Posted on 12/19/2010 10:45:01 AM PST by JLWORK
Private First Class Corey Claggett, United States Army, has been sitting for the past four years in administrative segregation (read that: Solitary Confinement) at Leavenworth Prison, for obeying a direct and apparently unlawful order from his superior officer to kill two suspected al Quaeda terrorists in Iraq.
Lt. Colonel Terry Lakin sits in prison, doing six months and forfeiting his retirement benefits, for disobeying what he believed was an unlawful order vicariously issued by his Commander In Chief Barack Obama – who has yet to prove his Constitutional eligibility to hold office.
Diana West, who has written extensively about the Leavenworth Ten, military enlisted and commissioned personnel who are now locked up in prison for war-time killings that got them Court Martials when they returned home, presented a post today on the case of Private Claggett. West includes a video presentation by his lawyer that is well worth your time. But be prepared to feel more than deeply disturbed as you hear the attorney, Tim Parlatore, lay out the cold, hard facts of the Claggett case – and what has happened to his client at the hands of the United States Army:
http://www.dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/1626/Free-PFC-Corey-Claggett.aspx
“…I’ve never highlighted the details of PFC Corey Claggett’s case only because I didn’t know them. I do now and they are harrowing. To date, Corey has served more than four years in solitary confinement for following an unlawful order to kill two al-Qaeda suspects (His superior who ordered the killings is free on parole, and the man who killed a third one is not only free but has been promoted. Details here.) That means that without clemency, Corey Clagget has 14 more more years to go on this diabolically harsh and unjust 18-year sentence…”
My father was in combat in the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations during World War II. He came home wearing an Asiatic campaign medal with two Bronze Stars attached. He would talk only very reluctantly about what he saw and did in Burma’s jungles between January of 1944 and August of 1945. My knowledge of his experience is sketchy at best. He wanted to forget about it and he sometimes became angry with me if I brought it up in our conversations. He’s been dead now for five and one-half years and he took most of the terrible secrets with him when he left us.
One thing of which I am certain is that Dad did not ever need to fear coming home to be Court Martialed and sent to prison for killing the wrong person in a combat zone during battle. His job was to facilitate the killing of as many Japanese soldiers as possible and come home to my mother. And a lot of civilians died during those battles. It’s an inevitability of war. From December 8, 1941 to August, 1945 it took the United States and our allies three and one-half years to completely destroy the Japanese and German war machines. World-wide, an estimated fifty-five million people died.
Now we send our best and bravest to fight this nearly ten-years long war in a Stone-Age country, against an enemy that has never been properly named, with no definable victory in sight, with rules of engagement that do not allow our troops to return hostile fire without permission from their superiors. And our Military Courts lock up the men who kill the enemy, while terrorists who have killed Americans are released to go home.
If you can make any sense of this mess, you’re smarter than I am. But those ten Leavenworth prisoners should be released to go home to their families. What in Hell are we doing?
I’m trying to understand what this guy did.
“He was only 21 years old when Corey’s squad was sent into Thar Thar with orders to “kill all military aged males.” When they instead took three Iraqis prisoner, he and Specialist William Hunsaker were ordered to release the detainees and kill them.”
He killed two prisoners?
One jailed for following orders the other for not following orders. Yet there are those on this forum who would state that following orders is not an option. I’m certainly thankful that I have trusted in God’s rule rather then trust any rule of man.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E7D91E31F933A15755C0A9609C8B63
Here’s the link to the NY Times story, FWIW.
I think the salient point of my post here is that we have put our warriors into impossibly difficult circumstances, where the enemy does not wear a uniform, he kills our warriors, our soldiers catch and release him to come back and kill again. My nephew, U.S. Army Infantry, did three combat tours in Iraq, loaded fifty-three dead American comrades from his unit onto trucks for shipment back home for burial - during one tour.
This COIN strategy is doomed to failure, as it was in Viet Nam. Fight the war mercilessly to win it or get out.
Best,
JW
The title of your post captures my initial concern with the Lakin decision. On the face of it, the Lakin decision stands for a proposition that is the opposite of that produced by the Nuremberg trials.
I think the military command structure can be charged with dropping the ball re Obama. It had notice (at the least) of the public record and the national outcry over whether Obama was Constituionally eligible, together with Obama’s ongoing effort to conceal his personal history, and all prior to the election.
It also had notice that the January 2009 statutory certification by which Congress conferred the position of CinC was flawed in a material way relative to Obama’s qualification.
