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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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January 11th,
2007 - Hamdania Assault Case Reaches Court Today 1st news article by the
North County Times |
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Hamdania Assault Case Reaches
Court Today More plea deals may be coming in killing of retired Iraqi policeman By Mark Walker North County Times Thursday, January 11, 2007 North County - A court
hearing for a Marine officer charged with assaulting three Iraqi civilians
last year gets under way at Camp Pendleton this morning. The Article 32 hearing for
2nd Lt. Nathan Phan will be presided over by Lt. Col. William Pigott, who
will issue a recommendation following its conclusion as to whether he
believes the case should move forward to court-martial. Phan, 26, is charged with beating
three Iraqis in the village of Hamdania on April 10 and later lying to
investigators about what happened. Phan's attorney David
Sheldon maintains his client is innocent and that the charges arose out of
what he said was misconduct by agents of the Naval Criminal Investigative
Service. The Marine Corps has said
its law enforcement agency learned of the alleged beatings during its
investigation into the April 26 kidnapping and shooting death of a retired
Iraqi police officer in Hamdania. Seven Marines and a Navy
corpsman from a Kilo Company platoon attached to the 3rd Battalion, 5th
Marine Regiment were charged in June with murder and related offenses in that
case. Three of the Marines and the corpsman reached plea agreements with
military prosecutors in the fall and are serving jail terms ranging from 12
to 21 months. Sources close to the
homicide case have said two of the four remaining defendants, all of whom
have entered not guilty pleas, are attempting to reach agreements that would
see them plead guilty to lesser offenses. Rich Brannon is a Georgia
attorney representing the squad leader and highest-ranking man charged in the
homicide case, 22-year-old Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III. Brannon said in a
telephone interview Wednesday that there are no such discussions regarding
his client. "We haven't been
offered anything," he said. The four men who have
pleaded guilty said during court appearances that Hutchins was the one who
directed the plot that led to the kidnapping and killing of Hashim Ibrahim
Awad. Joseph Low, attorney for
defendant Cpl. Marshall Magincalda, 23, said earlier this week that he was
not engaged in discussions that could lead to a plea agreement. David Brahms, a Carlsbad
attorney and former Marine Corps general who represents Lance Cpl. Robert
Pennington, 22, declined to comment Wednesday when asked about that
possibility for his client. The attorney for the
remaining defendant, Cpl. Trent Thomas, 25, was away from his office and
could not be reached. Marine Corps officials will
not comment on any possible plea discussions. The Hamdania case was the
first of two homicide cases lodged against Camp Pendleton troops last year,
incidents which have reverberated throughout the military and prompted the
commandant of the Marine Corps to visit Iraq and U.S. bases to address the
troops. In December, four Marines
from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment were charged with murder and
negligent homicide in the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians, including six
children and five women, in the city of Haditha in November 2005. Prosecutors also charged
four officers with dereliction of duty and related offenses for allegedly
mishandling the investigation of what happened in Haditha, an incident
triggered when a bomb embedded in a road detonated as a Humvee passed over
it, killing a lance corporal. The enlisted men in the
Hamdania and Haditha cases face the possibility of life in prison if
convicted of murder. External link:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/01/11/news/top_stories/1_04_291_10_07.txt Iraqis being brought to Camp
Pendleton to testify in criminal cases By Mark Walker North County Times January 11th,
2007 Camp Pendleton - The Marine
Corps is working to bring four Iraqis to the U.S. later this month to testify
in the cases of three Camp Pendleton Marines accused of assaulting Iraqi
civilians in the village of Hamdania last year. Chief Warrant Officer Wesley
Wagner testified during an Article 32 hearing for 2nd Lt. Nathan Phan,
accused of assaulting three Iraqis on April 10, that arrangement are being
made to bring one of the alleged victims and three other witnesses to the
U.S. later this month. If the witnesses are brought
to Camp Pendleton, they would be the first Iraqis to testify in the two
criminal cases brought last year against members of a Kilo Company platoon
from the 3rd Battallion, 5th Marine Regiment. In June, the Marine Corps
charged seven Marines and a Navy medical corpsman with murder in the April
26shooting death of a retired Iraqi policeman. In the course of that
investigation, the alleged assault case emerged resulting the charges against
Phan, a 26-year-old platoon leader from the Sacramento area. In the homicide case, three
Marines and the corpsman have pleaded guilty to lesser offenses and are
serving jail terms ranging from 12 to 21 months. One of those who pleaded
guilty in the killing of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, former lance corporal and now
Pvt. Jerry Schumate Jr., is expected to testify this afternoon about his
knowledge of the assault case. This morning, Lance Cpl.
Saul Lopezromo testified that he took part in the beating of one of the
Iraqis U.S. authorities are attempting to bring to the base to testify,
Khalid Hamad Daham. The 22-year-old Lopezromo said that Daham was known as a
former intelligence officer in the regime of now-executed Iraqi president
Saddam Hussein and was someone who had disrespected Marine Corps presence in
the area. The beating was part of an
effort to "send a message" to the village about insurgent activity
and the need to respect what the Marine Corps was doing in the area,
Lopezromo testified. He also testified that while
he witnessed other beatings as well as having taken part in the baeting of
Daham, he never saw Phan strike that man or any other Iraqi. Of the other men Phan is
accused of beating, one was killed by insurgent in June, the court was told,
and the other is refusing to cooperate with U.S. authorities. The hearing to help
determine if Phan will be ordered to court-martial is scheduled to continue
Friday and possibly Saturday. At the conclusion, hearing officer Lt. Col.
William Pigott will recommend to Lt. Gen. James Mattis what action should be
taken. Also charged with assault is
Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, also a defendant in the homicide case, and Cpl.
Trent Thomas. When Shumate pleaded guilty in the homicide case, an assault
charge against him was dismissed. External link:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/01/11/news/top_stories/1_01_150_10_07.txt |