An Army Death, and a Family Left In the Dark

As for the source of the bullet, one investigator reported that "it is impossible that the round came from a U.S. weapon." That officer interviewed Polish troops but wrote that "sworn statements were not taken due to the International sensitivity of this investigation." The investigation was suspended on May 18 "due to the combined nature" of the operation.

A follow-up U.S. investigation by higher-ranking officials that was submitted to commanders on July 27, 2004, classified Buryj's death as a "tragic accident" most likely caused by fire from Polish forces. It recommended that they be "held accountable" for violations of standard rules of engagement but also noted that "tragic errors and inevitable mistakes can be used by international critics to attempt to hinder or derail the democratic cooperation" in Iraq.

The Poles also investigated. Their report -- finished on June 25, 2004, and translated into English -- found exactly the opposite: Polish troops could not have fired the shot because of their locations, but U.S. troops may have.

Piotr Paszkowski, a spokesman for the Polish Ministry of Defense, said he was shocked to learn that the Army was blaming Polish troops. He said a joint U.S.-Polish investigation revealed insufficient evidence to show who shot Buryj.

"Any suggestions that Jesse Buryj was shot by Polish troops on the night of May 4-5, 2004, at a joint American-Polish checkpoint in Karbala, have no basis in fact," Polish defense officials said in a written response to questions, translated from Polish.

The Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory in Forest Park, Ga., could have cleared up the mystery. It reported that the bullet and fragments recovered from Buryj's body provided "sufficient individual characteristics for comparison purposes" and suggested collecting all suspect weapons for analysis.

But that didn't happen. DeCloud said the unit offered to turn over its weapons for testing but "they never got back to us."

Because the investigation wasn't complete, "we couldn't talk about it for a year, and we were pretty pissed off about it," said DeCloud, who is a friend of Amber's. "Maybe they didn't want to show there were problems within the coalition. It undoubtedly caused some tension between the two forces. No one wants to take the blame for what happened."

A statement from a task force commander in June 2004 expressed the same sentiment: "I am concerned as a commander of the effects of fratricide on the continued operational partnership between the MPs and the Poles."

Presidential Meeting

In July 2004, two months after their son died, Steve and Peggy Buryj met Bush after a rally at the Canton Civic Center and passed him a letter asking for the truth. "I asked him to do what he could," Peggy said. "He appeared concerned and was very sincere. He said that sometimes all it takes is a call from the president."

Nothing happened, and Peggy Buryj doesn't know whether he made that call. In early October, she said, she received a call from the Bush campaign in Ohio. She said Darrin Klinger, then executive director of the Bush-Cheney Ohio campaign, asked her if she would be interested in appearing in a campaign commercial as a grieving mother who was sticking by her president. (Klinger, reached at his office in Columbus, Ohio, said he is familiar with the Buryj family but does not recall that conversation.) She said she refused. "I told them that if he finds out what happened to my son, I'll win him an Academy Award," she said. "I voted for Bush, I was a supporter. But I was just getting strung along, and I knew it at that point.

"I think Bush needed Ohio to swing the election, and I think they didn't want the publicity of what really happened to Jesse," she said.