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Politics : The Truth About Islam -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (4781)	2/20/2007 5:25:59 PM
From: Ichy Smith	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20106

Kill him.

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (4781)	2/20/2007 5:35:05 PM
From: average joe	Respond to of 20106

U.S. Marine to Serve 8 years for Brutal murder of Iraqi Citizen Marine to serve 8 years in killing of Iraqi CAMP PENDLETON, California (CNN) -- A U.S. Marine will serve no more than eight years in prison in connection with the killing of an Iraqi civilian, a Marine Corps spokesman said Saturday. Marine Lance Cpl. Robert Pennington was sentenced to 14 years' confinement but will serve no more than eight under a plea agreement, Marine spokesman Sean Gibson told CNN. Pennington pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges regarding the death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, 52, in Hamdaniya, west of Baghdad. Pennington was among a group of seven Marines and a Navy medic charged in Awad's death. He and two other Marines were ordered to stand trial in October. Pennington agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit premeditated murder and kidnapping, and to a kidnapping charge. Other charges he faced were dismissed at sentencing. He was given credit for the 340 days he served in pretrial confinement, Gibson said. On February 8, Marine Cpl. Trent Thomas withdrew his guilty plea in the case, saying he now believes he acted under a lawful order. (Full story) The Navy medic, Hospital Corpsman Melson Bacos, pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy and kidnapping and agreed to testify against the Marines. Bacos was sentenced to a year in the brig. He has testified that Marines were conducting a house-to-house search for suspected insurgents when they came across Awad, a retired policeman and a veteran of Iraq's war with Iran in the 1980s. Bacos said Awad's hands and feet were bound and he was dragged from his home and shot numerous times. Then, he said, one Marine put the dead man's fingerprints on a rifle and shovel to make it look like he had been caught trying to plant a roadside bomb. Find this article at: cnn.com

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (4781)	2/20/2007 5:36:49 PM
From: average joe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20106

A sad end to a brutal story Barstow's Sgt. Paul E. Cortez has agreed to plead guilty to many charges against him for his role in the rape and killing of an Iraqi teen and the killing of her family in a village outside Baghdad in 2006. Five soldiers altogether have been charged with various crime in the deaths. Though there are still bureaucratic details to slog through and a possible trial for Cortez to defend against the charge that the murders were premeditated, it's safe to say that the main of the news on this issue has come and gone. The ending is not one that Barstow residents would have preferred. It is interesting to note the restraint shown during the evaluation and development of this case. We suspected when we first reported on the charges that there would be efforts to politicize the crimes. That hasn't happened. We haven't heard people holding up this horrible crime as some sort of example about the military's efforts in Iraq. The Associated Press, however, did analyze the situation that led up to the killings. Former Pfc. Steven Green, treated by some as the ringleader of the attack, had been diagnosed as "homicidal" by a military health team three months before the killings. He was given small doses of a drug to help regulate his mood, and that was about it. It's particularly hard to try to go back and try to armchair quarterback the way a soldier's mental state should be handled. Frustration breeds the kind of generalized solution that we intellectually know won't work: "Just kill them all," or "Just lock them all up." We've all said things like this. We know deep down these tactics don't work, but it's the frustration speaking. In this case, the soldiers apparently acted in an extremely brutal, unbelievable fashion to their frustrations. Cortez is taking responsibility for his role. In all likelihood he'll be spending the rest of his life in prison. While we condemn this despicable massacre, Cortez's admission of responsibility speaks to the better side of his nature as told to us by his family and friends. Whether this case is an isolated example of the appropriate leaders not responding to a mental health issue or indicative of a deeper problem, we can't say. We can only hope the military is looking at how Green's case was handled and learning how to keep soldiers from being mentally overwhelmed from the violence they have to face. desertdispatch.com