More stories are coming out about what the accused’s are alleged to have done in regard to trophies.
Here is a military.com piece:
The father of a U.S. Soldier serving in Afghanistan says he tried nearly a half dozen times to pass an urgent message from his son to the Army: Troops in his unit had murdered an Afghan civilian, planned more killings and threatened him to keep quiet about it.
North Country Times and Marine Corps Times report:
[T]he trial for Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich was delayed until Nov. 1 because a key prosecution witness, a Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent, had a bad accident and is recovering from surgery.
Air Force Times reports:
Navy Times reports:
The Navy says it’s unlikely to charge the parent who ran over and killed a 2-year-old at Norfolk Naval Station.
But NCIS is still investigating.
Mother Jones’ Adam Weinstein reports that soldiers at Virginia’s Fort Eustis were recently punished for refusing to attend one of the many Christian evangelical events sponsored by the commanding base general and "self-professed ‘reborn’ officer, Maj. General James E. Chambers." The incident and subsequent investigation have revealed a Fort Eustis culture where Christian evangelism isn’t just pervasive, it’s a direct order. Weinstein explains that this isn’t just a quirky, isolated incident. It’s part of an increasingly zealous military culture of evangelical-or-else[.]
AP is reporting that the Khadr detainee trial will begin again 18 October.
Here is an interesting Washington Post opinion piece about some contractors in Iraq.
THE ALLEGATIONS are sadly familiar by now: The men were picked up by U.S. military forces, locked in tiny cells, deprived of sleep, and subjected to extreme temperatures and loud music.
CAAFLog previously put out:
FY 2010 DOD Authorization Act includes a provision (Section 506) establishing a five-member “independent panel to review the judge advocate requirements of the Department of the Navy.” The panel “shall carry out a study of the policies and management and organizational practices of the Navy and Marine Corps with respect to the responsibilities, assignment, and career development of judge advocates for purposes of determining the number of judge advocates required to fulfill the legal mission of the Department of the Navy.” Among other specific directives, the bill tells the panel to “review career patterns for Marine Corps judge advocates in order to identify and validate assignments to nonlegal billets required for professional development and promotion.”
The Independent Panel To Review the Judge Advocate Requirements of the Department of the Navy will meet 1 September 2010. Hat tip to CAAFLog.
USNavySEALS.com reports a possible widening of the Wikileaks – Manning investigation:
Former computer hacker Adrian Lamo (who pointed federal authorities to the Army Intelligence analyst who allegedly leaked the documents, Bradley Manning), has implicated two men in the Boston area in the controversy. Lamo shared that these two men have told him through phone conversations that they provided Manning with assistance, in the form of encryption software. They also allegedly taught Manning how to use the software.
Temple Daily News has this odd report concerning John Galligan.
A child molestation case in the Bell County court system more than a decade after the military closed it out took a bizarre turn Friday when a judge ruled the defense attorney must be removed because he could be a potential witness.
Lamar Andre Smith, 41, now of Georgia, appeared before Judge Fancy Jezek of 426th District Court wearing an orange jail-issued jumpsuit on Friday, his attorney John Galligan to his left.
Yesterday I posted a Ramrod Five update and also the possibility that Dutch prosecutors may proceed against peacekeepers. Now UPI is reporting that:
A military prosecutor says she may pursue charges against several Australian troops in a raid in Afghanistan last year in which five children died.
Brig. Lyn McDade, the director of military prosecutions, says she is considering the unprecedented step of charging several Defense Force commandos, a move that has infuriated senior officers, The Sydney Morning Herald reported Thursday.
WHBL News Radio has this interesting piece.
Kurtis Armann was paroled from a federal prison in Ohio last year. U.S. Marshals arrested him in Brookfield in January – and they said they found driver’s licenses and an Army Reserve ID which Armann allegedly used to make fraudulent purchases.
When he was released, Armann had served 8 years for trying to kill a fellow soldier in Germany when both were in the Army. And in 1998, Armann shot and wounded a woman who didn’t pay his entire fee after she hired him to kill a man in a custody dispute.
Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog