Pentagon Will Not Try 17
G.I.'s Implicated in Prisoners' Deaths
NY Times/Clark Community Network
By DOUGLAS JEHL
March 26, 2005
WASHINGTON, March 25 - Despite recommendations by Army
investigators, commanders have decided not to prosecute 17
American soldiers implicated in the deaths of three prisoners in
Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004, according to a new
accounting released Friday by the Army.
Investigators had recommended that all 17 soldiers be charged
in the cases, according to the accounting by the Army Criminal
Investigation Command. The charges included murder, conspiracy
and negligent homicide. While none of the 17 will face any
prosecution, one received a letter of reprimand and another was
discharged after the investigations.
To date, the military has taken steps toward prosecuting some
three dozen soldiers in connection with a total of 28 confirmed
or suspected homicides of detainees. The total number of such
deaths is believed to be between 28 and 31.
In one of the three cases in which no charges are to be filed,
the commanders determined the death to be "a result of a series
of lawful applications of force." In the second, the commanders
decided not to prosecute because of a lack of evidence. In the
third, they determined the soldier involved had not been well
informed of the rules of engagement.
A spokesman for the Army Criminal Investigation Command, Chris
Grey, said in a statement: "We take each and every death very
seriously and are committed and sworn to investigating each case
with the utmost professionalism and thoroughness. We are equally
determined to get to the truth wherever the evidence may lead us
and regardless of how long it takes."
Human rights groups and others have criticized the military
for not pursuing prosecution more aggressively.
The accounting was the most detailed the military has yet made
public of the deaths of prisoners in American custody in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Of the 28 deaths investigated, 13 occurred in American
detention centers in those countries and 15 occurred at the point
where prisoners were captured. Only one occurred in Abu Ghraib
prison in Iraq, which has been known until now as the site of the
most extensive abuses by American military personnel.
The 28 deaths include two cases involving members of the Navy
Seals, which are still being investigated by the Navy, according
to military officials. They also include a prisoner in Marine
Corps custody whose death resulted in the conviction of two
marines on charges including assault and dereliction of duty,
according to a Marine spokesman.
Not included in the 28 are three other deaths of prisoners
involving marines but under investigation by the Navy.
With the disposition of the three cases involving the 17
soldiers not prosecuted, the Army now has 21 soldiers listed as
subjects for prosecution on criminal charges including, among
others, murder, negligent homicide and assault.
Of those 21 soldiers, at least 3 have been convicted in
general courts-martial, and at least 3 others are awaiting trial,
the Army accounting showed.
The Army said one of the three deaths for which soldiers would
not be prosecuted was that of a former Iraqi lieutenant colonel
determined by investigators to have died of "blunt force injuries
and asphyxia" at an American Forward Operating Base in Al Asad,
Iraq, in January 2004.
In that case, Army investigators had recommended that 11
soldiers from the Fifth Special Forces Group and the Third
Armored Cavalry Regiment face charges. The decision not to
prosecute in that case, as well as one other, was made by the
Army Special Forces Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., the Army
said.
A senior Army legal official acknowledged that the Iraqi
colonel had at one point been lifted to his feet by a baton held
to his throat, and that that action had caused a throat injury
that contributed to his death.
The Army accounting said the Special Forces Command had
determined that the use of force had been lawful "in response to
repeated aggression and misconduct by the detainee."
The former Iraqi colonel was not identified but has been named
in other reports as Jameel.
The senior Army legal official said the prisoner's resistance
to his captors' instructions had caused them to gag him and to
lift him to his feet with the baton, actions that contributed to
the death.
The Army Special Forces case that commanders decided to drop
for lack of evidence involved the shooting death of a prisoner in
Afghanistan in August 2002, the Army said.
The case not prosecuted because the soldier involved was not
well informed of the rules of engagement, involved the Fourth
Infantry Division. The detainee, who died in September 2003, was
an Iraqi prisoner at an American detention center.
The Army said it has now closed its investigations into 16 of
the deaths, and referred five of them to the Navy, the Justice
Department or foreign governments for possible prosecution.
Some of the deaths described in the Army accounting have
already been widely reported, including two deaths at Bagram in
Afghanistan in December 2002; the death at Abu Ghraib in November
2003 of an Iraqi who was being questioned by a Central
Intelligence Agency officer; and the death the same month of an
Iraqi major general who had been stuffed head-first into a
sleeping bag.
An Army spokesman, Lt. Col. Jeremy Martin, said the prisoners
who died represented a tiny fraction of what he said had been
some 70,000 detainees held by American forces in Iraq and
Afghanistan since 2001. Altogether, more than a million American
soldiers have taken part in those operations, Colonel Martin
said.
A spokesman for the Army Special Operations Forces Command,
Maj. Robert E. Gowan, said a "careful review of the facts"
surrounding each of the two incidents involving that command
indicated that "no U.S. Army Special Forces Command soldiers were
found to have participated in any misconduct or detainee
abuse."
"U.S. Army Special Forces Command takes all allegations of
detainee abuse and homicide very seriously," Major Gowan said in
an e-mail statement in response to an inquiry. "As with any case,
U.S. Army Special Forces Command will consider all relevant
evidence and facts. This command will make appropriate
disposition of such cases as warranted by the facts and evidence
derived from the investigations."
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