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On June 19, 2006, the U.S. military announced it would press criminal charges against a noncommissioned officer and two soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, in connection with the deaths of three male detainees on May 9, 2006, during an operation near Thar Thar Canal, near Tikrit in the southern part of the Sunni-dominated Salah ad Din governorate northwest of Baghdad. The military indicates the following charges have been brought, but does not indicate which charges have been brought against which defendants, or their identities:
- murder
- attempted murder
- conspiracy
- communicating a threat
- obstruction of justice
A conviction for murder can bring the death penalty.
The three defendants are in pretrial confinement awaiting an Article 32 hearing, similar to a civilian grand jury proceeding, to determine if there is sufficient evidence to refer the case to a court-martial.
Murder is defined by Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) Article 118, 10 USC §
918:
Any person subject to this chapter whom without justification or excuse, unlawfully kills a human being, when he:
(1) has a premeditated design to kill;
(2) intends to kill or inflict great bodily harm;
(3) is engaged in an act which is inherently dangerous to others and evinces a wanton disregard of human life; or
(4) is engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of burglary, sodomy, rape, robbery, or aggravated arson;
is guilty of murder, and shall suffer such punishment as a court-martial may direct, except that if found guilty under clause (1) or (4), he shall suffer death or imprisonment for life as a court-martial may direct.
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/ucmj2.htm#
SUBCHAPTER%20X.%20PUNITIVE%20ARTICLES
The military reports that the relevant unit commander ordered an inquiry the same day as the deaths and that a Criminal Investigation Command (CID) investigation began May 17, 2006, and is ongoing.
The charges come as the military continues to investigate the deaths of 24 civilians in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005, attributed to U.S. Marines, and as the body of a man allegedly murder in Hamdaniya on April 26, 2006, is being examined for evidence at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C.
The number of reported incidents of alleged wrongdoing by coalition forces continues to represent a small fraction of the large U.S. force in Iraq. “Caught between a rock and a hard place,” the Iraqi people continue to face grave dangers from Iraqi insurgents and foreign terrorists, whose violence, if anything, prolongs the occupation and obstructs reconstruction.
But one of the serious questions that promise to receive greater light in the context of the Haditha investigation and others is the still-classified rules of engagement. The rules of engagement question in turn could impact on issues of command responsibility and questions about what, as a matter of policy, has been authorized in operations in Iraqi civilian settings, whether they are working, and what kinds of rules of engagement truly are needed in a schizoid environment like Iraq with its blend of unpredictable war-making, daily civilian life, economic regeneration, sabotage. Further questions promise to be raised about the psychiatric impact of war and its relevance to legal and moral culpability, and the harsh reality that the choice to go to war is still a choice to inflict civilian casualties, whether the civilian casualties are intentional or merely the foreseeable, if not inevitable, consequence of some other purpose and goal. It is a fact that some armaments, and some people, still go astray.
The Pentagon announced on June 1, 2006, that U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, Multinational Corps Iraq commander, had ordered training in “core warrior values” for all coalition forces highlighting legal, moral and ethical standards on the battlefield.
In a June 16, 2006, news conference, Maj. Gen. James Thurman (U.S. Army), commander of Multinational Division-Baghdad, indicated that escalation of force incidents in Baghdad had been cut in half, crediting after-action-reviews, including the requirement that every escalation in force had to be reported to his command for scrutiny and discussion, changes in checkpoint procedures including a halt to flash snap traffic control points, ongoing training, a focus on lessons learned. He indicated a need for a great deal of small unit leadership.
Further reading and viewing:
“Fate of Iraqi charter in balance,” June 19, 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4372094.stm
Map of Iraq, CNN (graphic), http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/WORLD/meast/06/19/soldiers.charged/
story.iraq.Salaheddin.gif
Tim McGurgk, “Collateral Damage or Civilian Massacre in Haditha? Last November, U.S. Marines killed 15 Iraqi civilians in their homes. Was it self-defense, an accident or cold-blooded revenge? A Time exclusive,” Time, March 19, 2006, http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1174649,00.html
“Operational Commander in Iraq Orders Core Values Training,” Armed Forces Press Service, June 1, 2006,
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jun2006/20060601_5304.html
“Neal Puckett, Military Criminal Defense Attorney,” C-SPAN (streaming video), June 17, 2006, http://switchboard.real.com/player/email.html?PV=6.0.12&&title=
Washington%20Journal%3A%20Sat.%2C%20June%2017&link=
rtsp%3A%2F%2Fvideo.c%2Dspan.org%2Fproject%2Firaq%2Firaq%
5Fwj061706%5Fpuckett.rm
“Soldiers charged in detainee deaths,” U.S. Central Command news release 06-06-01P, June 19, 2006, http://www.centcom.mil/sites/uscentcom1/Lists/
Press%20Releases/DispForm.aspx?ID=
3243&Source=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%
2Ecentcom%2Emil%2Fsites%
2Fuscentcom1%2FLists%2FPress%
2520Releases%2FCurrent%2520Releases%2Easpx
“3 U.S. soldiers charged with killing of Iraqis,” CNN, June 19, 2006, http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/19/soldiers.charged/
“Pentagon Briefing with Army Major Gen. James Thurman,”
Maj. Gen. James Thurman (U.S. Army) news briefing (streaming video), http://switchboard.real.com/player/email.html?PV=
6.0.12&&title=Pentagon%20Briefing&link=
rtsp%3A%2F%2Fvideo.c%2Dspan.org%2Fproject%2Firaq%2Firaq061606%
5Fdod.rm
Uniform Code of Military Justice, Subchapter X. Punitive Articles, http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/ucmj2.htm#
SUBCHAPTER%20X.%20PUNITIVE%20ARTICLES
“US soldiers charged over prisoner deaths in Iraq,” Reuters, June 19, 2006, http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=
topNews&storyID=2006-06-19T191111Z_01_IBO966046_
RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-USA-PRISONERS.xml
“US troops face Iraq death charges,” BBC, June 19, 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5096660.stm
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