Scandals, Iraq War, Torture, Rape and Abuse
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Revision as of 01:50, 6 November 2006
Iraq War, Torture, Rape and Abuse
Soldiers in 'guns for coke' scandal
September 24, 2006 BRITISH soldiers have been caught smuggling stolen guns out of Iraq and allegedly exchanging them for cocaine and cash on the black market.
Security officials confirmed this weekend that soldiers from the 3rd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment are at the centre of a criminal inquiry by the Royal Military Police (RMP) into a “guns for cocaine” network.
Their alleged involvement with organised crime is a fresh blow to the British Army after a week in which a corporal from the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment admitted he had committed a war crime against an Iraqi civilian.
Although drug use is increasing in the armed forces, this is the first time military police have evidence that stolen weapons are being sold to pay for them.
One of the first soldiers from the Yorkshire Regiment to have been arrested is alleged to have bought drugs by trading handguns, including Glock pistols, smuggled from Iraq to Germany on at least six occasions.
A security source said some of the weapons had been exchanged for about 50 grams of cocaine with a street value of £2,500. The drugs were sold to other British soldiers serving in Iraq.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2372277,00.html
Youtube
Cowboy soldiers on notice over videos
September 18, 2006 DEFENCE chief Angus Houston has ordered a full investigation into video images posted on the internet showing skylarking Australian soldiers in Baghdad brandishing weapons. One of the clips posted on the popular website www.youtube.com shows an Australian Defence Force soldier pointing a pistol at a fellow Digger dressed in an Arab headdress, with other clips showing soldiers aiming their weapons at one another.
Air Chief Marshal Houston said yesterday that there was "no place in the ADF for members who behave in this way".
And army chief Peter Leahy flagged the possibility of soldiers being sacked.
"We will complete an investigation and then, put simply, I will be asking a question why these soldiers should remain in the army," he said yesterday.
"They will have an opportunity to put their case and it will be done under the correct administrative procedures. Everybody would expect me to ask that question: if you are that silly, what are you doing in the army?"
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20429796-601,00.html
Hamdania
Encinitas Marine pleads guilty in Hamdania killing
CAMP PENDLETON ---- An Encinitas native said Thursday that he and some of his Marine Corps squad mates gunned down a Iraqi civilian after the man scrambled out of the dirt hole they had tossed him in.
The admission from Pfc. John Jodka III came as he pleaded guilty in a Camp Pendleton courtroom to aggravated assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice, charges arising from the shooting in the middle of the night of 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad on April 26 in Hamdania, Iraq.
Jodka is the second of eight Camp Pendleton men accused in the slaying to plead guilty. He painted his platoon sergeant as the architect of the murder plot, a mission the sergeant revealed to the six lower-ranking Marines and a Navy corpsman he was leading on a combat patrol that evening.
"I agreed to the plan and agreed to go forward with it without objection," Jodka told Lt. Col. David Jones, the judge who presided over Jodka's three-hour court-martial.
The scheme laid out by Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, Jodka said, was to kidnap, kill and frame a man they believed to be an insurgent ---- a different man, it would turn out, than the one they killed that night.
Jodka testified that he knew what the men were doing was illegal.
"Civilians and noncombatants are not lawful targets," Jodka said when asked by the judge if he understood the U.S. military's rules of engagement on the night Awad was killed.
The 20-year-old sat rigidly with his fingers interlaced as he gave a rapid-fire, matter-of-fact description of what he saw during the shooting that landed him and seven squad mates in the Camp Pendleton brig this summer.
In exchange for the guilty plea, government prosecutors agreed to drop the original charges levied against Jodka, allegations that included kidnapping and murder.
"He is a good kid caught up in a bad situation," one of Jodka's civilian attorneys, Joseph Casas, said after the court session.
Sentencing for the young Marine is set for 8 a.m. Nov. 15.
"He will have a chance to talk about the pressures he faced in Iraq," Casas said.
The attorney declined to discuss the sentence laid out in Jodka's plea agreement.
One of Jodka's co-defendants, Petty Officer Melson Bacos, received a year in jail in his plea deal, which unfolded three weeks ago as Bacos admitted to charges of kidnapping and conspiracy to kidnap and make false statements.
Much of Jodka's testimony fell in line with the story Bacos told when he pleaded guilty on Oct. 6.
Jodka ---- who graduated from San Dieguito Academy high school in 2004 and headed to the University of California, Riverside for a semester before joining the Marines ---- was the youngest and least-experienced man accused in Awad's slaying. He had been a Marine for less than a year and in Iraq for four months when the shooting took place.
His father, John Jodka Jr, has been a vocal defender of his son. The elder Jodka joined his former wife and her parents in the first row of the courtroom as his son described the plot and the aftermath.
"I'm as proud of my son as the day he enlisted in the Marines," Jodka's father said after the hearing, choking back tears. "He stood up like a Marine."
'We got him'
Of the remaining six defendants, the cases for all but one have been ordered to trial. Hutchins, who has maintained his innocence through his family and attorneys, is awaiting word on whether he will be ordered to court-martial.
Jodka testified that he and the others were on patrol looking for insurgents planting roadside bombs ---- which the military calls IEDs, or improvised explosive devices ---- on April 25 when Hutchins called them together at about sunset.
Hutchins laid out the scheme, Jodka said, which was to kidnap and kill a man named Saleh Gowad, then to place his body in a roadside hole next to a stolen AK-47 and shovel. The men all agreed to take part in the murder plot, Jodka said.
Jodka told the judge his superiors had identified Gowad as an insurgent; Jodka said his squad had arrested Gowad at least three times previously, only to have him be released each time.
