The "Pendleton '8' K/3/5 - Hamdaniya" The Death of the Marine Corps?

[thedrifter]

Marines signal end of pretrial hearings in two Hamdania cases

By: MARK WALKER and TERI FIGUEROA - Staff Writers

CAMP PENDLETON ---- Marine Corps officials Thursday said that pretrial hearings for two of the eight men accused of war crimes will not resume today, and they do not expect court action any time next week.

The announcement signals that the cases will be decided on the evidence prosecutors submitted to the hearing officers in court Wednesday.

No one took the stand during the abbreviated pretrial hearings for Cpl. Marshall Magincalda and Pfc. John Jodka III, although the hearing officers had left the door open to resume the hearings to hear witness testimony.

The government has charged all eight men ---- seven Marines and one Navy corpsman ---- with kidnapping and killing 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad on April 26 in the rural Iraqi village of Hamdania. The men's attorneys and families have said they are innocent.

Wednesday's hearings ended after the officers overseeing them agreed to a private review of documents provided by the prosecution, including alleged admissions by some of the accused.

As the dust settles following the hearings, a nationally known expert in military law said Thursday that one prosecution move in particular surprised him.

Gary Solis said he was taken aback by the prosecution's announcement that it does not intend to seek the death penalty against Jodka, an Encinitas native.

"I've never heard of the prosecution talking about a potential penalty and announcing at the start of an Article 32 hearing what it won't seek," said Solis, who spent 26 years in the military, including stints at Camp Pendleton where he once served as staff judge advocate for the 1st Marine Division. "I just cannot understand what the motive for that would be."

A Marine spokesman said Wednesday that the decision to not pursue the death penalty only applies to Jodka's case.

Magincalda's attorney Joseph Low said Thursday that he believes the same announcement will be made in his client's case.

Echoing his statements in court Wednesday, Low also said it was incorrect to characterize the statements of some of Magincalda's co-defendants as confessions, adding that he will contest the veracity of the statements if his client's case heads to court-martial.

Along with Jodka and Magincalda, the accused men are Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, Cpl. Trent Thomas, Hospitalman 3rd Class Melson J Bacos, and Lance Cpls. Tyler Jackson, Jerry Shumate Jr. and Robert Pennington.

Each is slated for separate hearings set for later this month and in October.

The men are all from the Kilo Company's 2nd platoon from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment based at Camp Pendleton and have been in the base brig since May 24.

Much of the evidence in the case remains out of the public view, however the crux of the prosecution's case appears to be statements by some of the accused, as well as from Iraqi witnesses.

Among the under-wraps documents that prosecutors also pointed to in court were statements by Pennington.

In a telephone conversation Thursday, Pennington's mother challenged the labeling of the statements as confessions. She said her son, under duress, simply signed a statement prepared by interrogators.

"These quote unquote confessions aren't confessions, but coerced statements," Deanne Pennington said.

A prosecutor's assertion Wednesday that Hutchins confessed his role in the killing of Awad was rejected by Rich Brannon, the civilian attorney representing the Massachusetts native. Brannon said Thursday that his client has not testified under oath to anything.

"Prosecutors are always going to say what they want the court to hear, particularly in a case of this magnitude," Brannon said during a telephone interview from his office in Georgia.

Brannon said he is tempted to wear a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "Prove It" when Hutchins' pretrial hearing takes place, a proceeding tentatively scheduled for Oct. 16.

Reached in Florida where he is on a separate case, Thomas' attorney Victor Kelley said he had no immediate comment on a prosecutor's assertion that his client had also made a damning statement to investigators.

The Marine officers who presided over Wednesday's sessions will write a report and recommendation to Lt. Gen. James Mattis as to how the cases should proceed ---- options that range from dismissal of the charges to court-martial.

As commanding general of Marine Corps Forces and Camp Pendleton's I Marine Expeditionary Force, Mattis is the "convening authority" over the case and responsible for deciding what should happen.

Solis, a professor of military law at Washington's Georgetown University, said that even if the reports from Jodka and Magincalda's hearings land in Mattis' hands soon, he does not expect the general's decision to come out until the Article 32 pretrial hearings are over. To do so beforehand, Solis said, could put subtle pressure on the officers presiding over the hearings of the remaining six defendants.

"I see him waiting until all the reports are in," Solis said in a telephone interview. "I would not expect Gen. Mattis to make his decision known until then."

Solis also had a prediction for the outcome of the hearings: "No matter when these cases are done with the hearings, the defense is not going to beat the prosecution at the Article 32."

Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com. Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 631-6624 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Lawyers weigh importance of confessions, statements

Hamdaniya defendants' words key for prosecutors

By Rick Rogers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
September 2, 2006

Minutes into this week's Hamdaniya hearings at Camp Pendleton, the defense faced a seemingly insurmountable problem: alleged confessions by service members charged with executing an Iraqi man.

Prosecutors described what they called confessions from three Marines – including one on video – that implicated some or all of the eight suspects charged with murder in the April 26 death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad.

Defense attorneys countered by calling them statements. Nevertheless, they fought successfully to keep the remarks from being discussed in open court, where reporters were present.

Are such statements – confessions or not – as damning as they sound?

