Aug. 22, 2004 - 22:49 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

It Figures

In The Denver Post today (the joint operating agreement between the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post allows the Sunday edition to be issued as coming from The Denver Post), I guess the thing they have in common is the printing, distribution of the papers and some of the office tasks that both share.

So, start again from the top. Article by Miles Moffeit and Arthur Kane -- Denver Post Staff Writers --- in part:

Iraq GIs allowed to avoid trials

Data: Practice routine in human-right cases

COMMANDERS DISCRETION

"Four Army police officers faced criminal charges last year for kicking and puching seven Iraqi prisoners at Camp Bucca, assaults that resulted in broken bones. Instead of sending them to trial, however, commanders booted them from the service."

Army Spec. Juba Martino-Poole avoided trial on a manslaughter charge for fatally shooting an Iraqi prisoner, also in 2003. His punishment was the same, turn in the uniform. Another specialist accused of raping a fellow soldier in Iraq last year was discharged without being prosecuted."

"Such outcomes are routine for soldiers accused of human rights crimes -- even some who have admitted guilt, The Denver Post has found."

"By more than a 2-to-1 ratio, military officials have handed down administrative discipline rather than pursue criminal punishments for service members accused of prisoner abuse or sexual-assault crimes in war zones, according to records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and a Pentagon source."

"From the start of the Iraq war in February 2003 through the middle of this year, 66 service members accused of prisoner abuse or sex assault were given administrative punishments, including fines and reprimands, compared with 29 sent to courts-martial."

The common link in these case rulings stretches back to the Revolutionary War: Commanders rather than prosecutors pull the levers of the military's justice system. They decide how and whether cases are investigated. They decide whether soldiers are, ultimately, prosecuted."

"Historically, Pentagon officials and military lawyers, known as judge advocates, or JAGs, have fiercely defended commanders' discretion over justice issues, saying those who lead troops into war must be able to make decisions balancing national security with any allegations their soldiers face. Even prosecutors who say they have been shocked by commanders' decisions not to prosecute certain soldiers are loyal to the concept of commanders calling the shots."

"Ralph Sabatino, a military prosecutor who served as a Geneva Conventions liason to Army forces in Iraq, said he was 'livid' when he discovered that commanders had declined to prosecute four soldiers with the 320th Militry Police Battalion. The soldiers beat seven prisoners last May at the Camp Bucca detention facility."

"I was surprised," said Sabatino, who had worked on the case. "Do I agree with that sentence ? No. But this is war, and you have to give wide latitude to commanders on the ground."

"Commanders have used a mixed bag of administrative actions to punish soldiers in abuse cases, according to Pentagon documents. They included reprimands, fines, rank reductionsm bars on internet use and 'Chapter 10' agreements which allow some soldiers who admit guilt to leave the military under less-than-honorable conditions but without being prosecuted."

"Army officials granted a Chapter 10 request in May 2003 to a specialist with the 190th Military Poice Battalion accused of raping two fellow soldiers, despite an investigation that found probable cause to prosecute one case, records show. Even in prisoner-death cases, commanders have opted for administrative action. Martino-Poole, a specialist with the 4th Infantry Division, submitted a Chapter 10 request after he was charged with manslaughter for fatally shooting an Iraqi prisoner at the Forward Operating Base Packhorse detention facility last September. Martino-Poole was guarding two detainees held behind coils of razor wire because the detention facility wasn't complete. When one detainee moved near the wire, 'Martino-Poole fired his weapon,' killing the prisoner, according to an investigative report."

"His bosses, Martino-Poole said, wanted to cover up security problems at the prison that a trial might have exposed. He added that he fired in self-defense but was afraid he wouldn't be treated fairly in court. "I wanted to go through the (discharge) because people were getting shafted in courts martial," he said. "And I didn't want to be one of them."

While avoiding a maximum sentence of 15 years, he lost all his veterans benefits, including mortgage assistance and $40,000 in college tuition. Martino-Poole said his resignation was approved by Maj. General Ray Odierno, commander of the 4th Infantry Division."

"Odierno, who has declined interview requests, also approved an administrative punishment for Lt. Col. Allen West, who was fined $5,000 and stripped of his command for leading the brutal interrogations of an Iraqi police officer taken prisoner in August 2003"

"According to an investigative report, 'West was present during the interrogation when the soldiers were punching the detainee and threatened the detainee that (West) would kill him . . . . West took the detainee to the nearest clearing barrel and, after shooting a warning shot, placed his 9mm weapon near the detainee's head and fired off a round."

"West was headed for a court-martial. He defended his tactics during a hearing, saying he thought the prisoner had information about plots against U.S. troops. He added that he would 'Walk through hell with a gasoline can ' ... to protect his soldiers."

"The discipline was absolutely appropriate, given the circumstances, given that his primary motive was to prevent what intelligence told him was a planned ambush," said Neal Puckett, West's lawyer."

"Though Puckett defended the decision not to prosecute West, he acknowledged that penalties for soldiers can careen from one end of the spectrum to the other."

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This to me is somewhat like the puzzle picture on the kids comics page "How many errors can you find ?"

I guess that a crime is not a crime even if the accused admits guilt, if the commander decides that it wasn't a crime ? ? ? ?

Any body heard the term "effed up like a soup sandwich" used ? That's what the system seems to be working under I think.

Seems that is what permeates the whole system over there in Iraq, anything is okay if we do it to them . . . . . . In my book that is not the way our country should operate regardless of what the other side has done.

But, you know, the military is overseen by the legislative and administrative, It Figures . . . . . . . . .

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