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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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September 29th,
2007 - Marines Probed in Alleged Captive Deaths |
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Marines Probed in Alleged
Captive Deaths By Thomas Watkins Associated Press September 29, 2007 Los Angeles - Nearly three
years after the battle of Fallujah earned Marines more Navy Cross medals for
heroism than any other action in Iraq, prosecutors are investigating whether
members of one squad killed a group of captured insurgents there. However, getting charges to
stick could prove difficult as prosecutors try to assemble concrete evidence
from a battle that reduced much of the city to rubble and caused extensive
casualties. The identities of the victims are unknown. Several Marines from Camp
Pendleton are under investigation and the former squad leader, now a
civilian, has been charged in federal court with two counts of voluntary
manslaughter. About 130 Marines were
killed during the 53-day battle, more than were 1,000 wounded and some 1,000
insurgents were killed, said a Marine Corps spokesman, Lt. Col. Chris Hughes.
There is no tally of civilian deaths. "It's a little bit
difficult to take a firefight three years after the fight and try to piece
together whether or not a crime took place," said Doug Applegate, an
attorney for Jose Nazario Jr., the former squad leader. "No crime scene
could have been preserved, there's no physical evidence or DNA." Nazario, 27, who has left
the Marine Corps, pleaded not guilty earlier this month in federal court in
Riverside. Recent cases against Marines
over actions in Iraq highlight the challenges prosecutors face. Charges
against eight Marines in the killing of an Iraqi man last year in Hamdania
resulted in only one murder conviction, despite confessions and testimony
from several of the defendants. And prosecutors have yet to score any
convictions against Marines accused in the killings of 24 civilians in
Haditha. Observers say it will be
even tougher to prosecute the members of a squad from Kilo Company, 3rd
Battalion, 1st Marines in the Fallujah case. There are no forensics, the
building where the shootings supposedly took place was destroyed and the
identity of the victims is unknown, lawyers for some of the squad members
said. Prosecutors identify the men Nazario is accused of shooting only as
"human beings" called John Doe No. 1 and John Doe No. 2. Already, the officer
overseeing the case has dismissed a murder charge against one squad member,
Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, so he can review the evidence. The investigation was triggered
when a former corporal from the squad, Ryan Weemer, applied for a job with
the Secret Service. Investigators claim he described the killings during a
polygraph test that included a question about whether he had participated in
a wrongful death, according to his attorney, Paul Hackett. Weemer has not
been charged with any crime. The complaint against
Nazario says that after coming under fire from a house in Fallujah, the squad
entered the building and captured several insurgents, Nazario placed a call
on his radio. "Nazario said that he
was asked 'Are they dead yet?'" the complaint states. When Nazario
responded that the captives were alive, he was told by a Marine on the radio
to "make it happen," the complaint says. Applegate has said investigators
were looking into the actions of the Marine who allegedly spoke with Nazario
on the radio. Lawyers say it is highly
unusual for civilian prosecutors to go after a former U.S. serviceman for an
alleged war crime. Kevin McDermott, another of Nazario's lawyers, said
prosecutors employed a little-used 2000 law written primarily to prosecute
civilian contractors who commit crimes while working for the U.S. overseas. McDermott said he knew of
only one other veteran, former Army Pvt. Steven D. Green, who is charged in
civilian court. Green is accused of raping and murdering a 14-year-old Iraqi
girl and killing members of her family. He faces trial in Kentucky, and if
convicted could get a death sentence. If Nazario's case goes to
trial, Applegate said he would educate a civilian jury about the realities of
combat. "How do you convey to a
jury confusion in the fog of war?" Applegate said. "We are going to
have to convey that a guy who might cross the street under a white flag on
your block might shoot your best friend on the next block." Marine, Army and Iraqi units
entered Fallujah on Nov. 9, 2004, and faced some of the heaviest fighting
seen so far in the war in Iraq, often engaging in hand-to-hand combat. Of more than 20 Navy Cross
medals awarded for combat heroism in Iraq and Afghanistan, at least eight
were earned in Fallujah, according to several online sources. A Navy Cross is
second only to a Medal of Honor. Weemer's attorney, Hackett,
a Marine reserve major, says it is unlikely that anyone who has never seen
combat could grasp what Marines experienced in Fallujah. "I remember the first
day seeing a dog run down the street with an arm in its mouth. Dogs, cats
eating bodies. Those are the kinds of scenes that a Marine is
experiencing," Hackett said. "You take a 22-year-old
American, you shoot at him all day long, you deprive him of sleep, you make
him see his buddies being killed, he has their blood on his boots and blouse,
and when you don't see perfection in his decisions you court-martial him? It's
absurd." Copyright © 2007 The
Associated Press. External link: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gJBGkERPk8ZiV1rYMiNrLa2yvSpgD8RV9THO0 |