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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
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December 5th,
2008 - Testimony Doesn’t Link US Soldier to 4 Dead Iraqis News article from the
Associated Press |
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Testimony Doesn’t
Link US Soldier to 4 Dead Iraqis By George Frey Associated Press December 5, 2008 Vilseck, Germany - A defense
lawyer told a military court Thursday that witnesses had provided
insufficient evidence to support charges that a U.S. Army sergeant was
involved in killing four Iraqi men found bound, blindfolded, shot and dumped
in a Baghdad canal. Sgt. Joseph P. Mayo is
alleged to have taken part in shooting the detainees. The Article 32 hearing, the
military equivalent of a civilian grand jury, began Wednesday to assess the
charges against Mayo and decide whether to refer him for a court-martial. A
decision is not expected this week. The first witness to testify
Thursday, Joshua Hartson, was a former soldier in Mayo's unit. He was asked
whether Mayo had said anything to him regarding the shootings, or told him
anything about covering up the incident. "No," Hartson told
the court by telephone from Victorville, California, where he lives after
leaving the military on a medical discharge. An investigator in the case
currently in Iraq, Special Agent Brad McCarthy, testified he had no physical
evidence "like bodies or guns" to implicate Mayo and didn't know if
there was any. Mayo, 27, is charged with
one count each of premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit premeditated
murder and obstruction of justice in the spring 2007 incident. He is the
sixth of seven soldiers implicated in the case to face a judge and could
receive a life sentence without parole if convicted. Another investigator in the
case, Special Agent Brad McCarthy, testifying via telephone from Iraq, said
he also had no physical evidence "like bodies or guns" to
incriminate Mayo and didn't know if there was any. Mayo's lawyer told the judge
that the evidence against the defendant was insufficient. "Under the facts that
you heard, the charge is not warranted," civilian attorney Michael
Waddington said in his closing remarks. "What we ask you to do is a very
thorough balancing test and look at the whole picture here." Mayo was implicated by other
soldiers who were on the patrol in past hearings and trials. All soldiers
involved were with the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade of
the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, which is now part of the Germany-based
172nd Infantry Brigade. Two other soldiers, Sgt.
Michael P. Leahy Jr., of Lockport, Illinois, and Sgt. John E. Hatley are said
to have been directly involved in the shootings. According to testimony, four
Iraqis were taken into custody after a shootout between March 10 and April
16, 2007. The detainees were then taken to the U.S. unit's operating base in
Baghdad. Later that night, according to testimony, members of the patrol took
the Iraqis to a remote location and killed them in retribution for attacks. Other members of the patrol
have already been sentenced or are awaiting their trials. Spc. Steven Ribordy, 25, of
Salina, Kansas, and Spc. Belmor Ramos, 23, of Clearfield, Utah, have pleaded
guilty in the case and have been sentenced to prison. Court-martials on charges of
conspiracy to commit premeditated murder are planned at an unspecified date
for two other soldiers, Staff Sgt. Jess Cunningham, 27, of Bakersfield,
California, and Sgt. Charles Quigley, 28, of Providence, Rhode Island. No date has been set for
Leahy and Hatley's separate courts-martial on charges of murder, conspiracy
to commit murder and obstruction of justice stemming from the incident. Leahy and Hatley face
additional charges of murder for a separate incident in January 2007. The
Army has not provided details of that incident. Copyright © 2008 The
Associated Press. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hYtcV7GUHRC88uGXnQ8Hl6I5lvbAD94S2RIO0 Agent: No
physical evidence in Iraqis’ deaths By Seth Robson Stars and Stripes December 5, 2008 Vilseck, Germany -
Investigators have no physical evidence linking 172nd Infantry Brigade
soldiers to the alleged execution of four Iraqi detainees in Baghdad last
year, according to a lawyer representing Sgt. 1st Class Joseph P. Mayo, one
of three soldiers facing murder charges. Mayo, 27, who appeared
before the Article 32 hearing at the Rose Barracks courthouse Thursday, is
charged with premeditated murder along with 1st Sgt. John E. Hatley and Sgt.
Michael P. Leahy Jr. Criminal Investigation
Command (CID) Special Agent Chief Warrant Officer David Eller, who testified
via telephone from Fort Belvoir, Va., said he did not know of any physical
evidence - such as photographs, satellite or surveillance images of the
incident or bodies recovered in the case. The four detainees were
allegedly shot and dumped in a Baghdad canal. "I don’t feel that it
was such a remote location. It wasn’t way out in the ocean or buried in the
desert. I thought it was more likely than not that we might be able to find
the corpses," Eller said. CID officers also did not
visit the neighborhood where the men were detained in an effort to identify
them while he was involved in the investigation, he said. Michael Waddington, a
civilian lawyer representing Mayo, told the hearing that the government’s
case relies on "a complete lack of credible, unbiased and untainted
evidence." Divers who searched the
canal found no bodies or other evidence that anyone was killed, he said. "If four people were
killed a kilometer from where they live or even closer, then someone is going
to know about it. Nobody has said: ‘We know these guys. That’s my son,’"
he said, adding that Iraqi families usually ask the Army for compensation
when a relative is killed. Waddington raised the
possibility that the shots reported by several soldiers who were at the canal
were not fired at the detainees. They might have been fired to scare them, he
said. "The lack of bodies or
physical evidence is quite disturbing in this case. What they have is witness
testimony (and) they all contradict each other," he said, noting that
many government witnesses have cut plea deals or received immunity for their
roles in the incident. Bradley Fighting Vehicle
commander Sgt. Daniel Evoy, the only eyewitness to the alleged shooting, has
received no punishment despite the fact that other soldiers in his vehicle
have been court-martialed or received nonjudicial punishment for their roles,
Waddington said. Evoy, at first, claimed he
saw nothing but later told investigators he peered through a narrow gap in
the hatch of his Bradley and saw one of the detainees shot, Waddington said. Even if the detainees were
killed, the facts of the case do not fit premeditated murder, which carries a
mandatory sentence of life in prison, he said. "The facts of the case
itself combined with the circumstances in which these guys were supposedly
killed do not equate to a premeditated first-degree murder charge. There are
multiple other forms of charges that can be brought forward if there is an
unusual and questionable killing," he said. External link: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=59223 |