Not necessarily, according to veteran lawyers nationwide. Not all incriminating statements are created equally, and there are ways to defeat them in court, they said.

The public generally considers confessions to be much more powerful than the legal profession does, said Donald G. Rehkopf Jr., a former Air Force prosecutor and defense attorney with 30 years of legal experience.

“Confessions should be the icing on the cake,” he said. “If all the prosecution has are incriminating statements, then their case is weak.”

Prosecutors need supporting evidence because “of the very high percentage of confessions that are totally false or half false,” said Rehkopf, now a civilian attorney who practices law in Rochester, N.Y.

“Just look at John Mark Karr's totally bogus confession in the JonBenet Ramsey case,” he said.

Jack B. Zimmerman, a noted defense attorney from Houston, agreed with Rehkopf's assessment.

“I don't think it is hopeless for the defense's case if there is a statement,” Zimmerman said.

Government prosecutors seemed to rely heavily on the alleged confessions during Wednesday's pretrial hearings on the base. The proceedings will help determine whether the defendants – all based at Camp Pendleton – should undergo courts-martial. At least seven of the suspects could face the death penalty, based on charges that they kidnapped and killed Awad, then tried to cover it up.

After his client's hearing, attorney Joseph Casas said the government's case is built largely on the potentially damaging statements. He contended that there is no conclusive physical evidence, including DNA and ballistic evidence, to corroborate the government's case.

Then there is the issue of interpreting the evidence. What a prosecutor calls a confession, a defense attorney might call a statement – perhaps one made under duress. The differences could decide guilt or innocence.

“A confession is an admission that an alleged crime was indeed committed. A statement could recite facts that state an act occurred, but provide legal justification (for it),” Zimmerman said.

Until this week, attorneys for the Hamdaniya suspects had described their clients as innocent victims being unfairly prosecuted by the Marine Corps. Not once did they mention the existence of any potentially incriminating statements.

That changed Wednesday.

During the hearing for Pfc. John Jodka III of Encinitas, longtime defense attorney Jane Siegel argued to keep the contents of 16 statements from being made public. She described some of them as being “very inflammatory.”

Siegel's co-counsel, Casas, and other Hamdaniya defense attorneys asserted that such statements were obtained illegally by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The remarks would likely be barred from any ensuing trial, they said.

The statements will probably be allowed during courts-martial – especially if they were acquired by experienced investigators, said Rehkopf, Zimmerman and Keith T. Higgins, a former Navy attorney now practicing law in Worcester, Mass.

“It's hard to get statements thrown out if all the right steps are taken,” Higgins said. “If there is a bright spot for the defense, it is that there are many more problems with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service taking statements compared to civilian (police department) investigators.”

The best ways to get alleged confessions excluded is to argue that they were given involuntarily or that the suspects weren't informed of their right to seek legal counsel before questioning began.

“For example, were they ordered to do the interview?” Rehkopf asked. “Then you look to break the statements down. Is there anything in the statements that is demonstrably false? If there is, maybe (the defendant's) memory is screwed up or he is inventing it because he is being pressured.

“You also look at all the statements for similarities and dissimilarities. If they read too much the same, then maybe the agent doing the questioning was writing the statements and just having the person sign it.”

In the end, though, all the legal maneuvering might not be enough for a defense team.

“If the (investigating) agents did what they were supposed to, if they followed their checklist, then the likelihood of (suppressing the statements) is not high,” Rehkopf said.

Ellie

[lucien2]

The military plays by different rules, they will need all the public exsposure and civilian attorneys they can get. The court of public opinion is powerful sometimes..........

[dogtag72]

I wanted to list below {and pass this information on to all} all of the Marines and one assigned Navy Corpsman who are in need of your strong support and help. Anything that you can do will be much appreciated...even if it is a letter of support or passing the word of the below information. We have been working hard on fundraisers to off-set legal expenses. Please feel free to 'cut-n-paste' this info for others to see elsewhere! We need to stand by our troops through thick and thin.
Thank you all,
Semper Fi
Dogtag USMC 0811 (1972)


Outreach Services: The Camp Pendleton 8: CP8


To Send Letters of Support:
Do not send anything in the envelope except the card or letter. Mailing address for the Marines and Sailor must be individually addressed with the FULL NAME AND RANK on the top line, as follows:

Rank and FULL NAME
c/o Camp Pendelton Brig
Box 555226
Camp Pendleton, CA 92055-5226
Message Board Support Forum: www.usmcparents.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=36877

From the Marines and Sailor:
On Monday, July 3, the father of one of these Marines was interviewed on a National radio program. He had just visited his son and the others in the brig at Pendleton, and they asked him to pass the following message on to the American people:

"We appreciate the support and prayers of so many Americans. We would like to ask that you please direct your prayers to our fellow Marine brothers and Sailors who remain in Iraq. They really need your support."
— 7 Marines and a Sailor
Camp Pendleton, CA

Seven Marines and one Navy Corpsman are being held in the Camp Pendleton Brig charged with premeditated murder, conspiracy, assault and other very serious charges. The incident in question took place while assigned to combat in Iraq with the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division (REIN), “Darkhorse 3/5”, one of the most storied infantry battalions in the history of the US Marine Corps.
We've received many phone calls and inquiries on how to support these young men. The links below to individual defense funds have been verified as established defense funds. We will add more addresses and information as verification is made.

