Posted on 07/02/2008 6:49:34 PM PDT by RedRover
Marine Corps Sergeants Jermaine Nelson and Ryan Weemer will celebrate Independence Day in a Camp Pendleton brig instead of the San Bernardino County Jail, Defend Our Marines has learned.
Sergeants Jermaine Nelson and Ryan Weemer, both veterans of the famous "Hell House" fight at Fallujah, Iraq, are currently being held in the San Bernardino County federal lockup for contempt of court charges. They were locked up after refusing to talk to a Grand Jury seated in Riverside, California.
A spokesman at Camp Pendleton is still trying to determine whether they have already been transferred to the Camp Pendleton brig at the time of this report.
US District Judge Steven Larsen sent them to jail for refusing to tell the Grand Jury what it wants to know about the alleged executions of four enemy combatants captured at Fallujah on November 9, 2004. Weemer was jailed June 12 and Nelson has been jailed twice: once for a week in May and a second time last week.
Larsen yielded to arguments for their return to military custody by Nelson's civilian defense attorney Joseph Low Tuesday afternoon. Low told the court the Marines were facing double jeopardy because their confinement in the civilian jail left them vulnerable to charges of unlawful absence by military authorities.
Defense attorneys have said that the pay of both Marines was halted because their mandated confinement constituted unauthorized absence, a criminal offense in the Marine Corps. So far neither Marine has been charged for being absent despite their pay being stopped.
Court watchers told Defend Our Marines that in open court Tuesday gave prosecutors tips on how to more properly charge the two Marines so the government could still incite their testimony without gaining their cooperation.
One knowledgeable person told Defend Our Marines that Judge Larsen told prosecutors it would be smarter to charge Nelson and Weemer with conspiracy to kill the prisoners than to grant them immunity and force them to testify. Charging the two would enable the prosecution to introduce their written statements to the Grand Jury without any cooperation.
Both men have given lengthy statements to government investigators.
Larsen has also warned Nazario's defense attorney Kevin B. McDermott against revealing any of the Grand Jury testimony obtained last October and during April and May of this year.
Federal rules allow for secrecy in Grand Jury proceedings, where only the prosecution is allowed to makes its case. One defense lawyer called it the closest thing this country has to a "Star Chamber," and said that is why it is said the government can indict a ham sandwich there.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service claims Nelson, Weemer, and former Sergeant Jose L. Nazario executed four unknown, unclaimed, and unfound enemy combatants captured in the opening hours of the no-quarter, month-long battle.
Marines who were there say there was no way to either secure or transport prisoners to rear areas. Things got so bad during the fight the 3/1 battalion transportation officer was relieved of duty for failing to provide adequate support to frontline Marines.
Official after action reports of the fighting show that every company of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines was heavily engaged at the time of the alleged executions. Insurgents had interdicted the battalion's supply lines by back-filling previously searched buildings to ambush passing Marines. The famous "Hell House" fight four days later is the classic example of the situation the Marines were facing.
During the savage battle, the Marines Corps routinely dropped bombs, fired artillery, mortars and missiles, including the Marine Corps' entire complement of about 1,000 SMAW – NE shoulder fired thermobaric rockets to incinerate the entrenched enemy. Insurgent deaths were estimated each day by the growing length of the burial trench the enemy used to dispose of its dead.
Nazario, decorated for heroism at Fallujah, was charged in civilian court because he no longer has any obligation to the Marine Corps. Government prosecutors then granted Weemer and Nelson unsolicited and unwelcome testimonial immunity to testify against their former squad leader, but they refused, their attorneys have said.
Although the Marine Corps had already stopped both Marines' pay and allowances for unauthorized absence, a serious criminal charge in the military, it is still unclear whether it will now punish the Marines in order to justify stopping their pay, one defense attorney said.
Nelson and Weemer are charged by the Marine Corps with unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty for allegedly shooting two of the prisoners while Nazario killed the other two.
There's more about the Fallujah case HERE or search under keyword Fallujah on Free Republic.
I’m sorry, but even if the government’s case has the facts exactly right, this is horsesh#t.
Bringing criminal charges against those who were engaged in house-to-house close combat, for any reason other than an atrocity against civilians, is asinine.
