Marine Details Iraqi Kidnap-Murder Plan [LCpl Pennington / Hamdania]

A Marine who acknowledged being a willing participant in the kidnapping of an Iraqi man last April said he and his fellow servicemen were on a mission to "send a message to the insurgency."

Lance Cpl. Robert Pennington, 22, told a court-martial he knew at the time of the kidnapping that it was wrong, but he participated nonetheless because he and his fellow Marines were sick of suspected insurgents slipping through the justice system.

The squad was accused of dragging Hashim Ibrahim Awad from his home in the rural town of Hamdania, and shooting him. Investigators believe the servicemen tried to cover up the killing by planting an AK-47 and a shovel by Awad's body to make it look like he was an insurgent planting a bomb.

"We treated what was to be done as a mission, planned it, briefed it and executed it as a mission," Pennington testified Tuesday after pleading guilty to conspiracy and kidnapping.

Pennington, of Mukilteo, Wash., entered the two pleas under a pretrial agreement. He also pleaded not guilty to murder, larceny and housebreaking, charges that will be dismissed if he completes terms of a plea bargain requiring him to testify for the government and remain on good behavior.

Pennington, the squad's radio operator, said his squad agreed if it could not capture a suspected insurgent, it would seize and kill someone else.

"If we could not catch Saleh Gowad or his brothers, it was another step down to kill another military aged male in the town," Pennington said. "We felt that capturing them was an exercise in futility ... they would just be released a few days later."

The squad was unable to kidnap Gowad because an elderly woman confronted them by his house, Pennington said, so the troops moved down the road to Awad's house.

Pennington testified he and three other troops led Awad from his home. When Awad asked them what was happening, they told him he was being taken to Abu Ghraib prison for the night and would be returned the next day.

Pennington said he helped force Awad into a roadside hole and tried to silence the protesting victim by holding his hand over his mouth.

Pennington said he did not fire at Awad, and was radioing his patrol base when the shooting started. He said he remembered squad leader Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III firing "about three" bullets into Awad's head.

Hutchins, of Plymouth, Mass., is awaiting trial on murder and other charges. His lawyer has said he does not think Hutchins did anything wrong.

Pennington is the sixth squad member to plead guilty in the case. Three of the Marines and a sailor have pleaded guilty to lesser charges as part of plea deals. They were sentenced to less than two years in prison, but were required to testify about the killing.

Another Marine, Cpl. Trent D. Thomas, pleaded guilty last month to murder, but withdrew the plea ahead of his sentencing last week. He said he believed he was following orders.

Pennington, who was on his third tour of duty in Iraq, faces a maximum life sentence, though this term is likely capped by the pretrial deal.

Didn't know you had created a new thread on Pennington's plea deal. Here's what I posted on the last thread regarding how the case looked for Pennington in Sept, 2006 according to the Mukilteo Beacon. The case and evidence looked pretty weak/suspect.

http://www.mukilteobeacon.com/8906warcrime.html

Mukilteo Marine awaits war crime hearing by Paul Archipley

"Lance Cpl. Robert B. Pennington was on his third tour of duty in Iraq. The Mukilteo man had volunteered to serve his country, was among those on the front lines of the initial assault on Baghdad, and later fought in Fallujah.

In July, the Kamiak grad celebrated his 22nd birthday in the Camp Pendleton brig.

Pennington, six other Marines and a U.S. Navy corpsman are accused of murdering an Iraqi man last year in Hamdania, a village west of Baghdad, then trying to cover up the crime.

The government’s case seems to rest primarily on statements signed by the accused themselves, statements that defenders of the “Pendleton 8” say are highly suspect.

If there’s other evidence against the group, the government isn’t yet sharing it with defense attorneys.

That lack of cooperation troubles Pennington’s attorney, former Brigadier General David Brahms.

And the harsh treatment given the defendants, particularly in comparison to servicemen and women charged in other alleged war crimes, weighs heavily on Terry and Deanna Pennington, Robert’s parents.

