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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
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August 26th,
2008 - U.S. Soldiers Executed Iraqis, Statements Say |
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U.S. Soldiers
Executed Iraqis, Statements Say By Paul von Zielbauer New York Times August 26, 2008 In March or April 2007,
three noncommissioned United States Army officers, including a first
sergeant, a platoon sergeant and a senior medic, killed four Iraqi prisoners
with pistol shots to the head as the men stood handcuffed and blindfolded
beside a Baghdad canal, two of the soldiers said in sworn statements. After the killings, the
first sergeant - the senior noncommissioned officer of his Army company -
told the other two to remove the men’s bloody blindfolds and plastic
handcuffs, according to the statements made to Army investigators, which were
obtained by The New York Times. The statements and other
court documents were provided by a person close to one of the soldiers in the
unit who insisted on anonymity and who has an interest in the outcome of the
legal proceedings. After removing the
blindfolds and handcuffs, the three soldiers shoved the four bodies into the
canal, rejoined other members of their unit waiting in nearby vehicles and
drove back to their combat outpost in southwest Baghdad, the statements said. The soldiers, all from
Company D, First Battalion, Second Infantry, 172nd Infantry Brigade, have not
been charged with a crime. However, lawyers representing other members of the
platoon who said they witnessed or heard the shootings, which were said to
have occurred on a combat patrol west of Baghdad, said all three would
probably be charged with murder. The accounts of and
confessions to the killings, by Sgt. First Class Joseph P. Mayo, the platoon
sergeant, and Sgt. Michael P. Leahy Jr., Company D’s senior medic and an
acting squad leader, were made in January in signed statements to Army
investigators in Schweinfurt, Germany. In their statements,
Sergeants Mayo and Leahy each described killing at least one of the Iraqi
detainees on instructions from First Sgt. John E. Hatley, who the soldiers
said killed two of the detainees with pistol shots to the back of their
heads. Sergeant Hatley’s civilian lawyer in Germany, David Court, did not respond
to phone calls and e-mail messages Tuesday. Last month, four other
soldiers from Sergeant Hatley’s unit were charged with murder conspiracy for
agreeing to go along with the plan to kill the four prisoners, in violation
of military laws that forbid harming enemy combatants once they are disarmed
and in custody. In an Army evidentiary
hearing on Tuesday in Vilseck, Germany, two of those soldiers - Specialists
Steven A. Ribordy and Belmor G. Ramos - invoked their right against
self-incrimination. Reached by telephone, James D. Culp, a civilian lawyer for
one of the other two soldiers charged, Staff Sgt. Jess C. Cunningham,
declined to comment. A lawyer for the fourth soldier, Sgt. Charles P.
Quigley, could not be reached. In their sworn statements,
Sergeants Mayo and Leahy described the events that preceded the shooting of
the Iraqi men, who apparently were Shiite fighters linked to the Mahdi Army
militia, which controlled the West Rashid area of southwest Baghdad. After taking small-arms
fire, the patrol chased some men into a building, arresting them and finding
several automatic weapons, grenades and a sniper rifle, they said. On the way
to their combat outpost, Sergeant Hatley’s convoy was informed by Army
superiors that the evidence to detain the Iraqis was insufficient, Sergeant
Leahy said in his statement. The unit was told to release the men, according
to the statement. “First Sergeant Hatley then
made the call to take the detainees to a canal and kill them,” Sergeant Leahy
said, as retribution for the deaths of two soldiers from the unit: Staff Sgt.
Karl O. Soto-Pinedo, who died from a sniper’s bullet, and Specialist Marieo
Guerrero, killed by a roadside bomb. “So the patrol went to the
canal, and First Sergeant, Sgt. First Class Mayo and I took the detainees out
of the back of the Bradley, lined them up and shot them,” Sergeant Leahy
said, referring to a Bradley fighting vehicle. “We then pushed the bodies
into the canal and left.” Sergeant Mayo, in his
statement, attributed his decision to kill the men to “anger,” apparently at
the recent deaths of his two comrades. Sergeant Leahy, in his
statement, said, “I’m ashamed of what I’ve done,” later adding: “When I did
it, I thought I was doing it for my family. Now I realize that I’m hurting my
family more now than if I wouldn’t have done it.” External link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/world/middleeast/27abuse.html |