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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 3, 2006 20:45:51 GMT -5
The U.S. military is investigating U.S. soldiers accused of raping an
Iraqi woman near their guard post, killing her and three family members and burning their home with the bodies inside.
The rape and murder case, announced Friday, was opened by the military a week ago after two U.S. soldiers came forward with information about the March 12 deaths in the town of Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad.
A terse statement issued Friday by the Army said that on June 23, the 2 soldiers reported the alleged American involvement and that a preliminary investigation found sufficient evidence to continue.
4 soldiers are under investigation in the case.
"We found out when someone spilled their guts," said a U.S. military official with knowledge of the inquiry, which is being conducted by the Army Criminal Investigation Command under orders from Maj. Gen. James D. Thurman, commander of the 4th Infantry Division.
"There is a lot of heat on the leadership," the official said. "This is
the last thing we need."
The rape allegations are potentially explosive in a Muslim nation where tribal customs often enforce female chastity under penalty of death.
Previous reports of American servicemen killing civilians have led Iraqis to call for Washington to withdraw its troops.
The deaths in March occurred in the same area as the kidnapping and killing last month of 2 Army privates, an Army official said, and involve the same unit - the 502nd Infantry Regiment, which is attached to the 4th Infantry Division - but it was unclear whether there was a connection between the deaths of the family members in Mahmoudiya and the June 16 attack on the U.S. soldiers at an observation post near Yousifiya.
1 soldier was killed in the attack and two were kidnapped. Days later, their bodies were found mutilated and booby-trapped with explosives near a Yousifiya power plant complex.
Yousifiya and Mahmoudiya lie along the Euphrates River, in an area many Iraqis call the "Triangle of Death" because of the level of insurgent violence. Scores of Iraqis, especially Shiite Muslims traveling to southern Iraq, have been killed in the region, and U.S. military officials said Abu Musab Zarqawi, the recently slain leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, might have hidden out in the palm-fringed villages.
The Army official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the
investigation is continuing, said the soldiers in the unit were in a
"combat stress debriefing" a week after the kidnapping incident to deal with any psychological issues stemming from it. At the session, the official said, a soldier told his superiors that he had heard of other members in the unit who were involved in the rape of a woman and the killing of 3 others.
The investigation turned up another witness, who said he had heard the same account and added that the soldiers involved were seen with blood on their uniforms.
Military investigators now believe that two soldiers raped the woman and that one of them killed her and 3 other people - 2 adults and a child - in the house.
The incident was initially reported as "insurgent activity," the military source said.
The soldiers have been confined to their base and stripped of their weapons, said the source, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the investigation.
However, the Army official said one of the soldiers had been discharged and was back in the United States, where the military was working with civilian authorities to track him down.
Recent allegations of servicemen killing unarmed Iraqi civilians have led to several investigations by the U.S. military.
After a Time magazine article in March alleged that Marines had killed 24 Iraqi civilians, including 10 women and children, in the western town of Haditha on Nov. 19, the military launched an investigation of the incident and of the possibility that military officials had conspired to cover it up.
The military is also investigating seven Marines and a Navy corpsman in connection with the April 26 slaying of an Iraqi civilian in Hamandiya, west of Baghdad. That case also involves a possible cover-up.
Last week, military officials announced that two soldiers had been charged with voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of an unarmed Ramadi resident Feb. 15. The soldiers are accused of trying to make it appear that the man was an insurgent by placing a rifle next to his body.
In the Mahmoudiya case, investigators are trying to determine whether the bodies were burned to destroy evidence of a crime.
Muayed Fadil, the mayor of Yousifiya, said that investigators called him Thursday to ask about the deaths and that he found it unusual that they were so interested in this particular family.
"They said, 'We want to know their names, where they were living, how they were killed,' " he said. "They asked me, 'Do you know their relatives or the chief of their tribe?' I told them I will work to find out who their relatives are."
He said the investigators did not divulge that U.S. soldiers had been accused in the deaths.
The military source acknowledged that it was unusual for such a small contingent of soldiers to be operating alone in Iraq. Generally, U.S. troops travel in convoys. The lack of manpower south of Baghdad is a chronic problem and may have led commanders to stretch their forces thin, the source said.
"I don't want to speculate on what the commander down there was thinking, but I don't know why he had his troops arrayed that way," the source said.
