Green Beret Hearing Focuses on How Charges Came About

[babylonsister]

Green Beret Hearing Focuses on How Charges Came About


By PAUL von ZIELBAUER
Published: September 19, 2007

FORT BRAGG, N.C., Sept. 18 — An enlisted man who accused two Special Forces soldiers of illegally killing an Afghan man last year testified in a court Tuesday that he would not have agreed to make the accusation if he had known that a military investigation already concluded the killing was justified.

Sgt. First Class Scott R. Haarer, a paralegal for the lawyer responsible for initiating the murder charges, said that if he had known about the investigation’s findings, “I would have requested that I not sign the document” that officially accused the two soldiers in June of premeditated murder.

The admission was one of a few unusual moments in a hearing that cracks open a window onto some of the most secret Special Operations tactics in Afghanistan, including the hunting and killing of people designated as enemy combatants.

The hearing is meant to determine whether there is enough evidence to convene a court-martial for Capt. Dave Staffel and Master Sgt. Troy Anderson, the two Green Berets accused of killing a man the Army considered an “enemy combatant.”

snip//

In his public testimony, Lt. Col. James Friend, a Special Forces lawyer, said he advised Army investigators to conclude that the killing was justified even though Mr. Buntangyar was not in custody, actively surrendering or obviously wounded — all conditions that under the Geneva Conventions would prevent the killing of an enemy fighter.

“Soldiers can kill any person who has been considered to be an enemy combatant,” Colonel Friend told the hearing. Though the Special Forces team could have easily captured Mr. Buntangyar instead of killing him, Colonel Friend added, they were not legally required to do so.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/us/19abuse.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=washington&adxnnlx=1190211421-rU1IfrJdOtA7kW1bRDDAzQ