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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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August 2nd, 2006 - Hearing set on
Request for Release of Hamdania Defendants |
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Hearing set on Request for
Release of Hamdania Defendants North County Times By Mark Walker - Staff Writer Wednesday, August 2, 2006 8:55 PM PDT Camp Pendelton - The first
in a series of hearings seeking the release of seven Marines and a Navy
corpsman held in the base brig since May for the alleged killing of an Iraqi
civilian in April is expected to take place Friday. Civilian attorneys for three
of the accused men are seeking their clients' release pending further
proceedings on the basis the men are not flight risks and pose no threats to
others. The attorneys are also
expected to raise questions about why the seven Marines and one Navy corpsman
in the case are in the brig while Marines from another Camp Pendleton unit
under investigation for the killing of 24 other Iraqi civilians in November
are not jailed and are under no form of restriction. "The government's
arguments for why those men are in jail has no validity," attorney
Victor Kelley said Wednesday. "There is not an ounce of truth in the
prosecution's position that they are flight risks or a threat to someone
else." Kelley represents Cpl. Trent
D. Thomas, who is charged with murder, kidnapping, conspiracy and related
offenses in the death of 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad. Authorities allege the men
from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment took Awad from his home then
bound and shot him and staged the scene to make it appear he was planting a
roadside bomb. Marine Corps officials have
said the men are in custody because they may flee due to the seriousness of
the charges they are facing. Charged along with Thomas
are Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, Cpl. Marshall Magincalda, Hospitalman 3rd
Class Melson Bacos, Lance Cpls. Tyler Jackson, Robert Pennington and Jerry
Shumate Jr., and Pfc. John Jodka III. Requests for hearings seeking
the men's release were filed last week. Attorney Jane Siegel, who
represents Jodka, said she would agree to restrictions such as requiring the
men to stay in a barracks or wear an electronic monitoring device to track
their whereabouts. Siegel said that while she
was hopeful, the only formal response she had seen thus far was a
recommendation from Marine prosecutors that the request be denied. "I think it is just
bloody unfair and even more ridiculous for the government to say they are any
more of a flight risk than the guys from the Haditha case," Siegel said. The Haditha case involves a
different group of Camp Pendleton Marines accused of deliberately killing 24
unarmed Iraqi civilians in that city last Nov. 19. None of the Marines from
that squad, Kilo Company of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, has been
jailed or faced with any form of restriction since the allegations arose in a
March Time magazine report. Siegel suggested the
defendants in the Hamdania case are in the brig as a result of timing and not
because of preferential treatment being given the troops facing suspicion in
the Haditha case. "The government didn't
lock up the Haditha guys because it had no idea when the investigation would
be done, and that affected the clock under the speedy trial rule," she
said, referring to the Uniform Code of Military Justice which requires the
government file charges within 120 days of incarcerating a suspect. "If they weren't
confined, there was no effect on the timing of the investigation," she
said. Siegel said she will argue
that the Marine Corps is treating the men in the two cases very differently
and question why one group is incarcerated before charges were brought on
June 21 and why the men in the Haditha case remain free. Kelley said he believes it
also comes down to leadership of the two different regiments. "It seems to me like
the 3/1 commanders are much more circumspect and far more willing to give the
benefit of the doubt to their Marines than are the 3/5 commanders even though
you can argue the Haditha allegations appear much more serious," he
said. Washington attorney Mark S.
Zaid, who represents Sgt. Frank Wuterich in the Haditha case, said he
believes the two incidents are "very, very different." "From Day 1, there was something
thought to be wrong in the Hamdania case," he said in a telephone
interview. "In Haditha, there were months ... and nobody ever raised any
concerns about what happened that day." On Wednesday, Wuterich filed
a libel suit against U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D- Pennsylvania, contending
comments he made were outside the scope of his duties as a federal lawmaker
and unfairly maligned the reputations of all the Marines involved in the
Haditha incident. As attorneys in the Hamdania
case have done, Zaid suggested that the Defense Department may have ulterior
motives in pressing a criminal case in the Haditha killings. "The impact of all
these (accusations) all at once is to implicitly if not explicitly put
pressure on the Pentagon. We are concerned that the Haditha guys will be used
as scapegoats." External link:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/08/03/news/top_stories/8206191752.txt |