"I do know there's a lack of manpower down there."
An investigation of the deaths of the three American soldiers last month seeks to determine why they were alone at their observation post outside the base. The source said lack of manpower might have been a factor in that case as well.
Violence continued to flare in the country Friday. The worst involved a battle between Shiites and Sunni Arabs in a village northeast of Baghdad stemming from a bombing this week that killed at least 25 people.
As Iraqi police officers attempted to break up the conflict, snipers
killed the head of the police force and two of his bodyguards. American and Iraqi troops then entered the battle, killing 3 fighters and wounding 3.
The Sunnis were attacked while they were moving out of the village of Daliqiya after being threatened by Shiite residents in the religiously mixed hamlet, officials said.
A U.S. Marine was killed Wednesday during combat operations in Al Anbar province, officials said.
2 soldiers were killed and 1 was wounded while on patrol Thursday near Baghdad and Balad. The names of the casualties were not released, pending notification of relatives.
(source: Los Angeles Times)
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 4, 2006 23:10:07 GMT -5
Former U.S. Soldier Charged in Iraq Rape and Killings
A recently discharged Army private appeared in federal court Monday on charges that he raped and murdered an Iraqi woman after rounding up and killing 3 members of her family as part of a planned assault in the central Iraqi town of Mahmoudiya.
Steven D. Green, 21, was arrested Friday in Marion, N.C., after a 4-day nationwide manhunt. Army investigators recently were told by soldiers in Iraq that Green, accompanied by 3 other soldiers, had committed the rape and slayings in March while another stayed at their guard post to monitor the radio.
If found guilty of murder, Green could be sentenced to death.
According to the FBI, Green was honorably discharged from the Army and returned to the U.S. before the Mahmoudiya allegations came to light. An affidavit submitted by FBI Special Agent Gregor J. Ahlers in Kentucky said military personnel files showed that a "personality disorder" led to the discharge, which apparently was approved at least 2 months ago.
Green's is the first case of alleged wrongdoing by American service members in Iraq to go through the U.S. civilian legal process. Ahlers' 6-page affidavit - submitted Friday in support of a request for an arrest warrant - is one of the most detailed public accountings of abuse accusations from the Iraq war.
More than 30 soldiers have been implicated in the wrongful deaths of Iraqi civilians. Those incidents include the November deaths of 24 men, women and children in the western town of Haditha and the May killings of 3 detainees in a province north of Baghdad. Last week, the U.S. military said it had charged 2 soldiers in the February shooting death of an unarmed Ramadi resident.
The killings have fanned unease between Iraqi officials and the U.S. military, and the incident in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, is considered likely to further aggravate tensions because of its violent, sexual nature.
Ahlers said his information came largely from Army investigators, who interviewed at least 3 of the 5 soldiers allegedly involved in the Mahmoudiya incident. An Army official said that besides Green, none of the soldiers had been charged or detained but were under close supervision in Iraq.
Green and the other soldiers came from the 502nd Infantry Regiment, which is attached to the 4th Infantry Division.
In Ahlers' affidavit, 2 of the soldiers described themselves as mainly standing watch outside the civilians' house while Green and another soldier - identified as Known Participant 1 - allegedly raped the woman. The 3rd soldier interviewed said he was told to stay behind and monitor the radio while the others went to the woman's house. All 3 have submitted sworn statements.
According to their accounts, Green and the other soldier were drinking alcohol - a prohibited activity for U.S. troops in Iraq - while manning a checkpoint on the night of March 11. They started talking about having sex with the woman, whom they had seen during a visit to her house. The house was about 650 feet from the checkpoint, one soldier told investigators.
After the decision was made to rape the woman, according to the FBI affidavit, 3 of the soldiers changed out of their uniforms and into dark clothes. One soldier told investigators that Green covered his face with a brown T-shirt. One of the soldiers told investigators he changed clothes so he "wouldn't be seen."
The affidavit said that 4 of the soldiers then grabbed 3 rifles and a shotgun and headed to the house. The 5th soldier was said to have stayed behind at the checkpoint.
According to the accounts of the 2 who stood guard, Green went into a back bedroom, closed the door and shot 3 family members. An Army official said the 3 were believed to be the woman's mother, father and sister, approximately age 5. "Green came to the bedroom door and told everyone: 'I just killed them, all are dead,' " the FBI affidavit said.
