’t like and I made some enemies because of it.’ Then she said, in her light-hearted way, ‘If anything happens to me, you guys make sure it gets investigated,’’’ Canavan said. ‘‘But at the time we thought it was said more as a joke.’’

(snip)

Her family was initially told that Durkin was killed in action on Friday. But on Monday, the family learned that she died about 6:30 p.m. of a single gunshot wound to the head in a non-combat situation.

Durkin had been assigned to a finance unit at the base since February. Her tour of duty had been scheduled to end in February.

Her younger brother, Pierce Durkin, said that because of the nature of the wound and the fact that the shooting happened under ‘‘curious’’ circumstances, the family decided to contact legislators.

So far those legislators, Senators Kerry and Kennedy and Representative Delahunt have not been able to find out anything from the Pentagon. So far they have lied to her family and the question is, why? What did Ciara know and who didn't want her to know that information? Durkin's death is eerily similar to the death of Pat Tillman, another soldier who was killed in Afghanistan where the army sought to cover up the true story of his death.

This case deserves an independent investigation and no more BS from the Pentagon.