Posted on 08/02/2006 4:41:13 PM PDT by voletti
* Soldier tells murder hearing comrades threatened to kill him if he told investigators about the crime
TIKRIT: A young US army private told a military hearing on Wednesday that fellow soldiers shot dead three Iraqi prisoners then threatened to kill him if he told investigators about the crime.
The trial of four enlisted men from the famed “Rakkasans” - the 3rd Combat Brigade of the 101st Airborne - is expected to focus a critical light in the US military’s controversial and opaque rules of engagement in Iraq.
Civilian lawyers representing the defendants have said that orders from the Rakkasans’ commander, Colonel Michael Steele, called for troops to “kill all military age males” during a raid on May 9 on a suspected Al Qaeda base.
Steele is a controversial figure following his leading role in a bungled 1993 raid in the Somali capital Mogadishu - made famous by the book and film “Blackhawk Down” - in which 18 US soldiers and hundreds of Somalis died.
Private Bradley Mason was testifying on the second day of a pre-trial hearing at the US military base Camp Speicher near Tikrit, in central Iraq, being held to decide whether to charge four troops with pre-meditated murder.
Mason told the hearing that he had been with the defendants Private Corey Clagett, Staff Sergeant Raymond Girouard, Specialist William Hunsaker and Specialist Juston Graber during the operation.
The US troops arrived at a suspect house by helicopter, shot one man at the window and captured three more hiding inside with two women, he said. A pistol, an AK-47 rifle, ammunition and gun parts were found in the house.
Mason testified that Girouard told him that Clagett and Hunsacker were going to kill the prisoners. “They just smiled,” he added, describing his comrades’ reaction to the alleged instruction.
“I told him that I’m not down with it. It’s murder,” Mason said.
The 20-year-old private said he then heard gunshots ring out, and left the house to find the detainees dead. After the mission, he said, Girouard and Hunsaker threatened to kill him if he reported what had happened. According to Mason, his non-commissioned superior Girouard said: “If you say anything, I’ll kill you.”
“I took them pretty seriously,” Mason said of Girouard and Hunsaker’s alleged threats.
Under cross-examination from Clagett’s defence lawyer Paul Bergrin, Mason said that Steele had ordered before the mission that if troop encountered Iraqi men they were to “kill all of them”.
The defendants have told military investigators that the detainees were shot after they broke the plastic cuffs binding their hands, assaulted their captors and attempted to flee. afp
somwehow propagandu!
"broke the plastic cuffs binding their hands". Hmmm. I've used those before during a riot. Flexcuffs are pretty damn tough and strong. I have no personal knowledge of a prisoner ever breaking them. I suppose that it is possible one guy could have been strong and beserk enough to break them, but all three at the same time? I have some serious doubts.
Maybe the military version is really cheap crap.
COL Steele...is that the same CPT Mike Steele, commander of the TFR Ranger element that secured the Olympia Hotel in Mogadishu Oct. 3rd, 1993...? The rank would be just about right...
Nope, Mike Steele....
roger...I was based at Hunter, and happened to be on the airfield the afternoon of Oct. 3rd...thanks for your service...
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