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Is it asking too much for something more than a verdict in the court-martial of Sgt. Hasan Akbar, the man accused of killing two officers -- including Army Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert of Williams Township -- a few days after the start of the war in Iraq? Something like an answer to the question: Why? Jury selection in Akbar's court-martial is under way in North Carolina, but pre-trial events only seem to have muddied the picture. Akbar is accused of using grenades and a rifle to attack fellow troops at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait in March 2003. He has been...

One soldier waits in a Fort Knox jail. Two others rest in graves dug just months ago. The Army says the jailed soldier, Sgt. Hasan Akbar, put the other two in the ground. But nearly a year after Maj. Gregory Stone and Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert were killed in a Kuwaiti desert, Akbar still doesn't know if he will face a court-martial in which he could receive the death penalty. His family — and the families of the deceased — are hoping the issue can be resolved. All were members of the 101st Airborne Division. "We've learned a hard lesson,"...

BETHLEHEM -- Huddling beneath a gray sky over the Lehigh Valley, mourners waited in the cold for more than an hour Friday to pay their respects to the family of Army Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert. A native of Williams Twp. and member of the 101st Airborne, Seifert was killed last month in Kuwait City when Sgt. Hasan Akbar allegedly tossed live grenades into tents at the division's command center and opened fire as soldiers scrambled for safety. Mourners began arriving for Seifert's viewing more than hour before it was scheduled to begin in the Old Chapel -- the chapel in...

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) -- A U.S. soldier suspected of a deadly grenade attack on his own comrades in the 101st Airborne Division in Kuwait is back in the United States, Army officials said Saturday. Hasan Akbar, 32, arrived in the U.S. on Friday, after being held in a detention facility in Germany, according to a statement from Fort Campbell, home of the 101st. The Army had previously said Akbar's first name was Asan, though family members had insisted all along that he spelled it Hasan. The statement, released Saturday, did not indicate where Akbar was being held in the...

A Different Drummer [March 30, 2003] T he U.S. military has a Moslem problem within the ranks, and its attempts to ignore the problem, have only worsened it. Imagine a black Moslem Army engineer with the rank of sergeant trying to murder other U.S. soldiers by throwing a hand grenade into a tent, and nothing happening to him. Now, imagine a second black Moslem Army engineer with the rank of sergeant doing the same thing, 12 years later. Impossible, right? Must be a fluke. Only it's possible, and it's no fluke. Last Sunday, Asan Akbar aka Hasan Karim Akbar aka...

BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- A second U.S. serviceman has died from wounds he suffered in a grenade attack on soldiers in Kuwait, an attack an Army sergeant is suspected of carrying out.Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone, 40, based in Boise, was pronounced dead early Tuesday at an Army field hospital in Kuwait, the Idaho Air National Guard said. Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert, 27, of Easton, Pa., also was killed in Saturday's attack, and 14 other soldiers were injured.Sgt. Asan Akbar is in custody. He was shipped to a military jail in Germany on Tuesday after a judge found probable...

The enlisted man who allegedly opened fire after rolling grenades into an officers' tent on Sunday morning, killing a Lehigh Valley native, will be tried before a regular military court and likely will face the death penalty, according to legal experts. The Army has launched a formal investigation into the murder of Army Capt. Christopher Seifert, a Army captain in the 101st Airborne Division. A grenade attack followed by a round of fire took the life of the 27-year-old officer and wounded 15 other soldiers at 1:22 a.m. Sunday at Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait. Pentagon spokesmen and Army officials would not...

Even as a Moravian College student, Christopher Scott Seifert wore the haircut of a military man. "He knew his path," said history prof Rosalind Remer, who taught Seifert about America's role in past wars. The Williams Township, PA native, a captain in the Army's 101st Airborne Division, was killed Sunday in Kuwait after another soldier rolled a grenade into the tents where he was sleeping, then opened fire as Seifert and others emerged from their quarters. Seifert died of a gunshot wound to the back. "What's really tragic is that Chris didn't die fighting for his country, he died at...

Capt. Christopher Seifert of Williams Township was a phenomenal student, leader and ROTC cadet, said retired Lt. Col. Robert Wolfenden, who recruited, trained and commissioned him. "He was one of the best we've ever commissioned out of the program," Wolfenden said. Wolfenden was head of the Lehigh Department of Military Science and Leadership from 1995 to 1999. Army ROTC students from Lafayette, Moravian and Muhlenberg colleges come to Lehigh University for training, Wolfenden said. Wolfenden said that he got to know Seifert, his parents and his wife while Seifert was at Moravian College. Wolfenden said that during Seifert's sophomore year...

The fifth column syndrome (Washington, D.C.): The most traumatic loss the U.S. military has suffered to date in the war with Iraq may, ironically, have been inflicted not by Iraqi Republican Guards, regular army units or irregular "Fedayeen." Rather, it may have come at the hands of an American servicemen. 'Fragged' by One of Our Own Early Sunday morning Kuwait time, a sergeant assigned to an engineering brigade of the 101st Airborne Division allegedly attacked three tents in which many divisional commanding officers were sleeping on the eve of their unit's jump-off into Iraq. According to press reports of the...

Names of the four US Marines who died in yesterday's helicopter crash: Maj. Jay Thomas Aubin, 36, of Waterville, Maine Capt. Ryan Anthony Beaupre, 30, of Bloomington, Ill. Cpl. Brian Matthew Kennedy, 25, of Houston, Texas Staff Sgt. Kendall Damon Watersbey, 29, of Baltimore, Md. The Pentagon has just released the names of two more US Marines who were killed in Iraq. I'll post as soon as I find that.

CAMP PENNSYLVANIA, Kuwait (Army News Service, March 24, 2003) - The dim dust of the desert settled lightly upon a pair of combat boots this morning. An inverted black rifle stood prone, topped by a camouflage helmet embossed with the black club of the Bastogne Brigade. A silver set of identification tags hung motionless from the rifle, capturing a glimmer of the morning sun. Upon those tags were etched a name that lay heavy upon the morning haze: Capt. Christopher Seifert, 28 years old, a captain, assistant S2, 1st Brigade headquarters, 101st Airborne Division. The 101st had lost one of...

A career soldier who grew up in Williams Township and earned the respect of teachers and friends was killed Sunday in Kuwait, allegedly by a fellow U.S. soldier. Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert, 27, of the Army's 101st Airborne Division died when live grenades were tossed into tents at the division's command center, an Army spokesman said. Sgt. Asan Akbar of the 326th Engineer Battalion is being held, but hasn't been charged. News of Seifert's death spread quickly Sunday night throughout the Wilson Area School District -- where he ran cross country in high school and played saxophone in the jazz...

Pentagon identifies U.S. soldier killed by grenade WASHINGTON, March 23 (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Sunday identified an American soldier apparently killed by a hand grenade thrown by another U.S. soldier in Kuwait as Army Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert, 27. The news release said no home-of-record was available for Seifert, who was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. In Kuwait earlier, a U.S. military source said one soldier was killed and 15 others wounded early on Sunday when a Muslim American serviceman apparently angered by the war against Iraq rolled hand grenades into their tents....