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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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March 27th,
2009 - Fallujah Suspect on Trial at Pendleton |
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Fallujah Suspect on Trial at
Pendleton Sgt. Ryan Weemer faces accusation he shot unarmed detainee in 2004 By Mark Walker North County Times March 27, 2009 Camp Pendleton - After
failing to convict the first of three men to face trial in the alleged
slaying of four insurgents in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004, authorities will try
again next week when Sgt. Ryan Weemer goes on trial. Weemer, the man at the
center of the case, faces charges of unpremeditated murder and failing to
adhere to the military's rules governing the treatment of captured enemy
combatants. He has pleaded not guilty. Weemer was part of a squad
from the base's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment that is alleged to have
encountered four suspected insurgents during the search of a home Nov. 9,
2004, the first day of the battle for what was then an insurgent-laden city. Weemer was a corporal at the
time, being led by then-Marine Sgt. Jose L. Nazario Jr. Nazario is alleged to have
shot two of the men, then ordering Weemer and a second Marine, Sgt. Jermaine
Nelson, to kill the other two men, according to court documents. Nelson, who also is charged
with murder, faces trial in a few weeks. The case is fraught with
problems for the prosecution, which has based the case entirely around
Weemer's statements and ones coaxed from Nelson. There are no witnesses and
no names have been attached to any of the alleged victims, whose remains were
never found despite attempts by investigators. Nazario was prosecuted as a
civilian in U.S. District Court in Riverside last year on charges he caused
all four deaths. A civilian jury acquitted him and several jurors later said
they did not believe they should have been asked to second-guess actions that
occurred on a foreign battlefield. The case came to light in
2007 when Weemer purportedly told a Secret Service agent during a job
interview that he was aware of "unlawful" deaths in Iraq, according
to court documents. During a subsequent hearing
at Camp Pendleton, Weemer's attorney, Paul Hackett, raised the possibility of
self-defense. Hackett intimated then that
the man Weemer is charged with killing may have been reaching for a weapon
when he was shot. Capt. Nicholas Gannon, a
Marine prosecutor, rejects the self-defense assertion, saying Weemer never
raised that in statements to investigators. Fallujah was at the center
of the insurgency in the western Anbar province in 2004. It was there that
the bodies of Blackwater security guards were hung from a bridge. The assault in November 2004
to retake the city was the largest urban combat involving U.S. forces since
the Vietnam War. Seventy-eight U.S. troops and more than 1,300 insurgents
were killed in fierce fighting that resulted in several Marines being
decorated for heroism. The last remaining U.S.
troops withdrew from the city last month. Weemer's case will be heard
by a panel of Marine officers and enlisted men that will be seated on Monday. The trial by court-martial
begins Tuesday and if he is convicted of any of the charges, it will be the
panel that decides his punishment. Weemer, who joined the
Marine Corps in 2001, was out of the service, but called back to active-duty
to face charges. Nazario was beyond the date
he could be recalled to duty, resulting in his case being contested in
civilian court in the first test of a law intended to cover troops accused of
wrongdoing overseas but no longer subject to military law. External link: http://www.northcountytimes.com/articles/2009/03/27/military/z5d29bfc09411576b882575860068a677.txt |