NOTE: Any donations you may make to a defense fund should be viewed as a bonafied gift regardless of the outcome of the trial(s). Providing links to the funds does not indicate endorsement by MarineParents.com, Inc.

USMC 3/5 Kilo Company Marines Defense Funds and Addresses:


Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III


Cpl. Trent D. Thomas
The following web site offers additional information and a defense fund for Trent:
http://www.defensefundformyhero.com/

Cpl. Marshall L. Magincalda
The following web site offers additional information and a defense fund for Marshall:
http://www.helpdefendourmarine.com/

Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Melson J. Bacos
The following web site offers additional information and a defense fund for Melson:
http://www.patriotdefensefund.com/

Lance Cpl. Tyler A. Jackson
The following web site offers additional information and a defense fund for Tyler:
http://www.fightingfortyler.com/
www.FriendsOfTyler.blogspot.com <--- letters of support

Lance Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate Jr.
There are a couple of web sites out there for Jerry, but at this time there is nothing "official". In the meanwhile, defense fund donations can be mailed directly to:
Jerry Shumate Defense Fund
P O Box 233
Matlock, WA 98560

Lance Cpl. Robert B. Pennington
The following web site offers additional information and a defense fund for Rob:
http://www.defendrob.com/

Pfc. John J. Jodka
The following web site offers additional information and a defense fund for John:
http://www.innocentmarine.com/



Please show your support & write or send a post card.
Semper Fi,
dogtag72

[MetalManiac]

First I have heard of this and I am shocked. I am a Marine SSgt stationed in Slovenia as an MSG. This upsets me, this upsets me very much and it really looks like the USMC and the USA are going down the tubes. Brings me to tears. I am honored to know real heroes that served in Iraq bravely, I can never imagine what it must have been like. This story has...just killed any desire for me to reenlist or recommend anyone to join the Corps.

So fuc*$&^ sad

Will the Corps even be around in 20 years?

[dogtag72]

Don't give up hope on the Corps yet Metal...maybe the 'brass' will learn something over all of this yet. I think a lot of people are surprised over the support these MARINES & NAVY Corpsman are getting. I encourage you and others to write them a simple letter of encouragement or a card. I hope the government will drop all charges.

Semper Fi,

dogtag72

www.FightingForTyler.com
www.FriendsOfTyler.blogspot.com

[Dave Coup]

This thing makes me want to puke! How can we ask these young men to go there and fight and possibly die with thier hands tied? Go fight, do your jobs and kill the enemy but be aware that if you're not careful or are unlucky enough to be accused by the same enemy of some BS crime/murder we will kill you for your service. Never thought I'd say this, but at the moment I'm ashamed of my Marine Corp. It's not the same one I served in.
During the most unpopular war in our history (Viet Nam) I only ever heard of one 'Atrocity' that rec'd this much publicity ie My Lai, I don't recall any call for the death penalty in that case though there might have been.
In any case, these young Marines and Corpman seem to be sacri8ficial lambs for the bloodthirsty media and glory hungry attorneys.
I will start my own campaign to help thes men begginning today.

Semper Fidelis
Dave Coup

[thedrifter]

AN OPEN LETTER TO GENERAL MATTIS
By: Phil Brennan

Lt. General James Mattis, USMC,

Commanding General,
First Marine Expeditionary Force
Camp Pendleton, CA 92055-5019

Dear General Mattis:

As the convening officer charged with deciding whether the Marines involved in the Haditha incident will be charged with various offenses I appreciate the fact that you are under intense pressure from both sides in the issue. I would like to take a few minutes of your time to shed a little light on the Haditha incident from the perspective of the Marines involved.

Some of that pressure is no doubt coming from senior officers who fear that any finding that does not include prosecution for various offenses will be damaging to the reputation of the Corps - a fear born of their recognition that clearing the Marines involved will create a firestorm of criticism from the media which long ago found the Kilo Company Marines guilty of committing a deliberate "massacre" of 24 "innocent" civilians and have no intention of admitted they were wrong.

As one of those intimately involved in Haditha as an on-the-spot intelligence observer told me, this group, many of who were Lt. Colonels and Majors during 1991's so-called Tailhook scandal, live in mortal fear of being caught up in anything that can be exploited by a largely anti-military mainstream media regardless of the real facts of the case.

On the other end of the spectrum are the Marines who are the focus of the investigation, not one of whom has been charged with any crime yet all of whom have been savaged by a media which immediately found them all guilty of the most heinous crimes solely because of a Time Magazine story and testimony by civilians either living in mortal fear of retaliation by the insurgents who then dominated the area, or were themselves insurgent sympathizers and supporters. In the days following the Time magazine story, hundreds of newspapers and broadcast outlets around the world compared the deaths of the 24 civilians with the slaughter of hundreds of civilians in Mai Lai. Haditha was proclaimed the new Mai Lai.

The effect of this, plus leaks of inaccurate and often totally false information from some individuals in the Pentagon has dealt a serious blow to the morale of many Marines who now think they are being betrayed by the very people they have always believed would protect them to the death. They have 's caused many to wonder if the Marine's ancient warrior code of not abandoning your wounded has been replaced by the code of CYA. They believe their fellow Marines are being offered up as sacrifices on the altar of political correctness.

