Posted on 08/23/2004 10:45:47 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
In the early days of the Iraq invasion, Hasan Akbar was the big news.
The Muslim-American sergeant in the Army's 101st Airborne Division out of Fort Campbell was arrested on charges of carrying out one of the deadliest attacks ever by a U.S. soldier against his own officers.
Many wondered if it was a glimpse of what was to come.
Hasan Akbar is accused of the fragging attack, using grenades to do most of the damage. One officer was left dead, another was dying and 14 members of the 101st lay wounded, all victims of the surprise attack.
There has been little publicity about the case since. Now his October court-martial nears and Akbar's lawyer says the confusion left by the attack and signs of mental and emotional problems will be critical components of his defense, when 12 Army jurors will decide whether he should live or die.
Akbar's lawyer, Wazir Ali Muhammad Al-Haqq, said it will be his job to remind jurors that Akbar was in the desert serving his country – and that he needed help he never received.
Al-Haqq said the trial will be about more than just Akbar's guilt or innocence – it also will be a political trial to determine whether the Army, despite its long tradition of religious tolerance, failed Akbar long before prosecutors say he lashed out against his comrades in arms.
Col. Ben Hodges, one of those wounded, has declined to speculate on whether the court-martial will convict Akbar but said he will get a fair trial – including one that accounts for any possible mental or psychological problems. He has said he was relieved that the Army decided to seek the death penalty but would not comment further.
Al-Haqq said that Akbar was under great stress at the time of the attacks and that evidence to be presented at trial will convince others the stress was well-founded.
Dov Schwartz , a civilian spokesman for the Army at the Pentagon, said he could not comment specifically on Akbar's case. But he said the Army – desegregated since President Harry Truman's time – has a strong history of respecting diversity within its ranks and in the many nations where its soldiers are deployed.
He said troops are taught to respect "the customs and sensitivities of people in other countries."
Al-Haqq said he believes that the Army as an organization does not tolerate discrimination, but that there are "those who do carry attitudes of intolerance" because of the very diversity within its ranks.
Members of Akbar's unit testified at a hearing last summer that Akbar's behavior had grown increasingly odd in the months leading up to the division's deployment to Kuwait. As the likelihood of war with a Muslim country grew, some said they had questioned Akbar's loyalty and his willingness to fight.
They said Akbar occasionally would talk about his faith to soldiers who were interested, but he appeared to have grown increasingly concerned about the fate of Muslim civilians once the war began.
Several soldiers testified that slurs against Muslims were commonplace, though others said the Army made a determined effort to discourage such language.
The last soldier executed by a military court was hanged in 1961 after a conviction of rape and attempted murder.
Only six other servicemen are on death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., although a seventh is being held there while the Army decides how to respond to an appeal decision in March that voided his death sentence.
Akbar is charged with two counts of premeditated murder and three counts of attempted premeditated murder.
Prosecutors say he tossed grenades into three tents where officers were asleep or preparing for bed, and then opened fire with a rifle when the men rushed outside.
A defense strategy that focuses on the environment around Akbar and on his mental and psychological condition could save his life, military law experts said. But they weren't as confident the strategy would help win an acquittal.
Akbar converted to Islam as a youth in Los Angeles, where he grew up across the street from a mosque. He joined the Army a year after graduating with bachelor's degrees in aeronautical-science engineering and mechanical engineering in 1997 from the University of California, Davis.
Soldiers who served with him in Kuwait testified at the hearing last summer that he had become increasingly upset by anti-Muslim slurs used by soldiers preceding the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Gene Fidell, one of the nation's top experts on military law and president of the National Institute for Military Justice in Alexandria, Va., said a military jury would take seriously any claims that Akbar had been the victim of discrimination or harassment.
Al-Haqq said he began following the case when he was in Los Angeles on vacation and attended by chance a fund-raiser held for Akbar's defense. He said Akbar's family invited him to attend a trial strategy meeting at Fort Knox in March during Akbar's arraignment.
At that point, Al-Haqq said, Akbar hired him to lead the defense, in large part because of his extensive criminal defense experience.
Al-Haqq has no direct experience in death-penalty cases, and neither do the two Army officers who have been assigned as counsel, he said.
Relatively few military lawyers have death-penalty experience because so few soldiers are prosecuted for such crimes, according to experts, including Fidell.
Fidell said he believes the reason is that the modern military is relatively well-behaved, with few soldiers committing acts as egregious as the ones with which Akbar has been charged.
Al-Haqq said the lack of experience could be a disadvantage, but other lawyers who have been involved in capital cases will be available for consultation.
Fidell said there are no rules under the Uniform Code of Military Justice that require previous experience in capital trials to be eligible to defend a soldier in a death-penalty case. But he said a lack of experience is risky.
