|
The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
|
March 8th,
2007 - Tennessee Town Backs GI in Iraqi Murder Case |
|
Tennessee Town Backs GI in
Iraqi Murder Case By Audie Cornish NPR News March 8, 2007 Next week, when Staff Sgt.
Raymond Girouard faces court-martial on charges of killing three Iraqi
detainees, he'll have the financial and moral support of Sweetwater, Tenn. Three other soldiers have
struck plea deals. But Girouard says that he and his fellow soldiers were
following orders. And folks in his hometown, population 6,000, believe him.
They have raised money to hire a civilian attorney to defend him. Girouard's court-martial
will begin Monday. Now 24, Girouard grew up
attending the First Assembly of God church. The drum set in the Praise and
Worship band is the same one he played as a teenager. Church worshipers have
offered their prayers and support. And in just two months, people like George
McBride have helped raised more than $20,000 for Girouard's defense. "We know him and we
want to support him," McBride says. "We want him to get a fair
trial. We want him to be well represented. And we want the truth to be
known." What is known is that on May
9, Girouard's unit captured three Iraqi men during a raid northwest of
Baghdad. The Iraqis were alive when the unit radioed in for pickup. But by the time the
helicopter arrived, the detainees were dead. Initially, the soldiers claimed
they shot the unarmed men because they were trying to escape. But over the
past few months, three of the accused soldiers admitted they deliberately
released the detainees and shot them. They now claim that Staff
Sgt. Girouard gave them the order to do it. Girouard's attorneys say he never
gave an order to kill the men. Girouard's attorneys claim
the soldiers had rules of engagement from their commanding officer directing
them to kill all military-aged men. The officer in question is Col. Michael
Steele, famous for the so-called "Black Hawk Down" incident in
Somalia. But Steele has denied
stating any such rules of engagement, and a judge says he doesn't have to
testify at Girouard's court-martial. Meanwhile, the convicted
soldiers are expected to take the stand to say that Girouard led the planning
and cover-up of the killings. "It's a very heavy
burden that the accused has, when he or she says, 'I was only following
orders,'" says Gary Solis, a military law professor at both Georgetown
and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. "Can you demonstrate
that you received an order?" Solis asks. "If it was an unlawful
order that you didn't realize - and should not be expected to realize it was
an unlawful order? That's asking a lot." Solis says the defense of
obedience to orders is the most frequently raised defense to war-crime
charges, and it's very rarely successful. But that's what attorneys
for Girouard intend to do next week when they question his fellow soldiers
about what they believed their orders were that day in May. His family says Girouard is
eager to face the men and take the stand in his own defense. The most the
convicted soldiers got as part of the plea deal was 18 years in prison. If
convicted, Girouard could face a life sentence. External link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7779882 |