I have no idea of what NCIS investigation has concluded, But I do know that enormous pressure has been put on that service to find something - anything at all - that will enable the nervous Nellies to tell the media "look, we found that so-and-so committed this or that offense" so you can't accuse us of a cover-up." The offense might be equivalent to a charge of spitting on the sidewalk, but it will soothe their delicate consciences, if not the media's skepticism.

No matter what kind of obfuscation has been employed by the investigators the facts remain facts. And the facts are indisputable.

1. An IED explosion killed a Marine.

2. Marine intelligence operatives learned immediately that the incident now developing was being videoed by the al Qaeda insurgents, a common practice among this media savvy group of killers.

3. Within five minutes of the explosion the Kilo Company Marines came under small arms fire from the vicinity of two houses in the immediate area of the explosion. Radio communications verify this despite Congressman Murtha's claim that no firefight took place.

3. A squad under the command of Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich entered the two houses, using normal house-clearing procedures. In the course of this operation, a door was opened and as dictated by the ROEs a grenade was thrown into the room and automatic fire sprayed on the unknown occupants, killing the 15 civilians in the room. In the second house, another civilian was gunned down. The Marines noticed that a rear door was ajar, indicating that someone had fled before they entered.

4. Within minutes a UAV was in the sky above the area. It remained aloft all day, catching views of armed conflict. Some screen shot photos were downloaded either at Bn or Reg. Headquarters.

5. Within 30 minutes of the explosion an intelligence unit was on the scene and the Marines involved were closely questioned. Those in the unit present testify that the Kilo Marine's composure and demeanor was sure it was incomprehensible to them to believe they had just participated in the cold blooded massacre of the civilians.

6. By nightfall an after-action PowerPoint presentation including the screen shot photos downloaded from the UAV was sent to up the chain of command. It carefully and fully detailed the day's action and was based on the constant radio communications, testimony of those present as participants or after-action investigators and the data revealed minute-by-minute by the UAV. It left no Ts uncrossed and no Is undotted.

7. Within days of the incident, officers from up the entire chain of command were fully briefed and concluded that the evidence provided them proved that the actions were fully justified by the circumstances on the ground at the time.

As I reported in NewsMax.com on June 26

"This is what happened in Haditha that day. It was a daylong engagement with armed insurgents that involved civilian casualties who died as a result of being caught in the middle of a firefight. It had been reported as a blast followed by a TIC ? Marine Corps terminology for 'Troops in Contact.' In other words, gunfire directed at the Marines. As the battalion went about compiling information on the insurgents' identities and determining who had been involved in the attack, its actions in the ensuing weeks resulted in the detention of several insurgents who masterminded the attack, and who remain incarcerated in Abu Ghraib prison today."

In another NewsMax.com story on August 25 I wrote the following: "Unnamed sources in the Pentagon with their own agenda have been leaking false information about the killing of civilians in Haditha by Marines last November, NewsMax.com has learned.

A Marine intelligence agent who investigated last year's Nov. 19 shootings of civilians in Haditha in the immediate wake of the incident has stepped forward to defend the Kilo company Marines against charges that they massacred the victims.In Thursday's Washington Post, Marine intelligence operative Sgt. J.M. Laughner is quoted as calling the shootings an appropriate response to a coordinated insurgent attack.

In a transcript of his interview with two investigating colonels, Laughner, described by The Post as a member of a Marine human-intelligence exploitation team that was hunting down insurgent bomb-makers, said his unit went from house to house in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the incident. He acknowledges finding two dozen bodies, including some women and small children.

Laughner said the scenes of the slayings appeared to match the version of events the Marine squad provided that day and did not seem especially out of the ordinary, according to a transcript of his interview.

Laughner's account, The Post noted, supports the argument made by some Marines in Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines ? that they believed they were following their rules of engagement when they opened fire on groups of people inside at least three homes after a roadside bomb killed a member of their unit. Several Marines are under criminal investigation in connection with the civilian deaths that day, but no one has been charged.

Laughner's statement is further evidence that Marines who were on the ground that day viewed the civilian deaths as accidental rather than the result of a vengeful rampage.

The transcript was provided to The Post by someone The Post said is sympathetic to the enlisted Marines facing scrutiny for the shootings.

According to NewsMax's Marine intelligence sources, the intelligence unit Marines, which included Laughner, arrived within 30 minutes of the incident. Our sources said the unit reported that they were deeply impressed with the attitude and professionalism of the Kilo company squad and believed that it makes absolutely no sense that they could have maintained their composure and conducted themselves so professionally by the time Laughner's unit arrived if they had been in a rage and conducting a massacre only minutes before.

In recent days, The New York Times, The Associated Press, ... carried stories quoting the usual unnamed sources in the Pentagon as saying that parts of a video allegedly taken by a Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) had disappeared, that pages of a logbook dealing with the actions on that day were missing, and that the report of the action attributed the civilian deaths only to the IED explosion.

None of this is accurate.

