JAG CENTRAL

Former Army SGT Lisa Girman, Cleared of Iraqi Abuse Charges (BrandonBlog)

From USA Today, Two Former Soldiers Cleared of Iraq Misconduct:

Two army reservists discharged last year over allegations they mistreated Iraqi prisoners have been cleared by an Army review board and can rejoin the military, their attorney said Friday.
The Army Discharge Review Board this week reversed the former soldiers' discharges and findings of misconduct, said Gary Myers, an attorney who represented Scott McKenzie, Lisa Girman and a third former soldier who was cleared in the same manner in January.

The Army declined comment. "It's been our long-standing practice that we do not comment on nonjudicial and administrative type actions," said Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, an Army spokeswoman.

"When I got the call, first thing I did was, I thanked God," said McKenzie, 40, a deacon at the Clearfield Presbyterian Church and a state prison guard. "I figured that if God leads you to it, God will lead you through it."

Girman, 37, a state trooper who lives near Wilkes-Barre, said, "It's not really about winning, it's about setting things right."

McKenzie and Girman were among four Army reservists with the Pennsylvania-based 320th Military Police Battalion who were charged with punching and kicking several Iraqis, breaking one man's nose, while escorting a busload of prisoners to a POW processing center near Umm Qasr in May 2003.

All four had maintained their innocence and said they used only necessary force to subdue unruly prisoners.

UPDATE: Professor Kenneth Anderson in his Law of War Blog points to an op-ed column I missed in Aug. 20th's Washington Post from the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, Matthew Waxman, stating how novel the United States is in releasing enemy combatants while an active war is being fought:

Terrorists must be captured and prevented from returning to the global battlefield. But it need not -- nor in many cases should it -- be the United States that detains them for the long term. All nations that have joined forces in the global war on terrorism share responsibility for keeping captured terrorists from returning to violence.

American armed forces will continue to capture and detain terrorist fighters like the approximately 510 enemy combatants currently at Guantanamo. The principle that a state is legally entitled to detain enemy fighters until the enemy -- in this case, al Qaeda and its affiliates, including the Taliban -- is defeated is not a new one; it is deeply rooted in international law. The Geneva Convention, for example, reflects the well-established notion that captured enemy fighters can be kept off the battlefield until the war is over.

Categories: Detainee-Abuse, Iraq, Newspapers

After much torturing with PowerPoint, the CafePress mugs for JAG Central have been created! Sip your morning java in this stylish mug, and you will never forget the URL to your favorite blog. You can be the first on your block to drink from the world's first mug devoted to military justice and military law issues! Simply go to my shop and order!

Profits from the mug will be used for maintenance on the site (about $100 a year). Excess profits (which are doubtful) will be given to Army Emergency Relief. I have no need for your dirty money.

Categories: Miscellaneous

From the NY Times, No Prison for Soldier in Abuse Case:

A jury on Thursday spared Pfc. Willie V. Brand from prison time, reducing his rank a day after he was convicted in a brutal attack on an Afghan prisoner. Prosecutors had asked that the defendant, 27, be sent to a military prison for 10 years with a dishonorable discharge.

On Wednesday, a jury of four enlisted soldiers and three officers convicted Private Brand of assault, maltreatment, maiming and making a false official statement in connection with an attack on a detainee known as Dilawar at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan while Private Brand worked in a detention center there in December 2002.

The jury acquitted him of charges that he had abused a second detainee, Habibullah. Both prisoners died in December 2002.

Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, Head of U.S. Southern Command, Criticizing Bush Administration Policy Toward Securing Immunity for Troops in Latin America (Reuters)

In other news, an article about how foreign policy aimed at securing favorable Status of Forces Agreements (SOFAs) for our troops could be backfiring, entitled Bush's Aid Cuts on Court Issue Roil Latin American Neighbors:

Three years ago the Bush administration began prodding countries to shield Americans from the fledgling International Criminal Court in The Hague, which was intended to be the first permanent tribunal for prosecuting crimes like genocide.

The United States has since cut aid to some two dozen nations that refused to sign immunity agreements that American officials say are intended to protect American soldiers and policy makers from politically motivated prosecutions.

To the Bush administration, the aid cuts are the price paid for refusing to offer support in an area where it views the United States, with its military might stretched across the globe, as being uniquely vulnerable.

But particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean, home to 12 nations that have been penalized, the cuts are generating strong resentment at what many see as heavy-handed diplomacy, officials and diplomats in seven countries said.

More than that, some Americans are also beginning to question the policy, as political and military leaders in the region complain that the aid cuts are squandering good will and hurting their ability to cooperate in other important areas, like the campaigns against drugs and terrorism.

