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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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December 14th,
2004 - Two Days in August Haunt Charlie Company |
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Two Days in August Haunt
Charlie Company By Karl Vick Washington Post December 14, 2004 Baghdad - Members of the
U.S. Army's 41st Regiment uncovered an AK-47 during a routine search in the
dangerous Baghdad slum of Sadr City on Aug. 31. Finding a weapon was not
unusual, but Sgt. Michael P. Williams, 25, said he felt danger when he saw a
smirking Iraqi man in the house where the gun was found, according to the
testimony of fellow soldiers. "I feel
threatened," Williams declared, the soldiers recalled. The "Iraqi
went for his weapon." Moments later, Williams shot
the Iraqi man with two bullets to his head and chest, according to testimony
last Friday at a military hearing, known as an Article 32 proceeding,
intended to decide whether Williams would face court-martial in the killing.
Other members of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 41st Regiment, said the
Iraqi did not have a weapon. Williams's hearing, in a
crowded meeting room on a military base in Baghdad, focused on one of a
number of murder cases involving U.S. forces. Such hearings shed light on the
conduct and leadership of American troops, as well as the rules of engagement
they are supposed to abide by in Iraq, where armed conflict has gone on
longer and in more treacherous settings than Pentagon planners initially
anticipated. On Friday, one member of
Williams's unit, Staff Sgt. Johnny M. Horne Jr., sat weeping in an improvised
courtroom not far from the Williams hearing. He pleaded guilty and later was
sentenced to three years in prison for shooting a gravely wounded teenager on
Aug. 18. Two other members of Charlie
Company face murder charges arising from incidents in the warren of narrow
lanes and squalid homes of Sadr City. In addition, at the regiment's
headquarters in Fort Riley, Kan., two members of the 41st face charges of
first-degree murder in the killings of two fellow soldiers. Analysts say such cases
raise important questions. "Any time you have
multiple serious offenses in a single unit you immediately think about the
leadership of that unit," said Gary Solis, a former Marine officer who
teaches the law of war at West Point. "Obviously that doesn't go to the
crimes themselves, but as I say in class all the time, 'Why should you
observe the law of war, lieutenant?' "Because the best-led units
don't commit war crimes.'" The charges against Charlie
Company involved actions taken during two days in August at a particularly
dangerous time for U.S. forces. Three U.S. battalions spent most of the month
retaking the holy city of Najaf, about 90 miles south of Baghdad, from the
Mahdi Army militia of a Shiite cleric, Moqtada Sadr. In eastern Baghdad,
other U.S. forces were grinding down the militia in its urban base,
exchanging fire in Sadr City each night. Most of the victims in Sadr
City are nameless, identified in court papers and testimony as "Iraqi
nationals." Qasim Hassan, the only individual named in testimony, was
identified by a newspaper investigating the circumstances of his death. Hassan was riding in the
back of a garbage truck that was mistakenly identified as an insurgent
vehicle. It was ripped to bits by two Charlie Company units. After the
incident, it was determined that the truck was operated by a businessman and
was assigned to clean the street. Still unidentified are three
other victims: an Iraqi man cut down near the garbage truck while waving what
appeared to be a white flag; the man Williams allegedly shot at point-blank
range; and another unarmed man allegedly killed by a soldier who asked
Williams excitedly, "Can I shoot this one?" By the early morning of Aug.
18, much of Charlie Company had been up for most of four days. Horne, a
sturdily built North Carolina native, was in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle
overlooking an avenue on which U.S. forces were planning to launch an attack. Williams was stationed with
a team on a rooftop nearby, overlooking the same road. Both heard the combat
radio crackle with a report that a dump truck was depositing bombs along the
road. When a dump truck appeared, the order came to fire on it. After a withering barrage, a
man emerged from the truck and ran toward the Americans. Some soldiers on the
rooftop testified that he appeared to be waving something white. Someone
shouted for the man to stop and he obeyed. "He was trying to
inform us that we were shooting a truck full of children," said Pfc.
Gary Romriell. "He was unarmed. I didn't take him as hostile." Moments later, the rooftop
took gunfire from the opposite direction. Another squad member testified that
the color of the tracer rounds indicated the shooting may have been coming
from other U.S. troops. Williams ordered his team to resume firing on the
truck. "What should we do with
this guy?" Spec. Tulafono Young testified that he asked Williams,
referring to the man standing in the street. "Light him up,"
Williams replied, according to Young and others. That order led to one of the
three murder charges Williams faces. "Mister, no more, no
more," implored another passenger of the truck who was unscathed. "My gut instinct was ...
the wrong vehicle got shot," Horne, who described having a sinking
feeling as he approached the truck, said during un-sworn testimony to a
sentencing panel. He saw "a bunch"
of Iraqis on the ground, two of whom were dead. He pulled one young survivor
from the burning truck, then reached into the flames toward a teenager still
breathing despite wounds so horrible his insides spilled out as Horne turned
him over, he said. The Los Angeles Times identified him as Hassan, 16. "There was nothing I
could do for him," Horne said. Minutes later, as fellow
soldiers tended to less seriously wounded civilians, Staff Sgt. Cardenas
Alban of Carson, Calif., shot Hassan, according to testimony. Horne
acknowledged he fired a moment later. The boy's rattled breathing stopped.
Alban is awaiting a hearing on a murder charge. Horne, whom an Army
investigator praised as candid and forthcoming, was sentenced to three years
in prison on Friday. Other charges grew out of
shootings on Aug. 31, as Williams's squad was conducting routine searches of
houses elsewhere in Sadr City. Under a law in effect since
the U.S. occupation began, each Iraqi household is permitted one weapon. But
in answer to questions by prosecutors, Young testified that Williams spoke of
plans to kill any Iraqi found with a weapon. A prosecutor said Williams had
spoken of killing any Iraqi males of military age. Williams, who could face
the death penalty if the case proceeds to court-martial, has not testified. During the search when
Williams described sensing danger, Spec. Allen Crandall, a friend of Williams
who testified under a grant of immunity, said he cut the plastic handcuffs
off the smirking man, then left the room, although he sensed the shooting was
imminent. Spec. Joshua R. Sickels testified that Williams reported the man's
"eyes bugged out" after he had shot him a third time. After that, the soldiers
became concerned when a weapon was discovered at another house. "I
figured something like that is going to happen again," Young testified. Young said he waited outside
that house as Williams took custody of another man and summoned Spec. Brent
W. May, a young soldier who allegedly spoke of wanting to kill someone. "Can I shoot this
one?" May asked Williams, according to two soldiers, who also heard the
gunshots that followed. An Army investigator said May took a digital photo of
the corpse, labeled "evidence" in his personal computer. Soldiers said May bragged of
the killing afterward. "May looked like he was excited that he got to
shoot somebody," Young testified. The shootings in Sadr City
emerged when squad member Romriell, after a "crisis of conscience,"
slipped a note under the door of a commanding officer warning that
"soldiers had committed serious crimes that needed to be looked
at." An Army investigator
described Romriell as the black sheep of his squad in part because he opposed
the war in Iraq. The private has since been transferred to another unit for his
safety. Young testified that
Williams had said, "The first chance he gets, 'I'm going to kill
Romriell.'" External link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62102-2004Dec13 |