Around the same time, the soldier identified as Known Participant 1 grabbed the woman - believed to have been about 20 - and threw her on the floor, the affidavit said. The two soldiers acting as guards told investigators that Green and the other soldier raped the woman before Green picked up an AK-47 assault rifle he had found at the house and killed her.
"After the rape, [1 guard] witnessed Green shoot the woman in the head 2 to 3 times," the affidavit said.
One of the soldiers who stood watch said Green later told him to dispose of the AK-47 in a canal across the street from the checkpoint. All 4 soldiers, who returned to the checkpoint with bloody clothes, burned what they were wearing, according to the soldier who said he monitored the radio during the attack.
The incident was brought to the attention of U.S. forces the next day, when Iraqis told soldiers at the checkpoint that four members of their family had been killed and the house had been set on fire.
The incident did not raise suspicions at the time because it was believed to have been the work of insurgents.
Army investigators took at least 15 photos of the scene, the FBI affidavit said, which show three dead Iraqis, including the young girl, with bullet wounds. Other photos show the burned body of what appears to be a woman with blankets thrown over her upper torso.
The possible involvement of U.S. personnel came to light two weeks ago, when a soldier in the 502nd Infantry Regiment came forward with rumors of the March incident during a "combat stress debriefing" concerning the capture and slayings of two soldiers from the same unit by Iraqi insurgents.
Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore., were killed in that incident, and their remains were found June 19. Spc. David J. Babineau of Springfield, Mass., was killed at the site of the kidnapping.
Green appeared in a Charlotte, N.C., courtroom Monday, where he was charged with 4 counts of unlawful killing and 1 count of a forced sexual act. Cecilia Oseguera, a public defender who represented Green, declined to comment.
A warrant for his arrest was issued Friday by a magistrate judge in U.S. District Court in the western district of Kentucky; the 101st Airborne Division, which the 502nd Infantry is normally part of, is based at Ft. Campbell, Ky.
Marisa Ford, chief criminal prosecutor in the U.S. attorney's office in western Kentucky, said Green had the right to a procedural hearing in Charlotte before being transported to Kentucky.
At that hearing, scheduled for July 10, prosecutors must show they have enough evidence to support an arrest. Until then, Green will held in Charlotte without bail.
Ford said prosecutors were expected to move forward to seek Green's indictment within a month.
An Army official said Green's case could move to the military criminal justice system, but civilian prosecutors were considered likely to resist such a move.
The Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, passed in 2000, allows for the civilian prosecution of crimes committed abroad by American service members.
(source: Los Angeles Times)
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 6, 2006 23:34:56 GMT -5
high-stress area
Steven D. Green, 21, charged with rape and murder in a crime that has strained the U.S. military's relations with the Iraqi people, could get the death penalty if convicted.
Green grew up in Midland, Texas, where he dropped out after 10th grade. He later got a high school equivalency diploma and enlisted in the Army in early 2005.
Green, who went to Iraq in September 2005 as an infantry soldier, was sent to patrol an area southwest of Baghdad known for its frequent roadside bombings. Military officials say more than 40% of the nearly 1,000 soldiers in the region have been treated for mental or emotional anxiety.
He was discharged May 16 for what military officials in Iraq told the Associated Press was an "anti-social personality disorder." The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
Under Army regulations, a soldier can be discharged only if a personality disorder "is so severe that the soldier's ability to function effectively in the military environment is significantly impaired." The diagnosis must be made by a psychiatrist or doctoral-level clinical psychologist who is authorized to conduct mental health evaluations for the military.
Loren Thompson, a military analyst at the Washington-based Lexington Institute, said it's standard practice to discharge soldiers whose profiles suggest they're incapable of maintaining military discipline.
"Despite all the stories about the military having trouble recruiting, it is considered anathema to retain somebody like that," said Thompson.
(source: Associated Press)
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 8, 2006 1:20:19 GMT -5
A former Army private who allegedly raped an Iraqi woman and killed her and 3 members of her family entered pleas of not guilty to the charges yesterday in a federal courtroom in Kentucky.