The plan was set into motion at about 1:30 a.m.
Four of the men ---- Cpls. Marshall Magincalda and Trent Thomas, Lance Cpl. Robert Pennington and Corpsman Bacos ---- all headed out to snatch Gowad from his home.
When Bacos testified three weeks ago, he said they could not find Gowad, so instead they grabbed a neighbor ---- Awad.
The four troops returned with their captive under a moonless sky, Jodka said.
"I overheard Cpl. Thomas tell Sgt. Hutchins that we got him and he's in the hole," Jodka testified, adding that the hole was about 75 yards away.
"At this point, you thought the individual was Saleh Gowad?" the judge asked Jodka.
"Yes sir," he replied.
'You know what to say'
According to the charges filed in June, the men bound the hands and feet of Awad ---- who was a retired Iraqi policeman ---- before shoving him into the hole.
Jodka said Hutchins ordered the men to open fire. But Awad stood up and scrambled out of the hole, which was about 2 1/2 feet deep.
"I don't know if he stood up after he was shot, or was shot after he stood up," Jodka said, soon adding, "I couldn't see the man in the hole at the time we were firing, sir. I only saw him stand up and run down the road to the north."
Jodka said he and the others kept shooting.
Afterward, Jodka said he was crossing the road to secure the area when he heard gunfire behind him.
"As I turned around, I saw Sgt. Hutchins, Cpl. Thomas and Lance Cpl. Pennington standing in the vicinity (of the gunfire)," Jodka said. "Cpl. Thomas and Sgt. Hutchins told me they were performing a 'dead check.' "
During his testimony on Oct. 6, Bacos said he saw Hutchins fire three shots into the man's head, and Thomas fire as many as 10 bullets into the man's chest.
Later, Jodka said, the men gathered on a roof.
"Sgt. Hutchins ... said to us if anyone were to ask what happened, the words he used were, 'You know what to say,' " Jodka said. "I took that to mean that if anyone asked, we were to say that we had seen this man approach with a shovel and begin digging and that he had engaged us and we lawfully engaged him."
Jodka told the judge that his actions discredited the Marine Corps "because of the notoriety of the case and the Iraq war."
"Anything that happens that gets reported becomes ammunition," Jodka said. "Anything like this would present an argument against the war."
Bacos and Jodka are being held in the brig at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station. The other defendants remain in the Camp Pendleton brig, where all the men were placed in late May after being returned to the U.S. from Iraq.
Following the hearing, David Brahms, a former Marine Corps general and now an attorney in private practice who representing Pennington in the Hamdania incident, said his confidence in securing his client's innocence is undiminished.
"I have never been more confident about my case after listening to this," said Brahms, who watched the Jodka court-martial from a base media center. "I have the toughest kid who has said, 'I don't want a deal, I don't even want to hear anything about a government offer.'"
As a result, Brahms said, "We are going to go ahead and plead not guilty and go to trial."
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/10/27/news/top_stories/1_01_510_25_06.txt
Encinitas Marine reported ready to plead guilty in Hamdania case
CAMP PENDLETON ---- An Encinitas Marine who until now has steadfastly maintained his innocence is expected to plead guilty next week for his role in the April 26 killing of an Iraqi man, the Marine's attorneys said Friday.
The deal would make Pfc. John Jodka III the second of eight Camp Pendleton men to admit to taking part in the kidnapping and slaying of Hashim Ibrahim Awad.
Jodka, 20, is expected to plead guilty to assault and obstruction of justice, said Joseph Casas, one of the young Marine's two civilian attorneys.
Like his co-defendants, Jodka is charged with murder, kidnapping and a host of related offenses in Awad's death in the Iraqi village of Hamdania.
Casas declined to provide specific details on the sentence he expects his client to receive.
"I can't talk about any negotiations with the government, assuming there are any," he said.
Jodka is the youngest of the defendants and the lowest-ranking among the seven Marines and Navy corpsman charged in the case. He also was the least experienced, having been only four months into his first deployment in Iraq when the killing took place.
Through his attorneys and family members, Jodka has said from the beginning that he was not guilty of any wrongdoing.
His father, John Jodka Jr., a vocal critic of the prosecution, said he will forever be proud of his son.
"It's too soon for me to respond other than to say that I'm as proud of my son as the day he went in the Marines," he said. "He was the best damn PFC in Iraq."
Jane Siegel, Jodka's other hired attorney, said she believes the deal is a proper resolution for her client.
"I think that he wants to do the right thing, and I think he is," she said.
Jodka is scheduled to face a military judge in a Camp Pendleton courtroom at 9 a.m. Thursday. He will not be sentenced until some time before Thanksgiving, his attorney said.
The plea deal was first reported on the North County Times Web site early Friday afternoon.
On June 21, the Marine Corps charged the men with dragging the 52-year-old Awad out of his home, marching him about 1,000 yards, placing him in a makeshift dirt hole and shooting him to death.
They also were accused of placing a stolen AK-47 and a shovel next to the body of the retired Iraqi policeman and father of 14 children to make it appear he was an insurgent planting a roadside bomb, and then lying about it.
According to charges, Jodka was among five men said to have fired on Awad.
When Petty Officer 3rd Class Melson Bacos pleaded guilty on Oct. 6 to his role in the killing, he implicated two squad mates as triggermen: Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins, the squad leader, and Cpl. Trent Thomas, a fire team leader in the platoon.
Bacos said during his Oct. 6 court-martial that Hutchins fired three rounds into Awad's head and that Thomas fired as many as 10 bullets into the man's chest.
