Free Republic

An investigating officer in Baghdad has recommended that commanders drop voluntary manslaughter and conspiracy charges against a Pennsylvania National Guard soldier after determining that he followed appropriate rules of engagement when he killed an Iraqi man in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi in February. Army Lt. Col. John W. McClory found that Spec. Nathan B. Lynn, 21, of South Williamsport, Pa., did nothing wrong in shooting Gani Ahmad Zaben in the post-curfew darkness outside a group of homes on Feb. 15. McClory ruled that Lynn thought the man was armed with an AK-47 and believed he was a threat. Military...

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A U.S. Marine has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing in last year's fatal shooting of a relative of Iraq's ambassador to the United States, a U.S. official said Wednesday. The 21-year-old engineering student, Mohammed Sumaidaie, was killed during a search of his family's home near Haditha on June 25, 2005. U.S. authorities ordered an investigation after Samir Sumaidaie complained that his unarmed cousin had been shot in cold blood. However, Maj. Douglas Powell, a U.S. military spokesman, said the Naval Criminal Investigative Service determined that the Marine "acted properly in self defense in response to unexpectedly encountering...