- PACE, Florida (AP) -- Two
Florida National Guard soldiers who married Iraqi women against their commander's
wishes are being investigated for allegedly defying an order, their families
said.
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- The men, both Christians who converted to Islam so they
could be married under Iraqi law, had expected to return to Florida this
month, but a new army policy that requires troops to remain in Iraq for
12 continuous months may keep them there until April.
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- In the meantime, Sgt. Sean Blackwell, 27, of Pace, and
Cpl. Brett Dagen, 37, of Walnut Hill, want to send their wives to the United
States because of threats from anti-American Iraqis.
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- Vickie McKee, Blackwell's mother, said yesterday her
daughter-in-law has asked that the women not be identified for that reason.
Both women are physicians.
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- "She's being threatened over there on almost a daily
basis," McKee said. "He just wants to know that she's safe."
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- McKee, who said the army is trying to prevent the women
from coming to the United States, has delivered letters from her son and
his wife to the district office of Representative Jeff Miller. Dan McFaul,
a spokesman for Miller, said the congressman can do nothing until the women
request visas.
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- Blackwell's wife, now working as an interpreter for an
American firm in Baghdad, wrote that the army has prevented him from contacting
her since the double wedding on Aug. 17.
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- "Is this freedom in U.S.?" she wrote. "Where
is the human right? Where is justice?"
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- McKee said the soldiers have been barred from using e-mail.
For a time they also were prohibited from calling home, she said.
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- An army spokesman at the Pentagon referred questions
to officials in Iraq, who declined comment.
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- Lt.-Col. Ron Tittle, spokesman for the Florida National
Guard in St. Augustine, said he did not know whether disciplinary action
had been taken or is contemplated, but that the soldiers' battalion commander,
Lt.-Col. Thad Hill, had said he was worried the marriages might distract
his troops from their mission and compromise their safety.
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- In his letter to Miller, Blackwell said the Army Inspector
General's Office has told him he cannot be punished for getting married,
but that he could be disciplined for disobeying an order.
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