The corpsman's testimony came as he pleaded guilty to kidnapping and conspiracy to kidnap and make false official statements. In exchange for his plea, he was sentenced to 12 months in the brig with credit for 142 days served and an agreement he testify for the prosecution.
The squad was out looking for another man, one believed to be an insurgent, Bacos said, but settled for Awad when they could not find their original target.
Bacos' testimony represented the first public airing of what may have happened. At all the other hearings for the accused men, the investigative officers overseeing the proceedings agreed to review the bulk of the evidence in private.
A Marine Corps spokesman declined to confirm the Jodka agreement.
"It would be inappropriate for me to comment on any potential negotiations between the government and defense counsel," Lt. Col. Sean Gibson said Friday afternoon.
The accused men are all members of Camp Pendleton's 2nd platoon of Kilo Company attached to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment.
Jodka attended elementary and middle school at St. James Academy, a Catholic school in Solana Beach. He graduated from San Dieguito Academy high school in 2004 and spent an academic quarter at UC Riverside before deciding to enlist as a Marine.
In May 2005, Jodka shipped off to boot camp, and in January was sent to Iraq. He was there when he turned 20 in April ---- less than four weeks before Awad's death.
The military opened an investigation into the incident about a week after it occurred. By mid-May, the eight accused squad mates were under house arrest in Iraq.
The men were flown back to Camp Pendleton two weeks later and placed in the brig there on May 24. Two weeks ago, Jodka and Bacos were moved to the brig at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.
A second guilty plea could have a dramatic effect on the other cases, according to Georgetown University law professor and attorney Gary Solis.
"I hesitate to say it will spur more guilty pleas," Solis said, "but if I were one of the defense counsel I would be foolish if I didn't say to my client 'Why don't we look into the possibility of a plea deal? If we can get something like this, would you be interested?'"
A retired Marine who spent more than two decades as a military lawyer and judge, Solis said potential jurors in any trials for the remaining defendants were more than likely to be aware of the deals that prosecutors reached with Bacos and Jodka.
"Theoretically, it's supposed to have no effect because each case is tried individually. But practically speaking, it would be hard to ignore and difficult for a juror not to realize these other cases are going at a lower price."
He added that a second plea deal is not all that surprising given the apparent strength of the government's case based on statements each manmade to Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents in Iraq when confronted shortly after Awad's death.
"The government seemingly has such strong evidence, so for someone to flip and make a deal to testify for the prosecution is not exactly shocking," Solis said.
Diann Shumate, mother of co-defendant Lance Cpl. Jerry Shumate Jr., seemed discouraged when told of the news when reached at her home in western Washington state.
"They are really putting the pressure on these guys," she said, declining further comment.
Her son lost a bid for release from the brig last week and has reserved his right to enter a plea against the charges he faces.
Despite the guilty plea by Bacos and now the apparent Jodka deal, supporters of the men who have conducted rallies in front of the Camp Pendleton gate each Saturday since the summer are expected there again today, albeit in far smaller numbers.
A rally organizer, Christine Bruce, said this week that the demonstrators numbered about a dozen last Saturday compared with more than 100 when they first began months ago.
"People are sort of feeling now like there's just a lot that we don't know and we will just watch and see what happens," Bruce said.
Participants were disappointed when word of the Bacos deal came, she added.
"But we don't know his full story and his reasons for doing what he did," she said in reference to the corpsman.
Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 631-6624 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com. Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.
Fast Facts
The following is the status of seven Marines and Navy corpsman charged
with killing a 52-year-old Iraqi man in the village of Hamdania on April 26. Each remain in custody in the brig at either Camp Pendleton or Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.
Petty Officer Melson Bacos, 21, Franklin, Wis.:
Pleaded guilty Oct. 6 to kidnapping and conspiracy to kidnap and making false official statements. In exchange, Bacos was given a 12-month jail sentence ---- with 142 days credit for time served ---- and an agreement that he testify for the government.
Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, 22, Plymouth, Mass.:
Article 32 investigative hearing conducted Monday. Awaiting hearing officer's recommendation to Lt. Gen. James Mattis as to whether he should be ordered to trial.
Lance Cpl. Tyler Jackson, 23, Tracy:
Waived Article 32 hearing and has been ordered to trial.
Pfc. John Jodka III, 20, Encinitas:
Set to appear at a court-martial Thursday to plead guilty to assault and obstruction of justice, his attorneys said Friday.
Cpl. Marshall Magincalda, 23, Manteca:
Ordered to trial by Lt. Gen. Mattis. Pleaded not guilty during arraignment proceeding last month. Trial is set for Feb. 1.
Lance Cpl. Robert Pennington, 22, Mukilteo, Wash.:
Waived Article 32 hearing and has been ordered to trial.
Lance Cpl. Jerry Shumate Jr., 21, Matlock, Wash.:
Ordered to trial by Lt. Gen. Mattis. Reserved the right to enter plea to charges at a later date during arraignment Friday. Trial is set for Feb. 12.
Cpl. Trent D. Thomas, 24, St. Louis, Mo.:
Waived Article 32 hearing and has been ordered to trial.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/10/21/news/top_stories/2_00_0610_20_06.txt
Medic pleads guilty, details killing of Iraqi
October 07, 2006 CAMP PENDLETON ---- The medic said they hatched the murder plan in an Iraqi palm grove as the sun set on a spring evening.
They were a squad on patrol in the village of Hamdania, Petty Officer 3rd Class Melson Bacos testified Friday, when they agreed to the plot: Seize a man widely believed to be an insurgent. Kill him. Stage the scene to cover it up. Lie about it when other Marines come around to investigate.
