Sad. http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/21/hamdaniya/index.html 8 U.S. troops charged with murder Investigation focuses on killing of civilian in Hamdaniya, Iraq WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Seven U.S. Marines and a Navy medical corpsman face murder charges in connection with the April killing of an Iraqi civilian near the town of Hamdaniya, the Marine Corps announced Wednesday. In addition to murder, the charges against all eight will include kidnapping and conspiracy, Marine Col. Stewart Navarre said. The troops are accused of killing 54-year-old Hasham Ibrahim Awad, a disabled veteran of Iraq's war with Iran in the 1980s, on April 26. His family told CNN the Marines were pressuring him to act as an informer, hoping to learn who was planting roadside bombs and carrying out other attacks around Hamdaniya, on Baghdad's western outskirts. The Americans carried Awad from his home to the main road through town, said his brother, Sadoon. Police turned over Awad's body to relatives the next day, along with an assault rifle and shovel his family says were planted to make him look like an insurgent. U.S. troops offered $2,000 in compensation for his brother's death, then $10,000, said Sadoon Awad. He said he considered the offers an attempt to buy his family's silence. "But I refused," he told CNN. "I told them, 'I don't need money.' I told them, 'The truth is that you took my brother, you tortured him, and you killed him, although he was disabled and old.'" Iraqi officials brought the allegation to Marine commanders at a May 1 meeting, prompting the commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer, to call for an investigation. Some Marines have admitted the circumstances of the man's death were staged, a military officer with direct knowledge of the Navy's preliminary findings told CNN earlier this month. Investigators recently returned Awad's body after exhuming it and taking it to the United States for tests, his brother said. He said he expects to attend the trial but did not know whether he would be called as a witness. Meanwhile, defense lawyers have decried information leaks from the probe, while their clients are being held in pretrial confinement. The incident is unrelated to a criminal investigation into the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in the Anbar province town of Haditha in November. Investigations into both incidents spurred the commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Mike Hagee, to lecture his 180,000 Marines on what he called "the American way of war" during a trip to Iraq in early June.
Let's just convene the firing squad now. In fact, maybe John Murtha can have a combination firing squad/bbq party and invite John Kerry, Dick Durbin, and Markos ScrewThem.
When you excuse, downplay, make light or criticize the reporting of the sorts of crimes that are alleged here, you sh*t on the vast majority of American troops that serve honorably. No big surprise coming from the side that slanders in the most vicious possible ways widows and family members of 9/11 victims and fallen soldiers for the crime of criticizing Bush or the war, but don't you dare lecture us on supporting the troops again. You have no respect at all for the troops. This is a political game to you.
I want a full and fair investigation, but I also want the soldiers to be given a presumption of innocence. Do you disagree?
Of course they should receive the presumption of innocence and a fair trial. Unlike you, I believe anyone charged with a crime in America or by an American authority deserves that. I believe in the protections afforded by our system of justice in America. You only believe in them when you feel like it. Just one more way we're different (thank God). You have previously intoned here that the mere reporting of alleged war crimes by American troops was equal to support for terrorists. And so I repeat (since you dodged it the first time): When you excuse, downplay, make light or criticize the reporting of the sorts of crimes that are alleged here, you sh*t on the vast majority of American troops that serve honorably. No big surprise coming from the side that slanders in the most vicious possible ways widows and family members of 9/11 victims and fallen soldiers for the crime of criticizing Bush or the war, but don't you dare lecture us on supporting the troops again. You have no respect at all for the troops. This is a political game to you.
Are you posting while intoxicated? I see the liberal infallibility argument rearing it's ugly head in paragraph 3. The mere reporting of alleged war crimes is an act helpful to the enemy because for them the accusation is itself sufficient. When a US Congressman already convicts marines prior to the trial, that is an act of treason.
No, I'm not drunk. But it's nice to see you waving that white flag. You guys always call me a drunk when your bumper sticker arguments run out of gas. Are you posting while lobotomized? Again with the liberal infallibility BS. Ho hum. Why can't you guys ever argue the merits? Are you really so insecure in your arguments that you have to invent things to cry about? There is no such thing as the "liberal infallibility argument." It's only an example of you getting played by a midget like Coulter -- one, in fact, that's been disowned by anyone on your side that's been forced to answer the question of whether or not they agree with her about anything. You are of that most extreme category of frothy wingers -- those that actually take anything she says seriously. Again, you accuse a universally respected war hero of treason for being troubled by accusations of murder and war crimes. Shame on you. You hate the troops unless they're loyal Republicans. You are a partisan shill. And again you say that reporting wrongdoing by a tiny renegade band of troops is good for terrorists and bad for America and the troops. That just shows, once again, what disdain you have for this country, its brave soldiers and all they both stand for.
If Murtha had merely reported the allegations, that would be one thing, but hewent further and used the phrase "in cold blood". That's basically a finding of guilt and it was an outrage for him to say that. I see you working the liberal infallibilty angle hard. Can't criticize Cleleand, he's a war vet. Ditto Murtha, ad Kerry. Can't say anything bad about Cindy Sheehan - she, in the words of Maureen Dowd, "has absolute moral authority." And there we have it, they're inoculated from any criticism, honest to Christ, honest to Christ. The reason I wondered if you might merit a PWI was the phrase "Unlike you" in that post.
So much for the good news [Zarqawi] coming out of Iraq ~ there are a dozen more Marines under investigation for other murders.
I'm not shocked to see who's active in this thread, yet absent in any threads that highlight the troops' successes. For the record, if these troops are guilty, then they should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
texxx wants our troops punished? That is a jihadist victory. Way to support the enemy. What's next, holding the president and his cronies responsible?
What's next is we don't offer any geneva "protection" to terrorists...We remind ourselves to fight till the death, we remind ourselves we are doing a terrible deed out of neccesity, we remind ourselves we live in a post 9/11 world, and we continue to go for the throat without let up....
