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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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October 23rd,
2007 - Tribunal to Investigate Officers’ Roles in Deaths |
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Tribunal to Investigate Officers’
Roles in Deaths Case involves killings of Afghan civilians By Associated Press October 23, 2007 Raleigh - A Marine Corps
legal tribunal will investigate the roles that two officers had in the
killing of 19 Afghan civilians earlier this year after the officers’
special-operations unit came under attack, officials said yesterday. Maj. Fred Galvin, who was a
company commander with the 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion, and Capt.
Vincent Noble, the platoon commander, will be the focus of the court of
inquiry, said Lt. Col. Sean Gibson, a spokesman for the Marine Corps at the
U.S. Central Command. The inquiry is scheduled to
begin Nov. 1 at Camp Lejeune. Gibson said that other parties could be added
to the inquiry, but that there were no current plans to do so. In May, Army officials said
that 19 people died and 50 were injured March 4 along a crowded roadway in
Nangahar province. The Marines had opened fire after a minivan laden with
explosives rammed a convoy, according to Afghanistan’s Independent Human
Rights Commission. Witnesses told the
commission that the Marines fired indiscriminately at civilian cars and
pedestrians, and the Afghan panel found no sign that the patrol was under
fire. No Marines have been charged in the shooting. Officials ordered eight
Marines back to Camp Lejeune after the shootings. The rest of the unit was
ordered to leave Afghanistan and returned to the ships of the 26th Marine
Expeditionary Unit in the Persian Gulf. Mark Waple, a
Fayetteville-based attorney for Galvin, said that his client didn’t fire any
shots and never directed anyone to fire shots. “Unless we missed something
in our interviews, there certainly does not appear to be any violations of
the rules of engagement or the laws of armed conflict,” Waple said. He said that attorneys
interviewed every Marine who was on the patrol. A civilian attorney for
Noble did not immediately respond to messages asking for comment. Gibson said that the inquiry
could also focus on aspects of the shootings such as the conduct of the
entire convoy, the unit’s discipline in controlling its fire, the reporting
and documentation of the incident and the “command climate” maintained by the
officers. Army Col. John Nicholson, a
brigade commander in the 10th Mountain Division, said in May that he was
“deeply, deeply ashamed and terribly sorry that Americans have killed and
wounded innocent Afghan people.” U.S. Rep. Walter Jones,
R-3rd, later wrote a scathing letter to Army Secretary Pete Green, saying
that the Army had “discarded the presumption of innocence.” Lt. Gen. James Mattis, the
top Marine officer at Central Command, will review the findings of the
inquiry before deciding whether any criminal charges are warranted.
Typically, a general or other commanding officer would review an
investigative report and make a decision on whether charges are necessary. But the court of inquiry
allows a panel of senior officers to review evidence and take testimony to
help determine whether charges should be filed. The Marines last used such
an administrative fact-finding process in 1956 to investigate a Parris Island
drill sergeant who marched a group of recruits into a South Carolina creek,
where six died. External link: http://tinyurl.com/36oaqc |