And if their target eluded them, the young Navy corpsman said, they would just grab someone else, anyone else. But the plan would remain the same: kidnap and kill an Iraqi.
Bacos' story detailing the events of the evening of April 25 and early morning hours of April 26 in Hamdania played out in a Camp Pendleton courtroom Friday. It was the first public account of an incident that led to murder, kidnapping and conspiracy charges against a platoon of seven Marines and the Navy corpsman assigned to take care of their emergency medical needs.
When the men couldn't find their intended target, Bacos told the court, they grabbed another man from another home in the middle of the night.
There came a moment after the kidnapping and before the slaying, the medic said, when "I knew what we were doing was wrong."
It was then, he said, that he asked a squad mate to free the bound man ---- but the Marine would not do it.
"I tried to say something, sir," Bacos told a military judge, "and I decided to look away."
For pleading guilty to conspiracy and kidnapping during his daylong court-martial Friday, and for agreeing to testify against his Camp Pendleton squad mates, Bacos will serve one year in jail, with credit for 142 days already served. He will not be discharged from the service.
Military Judge Col. Steven Folsom actually sentenced Bacos to 10 years and a dishonorable discharge, but the pretrial plea deal Bacos had in hand ---- which has already been approved by Camp Pendleton's commander, Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis ---- precluded Folsom from handing down anything longer than 12 months.
In light of that, Folsom suspended the remainder of the 10-year sentence, provided that Bacos holds up his end of the deal.
'The only honorable thing'
The Navy corpsman is one of eight local service members accused in the slaying of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, who was not the targeted insurgent the squad was looking for that night. Instead, they grabbed Awad, a 52-year-old retired Iraqi police officer with a lame foot.
Nearly two months after Awad's death, the military charged the eight servicemen with murder, kidnapping and related offenses.
Before he learned his fate from the judge, Bacos read from a prepared statement, explaining why he decided to plead guilty and tell what he knew.
"I sincerely believe this is the only honorable thing to do, that to tell the truth is the only honorable thing to do," Bacos said. "I accept responsibility for my actions."
Bacos also apologized to the family of the slain Awad.
"I wanted to be part of the team, but there is no excuse for immorality," Bacos said. "I feel as if my honor is gone and I have let down others who have looked up to me. I apologize to my country, to the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps."
One of Bacos' prosecutors, Capt. Nicholas Gannon, argued for a sentence of up to 15 years and a dishonorable discharge, calling the crime "the worst kind of kidnapping there is, because the victim is never coming back."
Gannon told the judge that Bacos' remorse was "too little, too late."
"There was ample opportunity for Petty Officer Bacos to have this crisis of conscience," Gannon said, listing a number of chances Bacos had to stop his squad mates that night, including the time in which the men allegedly dragged the limping Awad from his home to the killing scene, some 1,000 yards away.
Bacos struck the deal with prosecutors earlier this week when he agreed to testify against the seven co-defendants.
The medic is the only one of the accused men ---- all of whom are members of 2nd Platoon, Kilo Company, with the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment ---- to plead guilty to the charges.
News of his plea deal was first reported by the North County Times on its Web site Tuesday night.
The ambush mission
Bacos' story was dramatic, if his presentation was not. The soft-spoken Navy medic, in a solemn monotone, was barely audible as he gave his account.
He laid much of the blame on the squad leader, Marine Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III.
Bacos said the squad was out on an ambush mission that evening when they staked out a position in a grove of palm trees.
Senior members of the squad huddled in the grove, he said, plotting the murder. The man who outlined the plan, Bacos said, was Hutchins.
He said Hutchins told the entire group that four of them would then go to a home, any home, seize a shovel and assault rifle, and stash it all in a safe spot so they could came back for it later.
They would then head to the home of Saleh Gowad ---- a man Bacos said was a known insurgent who had been detained and released three times prior ---- and seize him.
They would kill Gowad and stage the scene to make it look like the squad happened upon him while he was digging a bomb, with an AK-47 assault rifle at the ready.
And if they couldn't find Gowad, they would go to another house and grab someone else. The rest of the plan would stay the same.
There in the palm grove, Bacos said, the eight men all agreed. "We all said, 'I'm in,' " Bacos testified, adding he "didn't believe they would carry out a plan like that, so I brushed it off.
"When we moved in a second position under the tree, that's when it was set in stone."
And after the killing, the corpsman and the Marines agreed, should anybody ask what had happened, they would tell the same tale, Bacos said.
At 1:30 a.m. April 26, they put the plan in motion.
Bacos said he and three Marines, radio operator Lance Cpl. Robert Pennington and Cpls. Trent Thomas and Marshall Magincalda Jr., headed out.
They stopped at a house. Bacos said he snatched a shovel from outside the home; Magincalda and Thomas disappeared into the house, and returned with an AK-47 they had seized from the residents.
They made their way, he said, to Gowad's home.
"As we were getting ready to go inside, one of the family members woke up and saw us," Bacos said, adding that they told the person to "go back to sleep."
Then, he said, Cpl. Thomas "pointed at a house next door."
It was Awad's house.
Bacos said that he and Pennington stayed outside while Magincalda and Thomas went in. When they came out, they brought with them "an old male."
They bound his hands with plastic cuffs, the medic said, and walked toward a roadside dirt hole that would become the killing scene ---- but not before they retrieved the stashed gun and shovel. Bacos said he was the one who carried the stolen gun.
They finally reached the spot. One of them dug a hole. One of them bound Awad's feet. One of them gagged his mouth. They left him in the hole they had dug, a spot designed to look as if it were being carved out to hold a roadside bomb.
