Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media: The Associated Press
Byline: By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Date: 02 September 2006
PHOENIX_An Army investigator has recommended that four soldiers accused of
murder in an Iraqi raid face the death penalty.
Lt. Col. James P. Daniel Jr. made the recommendation in report obtained
Saturday by The Associated Press.
Daniel found several aggravating factors that warrant a sentence of death in
the case of four soldiers accused of killing three men during a May raid in
Iraq.
Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard, Spc. William B. Hunsaker, Pfc. Corey R.
Clagett, and Spc. Juston R. Graber, all of the Fort Campbell, Ky.-based 3rd
Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, were accused in
the deaths.
The soldiers have claimed they were ordered to "kill all military age males"
during a raid on an island on a canal in the northern Salahuddin province.
According to statements from some of the soldiers, they were told the target
was an al-Qaida training camp and that every military-age male should be
killed.
Hunsaker told investigators that he and Clagett were attacked by the three
men and shot them in self-defense. Clagett said he was hit in the face and
Hunsaker claimed he was stabbed during the attack.
"I had felt this action necessary for they had tried to use deadly force on
me and my comrade," Hunsaker wrote in a statement about the shooting.
Prosecutors, however, argued that the soldiers conspired to kill the men and
then altered the scene to fit their story. They contend Girouard stabbed
Hunsaker as part of the killing plot.
Clagett, Girouard and Hunsaker also are accused of threatening to kill
another soldier who was a witness to the killings.
Girouard, the most senior soldier charged, faces several additional charges
including sexual harassment and carrying a personal weapon on duty.
In the 10-page report dated Thursday, Daniel also recommends that Graber not
face charges of conspiracy to commit murder.
"I believe Spc. Graber...did not enter an agreement but followed an order
whether he agreed or not," Daniel wrote in his recommendation. "There is a
difference between obedience and agreement."
Paul Bergrin, Clagett's civilian attorney, said he was surprised that Daniel
recommended the case be taken to trial at all.
"I'm extremely disappointed and disheartened," Bergrin said Saturday. "They
are being used as pawns in the War on Terror. They followed the rules of
engagement. They were confronted with violence by a known al-Qaida training
camp member."
Other lawyers in the case, several of whom are deployed to Iraq, did not
immediately respond to e-mail requests for comment.
The case will now be forwarded to Army officials who will decide if Daniel's
recommendation should be followed. The U.S. military has not executed a
soldier since the 1960 hanging of a soldier convicted rape and attempted
murder.
The soldiers are expected to be tried at the Fort Campbell military base.
They have been jailed in Kuwait since their arrests earlier this year.
Byline: By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Date: 02 September 2006
PHOENIX_An Army investigator has recommended that four soldiers accused of
murder in an Iraqi raid face the death penalty.
Lt. Col. James P. Daniel Jr. made the recommendation in report obtained
Saturday by The Associated Press.
Daniel found several aggravating factors that warrant a sentence of death in
the case of four soldiers accused of killing three men during a May raid in
Iraq.
Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard, Spc. William B. Hunsaker, Pfc. Corey R.
Clagett, and Spc. Juston R. Graber, all of the Fort Campbell, Ky.-based 3rd
Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, were accused in
the deaths.
The soldiers have claimed they were ordered to "kill all military age males"
during a raid on an island on a canal in the northern Salahuddin province.
According to statements from some of the soldiers, they were told the target
was an al-Qaida training camp and that every military-age male should be
killed.
Hunsaker told investigators that he and Clagett were attacked by the three
men and shot them in self-defense. Clagett said he was hit in the face and
Hunsaker claimed he was stabbed during the attack.
"I had felt this action necessary for they had tried to use deadly force on
me and my comrade," Hunsaker wrote in a statement about the shooting.
Prosecutors, however, argued that the soldiers conspired to kill the men and
then altered the scene to fit their story. They contend Girouard stabbed
Hunsaker as part of the killing plot.
Clagett, Girouard and Hunsaker also are accused of threatening to kill
another soldier who was a witness to the killings.
Girouard, the most senior soldier charged, faces several additional charges
including sexual harassment and carrying a personal weapon on duty.
In the 10-page report dated Thursday, Daniel also recommends that Graber not
face charges of conspiracy to commit murder.
"I believe Spc. Graber...did not enter an agreement but followed an order
whether he agreed or not," Daniel wrote in his recommendation. "There is a
difference between obedience and agreement."
Paul Bergrin, Clagett's civilian attorney, said he was surprised that Daniel
recommended the case be taken to trial at all.
"I'm extremely disappointed and disheartened," Bergrin said Saturday. "They
are being used as pawns in the War on Terror. They followed the rules of
engagement. They were confronted with violence by a known al-Qaida training
camp member."
Other lawyers in the case, several of whom are deployed to Iraq, did not
immediately respond to e-mail requests for comment.
The case will now be forwarded to Army officials who will decide if Daniel's
recommendation should be followed. The U.S. military has not executed a
soldier since the 1960 hanging of a soldier convicted rape and attempted
murder.
The soldiers are expected to be tried at the Fort Campbell military base.
They have been jailed in Kuwait since their arrests earlier this year.