Reduced rank for U.S. Marine in Hamdania case

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Reduced rank for U.S. Marine in Hamdania case
20 Jul 2007 18:03:11 GMT

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., July 20 (Reuters) - A U.S.
Marine guilty of kidnapping and conspiring to murder an
Iraqi grandfather last year was sentenced on Friday to
a reduction in rank to private and a bad-conduct discharge
with no additional time in prison, according to a U.S.
Marine Corps statement.

Cpl. Trent Thomas, who has been in military in prison
since May 2006, was found guilty by a military jury on
Wednesday of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit larceny,
housebreaking, kidnapping, false official statements and
murder for his involvement in the death of Hashim Ibrahim
Awad in April 2006 near Hamdania, Iraq.

Thomas, a Purple Heart recipient who was serving his
third tour of duty in Iraq, was one of eight members of
an infantry battalion charged in the death of Awad, a
disabled Iraqi policeman. The incident was one of a series
in which U.S. forces abused or killed Iraqi civilians under
questionable circumstances, damaging the image of U.S.
troops abroad.


Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N20283558.htm

[bluestateguy]

1. Do dishonorable/bad-conduct discharges get veterans benefits?

I'm just curious. I've always wondered.

[Recursion]

2. Generally, no

Depending on his purple heart citation he might still be able to receive treatment for that injury for free.

[Judi Lynn]

3. No jail for US soldier found guilty of Iraq murder

No jail for US soldier found guilty of Iraq murder
Jul 20, 2007, 18:15 GMT


Los Angeles - A US Marine found guilty in the murder of a handicapped Iraqi was discharged for bad contact by a military jury on Friday, but the court said he need serve no more jail time than the 520 days he had already spent behind bars, a military spokesman confirmed.

Prosecutors in the court martial of Lance Corporal Trent Thomas, 25, had asked that Thomas be sentenced to a dishonourable discharge and 15 years in prison as a warning to other young Marines to follow the laws of war.

In the sentencing at Camp Pendleton in California, Thomas was also degraded from lance corporal to private, the lowest rank among Marines, military spokesman Sean Gibson said. Gibson said the jury gave no reason for its more lenient sentence.

Thomas was convicted on Wednesday of kidnapping and conspiracy to murder a 54-year-old handicapped Iraqi in Hamdaniya in April 2006 after their convoy had come under attack.

Thomas and other soldiers were charged with forcing Hashem Ibrahim, a father of 11, out of his house and shooting him. They then placed the body alongside a road with a shovel in an attempt to make it look like Ibrahim was a victim of his own bomb.
(snip/...)

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1332818.php/No_jail_for_US_soldier_found_guilty_of_Iraq_murder

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More info. and photos of participants on the murder of this uarmed citizen:

Hamdaniya - The Execution of Hashim Al-Zobaie
http://www.expose-the-war-profiteers.org/DOD/iraq_II/al-zobaie.htm

[FuJun]

4. WTF...

A Big Chicken Dinner for kidnapping and murder??? Unbelievable! At the very least he should spend the next 20 years in the USDB at Leavenworth.

[MsMagnificent]

5. "only following orders' so it's OK

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/20/AR2007072000425.html?hpid=topnews
"Thomas' attorneys argued that their client was only following orders from his squad leader..."

You see, Americans are simply more equal than any other country's citizens. We can still brag about the justice we meted out at the Nuremburg trials... it's just that we're exempt from the same Rule(s) of Law -- I mean, Duh!

And the American King, er pResident, along with his Vice King, are even more equal than their subjects.

Everything clear now? :sarcasm:


With every court case like this, we are virtually declaring that housebreaking, false statements (call it what it is: LIES), torture, kidnapping, rape, child abuse, and the outright murder of Iraqis and Afghans (Afghanis?) and whoever-else(foreigner/non-white) mean as little
--heck, even less--
than animal cruelty since most such abuse cases in the U.S. --although they are not punished nearly as much as deserved-- receive a stiffer punishment.


With such judicial results we still are somehow surprised that there is an insurgency against U.S. forces; we are puzzled that they don't want us there?!
Huh. Go figure.


And we yet expect to 'win their hearts and minds'?
...or does that really mean we take those hearts and minds we've 'won' and string them on our belts?


Hoo-rah?