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- From: Werner S <wjs3108@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Mennonite Church Austin <amc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:14:16 -0700 (PDT)
The following is by Ann Wright, who will speak at the National Assembly to
Honor Freedom of Conscience, scheduled for early October in Austin.
http://www.truthout.org/article/when-refusing-kill-has-a-higher-sentence-than-murder?print
When Refusing to Kill Has a Higher Sentence Than Murder
Saturday 20 September 2008
by: Ann Wright, t r u t h o u t | Perspective
From the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States
military has come under intense criticism and scrutiny for the deaths of
civilians. This week, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff made trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan to "acknowledge" the
deaths of innocent civilians in attacks in those countries.
In the five and one-half years of the US occupation of Iraq, hundreds of
thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed by US military personnel at
checkpoints, during convoy movements and during operations to find the "enemy."
In the half-decade of US military presence in Iraq, a very small number of US
military personnel and an even smaller number of CIA and contractors have been
charged with manslaughter or murder in these deaths. The deaths of most
civilians are counted in the "costs of war." A few dozen military have been
court-martialed on allegations of mistreatment, manslaughter and murder of
Iraqi civilians. With a very few exceptions, most who were court-martialed have
been acquitted. Those who were convicted have generally served light sentences.
This week we see again that punishment is less for murdering four Iraqis
than for refusing to participate in a war that many citizens, and many in the
military, see as a crime against the peace - a war crime.
On September 18, 2008, the US Army sentenced Specialist Belmor Ramos to
seven months in prison, demotion to private and a dishonorable discharge for
standing guard from a turret in a Humvee while three others in his unit, the
First Infantry Division, bound, blindfolded, shot in the heads and dumped the
bodies of four unidentified Iraqi men into a Baghdad canal in 2007 in
retaliation for deaths in Ramos's unit. According to Associated Press reports,
during the court-martial, Ramos admitted his guilt: "I wanted them dead. I had
no legal justification or excuse to do this."
Ramos had been charged with conspiracy to commit murder, for which he could
have received a life sentence. The military judge in Ramos's court-martial in
Vilsek, Germany, would have sentenced him to 40 years in prison had the
military prosecutor not agreed to a plea bargain for seven months to testify in
the upcoming court-martials of the three non-commissioned officers - Sgt. John
E. Hatley, Sgt. 1st Class Joseph P. Mayo and Sgt. Michael P. Leahy Jr. - who
were charged on September 16, 2008, with premeditated murder, conspiracy to
commit premeditated murder and obstruction of justice.
Longer Sentences for Resisting War Than for Murdering Civilians
Just one month ago, US Army Private Robin Long was sentenced to fifteen
months in prison, reduced to private and given a dishonorable discharge for
having been absent without leave from the Army rather than serving in a war he
believed was unlawful. He had been deported from Canada where he had been
speaking on his concerns about the legality of the war for three years and was
handed over by Canadian immigration officials to the US military for
prosecution. One month earlier, US Army Private First Class James Burmeister
voluntarily returned from Canada and was sentenced in July 2008 to six months
in prison for refusing to return to Iraq after two previous tours in which he
was hit by three IEDs. In May 2008, Private First Class Robert Weiss was
court-martialed in Vilseck, Germany, and sentenced to 7 months in jail for
refusing to go to Iraq. Also in May 2008, Private First Class Ryan Jackson was
also court-martialed and sentenced to 100 days in
jail for refusing to go to Iraq.
In 2007, the court-martial of US Army First Lieutenant Ehren Watada, the
first commissioned officer who refused to deploy to Iraq, ended in a mistrial.
He is still on active duty with the Army. Also in 2007, US Army Sergeant Mark
Wilkerson refused to return to Iraq and was sentenced to seven months in jail.
The Army denied the conscientious objection application of US Army medic
Specialist Agustin Aguayo; he refused to return to Iraq and was sentenced to
eight months in jail. Also in 2007, Specialist Melanie McPherson, a US Army
Minnesota Reservist, refused to go to Iraq in a job she was not trained for;
she was court-martialed and sentenced to three months in jail.
In 2006, US Army Specialist Dale Bertell refused to return to Iraq and was
sentenced to four months in jail. US Army Texas National Guard Specialist
Katherine Jashniski refused to deploy to Afghanistan; she was sentenced to four
months in jail. US Army Sergeant Ricky Clousing of the 82nd Airborne Division
refused to return to Iraq and was sentenced to three months in jail. US Marine
Corporal Ivan Brobeck voluntarily returned from 18 months in Canada and was
court-martialed for refusing to return to Iraq; he was sentenced to eight
months in jail.
In 2005, US Army Sergeant Kevin Benderman refused to return to Iraq and was
sentenced to 15 months in jail; he served 13 months. US Army Specialist Blake
LeMoine refused to return to Iraq and served seven months in jail. When the
conscientious objection application of US Army Private Neil Quentin Lucas was
denied, he refused to go to Iraq and served 13 months in jail.
In 2004, US Army Sergeant Camilo Mejia refused to return to Iraq and was
sentenced to 12 months in jail. The highest-ranking non-commissioned officer to
refuse orders to Iraq, US Army Sergeant First Class Abdullah Webster, was
sentenced to 14 months in jail. He was within two years of retirement when he
refused to deploy to Iraq. US Navy Petty Officer Third Class Pablo Paredes
refused to deploy on a ship carrying Marines to a war he considered illegal. He
was sentenced to three months confinement. The US Marines denied the
conscientious objection application of Corporal Joel Klimkewixz and he was
sentenced to seven months in jail.
