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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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July 6th,
2007 - Navy Probes Marines in Captives’ Deaths News article by the Associated
Press 1st news article by North County
Times |
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Navy Probes Marines in
Captives’ Deaths By Thomas Watkins Associated Press July 6, 2007; 11:39 AM San Diego - The Navy is
investigating claims that Camp Pendleton Marines killed between five and 10 unarmed
captives during a fierce battle in Fallujah, Iraq, in November 2004, current
and former Marines told The Associated Press. The criminal probe centers
on the actions of several members of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st
Marines, they told the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not
authorized to discuss the investigation. Different members of the
same unit were later accused of wrongdoing in the killings of 24 civilians in
Haditha in 2005. The investigation was
launched when Ryan Weemer, a former Marine corporal injured while fighting in
Fallujah, applied for a job with the Secret Service, according to an online
report by military author Nathaniel Helms, who interviewed Weemer last year.
When asked during a polygraph test if he had ever participated in a wrongful
death, Weemer described the killings of the suspected insurgents, Helms
wrote. Weemer, 24, originally from
Hindsboro, Ill., could not be reached for comment, but his sister Felicia
Hudson said he was trying to put the event behind him. "He does not like to
talk about it," Hudson said. "He is very proud to be a Marine but
he wants to get past all this and look to the future." The Naval Criminal
Investigative Service has confirmed it is investigating "credible
allegations of wrongdoing made against U.S. Marines" in Fallujah in the
fall of 2004, but NCIS has not described the nature of the allegations. News that investigators were
looking into the actions of Camp Pendleton Marines was first reported by the
North (San Diego) County Times. Helms also posted a story
online this week describing how he met Weemer last year while researching a
book about the ferocious battles to recapture Fallujah from insurgents. He said Weemer, who worked
at Starbucks when he spoke to investigators last year, told him that Marines
killed several suspected insurgents who were being held in an abandoned house
after they were captured in combat around Nov. 10, 2004. The Marines radioed headquarters
for guidance on how to proceed. The group's leader interpreted the response,
"They're still alive?" as an order to kill, Helms said. David Glazier, who teaches
the law of war at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said it is a war crime to
kill captives who do not pose an immediate threat unless they are escaping. "Someone who has been
taken into custody, they become protected under the law of war, no matter how
egregiously they have behaved," Glazier said. "They can only be
shot subject to the sentence of a validly conducted trial." Helms said he warned a
"penitent" Weemer to keep quiet about what he had seen and did not
mention Weemer's account in his book, "My Men Are My Heroes: The Brad
Kasal Story," named after a Marine sergeant who was praised for his
combat actions in Fallujah. After the Secret Service
reported the allegations to the military, NCIS investigators also contacted
Helms, he said. Hudson said her brother, who is now studying psychology in
Kentucky, had not landed a job with the Secret Service. Secret Service spokeswoman
Kim Bruce declined to comment Friday. A defense lawyer and former
Marine captain who fought in Fallujah in December 2004 said the government
would have a near-impossible task if it decided to prosecute the case. "This is a huge rabbit
hole, and I can't see it going anywhere," attorney Brian Rooney said.
"I was in Fallujah, it was nearly destroyed. The house is either gone or
rebuilt completely, the bodies of the alleged victims are gone. Forensically
you have no evidence." Rooney, who represents Lt.