“We’re trying to put pressure on the military to treat them fairly,” Deanna Pennington said from the couple’s new home in Maui, Hawaii. (A planned move from Mukilteo due to a job transfer for Deanna preceded the crisis.)

“No one in the Haditha case (in which Marines are accused of massacring 24 unarmed men, women and children) is in the brig.

“Our son was in the brig for a month without even being charged. I don’t understand why our boys are getting treated differently.”

Attorney Brahms said those decisions are in the hands of commanding officers. The commanding officer in the Haditha case seems to be supporting his Marines pending the outcome of investigations and hearings.

The commanding officer in the Hamdania incident is treating the Pendleton 8 like they’re guilty.

This much is known, said Terry Pendleton: “Some Iraqi civilian ended up dead. Several days later, his family alleged he was murdered. I don’t think they named names.”

Yet, according to the Associated Press, investigators from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service claim that, without provocation, the accused troops nabbed the victim, Hashim Ibrahim Awad, tied him up, put him in a hole and shot him.

The troops then allegedly placed an AK-47 in Awad’s hands and put a shovel in the hole to make it appear he had been planting explosives.

According to Terry Pennington, the NCIS put each of the accused in a room for up to eight hours without food or bathroom breaks, browbeat and threatened them with facing the death penalty if they didn’t cooperate, wrote up statements for them rather than taking statements, then secured signatures.

“They were told if they signed there would be some form of non-judicial punishment, such as being busted down a stripe,” Terry Pennington said.

“But the moment they signed, all promises were broken and they were flown to Camp Pendleton.”

Brahms has high regard for members of NCIS, but he has seen this kind of investigation before.

“They’ve got a bunch of pretty good people, but terrible policies,” he said. “They have a tendency to investigate by statement.

“They can lie, they can cheat, and standard practice is intimidation of our young men and women.

“It creates statements that are suspect.”

Despite the fact the accused hail from all over the country, each coming with the dialects and outlooks of their upbringing, Brahms said the statements “look remarkably alike.”

“It’s a great institutional failing,” he said. “They start with a premise, and their investigation is designed to validate that premise.”

The military has been basically uncooperative with defense attorneys, and has so far refused to facilitate trips to the crime scene.

Without all the evidence, Brahms said he’s like “a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.”

The Pendleton 8 are awaiting an Article 32 hearing on Sept. 25. At that time a military court will determine whether there’s enough evidence to move forward with a general court martial.

Meanwhile, the Penningtons are working hard to win better treatment for their son and the other defendants. Terry Pennington has been on several talk shows. They have contacted elected officials without success.

There is a website, defendrob.com, for anyone wishing to send money to help with defense costs or offer moral support.

They say their son is bearing up well, but they worry he’s showing signs of traumatic stress syndrome. He’s getting poor or no medical treatment, they say.

Anyone who can is encouraged to help.

“Obviously, the commander-in-chief or secretary of defense doesn’t take my calls,” Terry Pennington said.

“If there’s anybody who’s politically connected, we need their help. Find us somebody in a position of power.” "

The only reference to destroying the flash drive is from the memo you posted from Phan's defense attorneys. It was allegedly destroyed by a representative of Phan's command and in the presence of the Battalion Staff Judge Advocate right before Phan was transferred back to Camp Pendleton. The drive supposedly contained orders and messages from his commanders which were transmitted to him via this device, along with other information.

Also in this memo, the defense attorneys claim that Lt. Phan was instructed by his superiors to “aggressively” gather intelligence from these individuals (I guess the ones who were allegedly assaulted) and put a stop to their activities “at all costs".

So if we tie these two pieces of info. together, we could logically jump off the cliff and surmise the flash drive was destroyed to not implicate anyone higher in Phan's assault case. In other words, the drive may give a "following lawful orders" defense in Phan's interrogations. How high up the food chain might it go?

This memo does not make any reference to the Awad case. However, Phan's defense attorneys use of the term "at any cost" might be quite tempting for the Pendleton 8 attorneys to key in on.

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