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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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April 2nd,
2009 - Lie Detector Leads to US Marine Being Charged for Murder in Fallujah News article from the Los Angeles
Times |
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Lie Detector
Leads to US Marine Being Charged for Murder of Iraqi in Fallujah By James Hider The Times April 2, 2009 A US Marine has been charged
with murdering an unarmed Iraqi captive almost five years after the event, after
a lie detector test he took when he recently applied to join the Secret
Service. In one of the most
extraordinary murder cases involving a US soldier to have come out of the
Iraq war, Sergeant Ryan Weemer was submitted to a polygraph test and asked about
the most serious crime that he had ever committed, as part of his vetting for
the new post. He recalled a shooting in Fallujah in November 2004, when US
forces stormed the insurgent-held Iraqi city. “We went into this house,
there happened to be four or five guys in the house. We ended up shooting
them, we had to,” he said, clarifying that in the bitter house-to-house
fighting his men had no time to take the men to a detention facility. Sergeant Weemer is now
facing a court martial at the Camp Pendleton Marine base in California for
unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty. The case is one of several
alleged atrocities committed by US troops in Iraq that are still emerging
from the war. This week a US military court in Germany sentenced an American
soldier to 35 years in prison for his role in the execution-style killing of
four Iraqi prisoners in 2007. Sergeant First Class Joseph
P. Mayo, who pleaded guilty, told the court that the four Iraqis were
handcuffed, blindfolded and shot in the head and that their bodies were
dumped in a canal in Baghdad. He said that the Iraqis were detained in
connection with attacks on his unit. They were killed, he said, because he
believed that it was the best way of protecting his men and there was not
enough evidence to keep the Iraqis in detention. The incident involving
Sergeant Weemer, whose hopes of becoming a Secret Serviceman are now over,
occurred when about 10,000 US troops - backed by poorly trained Iraqi forces
- stormed the city of Fallujah, which had been held by al-Qaeda in Iraq and
its Sunni insurgent allies for more than six months. It had been turned into the
main centre for manufacturing the devastating car bombs that al-Qaeda was
using to attack Shia communities down the road in Baghdad, causing carnage
and triggering a devastating sectarian war. There were allegations at
the time of extrajudicial killing on both sides during the US assault, named
Operation Phantom Fury. American forces unearthed al-Qaeda torture chambers
full of bodies and withered husks of survivors, some of them still strapped
into wheelchairs that had been used as mobile torture devices. Sergeant Weemer denied the
charges against him, and his lawyer argued that there was no evidence that a
crime had ever been committed, with no body, no forensic evidence and no
claims by relatives that they had lost a loved one. His squadron leader, Jose
Nazario, has already been tried and found not guilty. A third Marine, also
charged with murder, faces trial in a few weeks. The prosecution said that it
has at least one recording of Sergeant Weemer saying that he had shot a man. As the US forces faced heavy
casualties in Fallujah, during their heaviest combat role since Vietnam, a US
Marine was videotaped by an American reporter shooting dead a wounded
Mujahidin fighter inside a mosque, causing outcry and prompting an
investigation. The American combatant was eventually exonerated, having said
that he had acted in self-defence. During the initial 2003
invasion of Iraq there were reports of US troops “dead-checking” prone Iraqi
combatants - a term used to describe shooting a wounded or apparently dead
enemy in the head to make sure that he was not a suicide bomber faking his
injuries. Similar techniques have been
used by Israeli security personnel in the past to “defuse” a shot suicide
bomber who was still clutching the trigger of his explosives belt. After the weeks-long battle,
many of the bodies were quickly buried in Fallujah’s overcrowded, sometimes
makeshift cemeteries. Many of the fighters were
volunteer jihadists from across the Arab world, some with no military
experience, who had been whipped into religious fervour by clerics in the
Gulf, North Africa and in Iraq’s neighbouring states. Before the battle, the US
military had ordered all civilians to leave Fallujah, a city of about 300,000
inhabitants that was heavily damaged in the fighting. Some did stay in their
homes however, and complained that in the days before the battle, al-Qaeda
shot anyone trying to leave. External link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6016118.ece Marine says he is tormented
over killing of Iraqi prisoner Sgt. Ryan Weemer, in a tape-recording played at his court martial,
says he wants to forget what happened in Fallouja in 2004. He is accused of
unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty. By Tony Perry Los Angeles Times April 2, 2009 Reporting from Camp
Pendleton - A Marine Corps sergeant charged with murdering an Iraqi prisoner
told an investigator that he is tormented by the shooting and has tried to
forget what happened that day in Fallouja in 2004, according to a
tape-recording played Wednesday at his court-martial. In the recording, Sgt. Ryan
Weemer talked of being covered with the blood of his best friend, who was
killed by a sniper, and then minutes later being ordered by his squad leader to
kill an Iraqi taken prisoner when Marines stormed a house. "I grabbed a gun and
took him to the back of the house," Weemer is heard telling two agents
from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. "I shot him twice in the
chest." Weemer, 26, is charged with
unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty, and could face a dishonorable
discharge and life in prison. His jury is comprised of eight Marines, all
with experience in Iraq, Afghanistan or both. During the 90-minute
interview, conducted in 2006, Weemer did not say that the prisoner tried to
grab his gun - although he had said that a month earlier during a job
interview with the Secret Service. Instead, Weemer told of
arguing with his squad leader, then-Sgt. Jose Luis Nazario, against the order
to kill prisoners and then acquiescing. "I definitely wasn't the type to
disobey an order," he said. Nazario was acquitted in
Riverside federal court in August of killing two prisoners and ordering
Weemer and Sgt. Jermaine Nelson to each kill one. The incident occurred on the
first day of the Marine assault on insurgent strongholds in Fallouja on Nov.