NewsMax's sources say there was no video taken from the UAV, only photos. These were included in an after-action report sent to regimental and division headquarters the night of the incident. That report, a PowerPoint presentation, contained a detailed account (with the UAV photos) of the events of that day. It told the whole story of the Haditha incident and was so complete that the superior officers, including Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani, 3rd Battalion commander, rightly concluded that the Marines had acted appropriately.

In a statement to military investigators in March, obtained by The Post, Chessani said he did not consider the deaths of 24 Iraqis, many of them women and children, unusual and did not initiate an inquiry, according to a sworn statement he gave to military investigators in March.

"I thought it was very sad, very unfortunate; but at the time, I did not suspect any wrongdoing from my Marines," he said, adding, "I did not have any reason to believe that this was anything other than combat action."

The Post reported that Chessani had told investigators he concluded that insurgents had staged a "complex attack" that began with a roadside bomb, followed by a small-arms ambush that was intended to provoke the Marines to fire into houses where civilians were hiding.

"I did not see any cause for alarm," especially because several firefights had occurred in the area the same day - Nov. 19, 2005 - Chessani said. Because of that conclusion, he added, he did not see any reason to investigate the matter, or even to ask how many women and children had been killed. "I just saw this as a large combat action that had been staged by the enemy," he told investigators.

Chessani's conclusions were based on the compelling evidence provided him in that PowerPoint presentation and subsequent interviews with Marine officers present during the incident.

As far as the so-called missing pages of the logbook are concerned, Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich has told the media that the logbooks were merely records of radio transmissions. NewsMax can report, however, that "rolls and rolls" of the yellow-slip message papers on which the radio operator writes all transmissions were turned over to investigators, and they reflect the tone and exact times of Kilo company reports of that morning."

According to my sources, this whole incident was filmed produced and directed by al Qaeda insurgents. They provoked the Marine's counterattack, used the civilians as human shields, peddled the video they shot for weeks until they found a gullible Time reporter who swallowed their story hook line and sinker, thereby giving life to the insurgent?s massacre hoax.

In an August speech at Fallon Air station during a Q&A session Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld addressed the issue of the insurgent's use of the media to promote their propaganda. Here's what he said: 'More than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media. We are in a media battle in a race for the hearts and minds of Muslims.' Unquote. The speaker was not some modern-day image consultant in a public relations firm here in New York City, it was Osama bin Laden?s chief lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri. I mention this because I want to talk today about something that at first might seem obvious, but really isn?t obvious.

"Our enemies have skillfully adapted to fighting wars in today?s media age, but for the most part we, our country, our government, has not adapted. Consider that the violent extremists have established media relations committees?these are terrorists and they have media relations committees that meet and talk about strategy, not with bullets but with words. They?ve proven to be highly successful at manipulating the opinion elites of the world. They plan and design their headline-grabbing attacks using every means of communication to intimidate and break the collective will of free people.

"They know that communications transcend borders and that a single news story handled skillfully can be as damaging to our cause and helpful to theirs as any other method of military attack. And they?re doing it. They?re able to act quickly. They have relatively few people. They have modest resources compared to the vast and expensive bureaucracies of Western governments.

"They are actively manipulating the media in this country" by, for example, falsely blaming U.S. troops for civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said. "They can lie with impunity."

Don Rumsfeld, who I remember as a brash, opinionated crewcut freshman in the House of Representatives during my days on the Hill, said that. I don't know whether he was thinking about Haditha, but you can be sure that if you send the Kilo Marines back to duty with the honor due to them, I don't think you'll have to worry about your top boss?s reaction.

And you can be sure that the grunts will applaud you when you prove that you meant it when you said that Marines can be your best friend and your worst enemy. The Kilo Company Marines need a best friend. They couldn't have a better one than James Mattis who recently told San Diego's North Country News the story of a Marine unit that had just seen several of its members wounded in a roadside bomb explosion yet took the time to wave to Iraqi children after the dead and injured were evacuated and it was leaving the area.

You said "It's not a small issue to wave to kids after just seeing your buddies blown up, but that shows on the most pedestrian level the kind of sturdiness that is needed in what is just a morally bruising environment where the enemy hides among the people."

As you know, that's what Marines do when confronted by a situation like the one in Haditha. They don't massacre civilians in cold blood.

Semper Fi

Phil Brennan, Cpl. USMC 1943-46

Ellie

[Dave Coup]

Ellie
Thanks for posting this. Would that I could write as eloquently.
Never the less my campaign is started.Locked cocked ready to rock.
Born to fight, trained to kill, ready to die but never will.

Semper Fidelis
Dave Coup
Sgt Of Marines
1967-1971

[thedrifter]

Next Hamdania hearing set for Tuesday

By: MARK WALKER - Staff Writer

NORTH COUNTY -- A pretrial hearing starting Tuesday for one of eight Camp Pendleton troops charged with murdering an Iraqi is expected to feature two days of testimony, a defense attorney said Wednesday.

The Article 32 hearing for Lance Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate Jr. will focus on his alleged role in the April 26 killing of Hashim Ibrahim Awad in the Iraqi village of Hamdania.

Shumate's attorney, Steven Immel, said he did not plan to take the same route that attorneys for two other accused troops did last week when they agreed to let hearing officers consider written reports only and not hear any direct testimony.

