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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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October 13th, 2006 - Marine Trial
Set in Death of Iraqi Grandfather |
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Marine Trial Set in Death of
Iraqi Grandfather Reuters Sat 13 Oct 2006 Camp Pendleton, Calif. - A
Marine allegedly involved in the April death of an Iraqi man will face a premeditated
murder charge during a general court-martial trial starting on Feb. 12,
military officials said on Friday. Lance Cpl. Jerry Shumate,
21, of Matlock, Washington, is one of eight U.S. servicemen charged in the
case that includes allegations of conspiracy, kidnapping, assault,
housebreaking and larceny in the April 25 death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad. At his arraignment at Camp
Pendleton near San Diego on Friday, Shumate reserved his plea for another
date. At the hearing, the military
judge, Marine Lt. Col. Jeffrey Meeks, denied a defense motion to release
Shumate from a military prison, saying "my concern in this particular
case is flight." The Marines are accused of
trying to cover up the crime by placing an assault rifle and a shovel next to
the body and then reporting that he was shot while planting a roadside bomb. Last week, a U.S. medic who
helped kidnap the Iraqi grandfather agreed to a plea deal under which he will
serve a year in prison rather than 10 years set by a military judge. As part
of the deal, Petty Officer Melson Bacos said he would testify against others
involved in the incident. Bacos has testified that
patrol leader Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III's anger at the release of a
suspected "terrorist" from Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison prompted the
murder of the man's neighbor. The Iraqi's death was one of
a series of incidents in which the conduct of American troops in Iraq has
hurt the country's image abroad. Other Camp Pendleton-based Marines are under
investigation in a separate incident in November 2005 in which 24 civilians
were killed in the Iraqi town of Haditha. Shumate is also charged in
an April 10 assault of another Iraqi man, Khalid Hamad Daham, who was punched
and kicked in his home while the man's family was in an adjacent room. The
alleged attack was spurred by their belief that the man had made disparaging
comments about U.S. Marines while he was detained at Abu Ghraib prison. At Friday's hearing,
Shumate's mother, Diann, took the stand and spoke about the family's life and
upbringing in the small town of Matlock, Washington, where local store owners
hang banners supporting the Marine. Her son played football for
his four years of high school, quarterbacking the team in his junior and
senior years, working odd jobs and volunteering as a youth counselor, she
said. At her behest, he put off enlisting in the military until he was 19. External link:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N13236107.htm Marine
Corporal Faces February Trial in Death of Iraqi Man By Rick Rogers San Diego Union-Tribune 4:17 p.m. October 13, 2006 The
timing was determined Friday during his arraignment at Camp Pendleton.
Shumate is the third of seven Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine
Regiment to receive a trial date in the case. The
Marines and a sole sailor were charged in June with kidnapping Hashim Ibrahim
Awad on April 26 in the town of Hamdaniya, and then killing him. They're also
accused of planting a shovel and rifle on Awad's bullet-riddled body to make
the killing appear justified as a firefight with an insurgent. The
sailor, Petty Officer 3rd Class Melson Bacos, last week agreed to testify
against the Marines in exchange for a lenient prison sentence. Friday,
military judge Lt. Col. Jeffrey Meeksset Feb. 12 as the start date for
Shumate's court-martial after the defendant reserved his plea. The
arraignment differed from the earlier ones in the Hamdaniya case because
Shumate's attorney, Steve Immel,argued to have his client released from
pretrial confinement at the Camp Pendleton brig. In
late May, Col. Robert Hansonordered that all eight Hamdaniya suspects be
jailed to keep them from fleeing or trying to manipulate evidence. Immel
Friday countered that Shumate, a popular student at Mary M. Knight High
School near the Olympic Peninsula in western Washington, was not a flight
risk because of his upbringing and integrity. “If
he wanted to flee he could have,” Immel told Meeks. “He is a young Marine who
follows orders. You have a very young man from a very small town with a very
clean record.” Besides
bidding for Shumate's release, Immel seemed bent on humanizing Shumate, whose
character and those of the other accused were maligned as government evidence
leaked out during previous hearings. Shumate's
mother, Diann, described her son as a “very adventurous” person who “loved
sports.” She talked about his giving nature as a counselor for American
Indian children near his hometown of Matlock, Wash., where he was a standout
quarterback. “He'd
rather play football than go to a dance. He wasn't a studious student, but he
wasn't any trouble either,” said the slightly built Diann Shumate, a mother
of five. While
she described the family's financial challenges, Shumate rubbed his thumbs
together rapidly. “We
are usually behind on bills every month,” she said. “We are usually trying to
catch up.” After
deliberating for about an hour, Meeks ruled that Shumate should remain
jailed. “My
concern is flight,” Meeks said. He said he worried that Shumate would “follow
others where he would not go on his own.” At
a hearing earlier this year, Naval Criminal Investigative Service's special
agents said Shumate gave statements about the Awad killing on two occasions
in May. The
most damaging testimony came from special agent Kelly Garbo. Garbo
said that during a two-hour interrogation session on May 11 in Iraq that
Shumate broke down and signed a statement after she confronted him with
information provided by fellow Marines in his unit. Garbo
recalled that Shumate snatched a piece of paper and wrote a statement on one
side. The contents of that alleged statements have not been made public. External link: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20061013-1617-bn14shumate.html |