GI Convicted of Carjacking Shiek in Iraq

[Barrett808]

GI Convicted of Carjacking Shiek in Iraq
By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. - A military jury found a soldier guilty of armed robbery Thursday for taking an Iraqi sheik's sport utility vehicle at gunpoint.

The panel also convicted Sgt. 1st Class James Williams of willful dereliction of duty for allowing his soldiers to consume alcohol in Iraq. He faces up to 15 years in prison.

Williams, 37, of rural Westmoreland County, Va., maintains he helped take the SUV only because his lieutenant ordered him to procure a vehicle and because he did not think it was a criminal act.

"In his mind there was nothing wrong with doing it," Bernard Casey, Williams' civilian defense attorney, said in closing arguments Thursday.

Army prosecutor Capt. Howard Hoege said Thursday that Williams helped take the SUV at gunpoint from the sheik's son, who was driving the vehicle. Williams then helped orchestrate a cover-up story that the vehicle was found abandoned, Hoege said.

"The accused had a criminal mind through every stage of the crime," Hoege said.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040729/ap_on_re_us/soldier_carjacking_charge&cid=519&ncid=1480

[comradebillyboy]

1. good to see that some army leaders

see the need for strict military discipline and are holding troopers accountable. too bad the civilian leaders of the defense dept dont have similar principles.

[Cocoa]

2. I wouldn't be so sure...

this story stinks. On NPR, they said that the owner of the SUV happened to be a well-connected sheik, and that the U.S. general who pursued this case was a personal friend of this sheik, and that what this soldier did was standard operating procedure. This soldier seems to have had the bad luck of stealing the wrong Iraqi's vehicle.

[atreides1]

4. Not the Point

SOP is that when you take any private property from the owner you are to provide that owner with a receipt.

He failed to provide a receipt, therefore he failed to follow SOP.

According to the story on Yahoo News, the SUV cut between two military vehicles and two Hummers chased the SUV, after a short chase the driver of the SUV stopped and got out, the soldier commandeered the SUV, but said because they were in a hostile area they didn't have the time to write out a receipt.

So let me get this straight, you chase a vehicle for a short period of time into a hostile area, you then commandeer the vehicle, and the reason you give for not providing a receipt is because you felt you were in a dangerous area.

WHY CHASE THE CHENEYEN VEHICLE IN THE FIRST PLACE????

As for NPR, their credibility has been questionable for some time now,
and you know what every soldier likes to blame the chain of command when they screw up, just look at PFC England.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. This is the freeper's old nightmare of American warfare

Where the military is shackled by all kinds of arbitrary rules of engagement. It became legend after we were driven out of Vietnam that we couldda won if only we didn't have to fight "with one hand tied behind our backs".

I wonder what the freeps are going to say as more and more of this kind of thing happens.

[Cocoa]

6. not just arbitrary

but changing rules of engagement, which is one of the issues in this case. The defendant claimed he wasn't informed of the changes.

[peacetalksforall]

5. If true about the story and the statement about standard

operating procedure it means that generation after generation of Americans are destined to be model Ugly Ameericans - because few of our citizens learn about sharing the earth and respecting our neighbors and they buy into the belief that we are superior. THEN, some in the Christian Church fail to help interpret one of the Christian teachings - the one about all God's children.