Bacos said he finally asked his buddies to stop.
"While they were finishing up ... I went up to the road and asked them if we should do this," Bacos said, adding that he backed off any protest after Magincalda called him a name.
"I felt they were gonna do what they were gonna do. l felt I could do nothing else," Bacos said, "so I continued on with the plan."
Bacos said he took the AK-47 and went back to a tree to join the other four men, including the squad leader.
"Sgt. Hutchins ordered them to get on line and point their weapons at the IED hole," Bacos said in reference to the military's shorthand for a roadside bomb. "The first shot was fired by Sgt. Hutchins."
Bacos said Hutchins then called the command operations center to request permission to shoot and "made it sound like we were in a firefight with this man."
The squad, he said, was "seven or nine meters" from the hole that was dug to make it appear Awad was planting a bomb.
Afterward, Bacos said, Magincalda told him to throw the AK-47 casings around Awad's body to make it appear the Iraqi had fired first with that weapon.
"That's where I witnessed Sgt. Hutchins fire three rounds into the man's head and Thomas fired seven to 10 rounds in the man's chest," he said.
When the shooting stopped, Bacos said, he was "shocked, sick to my stomach, my adrenaline was pumping."
After they reported having killed an insurgent, the Marines dispatched a "quick reaction" squad to investigate.
With that squad was another Navy medic, who Bacos said asked him what had happened. That was his chance to distance himself from the Marines.
"I said, 'I want you to remember something,' " Bacos said he told his fellow medic. "'We're different, we're not like these men.' "
Less than a week later, suspicions would be raised when Awad's family came forward.
Authorities responded quickly, assigning several agents to investigate the case and restricting the men to their base, Camp Fallujah. A short time later, they were ordered to return to the U.S. and were placed in the Camp Pendleton brig on May 24.
During their first month of confinement, the men were shackled when they left their single-man cells. That raised the ire of their attorneys, family members and supporters, and that restriction was subsequently lifted.
'Ready to move on'
Before Bacos was sentenced, prosecutors showed photographs of Awad's bloodied body and a 19-minute videotaped interview with the slain man's brother, an Arabic speaker whose words were translated into English by an interpreter.
"Just imagine if you lost one very close to your heart," said the 54-year-old man, whose name was not immediately available. "I swear if he did a bad thing, I wouldn't be sad today."
He said his brother, who had 11 children, had nothing against U.S. forces and had never participated in any action against coalition troops.
Bacos sat with his chin resting in his hands most of the time that the video was being played, occasionally looking down or away from the small screen set up at the defense table.
During the defense presentation, Bacos described his upbringing as the son of Filipino immigrants and said he signed up for a five-year Navy enlistment in August 2003, shortly after graduating from high school.
Following his training, Bacos was assigned to Camp Pendleton in early 2004, and in November of that year, he was in Fallujah for one of the major battles of the war.
When the court session ended, Bacos marched with his attorneys to a spot outside a media center established at Camp Pendleton to accommodate coverage of the Hamdania case.
The slight-framed Bacos, dressed in a crisp summer white Navy dress uniform, said that he wanted to thank supporters, wants to get this behind him and maybe go to medical school one day.
"I'm just ready to move on from this chapter in my life," he said.
His hired attorney, Jeremiah Sullivan, said the plea deal was a just resolution for his client that will allow him to "have a bright future."
More to come
Before that kind of future begins, however, he must serve his time and testify in the up to seven cases still pending should each go to trial.
On Tuesday, Bacos was moved from the brig at Camp Pendleton to Miramar to separate him from the other accused servicemen. Pfc. John Jodka III also has been moved to Miramar, where his father, John Jodka Jr., said he is being held in facilities that are "better suited for him."
The elder Jodka also said his son continues to maintain he is innocent of any wrongdoing despite being implicated by Bacos. He would not say if a plea deal is in the works.
"He is profoundly affected by what Corpsman Bacos has done, but he is an innocent Marine and he is not guilty of the charges brought against him," the father said.
Leanne Magincalda, the mother of Cpl. Magincalda, said she talked to her son Friday afternoon.
"He hurt really bad when he heard about Bacos," she said. "The hurt is what came through when I talked to him because he knows that what he (her son) did was not wrong. Despite what Bacos said, the truth is going to prevail."
Pretrial hearings for four of the defendants are scheduled to take place the week of Oct. 15. On Tuesday, Magincalda and Jodka pleaded not guilty when they were formally arraigned on murder, kidnapping and related offenses.
Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 631-6624 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com. Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwaker@nctimes.com.
Guilty pleas latest chapter in long line of events
CAMP PENDLETON ---- Guilty pleas submitted by a Navy Corpsman on Friday came after nearly six months of investigation into the alleged murder of an Iraqi civilian by Camp Pendleton troops. Petty Officer 3rd Class Melson Bacos testified in a military court Friday that the incident began on the evening of April 25, when his squad put together a plan to kidnap and kill an Iraqi. Since then, eight men have been charged with murder in the incident. Until Friday, the men stuck together with a story that they had done nothing wrong. Bacos' plea, while the latest chapter in the story, promises not to be the last.
The following is a time line of events in the case:
- April 26 ---- Alleged murder of Hashim Ibrahim Awad.Alleged incident took place in Hamdania, Iraq.
- May 1---- Preliminary investigation begins as officials learn of the alleged killing.
- May 7 ---- The Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Navy's investigative branch begins a criminal investigation.
- May 12---- Eleven Marines and Bacos are removed from their unit and ordered back to Camp Pendleton, where they arrive May 24.