Another crap case. Safer in the Marine brig than whatever gangbanger heaven they were in, I guess.
Military folks, help me out: how does a civilian court get involved with the actions on a battlefield? I’m not understanding.
We all know that the government only hires the unemployables, so give the morons a cubicle to hibernate in until retirement, but keep them from screwing around with the lives of real men who risk their lives for our country and our freedom...give the Marines liberty and give the worthless scum who are screwing with the lives of those brave Marines the BIG FINGER!
This case is sickening. Untold numbers of insurgents were killed in this battle and they're going after Marines for killing four insurgents they don't have bodies for. PC officers have to drummed out of the service!
Pingoli? Looks like the driver already ate the pingoli. :)
Nazario's two former squadmates had made statements to NCIS and were subpeoned to testify against Nazarion in civilian court. They refused and were jailed--in the county lockup.
Cruelly, in my opinion, the Corps considered the two active Marines AWOL and stopped their pay and benefits.
This all is uncharted waters legally. The MEJA only become law in 2000 and has only been used to charge one other former serviceman, as far as I know.
President Bush... this is just morally wrong and repugnant. If these two are to be tried for “crimes” during battle, it must be in a Military Court under the Military Code of Justice.
Please fix it now, please.
Yes, the pingoli sometimes has the effect. Paulie...You won’t see him no more.
Unfortunately, Congress pass the MEJA (see above) in 2000. It was a Repub Congress then and a Rat Congress won’t change it now.
A paragraph in the story above should have read:
Court watchers told Defend Our Marines that in open court Tuesday Larsen gave prosecutors tips on how to more properly charge the two Marines so the government could still incite their testimony without gaining their cooperation.
Nat gives another clear, concise and truthful report. Look here msm! This is how it’s done!
Ping to not forget our Hamdania boys, too.
This is bleeping awful, that's what it is! For crying out loud, do we want our soldiers defending us (and themselves!) or do we want them texting Miss Manners?
I don't know, but something sounds fishy with it becoming law in 2000. Of course, it did have to pass a Republican Congress. I'll take a look at that.
Again, thanks.
I had always thought he said cannoli... Now I am gonna have to watch that whole movie again, just to listen to that one line!
Wouldn't those actions be unethical??? Telling the prosecutor how to run there case??? This is crazy!!!
Under the circumstances why is not entirely permissible to kill detained enemy combatants? If you can’t guard them and you can’t move them then it stands to reason you have to shoot them.
There is a good book, a novel, on the subject called Easter Sunday, 1941, that through a series of vignettes covers a number of incidents of capture and execution. This is the best book I ever read on what is a pretty obscure point.
A lot of the latest WWII bios include stories of killing prisoners by American soldiers. Easy Company, 506th PIR’s, Bill Guarnere admits to shooting 2 German POW’s in the head, and not with regret. Steven Ambrose documented several incidents including an example where an Airborne unit withdrawing at night in the snow shot a large group of prisoners because they couldn’t risk trying to move them at night under those circumstances.
Wasn’t there a controversy a few years ago over the Israeli’s killing more than 100 prisoners at Mitla pass in 56 who couldn’t be guarded by an Airborne unit?
I think this is more common than is understood by most Americans. I’m amazed that it would even be an issue. Nebraskas one-legged former Senator Bob Kerrey and his team admittedly slaughtered a Viet Cong family including a couple little girls with knives to prevent their alerting the village.
Later, they reportedly shot every body else in the village including babies. Although there was an investigation, and I believe it was true, it ended after all except the accuser (confessor) denied it.
Thats why I’m glad I never served anywhere near the pointy end. In my youth it was inconceivable that any American would ever be asked to do something like that. I think its sometimes horrifying but necessary.
During the 1st Gulf War a British SAS unit was compromised by a child and hunted down and most killed or captured because they could’t bring themselves to kill a little girl.
It happened more recently to a SEAL team in Afghanistan who were discovered by goat herders. They didn’t kill them and as a result they were reported and hunted down. Three of the 4 man team were killed. Would they have been prosecuted for having killed the herders? This is freaking crazy.
I certainly don’t think I’m tough enough to do it. And if I was able to override my feelings on the subject, I think I would have a hard time living with it. I can’t bring myself to criticize the men who have had to face this.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.