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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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February 25th,
2007 - Hometown Fights for Soldier Charged in Iraq Slayings |
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Hometown Fights for Soldier
Charged in Iraq Slayings A Tennessee community is raising funds for Staff Sgt. Raymond Girouard,
accused of ordering the killings of three detainees. By David Zucchino Los Angeles Times February 25, 2007 Sweetwater, Tenn. - The
first fundraiser was down at the First Assembly of God church, where Bonnie
Cleveland stood in the doorway with a collection basket in hand. She told
everyone that the church music group's former teen drummer, Ray Girouard -
now Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard - was in deep trouble. The Army has charged
Girouard, 24, with ordering the slayings of three Iraqi detainees in May,
then orchestrating a coverup. He's in a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C.,
awaiting court-martial. "He's been fighting for
our freedom, and now he needs our help," Cleveland, a schoolteacher and
the wife of a dairy farmer, told fellow parishioners. By the end of the service
late last month, parishioners had contributed $6,600 to help hire a civilian
lawyer for a church member who became an Army Ranger and served two tours in
Iraq. It was the beginning of an
extraordinary outpouring of cash and tributes from this idyllic east
Tennessee community of 6,000. The fund now stands at $19,000, fattened by
residents who cannot reconcile the Army's portrait of a calculating killer
with their memories of a polite and caring boy. Sense of betrayal Sweetwater, a conservative
community where American flags fly on porches and many residents are
veterans, now finds itself at odds with the military. Many here say the Army
has betrayed a young patriot who volunteered to fight for his country. "The military kind of
made it personal," said Tammy "Tot" Chapman, who's helping
organize an antique car rally as a fundraiser. "When you mess with our
boys, you have to deal with us." Post 106 of the American
Legion in Sweetwater is coordinating the contributions. Lloyd Langley, the
post vice commander, says Girouard is being "railroaded" by the
military. "A soldier ain't worth
a dime if he don't carry out his orders, and that's exactly what Ray was
doing over there," Langley said. Girouard, who enlisted right
out of high school, is charged with premeditated murder and conspiracy. Three
other soldiers also were charged in the deaths, which occurred during a
combat mission May 9 on a marshy island on Tharthar Lake, 60 miles northwest of
Baghdad. Girouard's photo now graces
bumper stickers, storefronts and restaurants in Sweetwater. A gazebo on the
narrow main street bears a banner that reads, "Staff Sgt. Ray Girouard
Fought For Us. Let's Fight For Him." Just after the church
fundraiser, Girouard's sister Joy Oakes delivered a passionate defense of her
little brother at a rally Jan. 27 at City Hall, where residents contributed
$1,700. "The Army is doing
everything they can to smear his name, his reputation and his legacy,"
she said that day. But the "truth will come out, and it will set Ray
free," she added. Oakes, 26, a mother of
three, has set up what she calls the Ray Room in a bedroom of her
grandfather's home. Inside is a computer where she maintains a website
supporting her brother, stacks of court documents and a "media
book" with news clippings about the case. "This case is my whole
life - I live it, I breathe it, 24 hours a day," she said. Girouard and his two sisters
were raised by their maternal grandfather, Ron Bentley, an Air Force veteran,
after their mother died when Girouard was 6. Bentley calls his Ranger
grandson "a true American hero." A sign on his front door reads:
"Terrorism Is A Disease. Rangers Are The Cure." Bentley says he is furious
at the military for prosecuting Girouard for "doing what he was sent
over there to do." "What really got me
going was seeing a picture of Raymond in shackles - after all he's done for
his country," Bentley, 64, said as he sat hunched over his living room
table, feeling faint from chemotherapy for lymphoma. As Bentley spoke, Oakes
answered a cellphone call. It was Girouard, calling from the brig on a
$1-a-minute phone card. Oakes said he told her, as he had before, that he
never ordered anyone to kill detainees and did not take part in a coverup. She said Girouard also told
her that his brigade commander, Col. Michael Steele, held "a big hoo-ah
rally" the night before the mission and gave orders to kill every
military-age male on the island. Steele's lawyer, Maj. Kris Poppe, said
Steele "categorically rejects" the allegation. A codefendant, Pfc. Corey R.
Clagett, gave a similar account in a phone interview in October. But Jan. 25,
Clagett entered a plea agreement with the government and testified that
Girouard, the squad leader, told his men to kill the three Iraqis they had
just detained. Clagett said he and Spc.
William B. Hunsaker cut plastic handcuffs off the men, told them to run, then
shot them. He testified that Girouard punched him in the face and cut Hunsaker
with a knife to make it appear that the detainees had attacked the soldiers
while attempting to escape. Hunsaker, the first to
accept a plea deal, also testified against Girouard. Hunsaker and Clagett got
18 years. Girouard could get life without parole if convicted. Clagett's plea was a
stunning blow to Girouard's family, and to Sweetwater. The Clagett and
Girouard families had teamed up to fight the charges. Clagett's mother,
Melanie Dianiska, stayed at Bentley's home last year on her way to a court
hearing at Ft. Campbell, Ky. "I understand the
pressure they were under from the government, but it's still hurtful the way
they turned on Ray," Oakes said. Dianiska and lawyer Paul
Bergrin said they felt boxed in after Hunsaker's plea and reluctantly agreed
to their own deal. "I'll tell you one
thing," Oakes said. "This family will not buckle. We will not take
a plea deal. Ray will not plead guilty to something he didn't do." Girouard's lawyer, Anita
Gorecki of Fayetteville, N.C., said she intended to proceed to court-martial,
scheduled for March 13, and would call Steele as a witness. "He is eager to have
his day in court," Gorecki said. "Our defense is simple: Sgt.
Girouard did not give that order." John Canada, who taught
Girouard in a Royal Rangers church program similar to the Boy Scouts, said
many people in Sweetwater felt uncomfortable challenging the military. Even
so, he said, "it bothers me that an American soldier could kill our
enemy and have that construed as first-degree murder." Still confident Girouard's grandmother Pat
Bentley said her grandson remained confident that he would be exonerated.
"He's got it in him to fight," she said. "If he goes down,
he's going to go down fighting." Charlie Boyd, who heads the
antique car club that is organizing a fundraiser, said U.S. soldiers faced
the same problem he had faced when he fought in Vietnam: It is difficult to
distinguish the enemy from civilians in a guerrilla war. "Ray shouldn't get a
court-martial," Boyd said. "He should get a medal." By prosecuting soldiers for
their actions during combat operations, the military is sending the wrong
message, said Daniel Chapman, the car club's vice president. "If our soldiers see someone
like Ray going to prison, they'll be scared to death that they'll be
prosecuted every time they open fire," he said. "They'll hesitate -
and that'll get you killed." External link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/complete/la-na-sweetwater25feb25,1,1803107.story |