US troops shot detainees in cold blood, court told

TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) – U.S. soldiers stepped outside the
law when they murdered three Iraqi detainees “in cold blood,” a
prosecutor told a U.S. military hearing on Friday.

“U.S. soldiers must follow the laws of war. That’s what
makes us better than the terrorists, what sets us apart from
the thugs and the hitmen,” said Captain Joseph Mackey, closing
arguments for the prosecution of the four U.S. servicemen.

“These soldiers did just the opposite. They cut them loose
and murdered them in cold blood,” he said.

The hearing into the deaths on May 9 during a raid on a
suspected insurgent camp on an island in the marshy fringe of
Thar Thar Lake, southwest of Tikrit, will determine whether the
four soldiers should be court-martialled for the killings.

If found guilty of premeditated murder, they could face the
death penalty.

It is one of several probes into suspected abuse by U.S.
troops in Iraq, including the alleged killing of 24 unarmed
civilians by U.S. Marines in Haditha. On Thursday, six Marines
were charged with assault in an incident in Hamdaniya.

The soldiers — Private First Class Corey Clagett,
Specialist William Hunsaker, Staff Sergeant Raymond Girouard
and Specialist Juston Graber — are from the 101st Airborne
Division and were serving in Samarra, north of Baghdad.

They have said the detainees were trying to escape when
they were shot, but military prosecutors have said they were
freed before being killed.

“For this they are not war heroes, they are war criminals.
And justice states that they face trial,” Mackey said.

The prosecution presented testimony from another soldier
that the men smiled as they fired, and also contested claims
the men were urged by their commanding officer, Colonel Michael
Steele, to “kill all” of the insurgents during the operation.

The defense argues the four soldiers simply did what they
had to do in a dangerous situation.

“They went into a hot LZ (landing zone) with the
pre-thoughts that they were going to fight terrorists, fight al
Qaeda, insurgents,” said Clagett’s lawyer, Paul Bergrin,
describing how the assault was launched by helicopter.

“Every single one of them followed their mission and their
rules of engagement … There is no physical evidence, there is
no forensic evidence, there is no scientific evidence
whatsoever,” he said. “They are victims in this case and they
deserve to be treated as victims, not as criminals.”

The defendants have been charged with premeditated murder,
attempted murder, conspiracy, communicating a threat, and
obstructing justice, the latter two charges for threatening to
kill another soldier if he informed on them.