Posted on 08/07/2006 12:41:28 PM PDT by MizSterious
Mahmoudiya pinglist--if you want on or off, let me know via freepmail.
A similar story was posted earlier; this one contains a few more details of the testimony.
The scenario sounds eerily like "Casualties of War" with Michael J. Fox and Sean Penn.
Just heard on FOX that one of the accused passed a polygraph.
Defense lawyers contended the bodies were staged for the photographs of the crime scene. They also questioned whether the victims were shot to death, suggesting they may have already been dead when the bullets were fired.
You mean for innocence, or...?
Yes for innocence.
Good to hear at least one piece of good news. Thanks, TH.
This is a tough defense strategy, given that both Barker and Cortez gave sworn statements testifying to Green's murder of the entire family.
This is a tough defense strategy, given that both Barker and Cortez gave sworn statements testifying to Green's murder of the entire family.
Yes, it's a tough defense strategy. Barker's lawyer also claims much of Barkers testimony was coerced and wants to challenge (and I assume is doing so legally) his alleged confession.
Naturally. It's all he's got left.
Members of the media were allowed to hear the testimony of the medic and of the soldiers' battalion commander, Lt. Col. Thomas Kunk. The other two witnesses were unidentified Iraqis, and reporters were not permitted to hear their testimony, The Associated Press said.
(snip) In his testimony, Kunk described his interrogations of Yribe, Barker and Green.
Kunk said he was first made aware of the incident after a telephone call from company commander Capt. John Goodwin on June 19. He testified that Goodwin informed him of the alleged murders and asked him for guidance.
Immediately after that phone call, Kunk said, he made plans to travel to Yusifiya, where Goodwin was stationed, to investigate the incident.
Kunk recalled interviewing Yribe, whom he described as the first coalition soldier to get to the scene of the killings. He described the sergeant as straightforward and said Yribe "said he didn't have any participation that day."
Kunk said Yribe showed him photographs of the scene that he said he took.
Kunk also recalled questioning Barker, whom he described as "very flippant, very confident, and more than willing to answer the questions I had."
"He said, 'No sir, no coalition soldier was responsible for the ... murder of that family and the rape and murder of that little girl,' " Kunk testified.
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/08/07/iraq.main/
I doubt that. The prosecution doesn't even know what day these people were killed.
That sounds real fair
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,205039,00.html<
In the end, that they were killed, and that two of those involved said they participated and identified the killer will matter much more than a few hours' difference on an affidavit.
Other interesting tidbits from the Mayor of Mahmudiya via Reuters, July 3:
"They were found killed and burnt on the morning of March 12," Fadhil said, just after he met a U.S. military officer at his municipal office in the small town south of Baghdad.
Hospital director Dawood al-Taie said his morgue received four burned bodies that day and showed death certificates made out on March 13 for the four named as the victims by the mayor.
"Gunshot to the head and chest. Face unrecognisable due to burns," read the certificate for Abeer Qasim Hamza, who the mayor said was 16 when she died and had been raped.
Taie said he had no record that evidence of rape was found.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MAC343659.htm
Now supposedly, according to the Iraqi medic who arrived on the scene who testified yesteday ...
In the opening day of testimony in the military hearing in Baghdad to determine if there is enough evidence to hold a court-martial for five U.S. soldiers, the medic, whose name was withheld for security reasons, testified that he saw smoke when he arrived at the family's home in Mahmoudiya on the afternoon of March 12. Inside, on the floor of the living room, a 14-year-old girl lay dead on her back, her legs spread, her clothes torn off, her body burned from her waist to her head, a single bullet hole under her left eye, he said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/08/07/MNG9SKCCJU1.DTL
The defense should call in the Janabi boys too, the guys that told our investigators and the press that they were the first ones on the scene. And one said her clothes were still on. Hmmmmm
This doctor was not conducting an autopsy, was he?
You could be correct. But then if confessions were coerced, who knows. Barker's lawyer sure thinks so.
Look at post 13 and see what Barker told his commanding officer.
Speilman said he did not participate in rape or murder and passed a lie detector test.
Green plead not guilty.
I could be completely wrong about this, but methinks there is more to the story than what we've seen so far.
He said that twelve hours after he said that "the event" was the result of "combat stress."
Defense lawyers have to throw stuff against the wall to see what sticks. You know that.
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