(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
This is nuts.
But the prosecution would have to present *very* convincing evidence to me before I'd convict them of *murder*.
I'd hate like hell to see some modern day replay of "Breaker Morant" happen to any of our guys.
I am not familiar with this case....is it similar to the Marines?
Now for the First time in history the Liberal Scum of America will be in Favor of the Death Penalty.
/end recruiting video
I haven't followed the case, but this recommendation reeks of playing to the arab street.
If they are guilty of what was originally charged, then execute away.
I'll readily admit to not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, nor the brightest bulb on the tree .. but ... what possible use is this cluster of words out of AP and into yahoo?
Oh, if you DO go ahead and do your job?
WE'RE GOING TO KILL YOU.
For God's sake, DON'T SERVE in the "new" military!
Another PC field grade officer looking to make bird. This is unwarranted.
Crazy -- remember Hasan Akbar, the one who grenaded his own men, killing 2 and wounding 14? He got the D.P., and supposedly the last military execution in the US was in 1961. Is it any wonder that if this case is dropped, you won't hear THAT from the DBM?
If the death penalty is to have any meaning, it should apply here, assuming they are found guilty. And I think it should be carried out by firing squad in the town square where it happened.
Certainly if I were part of the same unit as these men, I'd see it as an opportunity to erase the shame they had brought on their comrades.
-ccm
OMG ping
FR thread
Soldiers Say Ordered to Kill Young Men
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1670251/posts
AP via Yahoo! ^ | July 21, 2006 | ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Posted on 07/21/2006 7:18:37 PM PDT by CrawDaddyCA
article Update
--
An Army investigator has recommended that four soldiers accused of murder in a raid in Iraq should face the death penalty, according to a report obtained Saturday by The Associated Press.
Lt. Col. James P. Daniel Jr. concluded that the slayings were premeditated and warranted the death sentence based on evidence he heard at an August hearing. The case will now be forwarded to Army officials, who will decide whether Daniel's recommendation should be followed.
The soldiers, all from the Fort Campbell, Ky.-based 101st Airborne Division's 187th Infantry Regiment, are accused of killing three Iraqi men taken from a house May 9 on a marshy island outside Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad.
Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard, Spc. William B. Hunsaker, Pfc. Corey R. Clagett and Spc. Juston R. Graber have claimed they were ordered to "kill all military age males" during the raid on the island. According to statements from some of the soldiers, they were told the target was an al-Qaida training camp.
Hunsaker told investigators that he and Clagett were attacked by the three men, who were being handcuffed, and shot them in self-defense. Clagett said he was hit in the face, and Hunsaker claimed he was stabbed during the attack.
Prosecutors argue the soldiers conspired to kill the men and then altered the scene to fit their story. They contend Girouard stabbed Hunsaker as part of the killing plot.
Clagett, Girouard and Hunsaker also are accused of threatening to kill another soldier who witnessed the slayings. Girouard, the most senior soldier charged, faces several additional charges, including sexual harassment and carrying a personal weapon on duty.
Paul Bergrin, Clagett's civilian attorney, said he was surprised that Daniel recommended the case be taken to trial at all.
"I'm extremely disappointed and disheartened," Bergrin said Saturday. "They are being used as pawns in the war on terror. They followed the rules of engagement. They were confronted with violence by a known al-Qaida training camp member."
Other lawyers in the case, several of whom are deployed to Iraq, did not immediately respond to e-mail requests for comment.
The soldiers are expected to be tried at Fort Campbell. They have been jailed in Kuwait since their arrests this year.
The U.S. military has not executed a soldier since the 1960 hanging of a soldier convicted rape and attempted murder.
___
Associated Press writer Alicia A. Caldwell, the El Paso, Texas, correspondent, reported this story from Glendale, Ariz.
If this is the story about the 4 who raped a girl then killed her and her family, and it is true, I say this is exactly what they deserve.
They single handedly brought shame on their whole country- If they were to do this at home and were civilians I would say they deserve the same penalty.
But to do this in another country does and incredible amount of damage beyond the crime itself, and the only way to help repair that part is to give them what they deserve.