Here's another report from San Diego Union Tribune by Rick Rogers.
Marine: 'Soft' unit was pressured
July 15, 2007
CAMP PENDLETON – A Marine unit that was saddled with a “soft” combat image resorted to two-fisted measures in Iraq that escalated within days to murder, a witness who was a member of the unit testified yesterday.
Cpl. Saul Lopez-Romo said he and other Marines turned violent after “higher-ups” purportedly questioned the unit's toughness. The platoon was further insulted when Marines from other units were added to stiffen its resolve, he said.
In that pressurized atmosphere, violence directed at Iraqi detainees spread, Lopez-Romo said. In his opinion, it was sanctioned by superiors.
Asked if he felt pressure from superiors to increase the level of violence to prove the unit was not soft, Lopez-Romo said, “Yes, sir.”
Asked if this expectation affected Cpl. Trent Thomas, the subject of a court-martial, and the other members of the squad, he said, “I believe we all did.”
Lopez-Romo added: “People started changing in ways I never would have thought. The state of mind started changing – little by little, we started doing things.”
Lopez-Romo testified on the sixth day of Thomas' court-martial in the kidnapping and killing of an Iraqi man April 26, 2006. Thomas was charged with seven other defendants from Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment.
Five have signed plea agreements and have testified that their squad planned to capture and execute an insurgent named Saleh Gowad.
When the patrol couldn't find Gowad on April 26, members went next door and grabbed a sleeping man, according to previous testimony and court records.
The squad bound the man and forced him into a shallow hole, where they shot him to death, five 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.
The defense called Lopez-Romo to describe the command climate and the mind-set of Thomas in the days leading up to the shooting death.
Lopez-Romo said the 2nd Platoon beat Iraqis and that in at least one case, an officer shoved a pistol in the face of an Iraqi to get information. A sergeant is said to have choked an Iraqi during interrogation.
Lopez-Romo said he believed superiors approved of the tactics.
He explained the practice of shooting dead or wounded suspected insurgents, a practice known as “dead checks,” saying, “Anyone worth shooting once is worth shooting twice.”
Thomas and Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins, described as the architect of the killing and another defendant, are accused of performing dead checks in this case. Hutchins' trial is set to begin in the coming weeks.
The man the Marines are accused of murdering had been known until this week as a 52-year-old former police officer named Hashim Ibrahim Awad. But because of prosecution difficulties in identifying him, he is now referred as “an unknown Iraqi.”
In addition to Lopez-Romo, the defense called character witnesses who spoke highly of Thomas on his third tour of Iraq at the time of the incident.
Next week, doctors are expected to testify that Thomas suffers from post-traumatic post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.
