thedrifter
10-23-07, 07:26 AM
Tribunal to investigate 2 spec ops officers
By Mike Baker - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Oct 22, 2007 18:14:39 EDT
RALEIGH, N.C. — A Marine Corps legal tribunal will investigate the roles that two officers had in the killing of 19 Afghani civilians slain earlier this year after their special operations unit came under attack, officials said Monday.
Maj. Fred Galvin, who was a company commander with the 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion, and Capt. Vincent Noble, the platoon commander, will be the focus of the court of inquiry, said Lt. Col. Sean Gibson, a spokesman for the Marine Corps at the U.S. Central Command. The inquiry is scheduled to begin Nov. 1 at Camp Lejeune.
Gibson said other parties could be added to the inquiry but that there were no current plans to do so.
In May, Army officials said that 19 people died and 50 were injured March 4 along a crowded roadway in Nangahar province. The Marines had opened fire after a minivan laden with explosives rammed a convoy, according to Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission.
Witnesses told the commission the Marines fired indiscriminately at civilian cars and pedestrians, and the Afghani panel found no sign that the patrol was under fire. No Marines have been charged in the shooting.
Officials ordered eight Marines back to Camp Lejeune after the shootings. The rest of the unit was ordered to leave Afghanistan and returned to the ships of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit in the Persian Gulf.
Mark Waple, a Fayetteville-based lawyer for Galvin, said his client didn’t fire any shots and never directed anyone to fire shots.
“Unless we missed something in our interviews, there certainly does not appear to be any violations of the rules of engagement or the laws of armed conflict,” Waple said. He said attorneys interviewed every Marine who was on the patrol.
A civilian lawyer for Noble did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Gibson said the inquiry also could focus on aspects of the shootings such as the conduct of the entire convoy, the unit’s discipline in controlling its fire, the reporting and documentation of the incident and the “command climate” maintained by the officers.
Army Col. John Nicholson, a brigade commander in the 10th Mountain Division, said in May that he was “deeply, deeply ashamed and terribly sorry that Americans have killed and wounded innocent Afghan people.”
Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., later wrote a scathing letter to Army Secretary Pete Green, saying the Army had “discarded the presumption of innocence.”
Lt. Gen. James Mattis, the top Marine officer at Central Command, will review the findings of the inquiry before deciding whether any criminal charged are warranted. Typically, a general or other commanding officer would simply review an investigative report and make a decision on whether charges are necessary.
But the court of inquiry allows a panel of senior officers to review evidence and take testimony to help determine whether charges should be filed. The Marines last used such an administrative fact-finding process in 1956 to investigate a Parris Island drill sergeant who marched a group of recruits into a South Carolina creek, where six died.
Ellie
By Mike Baker - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Oct 22, 2007 18:14:39 EDT
RALEIGH, N.C. — A Marine Corps legal tribunal will investigate the roles that two officers had in the killing of 19 Afghani civilians slain earlier this year after their special operations unit came under attack, officials said Monday.
Maj. Fred Galvin, who was a company commander with the 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion, and Capt. Vincent Noble, the platoon commander, will be the focus of the court of inquiry, said Lt. Col. Sean Gibson, a spokesman for the Marine Corps at the U.S. Central Command. The inquiry is scheduled to begin Nov. 1 at Camp Lejeune.
Gibson said other parties could be added to the inquiry but that there were no current plans to do so.
In May, Army officials said that 19 people died and 50 were injured March 4 along a crowded roadway in Nangahar province. The Marines had opened fire after a minivan laden with explosives rammed a convoy, according to Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission.
Witnesses told the commission the Marines fired indiscriminately at civilian cars and pedestrians, and the Afghani panel found no sign that the patrol was under fire. No Marines have been charged in the shooting.
Officials ordered eight Marines back to Camp Lejeune after the shootings. The rest of the unit was ordered to leave Afghanistan and returned to the ships of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit in the Persian Gulf.
Mark Waple, a Fayetteville-based lawyer for Galvin, said his client didn’t fire any shots and never directed anyone to fire shots.
“Unless we missed something in our interviews, there certainly does not appear to be any violations of the rules of engagement or the laws of armed conflict,” Waple said. He said attorneys interviewed every Marine who was on the patrol.
A civilian lawyer for Noble did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Gibson said the inquiry also could focus on aspects of the shootings such as the conduct of the entire convoy, the unit’s discipline in controlling its fire, the reporting and documentation of the incident and the “command climate” maintained by the officers.
Army Col. John Nicholson, a brigade commander in the 10th Mountain Division, said in May that he was “deeply, deeply ashamed and terribly sorry that Americans have killed and wounded innocent Afghan people.”
Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., later wrote a scathing letter to Army Secretary Pete Green, saying the Army had “discarded the presumption of innocence.”
Lt. Gen. James Mattis, the top Marine officer at Central Command, will review the findings of the inquiry before deciding whether any criminal charged are warranted. Typically, a general or other commanding officer would simply review an investigative report and make a decision on whether charges are necessary.
But the court of inquiry allows a panel of senior officers to review evidence and take testimony to help determine whether charges should be filed. The Marines last used such an administrative fact-finding process in 1956 to investigate a Parris Island drill sergeant who marched a group of recruits into a South Carolina creek, where six died.
Ellie