- May 25 ---- Seven Marines and Bacos are placed in pre-trial confinement at the Camp Pendleton brig.The additional four Marines are placed on base restriction.
- June 21---- Seven Marines and Bacos are charged with murder in connection with Awad's death.
- Aug. 30 ---- Pretrial hearings, known in the military as Article 32 hearings, begin for some of the men charged in the alleged killing.
- Sept. 25 ---- Officials order military trials, or courts martial, for Private First Class John J. Jodka, Cpl. Marshall L. Magincalda and Lance Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate.
- Oct. 4---- Jodka and Magincalda plead not guilty to the charges against them.
- Oct. 6 ---- Bacos, a Navy corpsman with the squad, pleads guilty to kidnapping and conspiracy. Murder charges are dropped. He is sentenced to a year in military confinement in exchange for testifying against seven others charged in the incident. In accordance with the plea deal, he is not discharged.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/10/07/news/top_stories/1_29_9910_5_06.txt
http://www.nctimes.com/special_reports/hamdania/
Six Marines charged with assault
The Marine Corps has filed charges against six Marines for an alleged April 10 assault on an unnamed Iraqi man in the village of Hamdania, officials announced Thursday.
Three of the charged are already in the base brig awaiting court action on charges they kidnapped and killed another Iraqi civilian on April 26.
The early evening announcement from Camp Pendleton identified the suspects in the April 10 incident as Lance Cpls. Saul H. Lopezromo and Henry D. Lever and Pfc. Derek I. Lewis. Also charged are Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III, Cpl. Trent D. Thomas and Lance Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate Jr., who along with four other Marines and a Navy corpsman stand accused of premeditated murder in the April 26 death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad.
Lt. Col. Sean Gibson, a Marine Corps spokesman at Camp Pendleton, said more specific details about the alleged April 10 assault would not be available until this morning.
Victor Kelley, a civilian attorney hired by the Thomas family to defend him on the murder charge, termed the latest allegation "bull...." and said his client is innocent.
"It didn't happen," Kelley said in a telephone interview from his home in Birmingham, Ala. "Cpl. Thomas had nothing to do with that, and it is not going to be proven."
Salahuddin province, Soldiers say orders were to kill all military-age Iraqis
Four U.S. soldiers accused of murdering suspected insurgents during a raid in Iraq said they were under orders to "kill all military-age males," according to sworn statements obtained by The Associated Press.
The soldiers took some of the men into custody because they were using two women and a toddler as human shields. They shot three of the men after the women and child were safe and say the men attacked them.
"The ROE (rule of engagement) was to kill all military age males on Objective Murray," Staff Sgt. Raymond Girouard told investigators, referring to the target by its code name. That target, an island on a canal in the northern Salahuddin province, was believed to be an al-Qaida training camp.
Girouard, Spc. William Hunsaker, Pfc. Corey Clagett and Spc. Juston Graber are charged with murder and other offenses in the shooting deaths of three of the men during the May 9 raid.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/278480_soldiers22.html
Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, US soldiers charged in rape case
Four US soldiers have been charged with rape and murder over an attack on an Iraqi woman who was killed along with her family last March. The soldiers, on active duty in Iraq, are accused of conspiring with former soldier Steven Green to commit the crimes in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad. Mr Green, who is being held in the US, denies the rape and murder charges. A fifth soldier serving in Iraq has been charged with dereliction of duty for failing to report the offences.
Iraq rape-slaying hearing begins
A preliminary hearing began Sunday for four U.S. soldiers charged in connection with the rape and slaying of an Iraqi female and the killings of her family earlier this year in Mahmoudiya, Iraq.
Three witnesses took the stand on the first day of the Article 32 hearing at Camp Victory near Baghdad, including an Iraqi army medic who gave graphic testimony about the state of the bodies.
Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, Spec. James P. Barker, Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, and Pfc. Bryan L. Howard were all charged with conspiring with former Pfc. Steven D. Green to commit the crimes, the military said.
The four could face the death penalty, the military has said.
A fifth soldier, Sgt. Anthony W. Yribe, was charged with failing to report the rape and killings but is not alleged to have been a direct participant. He is not facing an Article 32 hearing at this time.
Green, who was discharged from the Army in May due an "anti-social personality disorder," faces rape and murder charges in federal court. He is being held in a Kentucky jail, where last month he was granted a three-month delay in his arraignment. He has pleaded not guilty.
All six are from the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) out of Fort Campbell, Ky.
The incident took place in March in Mahmoudiya, just south of Baghdad. A Justice Department affidavit filed in Green's case says Green and other soldiers planned the rape.
The affidavit says Green shot and killed the woman's relatives, including a girl of about 5 years of age; raped the woman; then fatally shot her. It says the incident took place "on or about March 12, 2006."
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/08/06/iraq.main/index.html
Friends of former soldier charged in Iraq deaths recall unpredictable behavior
Medic testifies at U.S. troops' hearing
Investigator: Troops drank, golfed before Iraqi killings, rape
Torture and Prisoner Abuse
Colonel's leadership at Abu Ghraib questioned
Ex-intelligence officer testifies he was concerned about prison conditions
October 17, 2006 The former top military intelligence officer at Abu Ghraib said he began doubting his deputy's leadership ability shortly after the deputy, who is now charged with abusing detainees, arrived on the job.
Col. Thomas Pappas testified at Fort Meade today that he became concerned about the job performance of Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan and about conditions inside the prison after the International Committee of the Red Cross visited in October 2003, about a month after Jordan's assignment there. Pappas said Jordan did not immediately tell him that the Red Cross had objected to naked detainees inside Abu Ghraib.