U.S. marshals transferred Steven D. Green, 21, of Texas, from Charlotte to a courthouse in Louisville, where he made an initial appearance on one charge of rape and four charges of murder, federal prosecutors said. Patrick Bouldin, a federal public defender representing Green, said last night that Green entered not guilty pleas to all charges. Bouldin declined to comment further.
Prosecutors sought to move Green from North Carolina to Kentucky, because that is where his former unit -- B Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment -- is based with the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell. FBI agents arrested Green on Friday at his grandmother's home near Asheville, N.C., after he had returned from the funeral of a platoon member at Arlington National Cemetery.
Green left the Army on May 16 after he was sent home from Iraq because of an unspecified "personality disorder." His departure from the service came more than two months after he allegedly planned and carried out an attack on a family in the village of Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad.
Federal authorities have alleged that Green and other soldiers went to the family's house intending to rape a young woman they had seen previously. Green allegedly killed the woman's mother, father and younger sister in a bedroom before he and another soldier raped the woman and then killed her, according to court documents.
Green, originally of Midland, Tex., had served 11 months in the Army before his discharge. Army officials said he was honorably discharged before they learned of the alleged attack.
Marisa Ford, chief of the criminal division in the U.S. attorney's office in the Western District of Kentucky, said that prosecutors are going to present the charges against Green to a grand jury over the next month, and that an arraignment has been set for Aug. 8 in Paducah, Ky. Federal prosecutors have the case because Green is no longer in the Army. The 4 other soldiers allegedly involved in the attack have not been identified or charged.
(source: Washington Post)
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 12, 2006 3:23:31 GMT -5
Death is the maximum punishment officials say they could seek in the case of the U-S soldiers accused in the rape of an Iraqi woman and the killings of the woman and 3 relatives.
5 active duty troops are now accused. Four are facing rape and murder charges, while the other is accused of not reporting the attack. He is not accused of being a direct participant. All will face the military equivalent of a grand jury.
A sixth man, a former soldier, was earlier arrested in North Carolina, and has pleaded not guilty to rape and murder. The alleged crimes took place in March.
Major General William Caldwell, a military spokesman, stresses that the legal process is just getting under way. Caldwell says all are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
(source: Associated Press)
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 22, 2006 7:31:24 GMT -5
Soldiers Plan to Argue Rape Tied to Distress
Iraq Checkpoint Among 'Most Stressful'
Attorneys for Army soldiers accused of raping an Iraqi teenager and killing her and her family in March are planning to argue that the men were under extreme emotional distress because of the horrors of their combat assignment and will probably challenge the alleged confessions some of the soldiers gave to investigators in Iraq.
David Sheldon, a civilian lawyer who is representing Spec. James P. Barker, said yesterday that B Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment was devastated by numerous combat casualties and repeated violent attacks in and around Mahmudiyah before and after a group of soldiers allegedly attacked the Iraqi family March 12. Sheldon said the men were
placed at a traffic checkpoint "in one of the most stressful environments imaginable" and that commanders failed to recognize the damage that was being done to the soldiers.
Barker is 1 of 5 soldiers who have been charged with raping and killing Abier Kassim Hamzah Rashid al Janabi -- listed in new court documents as being under 15 years old -- and also killing her parents and her younger sister.
In federal court documents filed in the case against Steven D. Green, 21, a former Army private who allegedly led the attack, government officials said the men planned the crime. In military charge sheets obtained by The Washington Post, officials say the men also burned their clothes after the attack and one disposed of the alleged murder weapon in a canal.
"While the government wants to say that this was somehow a planned event, it's clearly the result of a tremendously stressful environment where soldiers are subjected to the most horrendous acts of violence by the insurgency," Sheldon said, describing a unit that was in disarray, with leadership problems and outside threats. "They were extremely young soldiers who suffered repeated traumatic attacks and saw unimaginable
carnage. This was not a crime of opportunity but the result of extreme pressure."
Another lawyer familiar with the case said that Sheldon's argument is consistent with what he had heard.
Barker, 23, was serving at the checkpoint with Green, Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, Pfc. Bryan Howard and Sgt. Paul Cortez. According to the charging documents, Barker, Green, Spielman and Cortez drank alcohol together before going to a house near their checkpoint. Sources said Howard stayed behind to man a radio.
Sheldon said the men had served at the checkpoint -- one of the most dangerous jobs on the ground in Iraq -- for far longer than Army procedures allow. While there is supposed to be a limit of just a few days on such a post, this squad had been doing the job for nearly a month, another lawyer said.