Col. Jeffrey Chessani, one of four officers accused of failing to investigate
the deaths of the 24 civilians in Haditha, said prosecutors would have to
rely on eyewitness testimony to corroborate Weemer's account. With many of
the Marines present at the time of the alleged killings already out of the
Marine Corps, that could prove difficult. Weemer's sister said her
brother told Helms about the killings because he wanted people at home to
understand the difficult conditions Marines faced in Iraq. "His goal was to let
people know what it was like over there, not for it to lead to this,"
she said. Fallujah was the scene of
two Marine battles in 2004, the first of which was launched after insurgents
killed four U.S. contractors there. That battle was aborted in April 2004. In November that year,
Marines led an offensive against insurgent holdouts in the city, a fight that
produced heavy casualties on both sides. Camp Pendleton Marines
already are the focus of two high-profile criminal cases, including the
Haditha deaths, in which three enlisted Marines are charged with murder, and
four officers are charged with failing to investigate the case. The Marines
say they are not guilty because the deaths were the result of a lawful combat
operation. The other case centers on
the actions of a different squad, charged with kidnapping and murdering an
Iraqi man in Hamdania in April 2006. Five of the eight troops charged pleaded
guilty to reduced charges; trials for the remaining three are due to begin
next week. Fallujah, Hamdania and
Haditha are all in Al Anbar province, west of Baghdad. © 2007 The Associated Press External link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/06/AR2007070600683.html Lawyer: Man at center of
slaying allegations did nothing wrong By Mark Walker North County Times July 6, 2007 10:29 PM PDT North County - An Ohio
attorney representing a former Marine who has alleged that members of his
platoon shot and killed eight Iraqi prisoners of war in 2004 declined to
discuss specifics of the incident Friday, but did describe his client as a hero. The attorney, former Marine
Paul Hackett of Cincinnati, said that former Cpl. Ryan Weemer from Camp
Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment did nothing wrong during the
fight for the insurgent-riddled city of Fallujah, where the prisoners were
allegedly killed. "He's an American hero
who demonstrated incredible valor at the request of his country in Iraq while
protecting the lives of his fellow Marines," Hackett said during a
telephone interview. "He did it with honor, without complaint and he
literally shed blood for his country." Weemer, who has refused
requests for interviews, was shot and wounded by insurgents in Fallujah two
days after the alleged POW incident that took place on Nov. 10, 2004. Weemer was linked to an
ongoing investigation of the incident earlier this week when Nat Helms, the
author of a book on the Fallujah battle, said the 24-year-old Kentucky
resident described the shooting during an interview last year. According to Helms, Weemer first
disclosed the alleged slayings during a routine polygraph examination as part
of a job application for the Secret Service, which in turn notified the Naval
Criminal Investigative Service of what Weemer had said. Hackett said Weemer has yet
to speak with agents from the civilian law enforcement agency. He also said
he does not believe any criminal charges will result because of the lack of
forensic evidence or any complaining witnesses. "I don't think it
should be further investigated," said Hackett, who served in Iraq in
2004 and ran an unsuccessful campaign as a Democrat for an Ohio congressional
seat in 2005. Hackett would not speak
about the veracity of the story attributed to Weemer, but spoke at length
about the difficulties and split-second choices that front-line troops are
often forced to make. "There are some
decisions made in battle that are not perfect and are not right," he
said. "But ultimately, I would ask every American who wants to
second-guess the decisions of their young men fighting in Iraq and
Afghanistan if they would rather have their sons come home in a body bag. "There is a textbook
answer for right and wrong that doesn't always translate to the real
world." ‘Credible allegations’ Hackett also said Weemer is
"appropriately concerned" about the story he has told being made
public. Helms' version of the story
was posted on the Web site, www.defendourmarines.com on Monday, three days
after the investigation was first reported in a North County Times story. The newspaper's story was
confirmed Monday by a spokesman for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service
who said that agents had been investigating the matter based upon
"credible allegations of wrongdoing." According to Helms' account
of interviews with Weemer and other Marines who were in Fallujah, the
suspected insurgents were being held in an abandoned house after being
captured during combat. The house was subsequently destroyed by U.S. bombs
after the Iraqis had been shot. About 20 current and former
Marines have been interviewed. Several have been read their rights and some
have hired attorneys, according to sources with knowledge of the
investigation. Lt. Col. Willard A. Buhl,
commander of the battalion at the time of the alleged killings, declined to
comment on the investigation Friday. "I like to let the
justice (system) work itself through procedurally," Buhl told The
Associated Press. Dilemma for Marine Corps Gary Solis, a
Washington-based military law expert who spent more than two decades as a Marine
Corps lawyer, including stints at Camp Pendleton, said the case presents a
dilemma for the Marine Corps. "First of all, there is
no statute of limitations on war crimes or murder, so a prosecution is always
possible," Solis said during a telephone interview. "But the
further away in time from the event, the more difficult a prosecution becomes
because recollections are no longer fresh and you won't have any physical
evidence." Solis, who teaches military
law at Georgetown University and gives lectures around the world on the
subject, said the Marine Corps has two choices to make at the end of the
investigation should there be sufficient reason to believe that a crime was,
in fact, committed. "There apparently is
evidence that it occurred, which calls for a prosecution," he said,
adding that "any prosecutor would know going in that it would be a very
difficult case to prove. "On the other hand, the
Marines could be accused of a cover-up if they don't pursue the case,"
he said. The Fallujah probe is one of
three Iraqi death cases involving Camp Pendleton troops. Eight men from the
3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment were charged in June 2006 with the
abduction and slaying of a retired Iraqi policeman in Hamdania. In December of last year,
eight men from the same battalion involved in the Fallujah probe were charged
with crimes arising from the deaths of 24 civilians in the city of Haditha.
