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Camp Speicher, Iraq, Aug 1, 2006 US military prosecutors launched a pre-trial hearing on Tuesday to decide whether to charge four enlisted soldiers with the pre-meditated murders of three Iraqi detainees. The trial will be controversial as the civilian defence lawyers have said the defendants will testify that they were given orders to "kill all military age males" during a raid on a suspected Al-Qaeda base in central Iraq. The Article 32 hearing -- the military equivalent of a grand jury -- was convened in the Camp Speicher military base north of Baghdad in order to decide whether there is enough evidence to charge the four soldiers. Almost immediately, civilian defence counsel Christopher Bergin said he would call the soldiers' commanding officer, Colonel Michael Steele of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division, to give evidence. Steele was not present and had previously signed a form invoking his right not to testify to avoid self-incrimination, the tribunal heard. The defendants are expected to argue that they were ordered by their superiors to kill the detainees. The defence decision to pursue this line of argument could shine a critical spotlight on the US military's oft-criticized rules of engagement in Iraq, and in particular their treatment of civilian detainees. The defendants have been charged with the murder of three Iraqis who were taken prisoner in a raid on an island in the province of Salaheddin, which defence lawyers have said was an Al-Qaeda training camp. The military has provided few details except to say that the four conspired to murder the Iraqis, shot them dead and then two of them threatened to kill a fifth soldier if he talked about it. Defence lawyers for two of the soldiers have said the Iraqis broke their plastic zip tie cuffs, attacked their clients and then fled. "The three guys were running for this berm and that's where they were shot," said Waddington, counsel for Specialist William Hunsaker, one of the soldiers who opened fire, prior to the trial. The other defendants in the case are Staff Sergeant Raymond Girouard, Private Corey Clagett and Specialist Juston Graber. Hunsaker and Clagett were believed to be the only two who fired on the Iraqis. The New York Times reported Friday that a fifth soldier, Sergeant Lemuel Lemus signed a sworn statement that he witnessed the four plotting to kill the Iraqis after they had been captured and then cover it up. The Times said Lemus told investigators that another sergeant told Girouard over the radio: "The detainees should have been killed." First Sergeant Eric Geressy denies having made the statement and insists he did not intend to plant the idea that they should be executed. For security reasons, the US military rarely discloses the rules under which its soldiers are authorized to use deadly force. But a rash of civilian killings has drawn greater scrutiny of military rules and procedures that critics say can vary widely and often appear haphazard, inconsistent and confusing, if not improper. pool-dc/pcs/kir Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Nuclear Space Technology at Space-Travel.com
![]() ![]() Relations between the United States and Cuba long have been more strained than neighborly, ranging from US occupations to Cold War enmity to, at one point, the brink of nuclear war. Here are some of the key events: |
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