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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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March 26th,
2008 - Camp Pendleton: Hearing in Alleged Prisoner Killings to Start Friday |
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Camp Pendleton:
Hearing in Alleged Prisoner Killings to Start Friday By Mark Walker North County Times March 26, 2008 Camp Pendleton - A court
hearing is scheduled to begin Friday in the case of three Marines charged
with killing prisoners during the 2004 battle for Fallujah, Iraq. Sgt. Jermaine Nelson is
accused of murder and dereliction of duty for his alleged role in the
incident, which took place on Nov. 9, 2004, according to Marine Corps
officials. Prosecutors say that Nelson
and two other members of his squad shot four unarmed prisoners captured
during a fight to wrest the city from insurgent control. Attorneys representing the
accused troops contend there is no evidence beyond a statement from one of
the men. Prosecutors have no forensic
evidence and no named victims or bodies, the attorneys say. Nelson's attorney, Joseph
Low of Orange County, said Wednesday that his client should not be facing any
charges. "This is another case
of a junior Marine doing what he was told to do on the battlefield," Low
said during a telephone interview. "The law requires that you not only
prove there was a crime, but that there's a dead body somewhere. Where's that
body?" Nelson, 26, joined the
Marine Corps in January 2001 and is an infantry assault troop. His hearing is
expected to last one to two days, during which Marine prosecutors will
introduce evidence they contend justify Nelson's court-martial. Presiding over the hearing
is Lt. Col. Thomas McCann, who ultimately will issue a report stating whether
he believes there is probable cause try Nelson. A decision on whether that
occurs is up to Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, commander of Marine Corps forces in
the Middle East. Last week, the Marine Corps
announced it had recalled Sgt. Ryan Weemer to active duty and charged him
with one count of unpremeditated murder in the incident. The military opened an
investigation into the purported slayings after Weemer told Secret Service
agents that he was aware of unlawful deaths during the fighting in Fallujah,
authorities have said. The man who led Weemer and
Nelson at Fallujah, former Marine Sgt. Jose Nazario Jr., was charged by the
U.S. attorney in Riverside County in August with two counts of involuntary
manslaughter. He is being prosecuted as a
civilian because he was no longer subject to being recalled into the Marine
Corps and prosecuted in military court. Nazario's attorney, Kevin
McDermott, says the prosecution sends a dangerous message to troops in Iraq. Basing it on Weemer's
purported statement also could become a precedent for other investigations
into years-old battlefield actions based on one man's statements, McDermott
has said. In an affidavit released
last summer, Mark Fox, an investigator with the Naval Criminal Investigative
Service, said that Nazario and other Kilo Company Marines from the 3rd Battalion,
1st Marine Regiment captured the insurgents during house-to-house fighting. The Fox affidavit alleged
that Nazario shot two insurgents in the head and directed his Marines to
shoot two other Iraqis. "Who else wants to kill
these guys, because I don't want to do it all myself?" Nazario is quoted
as telling his Marines, according to the affidavit. Fallujah became a flash
point in early 2004 after insurgents ambushed and killed three Blackwater
Security civilian contractors and hanged two of their corpses from a bridge. U.S. forces left the city
shortly thereafter at the request of the Iraqi government. Six months later, U.S.
troops returned and launched a massive fight to retake the city. The
resistance was overcome by late December, and several Camp Pendleton Marines
were later honored with awards for valorous actions. Ninety-five U.S. troops were
killed and more than 600 were wounded, according to officials. An estimated
1,350 insurgents were killed and 1,000 captured. While the military's rules
of engagement were loosened during the battle, the law of armed conflict
makes it a crime to kill captured enemy combatants. The Fallujah prosecutions
are separate from the case involving the slaying of 24 Iraqi civilians in the
city of Haditha in November 2005. The first court-martial of
four base Marines facing charges in that incident begins Friday with the
start of the trial of Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum, who is charged with two
counts of involuntary manslaughter. External link: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/03/27/community/6c7e00dfb181eae98825741800570a4c.txt |