Mom: Ga. soldier accused of murder in Iraq 'just following orders'

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution

The mother of a Georgia soldier charged this week with the murder of an Iraqi man said Saturday she believes her son was "just following orders as far as I know."

Army Specialist Christopher P. Shore, 25, of Winder, and Sgt. 1st Class Trey A Corrales of San Antonio, Texas, were charged in the alleged premeditated killing of the unidentified man on June 23 in an area near Kirkuk, Iraq, about 155 miles north of Baghdad.

They were charged after soldiers in their unit reported them to military authorities, the Army said. Shore and Corrales are assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, which is part of the 25th Infantry Division based in Hawaii.

Speaking to the press for the first time, Shore's mother, Debra Kessler, said she has not talked to her son or Army officials since he was charged Wednesday, but she plans to hire a civilian attorney to defend him.

"I love my son and I stand behind him," Kessler said. "We are doing everything in our power to help him." She has set up fund in her son's name at Bank of America for public contributions to his defense.



Read more: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2007/07/21/winder_0722_web.html

[Vincardog]

1. I believe that is why everyone has a duty to refuse illegal orders,

[acmavm]

2. As they say here on DU - Ding Ding Ding

We have a winner.

[bluerum]

3. Wow. I wonder if they ever heard of the ovens. Nahh. Just rumors. eom

[rodeodance]

4. I feel bad for her---having a son accused of this.

[MnFats]

5. Don't they spend ANY time on Nuremberg in training?

You' d think there would be at least a couple of hours devoted to "' just following orders'" doesn't cut it. It ought to be clear.

[SpiralHawk]

6. "That not a part of Skull & Bones." - Commander AWOL

"Maybe some other occult cabal spends time on that, but I am the Decider, and I decide Nuremburg and Geneva and all that namby pamby stuff are just a pile of dirty diapers to us republicon chickenhawk he-men Commanders. Those soliders are just Little People anyway, so don't waste my time. Now watch this drive."

- Commander AWOL

[Recursion]

8. OK, Captain Keyboards...

...you guys refuse to obey the order of a large, heavily armed sergeant with whom you have just patrolled while taking fire from every single direction and not knowing the first thing about the guy this sergeant (who by now has saved your ass more times than you can count) has told you to shoot other than the fact that your sergeant wants him dead.

[gratuitous]

9. Not a problem

It's why I keep this poem handy in my own personal memory bank:

i sing of Olaf glad and big
whose warmest heart recoiled at war:
a conscientious object-or

his wellbelovéd colonel(trig
westpointer most succinctly bred)
took erring Olaf soon in hand;
but--though an host of overjoyed
noncoms(first knocking on the head
him)do through icy waters roll
that helplessness which others stroke
with brushes recently employed
anent this muddy toiletbowl,
while kindred intellects evoke
allegiance per blunt instruments--
Olaf(being to all intents
a corpse and wanting any rag
upon what God unto him gave)
responds,without getting annoyed
"I will not kiss your fucking flag"

straightway the silver bird looked grave
(departing hurriedly to shave)

but--though all kinds of officers
(a yearning nation's blueeyed pride)
their passive prey did kick and curse
until for wear their clarion
voices and boots were much the worse,
and egged the firstclassprivates on
his rectum wickedly to tease
by means of skilfully applied
bayonets roasted hot with heat--
Olaf(upon what were once knees)
does almost ceaselessly repeat
"there is some shit I will not eat"

our president,being of which
assertions duly notified
threw the yellowsonofabitch
into a dungeon,where he died

Christ(of His mercy infinite)
i pray to see;and Olaf,too

preponderatingly because
unless statistics lie he was
more brave than me:more blond than you.

[struggle4progress]

7. Little v. Barreme, 6 US 170 (1804)

U.S. Supreme Court

LITTLE v. BARREME, 6 U.S. 170 (1804)
6 U.S. 170 (Cranch)

LITTLE et al.
v.
BARREME et al.

February Term, 1804

~snip~ I confess the first bias of my mind was very strong in favour of the opinion that .. that a distinction ought to be taken between acts of civil and those of military officers ... That implicit obedience which military men usually pay to the orders of their superiors, which indeed is indispensably necessary to every military system, appeared to me strongly to imply the principle that those orders, if not to perform a prohibited act, ought to justify the person whose general duty it is to obey them, and who is placed by the laws of his country in a situation which in general requires that he should obey them. I was strongly inclined to think that .. in consequence of orders from the legitimate authority .. the claim of the injured party for damages would be against that government from which the orders proceeded, and would be a proper subject for negotiation. But I have been convinced that I was mistaken, and I have receded from this first opinion. I acquiesce in that of my brethren, which is, that the instructions cannot change the nature of the transaction, or legalize an act which without those instructions would have been a plain trespass. ~snip~

http://supreme.justia.com/us/6/170/case.html

[MetaTrope]

10. Given that there has been NO information about this incident released

and the parents are talking out of their asses, since their sons have been held incommunicado...who knows what sort of atrocity took place here?