Thus, it can be argued that the military through proper channels should have immediately requested of Congress subsequent to its flawed certification that Congress correct the matter. One could ask what the military should have been done if Congress certified Mickey Mouse as CinC.
Of course, if the Lakin decision spurs productive political intervention, as it should, Lakin will have succeeded,
“I’m worried about an opponent who uses nation building and the military in the same sentence.”
-George W. Bush, Nov. 6, 2000
Lots of finger pointing or acquatisations of who said what during this fiasco. But the bottom line is both
......Spc. William B. Hunsaker and Pfc. Corey Clagett pleaded guilty, cooperated with prosecutors and were sentenced to 18 years in military prison. Both men said during their court hearings that Girouard ordered the killings......
The soldiers had previously told investigators they were given rules of engagement by 3rd Brigade commander Col. Michael Steele to kill all military-age men. Steele has denied this, but invoked his right not to testify.
A judge ruled last week that Steele won’t be forced testify, but defense attorneys could cross-examine the witnesses about their understanding of Steele’s order.
Gene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said it has become common in military trials for soldiers to testify they were just following orders or rules of engagement. But it’s not always an effective argument.
“If an order is illegal or commonly understood to be illegal, then it’s not a defense that you acted in compliance of that order,” Fidell said. “The fact that such an order was given doesn’t necessarily get anyone off the hook.”.........
end snip
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,258424,00.html?r_src=ramp
We CANNOT win a war in which our soldiers fear lawyers more than the enemy.
Apparently the lesson for both of them is, don’t mess with da man.
“But those ten Leavenworth prisoners should be released to go home to their families.”
What about LTC Lakin? Seems you piggy backed your guys onto LTC Lakin.
I guess I left Lakin out because his sentence is for six months - he’ll be home soon enough, God willing - the others are serving virtual life sentences.
He won’t be institutionalized by his term. The Leavenworth Ten will be institutionalized.
I get your point. If there were any justcie in the world, or in Obama, Lakin would not be in this position - the CIC would have turned his cards over a long time ago, in the interest of keeping a good man from going to prison. But there is no justice.
Merry Christmas and best wishes,
JW
In the end, Lakin folded and testified that the orders were legal, thereby screwing both himself and those of us trying to bring down the usurper.
Had he stuck to his principles, he would be a courageous hero. Now he lost both his career and his honor.
“If an order is illegal or commonly understood to be illegal, then it’s not a defense that you acted in compliance of that order,
There is no question that obama is not the legal CIC and thus can not order troops to Afghanistan. Lakin is not required to follow orders he knows were illegal. Lakin is nothing more than a political prisoner.
There is no question that obama is not the legal CIC and thus can not order troops to Afghanistan.
You better tell the military command that so they can rectify the situation.
The military command already knows, the purpose of the kangaroo trial for Lakin was to let everyone in the military know that it is not wise to cross obama. Earlier while I was doing a little reading I came across this statement from a Kenyan Minister addressing the Kenyan Parliament. “If America was living in a situation where they feared ethnicity and did not see itself as a multiparty state or nation, how could a young man born here in Kenya, who is not even a native American, become the President of America?” Wonder why the Kenyan goverment thinks obama was born at the Coastal Hospital Mombasa, Kenya.
Until Obama is voted out or the Congress removes Obama by their processes he is the CINC rregardless of what some foreign gov’t says.
Congress has known even before obama was “elected” that Kenyan officials were claiming that obama was born in Kenya.
Congress has refused to even hold a hearing on the matter. There is far more evidence that obama was born in Kenya, then there is he being born in Hawaii. The courts have refused to accept any case or evidence proving that obama is not an American citizen. NO, if obama was born in Kenya, he is not nor ever can be the CIC or the President of the United States. Anything he signs or people he appoints is invalid. Would you not thing something this important should be investigated?
Yes investigate away and if any proprieties exist then the people need to vote him out or Congress needs to exercise their powers to remedy the situation. Until and unless proprieties are found and acted upon Obama is the President and CINC.
The smart money is on forsaking principle over expediency. Cowardice in other words. Lakin didn't bet the smart money.
We know from his own admission that obama was born with dual citizenship( assuming that he was even born in Hawaii). This alone disqualifies obama from being eligible to be the President under Article 2 of the Constitution. obama has manage ( with a full time staff of attorneys)to block all lawsuits against him seeking access to birth records to use in court against him. There is no question that he is not the legal President, the only problem is getting access to the records to prove it. obama IS NOT nor EVER can be the legal President of the United States. He is not the legal Commander -In- Chief.
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