Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Fayetteville (NC) Observer
August 14, 2008
By Laura Arenschield, Staff writer
An Army criminal investigator testified Wednesday that investigators never found the body of an Afghan man a Fort Bragg special forces sergeant is accused of killing without cause.
The investigator said his commanders decided the area of Afghanistan where the man was said to have been shot was too dangerous to search.
The testimony came as part of a military hearing to determine whether 38-year-old Master Sgt. Joseph Newell should be tried in a court martial for murder.
Members of Newell’s team — part of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group — have said that while they were deployed, Newell executed an unarmed Afghan man, cut off his ear with a knife and left his body in the desert. The 3rd Special Forces Group is based at Fort Bragg.
The investigator, Staff Sgt. Aaron Van Tassel, said he found a human ear in Newell’s room in Afghanistan when he searched it earlier this year. Tassel said laboratory tests matched DNA from the ear to blood found in Newell’s truck.
Newell’s supervisor, Sgt. Maj. Ronald Bryant, testified that Newell told him after he was detained that he had a human ear on a shelf inside his room. Newell also admitted that he had alcohol in the room and that he was scared, Bryant said.
Bryant said he responded, “Oh my God, Joe,” and Newell replied, “I know. It’s bad.”
Members of Newell’s team have said Newell shot the Afghan man after taking a cell phone from him. The man had been detained after Newell and others in his team stopped the man on a highway in Afghanistan.
The team had been traveling by convoy through the desert, bringing supplies back to their camp, when some of their trucks got stuck in the sand. Newell and others in his team noticed two pickup trucks stopped on the highway and thought the trucks could be carrying members of the Taliban.
They stopped the trucks, separated the men from the women and children and searched the vehicles and people.
Soldiers from Newell’s team have testified that they found no weapons. The soldiers asked if any of the people they had stopped were carrying cell phones. The man turned his over, and the soldiers found a picture of a machine gun firing.
Tassel testified Wednesday that investigators called numbers saved in the phone to try to determine the identity of the man Newell is said to have killed.
Two of the people investigators reached said the owner of the phone was still alive, according to testimony.
But the gunner who was with Newell on March 5 testified Tuesday that he watched Newell shoot the Afghan man in the chest.
The gunner, Sgt. 1st Class Ricky Derring, said he, Newell, another American soldier, an Afghan interpreter and an Afghan soldier drove the man into the desert. Derring said Newell questioned the man through an interpreter, and the man said he was not part of the Taliban.
Derring said he did not believe the man. He said Newell did not believe the man either, then shot him.
Derring said he and Newell later drove back to where the body lay in the sand. Derring said Newell went to the body and then stood up holding a severed ear.
Testimony in the hearing is scheduled to continue today.
August 14, 2008
By Laura Arenschield, Staff writer
An Army criminal investigator testified Wednesday that investigators never found the body of an Afghan man a Fort Bragg special forces sergeant is accused of killing without cause.
The investigator said his commanders decided the area of Afghanistan where the man was said to have been shot was too dangerous to search.
The testimony came as part of a military hearing to determine whether 38-year-old Master Sgt. Joseph Newell should be tried in a court martial for murder.
Members of Newell’s team — part of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group — have said that while they were deployed, Newell executed an unarmed Afghan man, cut off his ear with a knife and left his body in the desert. The 3rd Special Forces Group is based at Fort Bragg.
The investigator, Staff Sgt. Aaron Van Tassel, said he found a human ear in Newell’s room in Afghanistan when he searched it earlier this year. Tassel said laboratory tests matched DNA from the ear to blood found in Newell’s truck.
Newell’s supervisor, Sgt. Maj. Ronald Bryant, testified that Newell told him after he was detained that he had a human ear on a shelf inside his room. Newell also admitted that he had alcohol in the room and that he was scared, Bryant said.
Bryant said he responded, “Oh my God, Joe,” and Newell replied, “I know. It’s bad.”
Members of Newell’s team have said Newell shot the Afghan man after taking a cell phone from him. The man had been detained after Newell and others in his team stopped the man on a highway in Afghanistan.
The team had been traveling by convoy through the desert, bringing supplies back to their camp, when some of their trucks got stuck in the sand. Newell and others in his team noticed two pickup trucks stopped on the highway and thought the trucks could be carrying members of the Taliban.
They stopped the trucks, separated the men from the women and children and searched the vehicles and people.
Soldiers from Newell’s team have testified that they found no weapons. The soldiers asked if any of the people they had stopped were carrying cell phones. The man turned his over, and the soldiers found a picture of a machine gun firing.
Tassel testified Wednesday that investigators called numbers saved in the phone to try to determine the identity of the man Newell is said to have killed.
Two of the people investigators reached said the owner of the phone was still alive, according to testimony.
But the gunner who was with Newell on March 5 testified Tuesday that he watched Newell shoot the Afghan man in the chest.
The gunner, Sgt. 1st Class Ricky Derring, said he, Newell, another American soldier, an Afghan interpreter and an Afghan soldier drove the man into the desert. Derring said Newell questioned the man through an interpreter, and the man said he was not part of the Taliban.
Derring said he did not believe the man. He said Newell did not believe the man either, then shot him.
Derring said he and Newell later drove back to where the body lay in the sand. Derring said Newell went to the body and then stood up holding a severed ear.
Testimony in the hearing is scheduled to continue today.