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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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December 20th,
2007 - Georgian Faces Murder Trial in Iraq Death |
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Georgian Faces Murder Trial
in Iraq Death By Moni Basu The Atlanta Journal-Constitution December 20, 2007 The good news that a Winder
soldier received last month soured this week as the Army decided to press
ahead with murder charges. In the case against Spc.
Christopher P. Shore, the Army downgraded its initial charge of premeditated
murder of an Iraqi detainee to murder in the third degree, which amounts to a
manslaughter charge in the civilian world. The charge carries a maximum penalty
of life in prison. The decision goes against
the recommendation made by an investigating officer who presided over an
Article 32 hearing, the equivalent of a grand jury investigation. His report,
released in November, determined the evidence against Shore did not warrant referral
of the case to a court-martial. But on Tuesday, Maj. Gen.
Benjamin Mixon, commander of the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division, gave
the green light for a murder trial. Shore, 25, who returned from
a 15-month tour of Iraq in October, maintained his innocence and expressed
disappointment in the Army's decision. He said he had hoped to have the case
wrapped up by now and go on with life, pursuing a career in the Army. Now,
just a week before Christmas, the news was hard to take. "I guess they're playing
hardball," he said by telephone from his apartment in Honolulu. Shore's father's reaction
was much stronger. "I'm mad as hell,"
said Brian Shore, who lives in Lawrenceville. "I love America, but the
Army is not part of my country anymore. We had faith in the system." Shore and his platoon
sergeant, Sgt. 1st Class Trey A. Corrales of San Antonio, were accused of
killing an Iraqi detainee during a nighttime raid last June in a village near
the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. At the Article 32 hearing in
October, Shore told the investigating officer that Corrales ordered him to
"finish" the Iraqi man, who was bleeding and down on the ground.
Shore said he fired his rifle but intentionally missed the man and the next
day reported the incident to his supervisors. Corrales waived his right to
an Article 32 hearing. Maj. Gary Johnson, the attorney for Shore's brigade,
said no decision has been made on Corrales yet. Lt. Col. Raul Gonzalez, the
Article 32 investigating officer, recommended that the charges against Shore
be reduced to aggravated assault. Gonzalez said no evidence
existed that linked the shots fired by Shore to the detainee's death. He said
that "overwhelming evidence" showed that Corrales "did with
intent to kill, shoot at and hit the detainee multiple times with an M-4
rifle." However, in a memo issued to
Mixon, the 25th Infantry Division commander, earlier this week, the staff
judge advocate, Lt. Col. Martin Sims, said that the murder charge "is
warranted by the evidence indicated in the report of the investigation." Mixon approved the memo
Monday. The revised charge was issued the next day. Shore's attorney, Michael
Waddington of Augusta, said he didn't understand how Sims could justify a
murder charge, based on the Article 32 report. "In a case like this,
where the Article 32 report was so strong and well documented, it is
extraordinarily rare for the Army to contradict it," Waddington said. "The evidence has not
changed," he said. "They couldn't convince Colonel Gonzalez that
Shore murdered the detainee. Now they're going to try to convince 12 people
that he did. I'm disappointed but I'm not scared." Johnson, the brigade
attorney, said Mixon was not bound by the investigating officer's report. The
Article 32 recommendation, he said, was just that. Johnson said Shore will
probably be arraigned the first or second week of January, after which a
trial date will be set. External link: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2007/12/19/shore_1220.html
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