Posted on 07/13/2007 7:08:02 PM PDT by radar101
DON KOHLBAUER / Union-Tribune Marine Cpl. Trent D. Thomas (right) walks to the courtroom at Camp Pendleton earlier this week during his court-martial proceedings. He is accompanied by military defense counsel Maj. Dale Saran
CAMP PENDLETON – The Iraqi that Marine Cpl. Trent Thomas helped to kidnap and kill is hardly the innocent victim that prosecutors have described, Thomas' attorneys said Friday.
Marine investigators didn't even get the dead man's name right, Thomas' defense team said during the fifth day of his court-martial at Camp Pendleton. “We believe the person killed was extremely likely to be an insurgent,” attorney Melissa Epstein told military judge Lt. Col. David M. Jones. “At a minimum, this would be tremendous at sentencing” if Thomas is convicted.
For months, prosecutors have said Thomas and seven other Camp Pendleton servicemen executed Hashim Ibrahim Awad. But now, they have taken Awad's name off the charge sheet for Thomas and replaced it with “an unknown Iraqi.”
The lead prosecutor, Lt. Col. John Baker, said he has DNA and other evidence proving that Awad was the person killed.
Jones has not ruled on which version of events can be admitted as evidence.
Thomas has acknowledged that he helped snatch and shoot the Iraqi man on April 26, 2006. But he said Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins, the leader of his unit, gave him lawful orders to do so.
If the defense team's latest assertions are true, they could “color the proceedings,” said Eugene R. Fidell, a noted military defense attorney in Washington, D.C.
For example, jurors – especially those who are combat veterans – might sympathize more with Thomas if they think he went after a suspected enemy combatant instead of Awad, a disabled grandfather.
However, Fidell said, “the law does not allow summary execution. I have quite a lot of respect for the willingness of military juries to call them as they seem them.”
Thomas and the other seven defendants are from Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. Five of them have signed plea agreements with the military, pledging to testify against the remaining defendants in exchange for shorter prison sentences.
Those five servicemen said their squad planned to capture and execute an insurgent named Saleh Gowad. Marines had captured Gowad several times, but Iraqi authorities would always let him go afterward.
When the Marines couldn't find Gowad on April 26, 2006, they went next door and grabbed a man who was sleeping, according to previous testimony and court records. Until Friday, that man was depicted as Awad, a 52-year-old former police officer who walked with a limp.
The squad bound the man and forced him into a shallow hole, where they shot him to death, five of the defendants have testified. Prosecutors said the unit then tried to disguise its crime as self-defense against an Iraqi who started a firefight when he was discovered planting a roadside bomb.
On Thursday, a Navy corner testified that at least 11 shots struck the Iraqi man's body.
A day later, Epstein said the man was not Awad but Hashem Gowad, cousin of Saleh Gowad and also a suspected insurgent. Epstein said the military waited until 11 days ago to give her team some documents suggesting the identification problem.
It’s like “Breaker Morant” all over again.
As in the Capt Stone and Lt Col Chessani hearings, JAG prosecutors are always making headlines. Headlines that are never retracted.
It’s disgusting that there’s such a symbotic relationship between the media and ANY man in uniform.
Bump
They are also reporting that he was a cripple, how can a cripple be frog marched up and down the street for 30 minutes?
How can he get around with his hands and feet tied?
If they have the wrong body, how do they know ANY story is right about who is dead?
ALL investigations are suspect when you realize you didn’t kill the man they say you did for over one year!
Can you imagine any American citizen being prosecuted for murder when prosecutors aren’t even sure who was murdered?
The Hamdania Marines might as well be citizens of a Third World country for the all the justice they’ve received.
And this isn’t even newsworthy outside of San Diego?
This disgrace to the Corps and our country just keeps on rolling along, well below the radar.
No.
Well, then, there you are.
Why are these Marines being treated less fairly than citizens of the United States? Men and women who serve our country should be our most honored citizens, not treated with far less respect than actual criminals.
Uh I dunno? Paying for past mistakes made by others? Promotion board? Quotas of article 32's not being met? Life's not fair? Nothing else to do this summer? Talking in formation? Do you have the right wrong answer?
So Rob Pennington is serving eight years for his involvement with the kidnapping of Awad. But Awad was never touched.
This has gone to entirely new levels of nuttiness.
I can’t believe the prosecution/investigating officer isn’t trying to clear this up before proceeding. The family is the entity that came to the Marines and claimed Awad was murdered. That’s how the whole mess got started. They had this elaborate story how the Marines knocked on their doors, took an AK-47, a shovel, the whole 9 yards. So was this a made up story to collect on Awad or Gowad? Is Awad still alive, was he killed at some other time, was Awad an alias for Hashem Gowad.....? Maybe this explains why no Iraqi witnesses would come to the US to testify.
Doesn’t it make a difference if they killed an insurgent vs. some poor old lame/crippled guy, even if it was premeditated?
Bottom line, the family needs to give the money back (yeah, right) and be arrested. They can clear up some identity issues in Abu Ghraib after spending a little time reflecting on their “story”.
NCIS needs to answer for this, uh-hum, “mistake” and withholding the info from the defense.
Pathetically, the SD Union Trib is the only paper in the country to cover this. Even the NC Times is asleep at the switch.
Guess we can see why prosecutors and NCIS thugs were so desparate to beat confessions and deals out of these Marines.
They never had a case.
This was major news last year. People were up in arms at our Marines being shackled. You are correct, this is pathetic. They may have killed an insurgent; the question is whether it was sanctioned or not. Is the world, Iraq, and our Marines better off without him? Probably so. When these trials are over, I hope Lt. Gen. Mattis takes this into consideration in his judgement.
I guess the question I’d be asking is how bad does a guy have to be before it’s okay to kill him? If this was Osama, noone would bat an eye. These guys would be heroes. If this guy was a total innocent with a long record of helping out other Iraqis and Americans, not good. If this guy is the cousin of the Prince of Anbar or the Prince of Jihad, Saleh Gowad, what part of that spectrum of punishment (Zero to Life) does it fall under?
My gut says most Americans aren’t too hip on punishing Marines for killing insurgents, sanctioned or not.....and if they get punished, it shouldn’t be excessive. There was no personal motive, here, except get rid of the bad guys and stop the IED’s. Maybe if more of these type of op’s had been sanctioned, we’d have less IED’s today killing our military. But that’s just my two cents.
I think you look fine, but sit ups do help.
It's absolutely disgraceful that people went running for the hills as soon as the plea deals began. I'd make a deal, too, to get out of a Conex box and get use of a toothbrush and flush toilet after a few months.
BTW, here's where we stand so far, courtesy of the NC Times...
Must-read thread.
I hope ya’ll appreciate that I can hold my emotions in check.
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