"This unit suffered tremendous casualties," Sheldon said. "Due to
continuous insurgency action, Specialist Barker, along with his fellow soldiers, lost a number of close friends in his company as well as an Iraqi with whom he was very close friends. . . . The fact is, and it is undeniable, that Specialist Barker and the soldiers he served with were under tremendous battlefield stress."
While such stress has become a major issue in the war in Iraq, largely because of the unpredictable and violent attacks, a case like the one in Mahmudiyah is still a rarity.
Sheldon said he believes Green led the other soldiers to the house without telling them what he planned to do, and some of those soldiers have since pointed to Green as the only one who fired a gun in the house. Green was later discharged from the Army for an unspecified "personality disorder" before officials knew of the attack.
Still, Army officials allege Green and others raped the girl, and in the charge sheets allege that Spielman "wrongfully" touched the corpse.
Patrick Bouldin, a federal public defender who represents Green in
Kentucky, said yesterday that he has filed a request for a gag order in the case and declined to comment. Yesterday, prosecutors, citing logistical concerns, asked for an extension of a grand jury for Green's case and a judge agreed to delay it until Nov. 8.
Article 32 hearings -- the military equivalent of grand jury hearings -- for Barker and others who remain in Iraq are scheduled for Aug. 6 in Baghdad.
(source: Washington Post)
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 23, 2006 20:13:24 GMT -5
Accused soldiers say they were ordered to kill
4 U.S. soldiers accused of murdering suspected insurgents during a raid in Iraq said they were under orders to "kill all military age males," according to sworn statements obtained by The Associated Press.
The soldiers first took some of the men into custody because they were using 2 women and a toddler as human shields. They shot 3 of the men after the women and child were safe and say the men attacked them.
"The ROE (rule of engagement) was to kill all military age males on Objective Murray," Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard told investigators, referring to the target by its code name.
That target, an island on a canal in the northern Salahuddin province, was believed to be an al-Qaida training camp. The soldiers said officers in their chain of command gave them the order and explained that special forces had tried before to target the island and had come under fire from insurgents.
Girouard, Spc. William B. Hunsaker, Pfc. Corey R. Clagett, and Spc. Juston R. Graber are charged with murder and other offenses in the shooting deaths of 3 of the men during the May 9 raid.
Girouard, Hunsaker and Clagett are also charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly threatening to kill another soldier if he told authorities what happened.
In sworn statements obtained this week by the AP, Girouard, Hunsaker, Clagett, and a witness, Sgt. Leonel Lemus, told Army investigators they were ordered to attack an island in northern Salahuddin province on May 9 and kill anti-Iraqi fighters with ties to al-Qaida.
All 4 soldiers charged are members of the Fort Campbell, Ky.-based 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. They have been jailed in Kuwait since their June arrests. Their 1st hearing is Aug. 1 near Tikrit, Iraq.
Michael Waddington, Hunsaker's civilian lawyer, said his client followed orders and killed the detainees in self-defense after he and Clagett were attacked.
"They did (their job) honorably, they did it admirably," said Paul
Bergrin, Clagett's civilian attorney. "If they did want to kill these men, they could have and been within the rules of engagement."
Officers from their unit initially cleared the soldiers of wrongdoing.
Charges were filed when witnesses changed their testimony after repeated interviews with Army investigators, Bergrin said.
Reached by e-mail in Iraq, Girouard's Army lawyer, Capt. Theodore Miller, declined to comment because the investigation was continuing.
An Army prosecutor, also deployed to Iraq, did not respond to an e-mail request for comment.
Army spokesman Sheldon Smith asked that a request for comment be e-mailed to him in Virginia. He did not immediately respond.
Military officials have released few details of the case.
But statements from Girouard, Hunsaker and Clagett describe a tense early morning scene, with soldiers immediately opening fire on buildings.
Girouard told investigators he expected he and his comrades would immediately be attacked when they landed on the island. Intelligence officials had warned that at least 20 al-Qaida operatives were hiding there.
But it was only once the men moved to the northern half of the island that they found anyone, Girouard said. He said he and others shot and killed a man they spied in a window in one building and then rushed into a house where they found 3 other men hiding behind 2 women.
