3 US Soldiers in Iraq Charged with Triple Homicide
- From: "Bo Raxo" <CheneysHeartIs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 19 Jun 2006 22:17:42 -0700
Definately turning the corner, with one side in its last throes. Just
perhaps not the one Cheney had in mind.
But hey, we finally got Zarqawi, and it only took three years.
Bo Raxo
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/20/world/middleeast/20iraq.html?hp&ex=1150862400&en=b5471483711e2340&ei=5094&partner=homepage
WASHINGTON, June 19 - Three American soldiers suspected of killing
three detainees in Iraq and then threatening a soldier with death if he
reported the shootings have been charged with premeditated murder and
obstructing justice, Army officials said Monday.
The accused soldiers, two enlisted men and a noncommissioned officer,
also face charges of attempted murder, conspiracy and threatening in
connection with the deaths of the three detainees on May 9, the Army's
documents showed.
One Defense Department official said investigators had evidence that
the soldiers had released the detainees deliberately before they were
shot, apparently to have a pretext for killing them as they fled.
In Iraq on Monday, an Islamic militant group linked to Al Qaeda said it
had captured two American soldiers listed as missing, but it offered no
proof, and American military officials remained skeptical. The two
soldiers disappeared Friday night in an ambush southwest of Baghdad,
and the military has organized a force of 8,000 American and Iraqi
troops to find them.
The three soldiers charged by the Army were identified as Staff Sgt.
Raymond L. Girouard, Specialist William B. Hunsaker and Pfc. Corey R.
Clagett. A conviction of murder under the Uniform Code of Military
Justice can carry the death penalty. A conviction of attempted murder
carries a maximum punishment of life in prison, as does a conviction of
conspiracy. A conviction for wrongfully communicating a threat carries
a maximum term of five years.
The victims remained unidentified and were listed on the charge sheets
only as male detainees apparently of Middle Eastern descent.
The three soldiers, assigned to the Third Brigade Combat Team of the
101st Airborne Division, were jailed in Kuwait last Thursday to await
hearings to determine whether they would face courts-martial, officials
said.
The charge sheets list a number of instances in which the suspects are
said to have threatened another soldier with death if he assisted
investigators. The charge sheets quote the suspects as saying to the
soldier, a private first class, " 'I will kill you if you tell anyone,'
or words to that effect," and " 'You better not talk or I will kill
you,' or words to that effect."
Military officials said over the weekend that the allegation of
wrongdoing was raised by an enlisted soldier. Military officials said
the soldiers suspected in the killings initially asserted that the
three detainees had died as they were trying to escape.
The shootings occurred near the Muthanna Chemical Complex along the
Tharthar Canal, in southern Salahuddin Province, a restive Sunni Arab
region in north-central Iraq, according to the military statements.
Military officials said the shootings came during a joint
American-Iraqi raid of suspected insurgent positions inside the
chemical complex.
Few other details were available.
[...]
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