JAG CENTRAL

The Army Times seems to have the most information to date on this horrible tragedy at Fort Campbell. The article is entitled Fort Campbell Soldier Fires Into PT formation On Post:

A soldier reportedly dressed in Ninja-like attire fired live rounds from a .357-caliber Magnum into a physical training formation at Fort Campbell, Ky., this morning.
No one was hurt in the 7 a.m. shooting and the soldier, who has not yet been identified, was arrested by military police.

“Military police apprehended the solider and brought him into custody. He did have a weapon, it was a handgun, nonmilitary issue,” said Fort Campbell spokeswoman Cathy Gramling.

Charges have not been filed and Fort Campbell officials declined further comment, but according to a soldier in the area at the time of the alleged attack, the suspect fired three shots at a group of soldiers in formation for PT in front of the division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team headquarters.

After firing the first volley of shots, he ran behind the headquarters building of 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry, where several troops were at work, said the soldier, who spoke on the condition his identity not be revealed.

He said that when a soldier from the 2-327 opened a back door, the armed soldier allegedly fired another round of shots, which ricocheted off the ground and the building, then continued running.

After evading soldiers at the 2-327, the gunman allegedly ducked into a building of the 3rd Battalion, 327th Infantry, shed a tactical holster, black jacket and balaclava mask, then walked out of the building and allegedly pointed to an area away from the building and told MPs at the site he had seen a man running in that direction, the soldier said.

The MPs arrested the soldier on the spot and placed him in confinement.

The 101st Airborne Division is in the process of deploying for its second rotation in Iraq and the Thursday shooting harked to a deadly incident two and a half years ago. According to the source, the suspect in Thursday’s shooting is a member of 326th Engineer Battalion, the same unit of former Sgt. Hassan Akbar, who was convicted of a grenade attack that killed two soldiers and wounded 14 others in the 1st BCT. The fragging incident took place March 23, 2003, in Kuwait, hours before the division crossed the berm into Iraq. In April, a jury of soldiers at Fort Bragg, N.C., sentenced him to death.

Almost 10 years ago to the day of Thursday’s incident, Sgt. William Kreutzer opened fire on hundreds of paratroopers in formation at Fort Bragg, killing one injuring 18 others. He was captured by Special Forces soldiers performing PT nearby. Kreutzer was convicted and sentenced to death, but the sentence was overturned.

Categories: Attempted+Murder

From the NY Times, Shots Fired at Soldiers ("A soldier was arrested after firing five shots at a group of comrades during their morning workout, the Army said. No one was hit, said Cathy Gramling, a Fort Campbell spokeswoman. The soldier under arrest was not identified, and no immediate charges were filed. Ms. Gramling said the soldier was armed with a nonmilitary-issue handgun, in violation of regulations. The Army gave no motive for the shooting and would not say whether the soldier belonged to the unit fired on.").

Categories: Attempted+Murder, Newspapers

Veselin Sljivancanin, Miroslav Radic, and Mile Mrksic, Facing War Crimes Charges (DoState & UN)

From the NY Times, War Crime Trial Opens for Serbs Linked to Deaths in Croatia in '91:

It became known as one of the most notorious events of the Balkan wars, that day in November 1991 when Serbian forces overran a Croatian town, Vukovar, emptied the hospital and killed almost 300 people.

Among the dead were patients, members of the hospital staff, journalists and Croatian fighters who had taken refuge.

On Tuesday, the war crimes tribunal in The Hague began the trial of the three Serbian Army officers accused of the main responsibility for the events. They are charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes, including persecution, murder and torture.

Two officers, Veselin Sljivancanin, 52, and Miroslav Radic, 43, pleaded not guilty; the third, Mile Mrksic, 58, did not speak. Prosecutors said the commanders were being held accountable because they had control over both the Serbian troops and the Serbian paramilitaries that organized and carried out the killings.

Also from the Times, following up on yesterday's Washington Post story I told you about here, Air Force Withdrew Rule That Permitted Some Evangelizing.

Categories: War+Crimes, Croatia, Air+Force, Religious+Discrimination, Newspapers

From the Washington Post, Air Force Withdraws Paper for Chaplains:

The document was circulated at the Air Force Chaplain School until eight weeks ago. It was a "code of ethics" for chaplains that included the statement "I will not proselytize from other religious bodies, but I retain the right to evangelize those who are not affiliated."

The code was written by the National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces (NCMAF), a private association of religious bodies that provide chaplains to the military. It was never an official directive of the Defense Department, but the fact that it was handed out at the chaplains school at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala., "might have given the impression that it was Air Force policy," said Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff, a retired Navy chaplain who is a special adviser to the secretary of the Air Force.

The Air Force distanced itself from the code of ethics after complaints by Michael L. "Mikey" Weinstein, a 1977 Air Force Academy graduate who has accused the academy's current leaders of fostering pressure on cadets to convert to evangelical Christianity.

Last week, Weinstein filed suit in federal court in New Mexico, alleging "severe, systemic and pervasive" religious discrimination in the Air Force. Among other evidence, the suit cited a July 12 New York Times article that quoted Brig. Gen. Cecil R. Richardson, the Air Force's deputy chief of chaplains, as saying: "We will not proselytize, but we reserve the right to evangelize the unchurched."

Categories: Air+Force, Religious+Discrimination, Newspapers