I guess it's a shame that Salam wasn't more headstrong. Salam, that's not the way to get ahead in life. I guess Salam will never be the head of a major corporation.
Posted on 02/09/2009 1:55:43 AM PST by Lancey Howard
ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- An Army contractor is facing up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the shooting death of a handcuffed Taliban member who had just set one of the contractor's colleagues on fire.
Don M. Ayala, 46, of New Orleans, struck a plea bargain Tuesday in federal court in Alexandria, avoiding murder charges that could have resulted in life in prison.
Ayala provided security on what the Army calls a Human Terrain Team, in which social scientists and anthropologists are embedded with combat brigades to help soldiers understand local culture.
On Nov. 4, Ayala and two other team members were on a walking patrol about 80 miles west of Kandahar, in a village called Chehel Gazi. Team member Paula Loyd was distributing candy to villagers and talking about gas prices with an Afghan man, Abdul Salam, when he lit a pitcher of fuel on fire and threw it on her.
According to court documents, Ayala helped arrest and subdue Salam, who was then placed in plastic restraints. Ayala kept a pistol pointed at Salam's head as he continued to resist arrest.
After a few minutes, when Ayala learned how badly Loyd had been burned, Ayala shot Salam in the head, killing him instantly.
(Excerpt) Read more at nctimes.com ...
(( ping ))
I cannot believe that this fellow couldn’t find lawyer who could get him off.
Temporary diminished capacity. The gun “went off” - - oops. Whatever.
I think most men would have shot the guy. I’m pretty sure I would have.
excellent ! way to go Don !
This should be the fate of EVERY Taliban we capture
No more ‘detainees’ sent to G-Bay and later released
Leave them as carrion on the field .
and they are prosecuting this guy?
They should give him a medal !
Personally, I think Mr. Ayala should be given a medal.
> The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on Loyd, 36, who suffered second- and third-degree burns over 60 percent of her body and died from her injuries two months later at an Army hospital in San Antonio.
So the unlawful combattant maimed Loyd horribly with burnng petrol, so badly that she later sucumbed to her wounds and died...
> Ayala’s case had been the first case in which federal prosecutors brought murder charges against a military contractor serving in Iraq or Afghanistan under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, the 2000 law that allows such prosecutions.
I do not understand why Ayala was prosecuted at all: the unlawful combattant was not entitled to be treated as a POW, and he had only just carried out a soon-to-be-fatal assault.
.
.
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> Ayala is scheduled for sentencing on May 8.
Was he not given the opportunity to plead temporary insanity? That would have been a fair plea.
It occurs to me that if the WOT is going to be carried out along these bone-headed Rules of Engagement, the Bad Guys are sure to win. They are not following bone-headed ROEs, they are fighting to win at all costs and by every means available and necessary.
I guess it's a shame that Salam wasn't more headstrong. Salam, that's not the way to get ahead in life. I guess Salam will never be the head of a major corporation.
IOW, murder.
This is horribly unjust.
He set a woman on fire. An American woman. A bullet to the head was undeserved mercy IMHO.
If we want to declare that this conflict is outside the Geneva Conventions, fine. If we want to tell Afghans about how important the rule of law is and then ignore it ourselves, not fine.
Yes, Ayala was definitely wrong for shooting Salam.
He should have burned him alive while his Taliban buddies watched in horror.
Another of those “Politically Correct” prosecutions to win the hearts and minds of the arab world. WGAF about the arab world.
Was his attorney incompetent? Should have gotten him a better deal, like probation, temporary insanity, something other than 15 years.
We give more rights and freedoms to our enemies and continue to take more rights away from law abiding americans.
> IOW, murder.
At that point, no, not murder. It would have been “Assault causing Grievous Bodily Harm” at that point, or perhaps “Attempted Murder” if intent could be demonstrated.
It became murder or manslaughter when Loyd died.
The illegal combattant’s Philadelphia Lawyer would probably have tried to argue that his client never intended to kill Loyd, only to frighten her with fire.
> If we want to declare that this conflict is outside the Geneva Conventions, fine.
Is the US a signator to that portion of the Geneva Conventions that deals with unlawful combattants such as mercenaries and terrorists? I am of the impression that your country is not.
At any rate Unlawful Combattants aren’t given alot of protection by the Geneva Conventions. A big part of the deal is either being in uniform, or being a civilian.
> If we want to tell Afghans about how important the rule of law is and then ignore it ourselves, not fine.
In which case, perhaps Ayala should have been tried in an Afghan court using Afghan law. It might have been defensible under their law to shoot someone who had just lit your partner on fire — I dunno. Like I said, I do not fully understand why the US brought charges at all. Or for that matter how it was possible for the US to do so.
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to (have their citizens suffer and) repeat it."
George Santayana
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.
We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream.
It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same,
or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children
and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."
President Ronald Reagan
Well, aside from the fact that the Afghan was an unlawful combattant and not covered by the Geneva Conventions, even in a regular US homicide, somebody who had killed somebody who had just set fire to his coworker would probably have gotten off with diminished capacity or some other extenuating circumstance.
One of the reasons the Brits were so subject to attacks in Afghanistan is that they had their own courts breathing down their necks and they were more afraid of being victims of a show trial by the left (which deep down inside supports the Taliban) than doing their job. We’re creating the same situation here.
There should be some way to concentrate all these paki/afghan taliban in one area so the whole place can be MOABed.
But the most important spot that needs to be hit are the mullahs. Hang around the mosques on Friday afternoons and listen out for the hate speech. Disappear those mullahs. After a while they should get the drift and will think twice before inciting illiterate village idiots into taking up arms to fight the West.
It’s too bad someone wasn’t quick on the trigger when the scumbag lit the gas in the first place. It’d have been a lot happier ending for all concerned.
As for the “deal”...I’m having a real hard time seeing any justice in it. No, the guy shouldn’t have shot a handcuffed prisoner. But bloody hell, he’d just found out one of his team members was basically burned alive by this scumbag. I think there are very few of us here whose first impulse wouldn’t have been to pull that trigger. 15 years seems awfully harsh sentencing given the circumstances.
Also, maybe I’m getting cynical or turning into a conspiracy nut as I get older, but it sounds very much to me like this guy is being “made an example of” for political reasons at home and abroad (in this case, Afghanistan).
> One of the reasons the Brits were so subject to attacks in Afghanistan is that they had their own courts breathing down their necks and they were more afraid of being victims of a show trial by the left (which deep down inside supports the Taliban) than doing their job. We’re creating the same situation here.
I agree.
Hopefully he will get a compassionate Judge for sentencing. And hopefully his lawyer asks for a Discharge Without Conviction. Under the circumstances, that would be just.
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