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(AP) When Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez appears in court, it likely will take less than an hour for a military judge to complete the arraignment of the only soldier known to be charged with "fragging" _ or killing his superior officer _ during the Iraq war. The brevity of the hearing does not matter to the widows of Capt. Phillip Esposito and 1st Lt. Louis Allen. They planned to be at North Carolina's Fort Bragg on Friday, having driven hundreds of miles to face Martinez. "My husband started the process of holding Martinez accountable for his actions and I'm going...

Death Sentence Possible for U.S. Soldier Wednesday November 2, 2005 1:01 AM AP Photo WXS101 By DIANA ELIAS The Guardian (UK) Associated Press Writer CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait (AP) - A U.S. soldier could face the death penalty after an Army probe recommended Tuesday he be court-martialed in the Iraq war's first case of alleged ``fragging,'' slang for the murder of superior officers. Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez of Troy, N.Y., had a ``personal vendetta'' against one of two higher-ranked officers who died in an explosion June 7 on a U.S. base near Tikrit, north of Baghdad, military investigator Col. Patrick...

Associated Press KUWAIT CITY – A military tribunal began hearings today for a U.S. Army sergeant charged with killing two superior officers in Iraq, with a witness testifying that the defendant told him he wanted to kill one of the victims. Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez, of Troy, N.Y., faces murder charges in the June 7 killings of Capt. Philip Esposito and Lt. Louis E. Allen in a bomb blast at Forward Operating Base Danger, near the central Iraqi city of Tikrit, the hometown of the deposed Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, some 80 miles north of Baghdad. It is believed...

A military tribunal began hearings Monday for a U.S. Army sergeant charged with killing two superior officers in Iraq, with a witness testifying that the defendant told him he wanted to kill one of the victims. Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez, of Troy, N.Y., faces murder charges in the June 7 killing of Capt. Philip Esposito and Lt. Louis E. Allen in a bomb blast at Forward Operating Base Danger, near the central Iraqi city of Tikrit, the hometown of the deposed Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, some 80 miles north of Baghdad. The tribunal, held at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait,...

Disgruntled National Guard soldier Alberto Martinez used a powerful remote-control Claymore mine to murder his two superior officers in a plot to make the slaying resemble an Iraqi terrorist attack, it was revealed yesterday. Shocking details of the carefully calculated killing of New York Guard Capt. Phillip Esposito and Lt. Louis Allen in Tikrit were revealed yesterday by retired Army Col. Jack Jacobs, a Medal of Honor winner who spoke to senior military officials familiar with the investigation. Jacobs said investigators believe the 37-year-old Martinez, a company supply sergeant from Troy, detonated the mine on a window sill. The sill...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. Army staff sergeant was charged with murdering his two commanding officers last week at a base outside Baghdad, the military said Thursday in what is believed to be the first case of an American soldier in Iraq accused of killing his superiors. Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez, 37, a supply specialist with the Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the 42nd Infantry Division, New York Army National Guard, was charged Wednesday in connection with the June 7 deaths of the two officers at Forward Operating Base Danger, near Tikrit — Saddam Hussein's hometown 80 miles north...

This story is flying under the radar of the MSM...wonder why. Originally published in the New York Post, the story detailed the mysterious deaths of two friends, Captain Phillip Esposito and Lieutenant Louis Allen, both NY Army National Guard, who were killed by an explosion in Tikrit on June 7 as they slept. Staff Sergeant Alberto Martinez was arrested today and charged with murder.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An Army National Guard staff sergeant has been charged with premeditated murder in a “fragging incident” that killed two senior officers at a U.S. base near Tikrit last week, the U.S. military said Thursday. Army officials told NBC News that Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez had been disciplined by the two officers, a possible motive for the attack. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not disclose the nature of the disciplinary action. (snip) A military statement said that Martinez, 37, a supply specialist with the Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the 42nd Infantry Division,...

Insurgents have taken over much of the Iraqi city of Ramadi and used it to launch attacks against United States forces while terrorising the population with public beheadings. A huge bomb killed five marines on Thursday and showered body parts on to rooftops, fuelling suspicion that armour-piercing technology is being developed and tested in Ramadi. US troops recovered the remains and withdrew to their base outside the Arab Sunni stronghold, leaving masked gunmen to erect checkpoints and carry out what residents said was the latest of many executions. A man described as an Egyptian spy was beheaded and his body...