In testimony before Congress in March, Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, the commander of American military forces in Latin America, said the sanctions had excluded Latin American officers from American training programs and could allow China, which has been seeking military ties to Latin America, to fill the void.

"We now risk losing contact and interoperability with a generation of military classmates in many nations of the region, including several leading countries," General Craddock told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Most of the penalties, outlined in a law that went into effect in 2003, have been in the form of cuts in military training and other security aid. But a budget bill passed in December also permits new cuts in social and health-care programs, like AIDS education and peacekeeping, refugee assistance and judicial reforms.

Categories: SOFA, Detainee-Abuse, Newspapers

Jerry Texiero, Accused of Desertion After 40 Years (Tampa Bay 10)

From the NY Times, Man Charged With Deserting Marines in 1965 ("A man has been charged in Tarpon Springs with deserting the Marine Corps 40 years ago to avoid being sent to Vietnam, the police said. The man, Jerry Texiero, left his unit in California in 1965, the police said. Mr. Texiero, now 64, had been living under an assumed name, Gerome Conti, since at least the mid-1980s, the police said. Under that name, Mr. Texiero had been serving 20 years' probation after pleading no contest to fraud charges in the mid-1990s, officials said. The Marine Corps contacted his probation officer on Tuesday and said his fingerprints matched those of a deserter.").

Categories: Desertion, Newspapers

From the NY Times, 3 Set to Hang as Executions Return to Iraq ("Three men convicted of dozens of rapes, kidnappings and killings in the southern city of Kut, in one case displaying the eyeballs of an Iraqi soldier to obtain payment for his murder, will be put to death by hanging in the first execution by Iraq's civilian courts since the fall of Saddam Hussein, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said Tuesday."), and Officer Says Military Blocked Sharing of Files of Terrorists ("A military intelligence team repeatedly contacted the F.B.I. in 2000 to warn about the existence of an American-based terrorist cell that included the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a veteran Army intelligence officer who said he had now decided to risk his career by discussing the information publicly. The officer, Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, said military lawyers later blocked the team from sharing any of its information with the bureau.").

From the USA Today, Fired General Refused to Avoid Woman, Army Says:

The Army's decision last week to dismiss a four-star general accused of adultery while separated from his wife became easier to understand with the emergence of more facts, some military legal scholars say.

Gen. Kevin Byrnes, who was relieved of his command as head of Army training, disobeyed a direct order to break off contact with the woman, Army Col. Joe Curtin said.

Curtin said Byrnes was fired for ignoring that order and for violating the military's adultery regulation.

Military rules prohibit a married or separated servicemember from having a sexual relationship with anyone other than the spouse until a divorce is final.

Byrnes' divorce became final last week. When the Army announced Byrnes' dismissal Aug. 9, it cited only “personal conduct” as the reason.

The new information, some former military lawyers say, clarifies the Army's decision to fire a commander who was three months short of retirement.

Scott Silliman, a retired Air Force attorney who teaches law at Duke University, said Byrnes made a serious mistake by not breaking off contact with the woman when his superiors told him to do so.

Silliman said Byrnes' failure to follow the order would be considered an “aggravating circumstance” that contributed to his dismissal.

James Swanson, a retired brigadier general and former Air Force attorney, said the military expects “generals to lead by example.”

“If you are unable to do that, I don't see where your bosses have any choice” but to impose punishment, Swanson said.

Military officers who are promoted to general get special training about the hazards of personal misconduct. Known as “charm school,” the courses outline the higher expectations for generals and the kinds of misconduct that can get them in trouble.

Categories: Byrnes, Adultery, Iraq, Death-Penalty, 9-11, Military-Intelligence, Newspapers

From the Stars and Stripes, this article about a Roman Catholic chaplain in Germany who has been going far and beyond his pastoral duties:

Military prosecutors preferred charges last week against Capt. Gregory Arflack, 44, a Roman Catholic priest with the Bamberg-based 279th Base Support Battalion, in connection with incidents that took place March 21, 2004, in Doha, Qatar, and July 29 and 30, 2005, in Bamberg, said Maj. Bill Coppernoll.

The accusations include three counts of forcible sodomy, three counts of indecent acts, two counts of fraternization with enlisted soldiers, two counts of disobeying orders, one count of indecent assault, and one count of conduct unbecoming an officer, according to a 1st ID news release.

Coppernoll said Arflack is accused of fraternizing and other rules violations with three male enlisted Marines last spring in Qatar. The Bamberg incidents in July involved alleged acts of forcible sodomy with three male enlisted soldiers, one of whom reported them to his chain of command.

Coppernoll said none of the accusations involves underage victims.

According to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, sodomy is defined as “unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex.” To be defined as forcible, the act must have occurred with force and without the consent of the other person.

Categories: Chaplain, Sexual-Abuse