Four officers were charged with dereliction of duty and four enlisted men
were charged with murder. Charges were later dropped against one of the
enlisted men in exchange for his testimony during ongoing court hearings at
Camp Pendleton. The Associated Press
contributed material used in this report. External link: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/07/07/news/top_stories/22_11_287_6_07.txt Author knew of Fallujah POW
allegations for more than a year By Mark Walker North County Times July 6, 2007 10:47 AM PDT North County - The author of
a book about the battle of Fallujah in 2004 said Thursday that he has known
for more than a year about allegations that members of a Camp Pendleton
platoon shot and killed eight Iraqi prisoners of war during the fighting. Longtime military affairs
writer and Vietnam War veteran Nat Helms said during a telephone interview
that he first learned of the incident while conducting interviews for a book
he helped write, "My Men Are Heroes: The Brad Kasal Story." Helms said he chose not to
report the allegations publicly until after the North County Times disclosed
last week that they were the subject of an ongoing Naval Criminal
Investigative Service probe. "I didn't think it
benefited the Marines," Helms said of his decision. Helms, a St. Louis-area
resident who once served as editor of a magazine called DefenseWatch, posted
his account of the alleged incident earlier this week on the Web site,
www.defendourmarines.com. The alleged incident took
place during a concentrated battle in Fallujah, where Marines fought one of
the largest battles of the Iraq war. Kilo Company Platoon members from Camp
Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment had captured a group of
suspected insurgents on Nov. 10, 2004, and asked commanders by radio what
they should do with the men, according to Helms' account. "They're still
alive?" was the response, causing an unnamed platoon leader to interpret
it to mean they were to kill the Iraqis and move on to their next assignment,
according to Helms. Helms said he first learned
about the allegations in early 2006 while interviewing former Marine Cpl.
Ryan Weemer for the book. The story got out a few months later when Weemer
told the Secret Service he was aware of a "wrongful death." Weemer was there the day of
the alleged killings, Helms wrote in a posting to his Web site. "It was
ugly, Weemer said, and never left his mind," Helms wrote. The first disclosure came as
Weemer answered questions during a routine polygraph examination being
conducted as part of his application to join that agency. A short time later, Weemer
was approached by Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents who wanted to
question him, according to Helms. Efforts to reach Weemer were
unsuccessful, but a report in Thursday's Los Angeles Times quoted him as
telling the newspaper in an e-mail that he wanted the matter to "go
away." "Nothing is going to
come of it," Weemer was quoted as writing. "The headlines will get
it twisted anyway." Helms said Weemer was a rifleman
with Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment's Kilo Company at
the time of the incident. According to sources with intimate knowledge of the
case, about 20 current and former Marines have been interviewed, several have
been read their rights and some have hired attorneys. Two attorneys who specialize
in military law said Thursday that even if the allegations are true, proving
the case in court could be difficult. "You would have to
establish that there is enough probable cause and, even if you got to
court-martial, prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt," said Thad
Coakley, a former Marine Corps attorney who was in Iraq when the killings
occurred. "And if you're lacking forensic evidence, pictures or
eyewitnesses, you don't have much of a case." The time that has passed is
another significant challenge, said Coakley, who is now in private practice
in Texas. Witnesses' memories will be fuzzy, and the case could boil down to
one man's word against another's, with little or no tangible evidence. Brian Rooney, another former
Marine attorney who also served in Iraq, also said he thinks that the alleged
incident would present significant challenges for prosecutors if it got that
far. "The bodies are gone
and there will never be any forensic evidence," he said. "From a
prosecutor's standpoint, I think it would be impossible to prove." Rooney is part of a defense
team defending an officer in the unrelated case of seven men from Camp
Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment charged with wrongdoing
arising out of the deaths of 24 Iraqis in Haditha in November 2005. In addition to the newly
disclosed Fallujah investigation and the ongoing prosecution of the Haditha
incident that took place a year later, a third group of Camp Pendleton Marines
from the 3rd Battalion is also involved in an Iraqi death case arising from
an April 2006 incident. In that case, eight men were
charged with abducting and killing a retired Iraqi policeman in the village
of Hamdania. Five men reached plea deals and were sentenced to jail terms
ranging from 12 months to eight years. Three remaining defendants
face trial this summer. The first to reach court is Cpl. Trent Thomas, whose
court-martial on charges of premeditated murder and related offenses is
scheduled to start Monday morning. External link: http://nctimes.com/articles/2007/07/06/news/top_stories/21_02_107_5_07.txt |