9, 2004. Prosecutors allege that the Marines killed the prisoners rather than
take time to leave the battlefield and take them to a makeshift jail. "This happened in a
split-second; this happened in the fog of war," Weemer said. "I
pulled the trigger and I don't feel right about it." Weemer was no longer on
active duty and was working at a Starbucks in Chesterfield, Mo., when he
sought a job with the Secret Service. He mentioned the killings to a job
interviewer, which led to a criminal investigation. He was recalled to active
duty to stand trial. In the interview, Weemer,
his voice occasionally full of emotion, said that during the first day of the
Fallouja battle he saw "too much death in a few hours." He said he
rarely talks to anyone about what happened during the battle. "You never feel right
about anything," he said. "It doesn't matter how right it is ... I
did what I did because I had to." External link: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-marine2-2009apr02,0,275863.story Squad leader refuses to
testify at Marine’s murder trial Jose Nazario Jr. won't answer prosecutor’s questions about Fallujah
killings By Mark Walker North County Times April 2, 2009 Camp Pendleton - A former
Marine who prosecutors say led the slaying of four unarmed Iraqi insurgents
refused to testify Thursday evening against one of the men charged in the
shootings. Jose L. Nazario Jr. appeared
at the end of a marathon session in the trial of Sgt. Ryan Weemer, who is
accused of killing one of the prisoners the men had captured inside a home in
the city of Fallujah on Nov. 9, 2004. "With all due respect,
I will not answer any questions," Nazario repeatedly told a prosecutor,
Capt. Nick Gannon. The judge presiding over
Weemer's trial, Lt. Col. Thomas Sanzi, reminded the former Marine that he had
an immunity grant and a subpoena directing he testify. "You have to answer,"
Sanzi told Nazario, who was acquitted last August of two counts of
manslaughter for his role in the incident. When Nazario still refused,
the judge and Gannon gave up. "It's futile, given his
recalcitrance," Gannon said. The jury that acquitted Nazario
said it could not decide the propriety of actions occurring on a foreign
battlefield. Nazario was tried as a
civilian in U.S. District Court in Riverside because he was out of the Marine
Corps and not subject to being recalled to duty. Weemer has pleaded not
guilty to one count of unpremeditated murder and four counts of dereliction
of duty for alleged mistreatment of detainees. During Nazario's trial,
Weemer and Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, who is charged with killing the fourth
prisoner, also defied subpoenas and refused to testify. Thursday was punctuated with
continuous legal wrangling and multiple interruptions in witness testimony. On two occasions, lead
defense attorney Paul Hackett asked for a mistrial declaration, contending
that the jury had been tainted by hearing statements from prosecutors and
witnesses that he argued were overly prejudicial. On Wednesday, Hackett was
accused of doing much the same thing when he asked a government investigator
if he was aware that Nazario had been acquitted. That statement also tainted
the jury, prosecutors said. The judge refused to declare
a mistrial. A key witness appearing
Thursday was Cory Carlisle, a member of the squad inside the home when the
slayings are alleged to have occurred. Carlisle said that shortly
after hearing a gunshot inside the home, he saw the then-Cpl. Weemer standing
near the body of the oldest captive. "He went for my
gun," Carlisle said Weemer told him. Later that day as they sat
inside a Humvee, Carlisle said Weemer expressed remorse and said the
prisoners were killed because of a "command from higher up." Carlisle, like Weemer, was
shot and wounded a few days after the incident. But he said the prisoner
shooting was worse than being wounded. "I often refer to it as
'the worst day of my life,’” Carlisle said, adding he second-guesses himself
for not having intervened. Asked by Gannon if he
believed anything warranted the prisoners being shot, Carlisle said no. "They were
unarmed," he said. Weemer's attorneys say
Nazario ordered the shootings and Weemer did so only in self-defense. Nazario's order to shoot
came after he radioed insurgents had been captured and was reportedly told by
an unnamed superior to "take care of it" and asked "are they
dead yet?" The trial continues Friday
morning and testimony is expected to conclude Friday or Monday. It takes two-thirds of the
jury to convict Weemer on any of the charges he faces. External link: http://www.northcountytimes.com/articles/2009/04/02/military/z4d09d6b811c8ded98825758c006c86bb.txt |