In 2003, the US Marines denied the conscientious objection application of
Marine Reservist Stephen Funk and sentenced him to six months in jail. All of
the war resisters who have been court-martialed for refusing to go to Iraq or
Afghanistan have been given either dishonorable or bad conduct discharges.
Thousands of other military service members who privately and silently
oppose the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been given administrative
discharges upon their voluntary return to the military after having been absent
without leave.
Light Sentences for the Murders of Iraqis
Some of the more prominent cases where US military personnel have been
court-martialed, but not necessarily convicted, for the murders of Iraqi
civilians include:
On August 29, 2008, a civilian jury in Riverside, California, acquitted
former US Marine Sergeant Jose Nazario Jr. on charges of voluntary manslaughter
in the deaths of four unarmed Iraqi detainees during the siege of Fallujah,
Iraq, in 2004.
In June, 2008, a U.S. military judge dismissed charges against Lieutenant
Colonel Jeffrey Chessani, who had been accused of failing to investigate the
November 2005 massacre of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha. Of
the eight Marines originally charged in the Haditha massacre, only one still
faces prosecution. Criminal charges have been dismissed against six of the
Marines and a seventh Marine was acquitted.
In 2007, seven Camp Pendleton Marines and a Navy corpsman were charged with
murder and related offenses in the April 2006 kidnapping and killing of a
57-year-old retired Iraqi policeman in the village of Hamdania northwest of
Baghdad. Only one of the men, squad leader Sergeant Lawrence Hutchins III,
remains in jail, convicted of murder and sentenced by a Camp Pendleton military
jury to 15 years. The other six either served out the terms they agreed to in
plea deals or had their sentences commuted by Lieutenant General James Mattis,
the Commanding General of Camp Pendleton. Mattis ordered the men below
Hutchins's rank released after a military jury in July 2007 found Corporal
Trent Thomas guilty for his role in the murders but limited his sentence to
time already served. In releasing the others, General Mattis determined that
Thomas's sentence created an unfair disparity for his fellow Marines who had
been convicted with higher sentences.
In December 2007, US Marine Reservist Lance Corporal Delano Holmes was
convicted of negligent homicide for the stabbing death of Iraqi Army Private
Munther Jasem Muhammed Hassin, a man he shared guard duty with at Camp
Fallujah, Iraq, on December 31, 2006. Holmes killed Hassin, stabbing him 17
times, slashing him another 26 times and nearly slicing his nose from his face.
A military jury sentenced Holmes to time served, the second time in five months
that a Camp Pendleton Marine military court jury allowed a defendant convicted
in a homicide case to be sentenced to only time served. Holmes was reduced in
rank from lance corporal to private and given a bad conduct discharge.
In August 2008, Article 32 hearings were held in Vilsek, Germany, to
determine whether to proceed with criminal charges against Staff Sergeant Jess
Cunningham and Sergeant Charles Quigley for the death of an Iraqi. The hearing
officer has not yet decided whether the two will be court-martialed.
In only one murder case in Iraq have convicted US military personnel
received substantial sentences. In August 2007, a military jury convicted US
Army Private First Class Jesse Speilman of rape and four counts of felony
murder for the rape and murder of Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, a 14-year-old Iraqi
girl, and the murders of her parents and younger sister on March 12, 2006, in
Mahmoudiya, a village about 20 miles south of Baghdad. Speilman was sentenced
to 110 years in prison, but will be eligible for parole in ten years. During
their court-martial, Specialist James P. Barker and Sergeant Paul Cortez
testified they took turns raping Abeer while Private Steven Green shot and
killed her mother, father and younger sister. They also testified that Green
shot Abeer Qassin in the head after raping her.
They then set her body on fire to destroy evidence. Cruz was sentenced to 100
years in prison under a plea agreement and will be eligible for parole in 10
years. Barker pleaded guilty at his court-martial and was sentenced to 90 years
in a military prison, with the possibility of parole. Private Bryan Howard was
sentenced to 27 months in prison under a plea agreement. Private Steven D.
Green was discharged from the Army for anti-social behavior before the murders
had been discovered. However, he was arrested and charged with rape and murder
in the Western District Court of Kentucky. He will be tried in that court on
April 29, 2009. His attorney has filed documents for an insanity defense.
Higher Punishment for Killing Fellow Servicemen Than Iraqis
Punishment for murder of other U.S. service members is dramatically higher
than for murder of Iraqi and Afghan civilians.
In April 2003, US Army Sergeant Hasan Akbar, a member of the 101st Airborne
Division, allegedly threw grenades into a tent at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait
that killed two officers and wounded 14. Akbar was sentenced to death in April
2005.
In June 2005, US Army 42nd Infantry Division Staff Sergeant Alberto
Martinez allegedly killed two superior officers with an anti-personnel mine and
grenades inside one of Saddam Hussein's palaces, near Tikrit, Iraq. Martinez's
court-martial is underway at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. If convicted, he could
face the death penalty.
Earlier this week, on September 14, 2008, two US Army soldiers, assigned to
the 3rd Infantry Division, were shot and killed, reportedly by another soldier
at their base, near the town of Iskandariyah, about 30 miles south of Baghdad.
The soldier who reportedly killed the two others is confined and will be
brought before a military magistrate this week for pretrial procedural
determinations.
Ann Wright is a retired US Army Reserves colonel with 29 years of military
service. She also was a US diplomat who served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia,
Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. She was on the
small team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, in December
2001. She resigned from the US diplomatic corps in March 2003 in opposition to
the Bush administration's decision to invade and occupy Iraq. She is the
co-author of "Dissent: Voices of Conscience," profiles of government insiders
who have spoken and acted on their concerns of their governments' policies.
-------
Austin Mennonite Church, (512) 926-3121 www.mennochurch.org
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