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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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February 27th,
2007 - Marine Admitted to Shooting Iraqi Man to Make Sure He was Dead |
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Federal Agent: Marine Admitted
to Shooting Iraqi Man to Make Sure He was Dead By Thomas Watkins Associated Press February 27, 2007 Camp Pendleton – A Marine
squad leader accused of kidnapping and killing an Iraqi denied killing the
man but fired three shots into his head to make sure he was dead, a federal
investigator testified Tuesday. Special Agent James Connolly
testified at a hearing for Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III, the ranking Marine
in an eight-man squad accused in the attack on 52-year-old Iraqi man last
April. “Hutchins said that he put
three rounds in the guy's head,” Connolly testified. “I was kind of taken
aback.” Marine Cpl. Trent D. Thomas,
the squad's second in command, previously testified that Marines opened fire
on the man before Hutchins went to make sure he was dead. Thomas pleaded guilty to
murder but withdrew the plea, saying Hutchins, of Plymouth, Mass., ordered
him to take part. Prosecutors called Connolly
as a witness in response to a defense motion to keep Hutchins' statements out
of his upcoming court-martial. Four Marines and a Navy
corpsman who pleaded guilty to reduced charges in the case have said Hutchins
masterminded the killing last year, and several said he fired the fatal
shots. Squad members have testified
that Hashim Ibrahim Awad was forced into a hole and shot, and that the squad
then tried to cover it up by placing an AK-47 and shovel by his body to make
it look like he was an insurgent planting a bomb. Hutchins' attorney, Rich
Brannon, recently traveled with other attorneys to Iraq to try to investigate
the death in the town of Hamdania, on the outskirts of Fallujah. But
dangerous conditions hampered the effort, which the lawyers had hoped would
produce evidence Awad had been a terrorist. Prosecutors say Hutchins'
squad, unable to find an Iraqi insurgent they suspected of planting bombs,
kidnapped Awad and killed him to send a message. External link: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20070227-1803-marines-iraqshooting.html |