Posted on 09/27/2007 5:19:27 AM PDT by xzins
Spec. Jorge Sandoval lay face down in the foot-high grass, staring through his sniper rifle scope at the Iraqi man holding a rusted sickle. The man had crouched down, only his head was visible. Sandoval's spotter, Staff. Sgt. Michael Hensley, relayed the order to kill.
On April 27, in dangerous terrain south of Baghdad, Sandoval pulled the trigger to fire a bullet hundreds of yards into the man's skull, killing him instantly. Moments earlier, the man, according to testimony and court documents, had been fleeing an attack on U.S. soldiers and was holding the sickle to masquerade as a farmer. After killing him, Sandoval and Hensley allegedly placed a spool of wire -- commonly used to make bombs -- on the man's body to ensure the shooting would not be questioned.
Sandoval's court-martial on premeditated murder charges for this killing is scheduled to begin today in Baghdad. As he and two other snipers face charges of killing Iraqis, legal experts are debating how large a role a classified program of "baiting" their targets played in the cases. The soldiers in the unit had the spool of wire, defense attorneys said, only because the Army's secretive Asymmetric Warfare Group had given it to them -- along with other items, such as plastic explosives and AK-47 rounds -- so the snipers could boost the number of suspected insurgents they killed by shooting whoever picked up the materials.
However, some soldiers serving in Iraq said that the program and the subsequent murder charges have caused them to rethink pulling the trigger in the field out of concern that they could be charged with crimes for doing so....make a split-second decision ...the man and possibly face scrutiny, or let him go and possibly put...service members in jeopardy in the future.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Yes. Shortly after he recanted his heresy regarding the need for "assault weapons" he went coyote hunting with an AR15 or a clone thereof. I marked the event with that fauxto.
Our troops are living with betrayal. This is a national disgrace and an historic military abomination.
I figured you’d missed that line. It’s sort of tucked in there out of sight. I had to reread it to even see it, and then when I went to find it to send it to you, I had trouble finding it again.
The way the quote reads, there is hundreds of yards of penetration, ergo the big skull comment.
A Leftist moonbat terrorist one.
Obviously common sense observations like that have no place in a courtroom set up to prosecute and criminalize our troops for anti- war Democrat's political gain.
Oh, so the photo part with Zumbo has not been photoshopped?
I had to read that a couple of times and laughed too. Great minds, I'm sure.
Pinging the Haditha list to this interesting thread.
oic, I didn’t read it like that. But now that you point it out, it does sound that way.
You know what just hit me.
They’re accusing these troops of being no different than the Beltway Snipers, John Muhammed & Lee Malvo. They’re saying that these troops just go out and pop Iraqis hugging their kids, working in fields, and minding their own business. They’re calling them premeditated murderers.
That’s a despicable accusation about these troops who have tons of support letters from teachers, preachers, fellow students, community leaders, and neighbors from back home.
They’re pontificating that these guys had NO BATTLEFIELD reasons for taking out the ones that they shot.
If that’s so, then there should be lots of kids, women, animals, and elderly & infirm also taken out since these troops were in that area. Produce them.
I have an idea, the next time US troops have to go into combat anywhere, don’t give them real bullets, that way no enemy will be killed or harmed, and we won’t have to suffer what world opinion thinks about our tactics.
Then our soldiers could be touted as kinder, gentler soldiers. (/sarcasm)
Fuel for the Hollywood writers. Every legal case that comes out of Iraq where our troops can be made to look like criminals will be editorialized by the scum out in California and shown in theaters and television for years to come.
Sickening.
No, that was still a good war. It will take another generation for the memories of those vets to be smeared and dragged through the mud. It iss a necessary phase.
Any action to undermine and destroy the bourgeois military establishment is legitimate action against oppression, Komrade. Haven’t you been to Marxist Theory 101? I shall have to report you to your Political Commissariat.
FUBAR , that’s as objective as i can get.
Its treason. They want to emasculate our military via JAGS.
That's been quite obvious for some time now. But yet these Demorats like Murtha take these allegations at face value and run their mouths off, dissing our troops. Yet when our boys give their version of events, they call them liars.
Treasonous bastards like Murtha should be marched right off the senate floor to the nearest tree with a thick enough branch.
Don't tempt them; you know they'll do it in a heartbeat.
More and more, I find my permanent tag-line to be a true reflection of the state of this nation, and an abomination.
bttt
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