Pappas also testified that Jordan had not immediately informed him of a Nov. 24, 2003, incident in which a detainee was shot and wounded by military police during a struggle after guards found a handgun in the prisoner's cell.
Pappas testified by telephone from Fort Knox today at Jordan's Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury proceeding. The hearing is to determine whether Jordan, the highest-ranking officer charged in the scandal, should be court-martialed for any of the 12 charges he faces. He faces a maximum of 42 years in prison if convicted of all counts.
On Monday, the court heard from Maj. Gen. George Fay, who wrote a report on detainee maltreatment at the prison in Iraq. Fay said Jordan lied to investigators about his knowledge of detainee abuse.
Fay said his investigation found that Jordan, a military intelligence reservist, was in charge of the Joint Interrogation Debriefing Center despite Jordan's insistence to Fay that his director's title meant he was just a liaison between the center and superior officers.
"I believe Lt. Col. Jordan knew about some of those abuses and did not stop some of those abuses," Fay said under direct questioning by prosecutor Lt. Col. John P. Tracy.
Fay also said that Jordan "told us a story that was deceptive and it was misleading and he tried to avoid responsibility for his role at Abu Ghraib."
For instance, Fay said that when he asked Jordan if he had seen prisoners stripped naked, Jordan told him he had, but that the nudity had nothing to do with interrogations. Jordan replied that "it all had to do with the lack of clothing at the time," Fay said in response to a question from hearing officer Col. Daniel Cummings
Jordan, 50, of Fredericksburg, Va., is the highest-ranking officer charged with abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 and early 2004. Now assigned to the Intelligence and Security Command at Fort Belvoir, Va., he was director of the interrogation center from mid-September through late November 2003, when detainees were physically abused, threatened with dogs and sexually humiliated.
The Joint Interrogation Debriefing Center was created in September 2003 as part of a reorganization aimed at extracting more and better intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq.
Eleven lower-ranking soldiers have been convicted of crimes in the scandal. Pappas was reprimanded and fined $8,000 for once approving the use of dogs during an interrogation without higher approval. Several other officers also have been reprimanded or relieved of their command as a result of the investigation.
Shays: Abu Ghraib abuses were sex ring
October 13, 2006 HARTFORD, Conn. - Republican Rep. Christopher Shays (bio), who is in a tough re-election fight, said Friday the Abu Ghraib prison abuses were more about pornography than torture.
The veteran Connecticut congressman said a National Guard unit was primarily responsible for the abuses although it was actually the 372nd Military Police Company from Cresaptown, Md., an Army Reserve unit.
"It was a National Guard unit run amok," Shays said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "It was torture because sex abuse is torture. It was gross and despicable ... This is more about pornography than torture."
Shays sought to defuse controversy over his previous comments suggesting the Abu Ghraib abuses weren't torture but instead involved a sex ring of troops.
"Now I've seen what happened in Abu Ghraib, and Abu Ghraib was not torture," Shays said at a debate Wednesday.
"It was outrageous, outrageous involvement of National Guard troops from (Maryland) who were involved in a sex ring and they took pictures of soldiers who were naked," added Shays. "And they did other things that were just outrageous. But it wasn't torture."
The lawmaker's comments were in a transcript of the debate provided by his opponent, Diane Farrell. Shays' campaign, contacted Friday, did not dispute the comments.
Abu Ghraib is the Baghdad prison where abuse of prisoners by U.S. soldiers led to an international scandal. Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib were brutalized and sexually humiliated by military police and intelligence agents in the fall of 2003. At least 11 U.S. soldiers have been convicted in the scandal.
Elected in 1987, Shays has distinguished himself as a moderate Republican who often breaks with his party, especially on his signature issue of campaign finance reform. But in the last week, his comments have echoed conservative talk radio.
Shays defended House Speaker Dennis Hastert's handling of a congressional page scandal, saying no one died like at Chappaquiddick in 1969 when Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) was involved.
"I know the speaker didn't go over a bridge and leave a young person in the water, and then have a press conference the next day," the embattled Connecticut congressman told The Hartford Courant in remarks published Wednesday.
"Dennis Hastert didn't kill anybody," he added
Shays is waging a bruising re-election fight against Farrell.
"Once again, Chris is trying to back away from an earlier statement because it's politically expedient," Farrell said Friday. "It's typical Chris."
Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd, who appeared at a news conference with Farrell on Friday, said people are going to jail because of torture at Abu Ghraib.
"It's not because it was some pornography ring. I'm surprised anyone would make that suggestion," Dodd said. "The suggestion that somehow this was something less than that is, again, almost bordering on the bizarre."
During the campaign stop, Dodd criticized a direct-mail flier from the National Republican Congressional Committee titled, "Diane Farrell: Coffee Talk with the Taliban," that had been sent to voters in the southwestern Connecticut district.
"This is absolutely the worst kind of politics in America," Dodd said. "The people who associate themselves with that party and these things must be held accountable."
Farrell has received money and an endorsement from the Council for a Livable World, a 44-year-old Washington, D.C., organization that works to reduce nuclear weapons. In the mailer, Republicans said the Council has a "leader who wanted someone to sit down and talk with the Taliban instead of just forcibly removing them from power."
In a statement Friday, Shays said the NRCC had crossed the line with the mailing and called on the Republican organization to "put an end to sending this type of garbage."
On its Web site, the council calls the NRCC claim bogus and says board member Roger Fisher, an expert on conflict resolution who teaches at Harvard University, "recommended combining carrots and sticks to persuade the government of Afghanistan to turn over Osama bin Laden."