"I think this hearing will have a little more meat," Immel said. "The government's intention is to put on about seven witnesses and we are not attempting to close the hearing or anything like that."

Last week, attorneys for Cpl. Marshall Magincalda and Pfc. John Jodka III essentially stopped their Article 32 hearings just as they were getting started by convincing prosecutors and hearing officers to agree to no direct testimony.

An Article 32 hearing is similar to a grand jury proceeding and is part of the military's investigative process.

Instead, the attorneys said they would let the hearing officers determine their clients' fate by simply reading reports compiled by investigators. Jane Siegel, an attorney for Jodka, said airing the contents of those reports in the pretrial hearing could make it difficult to obtain an unbiased jury pool if the cases proceed.

Those first two hearings are not officially closed, but neither of the presiding officers has indicated whether he wants to hear live testimony before writing a report to Lt. Gen. James Mattis, commander of the I Marine Expeditionary Force and the convening authority for the case under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Immel declined to say whether he would call any witnesses and would not say whether he planned to call the 21-year-old Shumate to the stand.

In addition to Shumate, Jodka and Magincalda, the Marine Corps on June 21 charged Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, Hospitalman 3rd Class Melson Bacos, Cpl. Trent Thomas and Lance Cpls. Tyler Jackson and Robert Pennington with premeditated murder, kidnapping, conspiracy and related offenses in the death of the 52-year-old Awad.

Each man was told when he was charged that he faced the possibility of the death penalty if convicted, but the prosecutor in Jodka's hearing said last week that the government did not intend to seek that punishment against the Encinitas-raised private.

In documents filed by the prosecution, the government alleges the men conspired to kidnap and kill Awad and then stage the killing scene to make it appear he was an insurgent planting a roadside bomb who had fired upon the squad as it patrolled the village.

Shumate is specifically alleged to have been one of the men who shot Awad with his M-16 rifle and later lied to investigators about what happened.

Immel said Shumate, an infantryman who joined the Marine Corps in February 2005 and was on his first assignment to Iraq, is not guilty of the crimes he is charged with committing.

"He is the kind of Marine we should all be proud of," the attorney said. "He's a kid who just two years ago was a high school football star who joined the Marine Corps and was trying to do his best in Iraq and just following the orders of those above him."

Shumate's parents, Jerry and Diann, also have maintained their son's innocence in interviews with the North County Times.

Reached at her home in the small town of Matlock in western Washington state Wednesday morning, Diann Shumate said she was in the midst of packing so she, her husband and their daughter could make the more than 1,000-mile drive to Camp Pendleton to be present for the hearing.

"I'm hopeful and I'm scared," she said. "My kids have never been in trouble and I just don't know what to expect."

She last spoke with her son Monday, she said, adding he has been battling depression as a result of being locked up in the base brig since he and his squad mates were ordered to return to Camp Pendleton from Iraq in late May.

"He's not used to being cooped up for too long and I know it is depressing for him and he deals with it by sleeping a lot," she said. "I just don't believe he or any of the other men have done anything wrong."

The men are all members of the 2nd Platoon of Kilo Company from the base's 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment.

Pretrial hearings for Bacos and Pennington are scheduled for Sept. 25 while the hearings for Hutchins, Jackson and Thomas are set for Oct. 16, although Marine Corps officials caution that any or all could be rescheduled.

At the conclusion of the hearings, Lt. Gen. Mattis will issue a decision based on each hearing officer's report. He could order their cases to move forward to court-martial, be dismissed or be subject to some other form of adjudication.

Another investigation involving a different Camp Pendleton unit and the deaths of 24 Iraqis in the city of Haditha last November is reportedly nearing completion. No charges have been filed in that case, which involves about a dozen members of a platoon from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment.

The result of a separate probe into whether Marine commanders in Iraq failed to properly investigate the Haditha case has been sealed until the conclusion of the criminal probe by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

The Haditha incident has drawn much more attention than the Hamdania case, in part because of statements from U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who has alleged the squad killed Iraqi civilians in cold blood.

-- Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.

Ellie

[LEADEROFMARINES]

I'M ON IT TOP !!! I know brothers /sisters have come and gone here on leatherneck but it would be OUTSTANDING if 30,000 members here on Leatherneck got off there duff's and put pen to paper, got on the horn to call there congressman. This is nothing more then a govt fiascal. SF

OORAH Marine84! I totally agree with you. I've actually been to a couple of the rallies and it's some moto to see servicemembers of any branch and civilians show their support. I could be doing more now that I think about it. I bet these Marines feel all alone and might even have lost hope. We MARINES, if anybody should do something! Come on everyone. Semper Fidelis.

[fontman]

Mom describes nightmare of Marine's incarceration

Charges Navy with inhumane treatment of Pendleton 8 in Hamdania murder case

Posted: September 8, 2006
By Joseph Farah
WorldNetDaily.com

The mother of a Marine corporal charged with the murder of an Iraqi along with seven other servicemen says Navy prosecutors are trying to frame the "Pendleton 8" - denying them access to evidence, attempting to coerce confessions and treating them more harshly than terrorist prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.

Leanne Magincalda, mother of Cpl. Marshall Magincalda, blamed leaks by Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., for creating a climate of witch-hunt hysteria surrounding the case, leading to isolation and harassment of the incarcerated soldiers.

