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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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March 16th,
2007 - Sergeant Denies Ordering 3 Iraqis Killed |
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Sergeant
Denies Ordering 3 Iraqis Killed The defense tries to paint him as a loyal combat leader who tried to
cover up for two squad members. By David Zucchino Los Angeles Times March 16, 2007 Ft. Campbell, KY. - Speaking
rapidly and gesturing forcefully, Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard told a
military court Thursday that he was shocked when two of his soldiers killed
three Iraqi detainees in May, then decided on the spot to help them cover up
their crime. Girouard contradicted
testimony by two squad members who said he told them during a hastily called
meeting to kill the detainees. He could face life without parole if convicted
of ordering the killings. Asked by his attorney, Anita
Gorecki, whether he ordered the men killed, Girouard replied: "No,
ma'am. No ma'am." "Are you absolutely
positive?" Gorecki asked. "Very positive,"
Girouard said. "For the last nine months, I've thought about it every
night in my cell." Girouard blamed Pvt. William
B. Hunsaker for the killings, saying Hunsaker told him shortly before the
deaths: "We should kill [them]. They're terrorists." Hunsaker and Pfc. Corey R.
Clagett, in plea agreements with the government in return for reduced
sentences, confessed to shooting the Iraqis. They testified that Girouard
ordered the killings and orchestrated a cover-up. Girouard's testimony
essentially amounted to a confession to charges of obstructing justice. The defense strategy focused
on fighting charges of premeditated murder by presenting Girouard as a
professional combat leader so loyal to his men that he would lie to protect
them - even for murder. Girouard, 24, maintained a
rigid military posture in the witness chair. He punctuated his testimony with
military jargon and acronyms easily understood by the five enlisted soldiers
and two officers on the jury. Wearing a green dress
military uniform, he described a fast-moving combat mission that focused on
two houses on a marshy island 60 miles northwest of Baghdad on May 9. In one of those houses, the
squad came across the three unarmed Iraqi men, who soldiers said were hiding
behind two women. Girouard denied calling a
meeting inside the house to plot the murders. Instead, he said, he shouted to
his men to replace thin plastic zip ties on the detainees with stronger
plastic flex cuffs so that they could be taken away for further questioning. He was escorting a fourth
detainee to a helicopter landing zone, he said, when he heard gunshots. Girouard said he was
"pretty smoked up" when he realized his men had shot the detainees.
He said Hunsaker told him he fired in self-defense after the Iraqis attacked
him with a knife and broke free from their restraints. But a small cut on
Hunsaker's face "didn't look believable," Girouard said, and he
concluded Hunsaker was lying. He decided under "split-decision
thinking" to help Hunsaker perpetuate a cover-up story, he said. "I wanted to help him
be believable," he said. "He screwed up real bad. I was looking out
for the well-being of my soldiers." Girouard said he punched
Clagett in the face "out of sheer anger" for killing the detainees.
He said he shouted at Clagett: "You deserved it, you idiot!" Although Girouard denied
ordering the detainees killed, he said the rules of engagement given to him
by his commanders were "to kill every military-age male" on the
island. Asked by one of the seven
military jurors what he was told to expect on the island, Girouard replied:
"An Al Qaeda training camp of 20 known terrorists, sir." He told his attorney that
the sudden, violent deaths of the detainees scared him. He added: "I was
just shocked that it happened." Under cross-examination,
Girouard admitted that he lied to investigators and made a pact with Hunsaker
and Clagett to portray the killings as self-defense. Asked by a military
prosecutor, Capt. William Fischbach, whether his statements were
"bogus," "hogwash" and "lies," Girouard replied
softly, "Yes, sir." Asked how many lies he had told
in the case, Girouard answered, "The only lie, sir, was the
cover-up." Asked why the jury should
believe him, Girouard replied, "I'm telling the truth, sir." Girouard told Fischbach that
he kept an AK-47 assault rifle in his Humvee to train his soldiers on
foreign-made weapons. But a prosecution rebuttal
witness, Sgt. Leonel Lemus, said Girouard told him he kept the rifle as a
"drop weapon" to be planted at a potential crime scene in case one
of his men killed an Iraqi noncombatant. He said Girouard never used the
weapon for training. Asked by Fischbach whether
he had legal justification to cut Hunsaker, Girouard replied: "I had no
right to cut him, sir. But I did it to look out for him, so he would not get
into trouble." "So your loyalty to
your men trumps the law?" Fischbach asked. Girouard did not answer. External link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-soldier16mar16,1,4264842,full.story |