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US Marines spoofed drone to cover up murder
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| venomX |
Now this is just messed up. I really think you people in the US need to push for more oversight in Iraq. Good thing your government is opposed to the ICC or plenty of marines would be facing charges right now.
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US Marines spoofed drone to cover up murder, court told
By Lewis Page
Published Thursday 22nd March 2007 14:05 GMT
US Marines in Iraq staged an elaborate fake gunfight to foil an overhead surveillance drone and cover up a murder, according to court testimony.
Wired reports (http://www.wired.com/news/technolog...?tw=wn_index_1#) that the Marines successfully spoofed infrared imagery, producing the appearance of a legitimate combat engagement. Only a surprise confession by a Navy medic (or "corpsman") attached to the unit led to the true events being uncovered.
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Investigations by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and resulting court-martials have been underway since the incident took place in April last year. Several Marines have joined naval corpsman Melson Bacos in testifying against their comrades as part of plea bargains for reduced sentences.
According to court testimony and reports, a Marine squad led by Sergeant Lawrence Hutchins III deliberately set out to kill an insurgent named Saleh Gowad, who had previously been captured and released several times. Failing to find him, they randomly seized disabled ex-policeman Hashim Awad from his home as he slept.
The Marines cuffed Awad and took him to a nearby bomb crater. At this point the drone approached for its first pass overhead. One of the group moved forward and dug a hole at the crater, while the others posed with Awad behind a wall. The recorded thermal imagery from the aircraft seemed to show troops watching an insurgent digging by the road, perhaps to place a bomb.
After the drone had passed, the group moved Awad forward to the hole. But at this point the surveillance platform returned, so one of the Marines wrapped himself around Awad so as to create a single thermal signature, disguising the captive's presence.
They then moved in and put the bound Awad in the hole. A stolen AK47 was fired from that location so as to leave spent cartridges, then wiped off and Awad's fingerprints put on it. Sergeant Hutchins then called his superiors for permission to open fire on a bomb-planting insurgent and Awad was shot repeatedly in the head by two of the Marines as he lay bound, according to testimony from Bacos.
"Congratulations gents, we just got away with murder," Hutchins is reported as saying. Bacos later claimed that he had objected, but was told by a Marine to "quit being a ".
Imagery from the drone was shown to investigators afterwards, when Awad's family complained to their sheikh about the killing. The surveillance footage apparently convinced the NCIS agents entirely, such that they believed they were dealing with a "good shoot". They were apparently flabbergasted when Bacos spontaneously confessed.
Hutchins has refused to plead guilty. The court-martials continue. ®
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| Q5echo |
| quote: | Originally posted by venomX
Good thing your government is opposed to the ICC or plenty of marines would be facing charges right now. |
they are facing charges. Leavenworth is soooo not Guantanamo.
"the walls are 40' high and 40' deep" |
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| venomX |
| quote: | Originally posted by Q5echo
they are facing charges. Leavenworth is soooo not Guantanamo.
"the walls are 40' high and 40' deep" |
I know they are facing charges, I mean more oversight on the battlefield so this doesn't happen. Things like this are counter productive if one wants a good outcome to the whole US initiative in Iraq. |
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| Q5echo |
| more oversight huh? ok. |
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| venomX |
| quote: | Originally posted by Q5echo
more oversight huh? ok. |
Oh yes, i forgot how you dislike reasonable, tenable solutions. Then what do you suggest, let this keep happening and then trial them? Disregard the life of all those that keep getting abused and murdered. Oh yes, i forgot, they are not you're brothers, they are not your mothers, your countrymen. Why should we care about them? You US citizens are the responsibles for making your government fix this problem. No one else. |
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| Fir3start3r |
Definitely messed up.
But asking for more oversight is like asking to predict the next murder in downtown Detroit so more people don't get hurt there either.
What can one due other than punish to the letter of the law when something does occur? |
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| Q5echo |
| quote: | Originally posted by venomX
Oh yes, i forgot how you dislike reasonable, tenable solutions. Then what do you suggest, let this keep happening and then trial them? Disregard the life of all those that keep getting abused and murdered. Oh yes, i forgot, they are not you're brothers, they are not your mothers, your countrymen. Why should we care about them? You US citizens are the responsibles for making your government fix this problem. No one else. |
easy there killer.
you just don't know Marines, thats all.
you think more oversight on the battlefield is the answer? it may very well be, but nothing short of taking the gun out of a Marine's hands, or any determined soldier for that matter, will stop him from killing a mutherfukker if he really wants to kill on the battlefield.
i'm not trying to glorify Marines, but there seems to be plenty of stop-safes, back-ups, oversight on the battlefield already. of course theres always room for more i guess, but you run the risk of completely taking the battlefield away from the soldier. |
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