She told WND the parents of the eight have seen most of the evidence against their sons, and it is weak.

"There is absolutely nothing," she said. "No DNA, no witnesses, no NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) interrogators to question, the autopsy is at best non-supportive of their stance, no physical evidence whatsoever. The statements that they cling so dearly to were coerced over threat of death."

She charged interrogators with subjecting the men to 10-18 hours of non-stop questioning in efforts to break them.

In the latest development in the case, military prosecutors last week submitted maps, letters from Iraq and incriminating statements to military courts in arguing specifically that two of the Marines should be tried in the killing of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, 52, an Iraqi civilian.

"At the end of the day, all we have are unreliable, uncorroborated statements and no physical evidence," said Joseph Casas, the civilian lawyer for Pfc. John J. Jodka, 20. "What the government says happened, didn't happen."

Seven Marines and a Navy corpsman are being held in the Camp Pendleton brig on charges they bound Awad's hands and feet, then shot him on April 26 in Hamdania. Prosecutors say they planted a shovel and AK-47 rifle near his body to make him look like an insurgent.

Last Wednesday's proceedings were the first of eight Article 32 hearings - the military equivalent of a grand jury proceeding - that will be held as prosecutors argue each of the defendants should be court-martialed. They are charged with murder, kidnapping, assault, larceny, conspiracy, housebreaking and making a false official statement.

All eight defendants had faced the death penalty, but prosecutors decided last week not to seek capital punishment for Jodka. They called the death penalty "inappropriate" for him but did not say why.

In addition to Jodka and Maginacalda, the others charged are Cpl. Trent D. Thomas, Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, Hospitalman 3rd Class Melson Bacos, Lance Cpl. Tyler A. Jackson, Lance Cpl. Robert Pennington and Lance Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate Jr.

Mrs. Magincalda says she knows her son had to continually request legal counsel during interrogations. She says he did not get any counsel until he had been back in the U.S. for eight days. She says the defense has been prohibited from investigating the crime scene and is reliant on what the prosecution found there.

She is also pessimistic about efforts to get her son and the others released from the brig pending trial - despite offers by counsel for their clients to use monitoring devices and submit to supervision.

"Nothing is going to get these men out," she said. "Absolutely nothing. They will be in the brig for one reason and one reason only until trial - mind games. They continually play all kinds of mind games and not only on the prisoners. The visitors continually and repeatedly get 'jacked around,' even 87-year-old grandmas. And, mind you, not one piece of mail with our home address has been delivered to our son - nothing. What has been returned says 'addressee unknown.'"

She says her son and the rest of his colleagues are eager for their day in court. She says the military is stalling the proceedings - still hoping to break someone.

"You couldn't get one single commander, all the way up to the commander in chief, to release these men," she says. "Mark my words, they will drag out the court martial as long as they possibly can."

Conditions in the brig remain poor, she told WND.

"There are no inmate phones that work properly," she said. "Services like toilet and shower are not working or working poorly."

The prisoners' families repeatedly have complained about the heat in the brig - and Mrs. Magincalda says that situation has not improved.

"They are extending the heat issues to those who visit," she says. "During the hottest two weekends of the summer, they were actually piping hot air into the waiting room for visitors - then purposely dragging their feet on letting us in."

She accuses the military of using death threats against the eight to threats against their fiancés and wives and parents to get them to crack.

"These aren't idle threats, either," she says.

Mrs. Magincalda isn't sure where the pressure is coming from, but she has a guess. She believes the increasing clout of Middle Easterners in the world and within the U.S. is, in part, creating the climate for what she sees as the persecution of her son and his comrades.

"To be quite honest, we have got to be the laughing stock of the world," she said. "Are these men being offered up as some sort of hideous sacrifice to some unknown god? This is a tale of horror. Your own government, your own military, turning its back on their heroes, our heroes, our sons."

[Dave Coup]

This is a travesty! I urge eveyone who is interested in justice for these men to band together to see if something can be done for these young men.
Letters to Congressmen/women,CMC,the President anyone who might be able to intervene and get some help.
P.S. Don't bother with John Fonda Murhta
Semper Fidelis
Dave Coup

[thedrifter]

Marine faces hearing in Iraqi's slaying

By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer


Eager to see the world and looking for adventure, Jerry E. Shumate Jr. joined the Marine Corps straight out of high school. Now the 21-year-old lance corporal is in the brig.

Shumate is accused, with eight others, of kidnapping and murdering an Iraqi man in Hamdania, west of Baghdad. His preliminary hearing was scheduled to begin Tuesday.

Shumate, along with six other Marines and a Navy Corpsman are accused of entering 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad's house on April 26, kidnapping him and taking him to a roadside hole. There, prosecutors say, several troops shot him.

Shumate fired his M-16 at Awad, then lied to investigators about what had happened, according to charging documents. Shumate also is one of several Marines accused of assaulting a different Iraqi man in a separate incident April 10.

"We're devastated, we're just taking it day by day," said father Jerry Shumate Sr. who drove 1,200 miles from Matlock, Wash., with mother Diann Shumate.

Family members have previously said their sons are innocent, and defense attorneys have questioned the credibility of the Iraqis who reported the murder to U.S. authorities.

