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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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July 14th,
2007 - Slain Iraqi No Innocent, Lawyers Say |
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Slain Iraqi No Innocent, Lawyers
Say By Rick Rogers San Diego Union-Tribune July 14, 2007 Camp Pendleton – The Iraqi
man whom Marine Cpl. Trent Thomas helped to kidnap and kill was hardly the
innocent victim that prosecutors have described, Thomas' attorneys said
yesterday. Marine investigators didn't
even get the man's name right, Thomas' defense team said during the fifth day
of his court-martial at Camp Pendleton. “We believe the person
killed was extremely likely to be an insurgent,” attorney Melissa Epstein
told the military judge, Lt. Col. David M. Jones. “At a minimum, this would
be tremendous at sentencing” if Thomas is convicted. For months, prosecutors have
said Thomas and seven other Camp Pendleton servicemen executed Hashim Ibrahim
Awad. But now, they have taken Awad's name off the charge sheet for Thomas
and replaced it with “an unknown Iraqi.” The lead prosecutor, Lt.
Col. John Baker, said he has DNA and other evidence proving that Awad was the
person killed. Jones hasn't ruled on which
version of events can be admitted as evidence. Thomas has acknowledged that
he helped snatch and shoot the Iraqi man April 26, 2006. But he said Sgt.
Lawrence Hutchins, the leader of his platoon, gave him legitimate orders to
do so. Likewise, defense attorneys
contend that the shooting stemmed from poor leadership in Thomas' unit. They
also said Thomas' actions during the Hamdaniya incident were influenced by
post-traumatic stress disorder. If the dead Iraqi wasn't an
innocent civilian, that could “color the proceedings,” said Eugene R. Fidell,
a military defense attorney in Washington, D.C. Jurors – especially those
who are combat veterans – might sympathize more with Thomas if they think he
went after a suspected enemy combatant instead of Awad, a disabled
grandfather. Marine Pvt. Robert
Pennington underscored that possibility during yesterday's hearing. He's
serving an eight-year prison sentence for his role in the Hamdaniya killing. “I believe, in the end, that
the actions we took prevented death or other bodily harm to me and other
Marines,” Pennington testified. Thomas, Pennington and the
other six defendants are from Kilo Company, 2nd Platoon, 3rd Battalion, 5th
Marine Regiment. Five of them, including Pennington, have signed plea
agreements. They pledged to testify against the remaining defendants in
exchange for shorter prison sentences. Those five servicemen said
their squad planned to capture and execute an insurgent named Saleh Gowad.
Marines had captured Gowad several times, but Iraqi authorities would always
release him. When the Marines couldn't
find Gowad on April 26, 2006, they went next door and grabbed a man who was
sleeping, according to previous testimony and court records. Until yesterday,
that man was depicted as Awad, a 52-year-old former police officer who walked
with a limp. The squad bound the man and
forced him into a shallow hole, where they shot him to death, five of the
defendants have testified. Prosecutors said the unit then tried to disguise
its crime as self-defense against an Iraqi who started a firefight when he
was discovered planting a roadside bomb. Yesterday, Epstein said the
dead man was not Awad but Hashem Gowad, cousin of Saleh Gowad and also a
suspected insurgent. Epstein said the military waited until 11 days ago to
give her team some documents suggesting the identification problem. Before the hearing adjourned
for the day, defense attorneys also focused on the platoon's alleged
leadership problems. They called on two witnesses who suggested that the unit
suffered from bad decision-making. One of them was 1st Sgt.
Rene Salinas, a top enlisted member of Kilo Company at the time of the
killing. Salinas said he called the unit the “lovey-dovey platoon” because of
its lack of discipline. External link: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20070714-9999-1m14thomas.html |