Soldier pleads guilty to killing Afghan civilians

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Soldier pleads guilty to killing Afghan civilians
Alaska native hopes to get reduced term, will testify against others
By ROBIN HINDERY
The Associated Press
updated 2 hours 41 minutes ago 2011-03-23T17:27:46

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Washington — A 22-year-old soldier accused of taking a lead role in a brutal plot to murder Afghan civilians pleaded guilty Wednesday in a case that involves some of the most serious criminal allegations to arise from the U.S. war in Afghanistan.

Spc. Jeremy Morlock, of Wasilla, Alaska, had earlier agreed to plead guilty to three counts of murder, one count of conspiracy to commit assault and battery, and one count of illegal drug use in exchange for a maximum sentence of 24 years.

Morlock is one of five soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord's 5th Stryker Brigade charged in the killings of three unarmed Afghan men in Kandahar province in January, February and May 2010.

Morlock was the first of the five men to face a trial, known in the military as a court-martial — which Geoffrey Nathan, one of his lawyers, characterized as an advantage.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42233949/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

[wtmusic]

1. Wasilla!?!

Remind me to cross that city off my bucket list.

[thereismore]

2. Another bad seed from Wasilla. nt

[haikugal]

3. I wonder if he belongs to the same church Palin does.

[Very_Boring_Name]

5. He was Bristol Palin's prom date in 2006. No joke

She's also best friends with his sister.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Sergeant says soldier's dad reported Afghan thrill kill plot to US base

Sergeant says soldier's dad reported Afghan thrill kill plot to US base
By Gene Johnson, The Associated Press – Feb 24, 2011

SEATTLE — An Army staff sergeant confirmed to investigators that he received a phone call from a worried father last year warning that soldiers in his son's platoon were deliberately killing Afghan civilians.

However, Staff Sgt. James Michael Beck said he didn't report the phone call to anyone because there was no standard operating procedure for doing so, according to a statement obtained by The Associated Press.

Beck said he was working in the operations centre at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle on Feb. 14, 2010, when he received a call from Christopher Winfield of Cape Coral, Florida, who told him soldiers in his son's platoon had already killed one civilian and were planning to kill more.

~snip~
Army prosecutors allege two more Afghan civilians were subsequently killed, one during a patrol in February and another in May, in a brutal plot led by Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs and Cpl. Jeremy Morlock.

More:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5ikp7El2zK92n94zUDoDawKxD8Kyw?docId=6055990

[bemildred]

6. Wasilla soldier killed Afghans for sport

TACOMA, Wash., March 23 (UPI) -- In a military court-martial Wednesday Army Spc. Jeremy N. Morlock of Wasilla, Alaska, pleaded guilty to charges he killed three Afghan civilians for sport.

Morlock was charged with three counts of murder, accused of killing one Afghan civilian in January 2010 with a grenade and rifle; another in May 2010 in a similar manner; and shooting a third to death in February 2010.

"The plan was to kill people," Morlock said to Lt. Col. Kwasi Hawks moments after the beginning of the Article 32 hearing, the military counterpart of a grand jury hearing, at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, CNN reported.

Morlock also pleaded guilty to smoking hashish, and four other soldiers who were part of the Fifth Stryker Brigade, Second Infantry Division face upcoming court-martial proceedings for allegedly killing three unarmed Afghan civilians.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/03/23/Wasilla-soldier-killed-Afghans-for-sport/UPI-15581300915291/

[Pterodactyl]

7. The sentence isn't long enough, if you ask me.

[bullwinkle428]

8. Too bad for him he wasn't a "diplomat". Then he could have

gotten off after Uncle Sam paid off the families in blood money. :mad:

[Marrah_G]

9. 22..........

My heart breaks for their victims, their victims families, their own families...as the mother of sons I don't know how I could ever come to terms knowing that my child had turned into such a monster. Just sort of rambling here. The whole story just made me so sad and angry. It's going on ten years now......

[Rage for Order]

10. I feel sorry for these soldiers

What they did was wrong and they deserve any punishment they get, but these were kids, fresh out of high school, who joined the military and were trained to kill. They were then sent to very hostile lands without a clearly-defined enemy (the Taliban don't wear uniforms and carry flags) who blends in with the civilian population. It's an incredibly stressful environment where our soldiers are exposed to heinous visuals nearly every day...dismembered bodies, rotting corpses, the constant stench of death, having buddies blown up by IEDs, being fired on constantly...I'm surprised more of them don't snap, truthfully. Here's part of what Morlock said in court:

"Morlock, his voice shaking at times, told the judge has had a lot of time to reflect on his actions in Afghanistan and ask himself "how I could become so insensitive and how I lost my moral compass."

"I don't know if I will ever be able to answer those questions," he said, adding that he believes he "wasn't fully prepared for the reality of war as it was being fought in Afghanistan."



It's time to bring these men home. Now.

[TheLastMohican]

12. I don't feel sorry one bit.

Homicide murderers shouldn't join the army in the first place.

[pettypace]

11. For those with objections on the short sentence

Consider the climate these murders took place in - the Army trains the folks to kill and then sends them over there to do it.

If someone in the US committed a triple homicide, the act was perpetrated with no radius of violence. They would be judged more harshly.