The troops could face the death penalty if convicted, although, during an earlier hearing, prosecutors said they would not pursue a capital sentence against that defendant.

Shumate's civilian attorney, Steve Immel, declined to comment on the case, but said he hoped his client would be treated fairly.

"We would ask everybody to let the process work itself out and let Jerry have the full protections of the Constitution," Immel said. "Especially because he was over there defending the Constitution. We ask everyone not rush to judgment."

The preliminary hearings form part of a so-called Article 32 investigation, where an officer determines whether to recommend that defendants face courts martial. The final decision rests with a commanding general.

Two Article 32 hearings were held Aug. 30 for Pfc. John J. Jodka III and Cpl. Marshall L. Magincalda, both accused in the Awad case. More hearings for the other accused troops are expected in coming weeks.

The Shumates said joining the Marine Corps was their son's dream after he graduated Mary M. Knight High School at the southeastern edge of the Olympic peninsula, where he played on the football team.

"We are glad we're finally getting to the next step of this process," Shumate Sr. said. "All we can do is trust in our counsel and trust in our government."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Posted on Wed, Sep. 13, 2006

Investigator recalls interview
Death penalty not sought for Marine
By LINDA DEUTSCH
Associated Press

CAMP PENDLETON - An investigator testifying at a military hearing Tuesday gave an account of the emotional atmosphere surrounding charges against eight troops accused of killing an Iraqi civilian, recounting how one of the Marines burst into tears as he was questioned.

Kelly Garbo, a special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, testified about her interview of Lance Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate Jr., 21, who is accused in the killing of 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad in April in Hamdania.

Shumate is suspected of firing his M-16 at Awad, then lying to investigators about what happened, according to charging documents.

''He was fairly calm, but halfway through the interview he became emotional, then calm, then emotional again,'' Garbo said. ''He was crying.'''

Garbo testified during a one-hour Article 32 hearing, the equivalent of a preliminary hearing in civilian court, that was held as part of the process to decide if Shumate will be held for a court martial. The final decision rests with Lt. Gen. James Mattis.

Neither Garbo nor two other NCIS investigators who testified were asked to give details of Shumate's statements. Defense attorneys did not cross-examine the investigators.

Asked outside the hearing if there was an agreement to keep the statements secret, lawyers on both sides refused to comment.

At the conclusion of the hearing, military prosecutor Lt. Col. John Baker recommended against a possible death penalty for Shumate.

During a previous hearing, Baker said prosecutors would not pursue a capital sentence against Pfc. John Jodka III, another defendant in the case.

Garbo, who was questioned by Maj. Donald J. Plowman, recalled interviewing Shumate in Iraq after she spoke to his squad mates.

''I told him other members of the squad had been honest and truthful and told us the real story of what happened that night, that there was a kidnap and there was a murder,'' Garbo testified.

She said Shumate then spoke to her voluntarily.

''He was very clear in speaking with me,'' she said. ''He didn't seem confused by the questions.''

No force or threats were used during the questioning, Garbo testified, and Shumate was allowed to take cigarette and water breaks.

The hearing was delayed more than an hour while hearing Officer Col. Robert S. Chester conferred with attorneys in his chambers. When they emerged, Chester said he had refused a defense request to close the hearing to the public.

''I think the public has a very important right to be here,'' Chester said.

He said both sides had agreed to waive the need for the government to call foundational witnesses, which would have extended the hearing and perhaps aired information they did not want publicized.

In his brief closing argument, Baker told Chester that statements made in the case had been corroborated by DNA evidence and autopsy and ballistics reports.

''The statements taken together with the evidence satisfy probable cause of the offenses charged,'' Baker said.

Chester will now make a recommendation regarding a court martial.

Shumate's mother, father and adult sister sat directly behind him in the tiny, 15-seat courtroom. Before the proceedings, they chatted with him and shared pictures on a camera cell phone.

His father, Jerry Shumate Sr., wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the words, ''My son, one of the few, the proud, a Marine.''

''We're devastated, we're just taking it day by day,'' Jerry Shumate Sr. said previously. ''All we can do is trust in our counsel and trust in our government.''

Shumate, a native of Matlock, Wash., is an infantryman who enlisted in February 2005. He was serving his first tour in Iraq. All the defendants were assigned to 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.

Shumate is the third Marine to face an Article 32 hearing.

All the defendants are accused of entering Awad's house on April 26, kidnapping him and taking him to a roadside hole. There, prosecutors say, several troops shot him.

Defense attorneys have questioned the credibility of the Iraqis who reported the killing to U.S. authorities.

Shumate's civilian attorney Steve Immel previously declined to comment on the case but said he hoped his client would be treated fairly.

''We would ask everybody to let the process work itself out and let Jerry have the full protections of the Constitution,'' Immel said. ''Especially because he was over there defending the Constitution. We ask everyone not rush to judgment.''

Article 32 hearings were held Aug. 30 for Jodka and Cpl. Marshall L. Magincalda.

Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Sean Gibson said investigating officers have made their recommendations to the base commander on whether there should be a court martial. The recommendations were not disclosed. No further information was available.

Hearings for the other accused troops are expected in coming weeks.

Ellie