Recently, Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist said during a trip to Afghanistan that the Afghan war against Taliban guerrillas can never be won militarily and he favored bringing "people who call themselves Taliban" into the government.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061013/ap_on_el_ho/connecticut_shays
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5I1rGFCVOs
Marine Sergeant Comes Forward to Report Abuse at Guantanamo Bay
The Pentagon says it is fully cooperating with a brand new investigation into allegations of prisoner abuse at Guantanamo Bay.
The allegations come from a Marine Corps sergeant, 23-year-old Heather Cerveny, who spent a week at the base in late September as a legal aide to a military lawyer representing detainees.
In a sworn affidavit filed with the Pentagon Inspector General, Sgt. Cerveny says she met several Navy prison guards at a club on the base where, over drinks, they described harsh physical abuse.
"One sailor specifically said, 'I took the detainee by the head and smashed his head into the cell door,'" Sgt. Cerveny tells ABC News in an exclusive interview.
She says she was "shocked" to hear several guards from different parts of the camp speak openly of mistreating prisoners.
"Everyone in the group laughed at all their stories of beating detainees," she recalled. "None of them looked like they cared. None of them looked shocked by it."
One of the guards "was telling his buddy, 'Yeah, this one detainee, you know, really pissed me off, irritated me. So I just, you know, punched him in the face.'"
Sgt. Cerveny says the guards also talked about taking away detainees' privileges "even when they're being good" and denying their requests for water. In her affidavit, she states she was told "they do this to anger the detainees so they can punish them when they object or complain."
When asked why, she claims a guard named Steven told her it's "because he hates the detainees and that they are bad people. He stated that he doesn't like having to take care of them or be nice to them," she says in the affidavit.
Sgt. Cerveny says the guards told her they worked at Camps 5 and 6. When she asked one of the guards about the consequences of their actions, "He said nothing. Everyone in the group was laughing."
They stopped laughing when they found out she worked for a marine defense lawyer.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/10/exclusive_full_.html
Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisoner_abuse
Haditha killings
Report suggests Marines culpable in Haditha killings
03 August, 2006 A probe into the killing of 24 Iraqis by a squad of Camp Pendleton Marines last November concluded the killings were carried out deliberately and apparently in violation of the rules of engagement, an unnamed Pentagon official was quoted as saying Wednesday.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/08/03/news/top_stories/8106191650.txt
beginning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haditha_killings
outside Samarra, U.S. soldiers crossed the line in slayings, prosecutor argues
TIKRIT, Iraq -- A military prosecutor said Friday that four U.S. soldiers accused of murder in Iraq crossed the line and violated the "laws of war," arguing they freed three detainees, encouraged them to flee and then shot them down as they ran.
"Soldiers must follow the laws of war. That's what makes us better than the terrorists, what sets us apart from the thugs and the hit men. These soldiers did just the opposite," Capt. Joseph Mackey said in closing arguments at a hearing to determine if the four should face a court-martial -- and possibly the death penalty.
But a lawyer for one of the accused soldiers said the three Iraqi men "got exactly what they deserved" and urged a military investigator to recommend that murder charges filed against the four be dismissed.
Pfc. Corey R. Clagett, Spc. William B. Hunsaker, Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard and Spc. Juston R. Graber are accused of murder in the killing of the three Iraqi men taken from a house May 9 outside Samarra.
The soldiers, all from the 101st Airborne Division's 187th Infantry Regiment, declined to testify at the hearing, relying instead on statements they made to military investigators.
By RYAN LENZ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
sexual assault on military personnel
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/274349_robert17.html
http://hometown.aol.com/milesfdn/myhomepage/
West Point cadet found guilty of rape, attempted rape
September 29, 2006 West Point — A senior at the U.S. Military Academy will spend the next eight years behind bars for the rape and attempted rape of two former cadets.
Lonnie Austin Story of Poplar Bluff, Mo., was found guilty after a four-day court-martial that ended yesterday.
He is the first cadet convicted of rape at the nation's oldest service academy since women were admitted in 1976. A previous case nine years ago ended in acquittal.
Cadet Story "hasn't just ruined his own reputation; he tarnished the reputation of West Point, where trust, loyalty, honesty and respect are supposed to mean the world," said Capt. Tom Song, an Army prosecutor.
"Cadets are supposed to live by (these ideals) so when they are tested they know what the right thing to do is. After four years at West Point, he missed the point all together," Song said.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060929/NEWS/609290319
Female Soldiers Treated 'Lower Than Dirt'
U.S. Army Specialist Suzanne Swift will spend her 22nd birthday tomorrow confined to the Fort Lewis base in Washington, where she is awaiting the outcome of an investigation into allegations that she was sexually harassed and assaulted by three sergeants in Iraq.
Swift says the sergeants propositioned her for sex shortly after arriving for her first tour of duty in February 2004. She remained in Iraq until February 2005. "When you are over there, you are lower than dirt, you are expendable as a soldier in general, and as a woman, it's worse," said Swift in a recent interview with the Guardian.
When Swift's unit redeployed to Iraq in January 2006, she refused to go and instead stayed with her mother in Eugene, Oregon. She was eventually listed as AWOL, arrested at her mother's home on June 11, sent to county jail, and transferred to Fort Lewis.
"She's miserable and isolated," says Sara Rich, Swift's mother. "It's not good to have an idle mind while you're dealing with PTSD and sexual trauma. I want them to release her so I can get her the care she needs. I'm tired of waiting."
A colonel outside of Swift's chain of command is investigating the case, but Rich says she has been given little information with no time frame. "I believe they're trying to break her down using fear and intimidation."