Experts said Akbar's decision to hire a civilian lawyer to lead his case, rather than rely solely on the Army lawyers provided him, made sense.
Al-Haqq said Akbar's case will raise issues of fundamental importance to America as it continues to grow more diverse.
He said it remains to be seen whether the jury believes Akbar "quote, did it or not," but said other issues are clearly visible.
The Army, he said, is like other American institutions – full of diversity, and not always up to speed on how to handle those differences.
This was treason. Few people are tried for that crime (that was so great it was spelled out in the constitution).
Diabolical actions, then whine and play the victim.
The 2 men he murdered appear on the "Bush's fault" death list of war dead that runs on many leftists sites (including the Washington Post).
He *did* serve his country- whichever Middle Eastern nut-hatchery that may be. As for receiving help-- that's what the needle is for.
I'm still pissed that he was ever brought back to the US! He should have been court-martialed in Kuwait, then executed.
He served, can we all judge him?
rhetorical question, no response required.
This is the only help he needs.The needle is reserved for common garden variety low-life murdering scum. I believe the army still proscribes hanging for high treason.
As far as playing the racist card, didn't those white trash who dragged that poor black man to death in Texas claim they were subjected to racial abuse in prison? Didn't work. Shouldn't work. A racist comment or a hundred of them do not justify murder.
Huh? This isn't about his "service", this is about him murdering two individuals. Can we judge him? Well, God will do that. But in the meantime so will our judicial system under which he is liable. I think the rhetorical cover-up ill serves this situation. We are not in ethics class and two men are lying buried with grieveing families. But hey, that's just me..
When did we allow trials to become matters of 'intention' or 'mental state' or all the other garbage Liberals have saddled us with, rather than factual findings of 'did or didn't break the law'?
What happened to 'ignorance of the law is no excuse'?
More to the point, how do we get back to blaming the perp for their actions, rather than blaming everyone and everything else, thus giving them a pass?
The other crap might be germane to sentencing, but I can't see it as having bearing on guilt/innocence.
Guess I'm just a dinosaur who prefers statutory law to case law. Yeah, he done it. Guilty! Next case! Didn't do it? Not guilty, and don't let it happen again. Next?
I can see why my view isn't popular, however; less money for lawyers, 'experts' and all the others on hourly retainers. Judges & prosecutors don't figure in that, as they're on yearly salaries.
Okay. Hang him. Or is the military firing squad? I don't remember, as it has been (way too many) decades since they actually had the nerve to execute anyone.
Evidently, treason doesn't exist any longer. It's just an arcane word in a dusty old document. After all, if a sitting president can approve the sale of sensitive military technology to a hostile foreign power whose top general explicitly threatened a US city with nuclear anihiliation, why do we need such arcane concepts any longer?
PC has run amok. Sadly, Bush does nothing to curtail it - and even encourages it. This traitor will get a few years in a comfy federal jail - a life sentence at taxpayer expense at best. We dare not offend any of our dear "Religion of Peace" folks. No doubt Osama will have a good laugh.
She lived out her years after jail as a private school teacher.
There is also speculation that the American born Lord Haw Haw would have lived if he had been allowed to return to the United States. England hanged him after World War II.
Is there doubt in anyone's mind that celebrity Jane Fonda committed treason when she posed went to Hanoi and when she posed for photos sitting on an enemy antiaircraft gun?
Screw this murdering sonofabitch.
Give him a fair trial and then take him out back and shoot him.
End of story . . .
I fail to see how he even made it to a court martial? The enemy has long been known to don American soldiers' uniforms. If the scum had a personal problem, he should have used his chain of command for help. I feel this way regardless of what religion, race or creed of the individual. The famous words of (Captain,'Redleg' Terrell,) " Doin Right Ain't Got No End." I hope the Army will let him see his allah real soon. Maybe this is a problem the, "Real Boys" In The Hood" should have handled? Oh hell, I'm getting all misty eyed for this poor oppressed mooseleem. Maybe he should call, 1-800-allah-save my-ass? I hope when he meets his allah, there will be 72 aids infested non-virgin (Pig) vipers waiting for him. "Just an old soldier sounding off, on the thin red line." Bush/Cheney 2004
Point is that the absurd notion of "one can't judge if one hasn't served" has already seeped into the national psyche. This jury will be military so my point was invalid for this circumstance. Had it been a civilian jury I could imagine the defense trying to confuse a jury with the notion.
It's a national softness. Like the Koreans who waited too long to contest a medal computation, losing their chance to change the medal award. Instead, they wait and complain. Now everyone is blaming the American winner and saying he should give the gold back though it is the Koreans' own fault that the judges didn't review their work sooner. (But judges mess up in the first place...) It is kindergarten "be nice" gone mad.
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