10-06-2006, 04:26 PM
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Machiavelli Incarnate
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Mid-south
Posts: 12,106
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sorry to see this...
Sorry to see this story but it is reality...
Quote:
Medic testifies that Marines shot Iraqi civilian
He earlier cut deal to avoid murder charges by testifying
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - A Navy corpsman testified at his court-martial Friday that he watched as Marines shot an Iraqi civilian in the head after taking him from his home in the town of Hamdania.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Melson J. Bacos, 21, said he saw two Marines fire at least 10 rounds into 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad.
Seven Marines and Bacos, a medic who had been on patrol with them that day, are charged in Awad’s April 26th death. Bacos was the first to go to a court-martial. Friday morning, he pleaded guilty to kidnapping and conspiracy under a deal in which other charges were dropped and Bacos agreed to testify about what he saw.
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Bacos testified that he asked the Marines to let Awad go, but he said Marine Cpl. Marshall L. Magincalda told him he was being weak and should stop protesting.
“I witnessed Sgt. (Lawrence) Hutchins dead check the man and fire three rounds into the man’s head,” Bacos testified. “Then Cpl. (Trent) Thomas fired seven to 10 rounds into the man’s head.”
“I was shocked; I felt sick to my stomach,” Bacos said.
Bacos told military judge Col. Steven Folsom that squad leader Hutchins had devised the plan to kill a different Iraqi who was “a known high-value individual whom he had detained who was later released from Abu Ghraib.”
“He was just mad that they kept letting him go when he was a known terrorist, sir,” Bacos said. “He was detained and released three times, sir.”
Yet the squad did not find their intended target — whose name was Saleh Gowad — and instead seized Awad next door, Bacos said.
April incident
Bacos and the seven Marines he accompanied on an April patrol were charged with seizing Awad from his home, killing him and placing an AK-47 assault rifle and shovel next to his body to suggest he wanted to plant a roadside bomb.
A Purple Heart recipient with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Bacos was the first to admit his role in the Hamdania case. The murder was one in a series of incidents in which the conduct of American troops in Iraq have hurt the country’s image worldwide.
The son of immigrant Philippine parents, Bacos, a former high school varsity wrestler, had hoped to become a doctor and administered first-aid for his platoon.
He enrolled in the Navy after graduating from high school in 2003, was first deployed to Iraq in 2004 and redeployed for a second tour in Iraq this year. In court he wore a Navy summer white service uniform bearing several medals.
David Brahms, a defense attorney for one of the accused Marines, said Bacos will be subjected to intense cross-examination.
“This is just one guy who is going to tell the story as he sees it,” Brahms said.
“The defense’s job is to climb a mountain,” he added. “With Bacos’ plea, the mountain is slightly higher.”
Former Army prosecutor Tom Umberg suggested that others might follow Bacos’ lead and strike similar plea deals.
“You don’t want to be the last guy standing. The first guy gets the best deal,” he said.
Medic faces kidnapping charges
Under the plea deal, prosecutors dropped the original seven charges, which included murder, and added two charges related to kidnapping, a military official said.
Bacos’ wife, who is also a Navy corpsman, attended the hearing at Camp Pendleton near San Diego, as did his father.
His plea deal could complicate the defense for others charged in the Hamdania case as their unified front has ended. It could also create an incentive for other plea deals.
Other Camp Pendleton-based Marines are under investigation in a separate incident in November 2005 in which 24 civilians were killed in the Iraqi town of Haditha.
Courts have also convicted a series of low-ranking U.S. soldiers for abusing Iraqis at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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