A 5th man, holding a 2-year-old girl in front of him, later came out of another building, Girouard and Hunsaker told investigators.
Girouard said the four surviving men were not immediately killed because of the human shields. Once the women and child were moved to safety, he told investigators, the men did not appear to pose a threat and the soldiers took them into custody.
But Hunsaker said 3 of the men then attacked him and Clagett as the soldiers were trying to bind the men's hands with heavy-duty plastic ties.
"I had felt this action necessary for they had tried to use deadly force on me and my comrade," Hunsaker wrote about the shooting.
Hunsaker told investigators he was stabbed. Clagett said he was "struck on the face with a fist or something."
Lemus, who only saw the men fall to the ground, told investigators he thought the killings were justified.
"Proper escalation of force was used when the detainee became hostile and armed himself with a weapon and wounded one soldier and struck another," Lemus said. "Our actions ... were in accordance to the ROE (rule of engagement) briefed to us prior to our mission and moments before our air assault was conducted."
Girouard said he did not see the shooting either but was immediately told what happened.
"I think they are telling the truth," Girouard's statement said. "If it
would have happened another way they would have told me and the story has been the same the whole time."
Clagett and Hunsaker also told investigators they found AK-47 assault rifles, ammunition and gun parts after the men were killed.
Bergrin said the weapons and other evidence not mentioned in the statements were proof that the Iraqi men were a threat.
Several other service members face similar charges in unrelated cases involving the deaths of civilians in Iraq.
According to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the maximum penalty for murder is death, but it was unclear if the government will seek the death penalty in any of the pending cases.
(source: Houston Chronicle)
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 26, 2006 6:20:17 GMT -5
Charged soldiers cite order to killMen are accused of murdering 3 suspected insurgents in Iraq raid Associated Press EL PASO, Texas -- Four U.S. soldiers accused of murdering suspected insurgents during a raid in Iraq said they were under orders to "kill all military-age males," according to sworn statements obtained by the Associated Press. The soldiers first took some of the men into custody because they were using two women and a toddler as human shields. They shot three of the men after the women and child were safe and say the men attacked them. "The ROE [rule of engagement] was to kill all military age males on Objective Murray," Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard told investigators, referring to the target by its code name. That target, an island on a canal in the northern Salahuddin province, was believed to be an al-Qaida training camp. The soldiers said officers in their chain of command gave them the order and explained that special forces had tried before to target the island and had come under fire from insurgents. Girouard, Spc. William B. Hunsaker, Pfc. Corey R. Clagett and Spc. Juston R. Graber are charged with murder and other offenses in the shooting deaths of three of the men during the May 9 raid. Girouard, Hunsaker and Clagett are also charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly threatening to kill another soldier if he told authorities what happened. In sworn statements obtained this week by the AP, Girouard, Hunsaker, Clagett and a witness, Sgt. Leonel Lemus, told Army investigators that they were ordered to attack an island in northern Salahuddin province May 9 and kill anti-Iraqi fighters with ties to al-Qaida. All four soldiers charged are members of the Fort Campbell, Ky.-based 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. They have been jailed in Kuwait since their June arrests. Their first hearing is Aug. 1 near Tikrit, Iraq. Michael Waddington, Hunsaker's civilian lawyer, said his client followed orders and killed the detainees in self-defense after he and Clagett were attacked. "They did [their job] honorably, they did it admirably," said Paul Bergrin, Clagett's civilian attorney. "If they did want to kill these men, they could have and been within the rules of engagement." Officers from their unit initially cleared the soldiers of wrongdoing. Charges were filed when witnesses changed their testimony after repeated interviews with Army investigators, Bergrin said. Reached by e-mail in Iraq, Girouard's Army lawyer, Capt. Theodore Miller, declined to comment because the investigation was continuing. An Army prosecutor, also deployed to Iraq, did not respond to an e-mail request for comment. Army spokesman Sheldon Smith asked that a request for comment be e-mailed to him in Virginia. He did not immediately respond. Military officials have released few details of the case. Several other service members face similar charges in unrelated cases involving the deaths of civilians in Iraq. According to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the maximum penalty for murder is death, but it was unclear whether the government would seek the death penalty in any of the pending cases. Source : Associated Press www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/iraq/bal-te.soldiers22jul22,0,6
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