Key pieces of evidence were lost or never collected in the case of five Washington-based soldiers charged with murdering Afghan civilians. That emerged Tuesday in an evidentiary hearing against the alleged ringleader – Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs.

A U.S. soldier will spend more than two years in prison after a military judge found him guilty in a court-martial Tuesday of throwing a crowbar that struck a German motorcyclist in the head.

Stars & Stripes reports.

The sentence for an Air Force staff sergeant who raped three young girls he baby-sat in the Kaiserslautern community far exceeded those historically handed down for such crimes in military court, legal experts say.

In another development Stars & Stripes reports.

Air Force officials refused to say this week whether they believe there are more victims of convicted child rapist Staff Sgt. Joshua Adam Smith, saying that information could not be disclosed because the case is still open.

The Southeast Sun reports.

The court-martial of an Army soldier charged locally in connection with what is being described as a gruesome child pornography case could begin before the end of the year. Coffee County District Attorney Gary McAliley said an agreement was reached between Fort Rucker officials and his office that Sgt. Dustin Ray Hogan, 30, charged with 36 counts of possession of child pornography, will be tried by the military before facing trial in a civilian courtroom.

Medscape has an interesting look at MAJ Hasan’s case.

The final day of the prosecution’s presentation focused on evidence showing that Hasan began preparing and practicing months before the November 5 massacre. Such evidence of prior planning may undercut a possible insanity defense and could be significant if the US Army decides to seek the death penalty.

The News Tribune has a statement from SSG Gibb’s attorney that he won’t be prosecuted until all the others get immunity.

The soldier who tried to blow the whistle on an alleged plot to kill Afghan civilians for sport has been put in solitary confinement in a windowless cell for 23 hours a day, his family said. The father of Spc. Adam Winfield is objecting to the conditions at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle, and wants the soldier moved to a different facility. Christopher Winfield said his son was separated from other defendants in the case about a month ago after he reported being threatened by one of them. He’s been in protective solitary custody since then, but conditions grew markedly worse last week when he was moved from a cell with access to a common area and television to one he’s locked in nearly all the time, his father said.

The arrival of a birthday card in the ship’s mail addressed to Capt. Ronald Murray Gero, who was turning 56, marked the beginning of the end of his command of the guided-missile submarine Ohio.

It appears various members of the crew started collecting evidence, and then:

A subsequent command investigation — obtained by Navy Times through a Freedom of Information Act request — found that the relationship bore the hallmarks of an extramarital affair, but acknowledged that the participants likely did not have sex.

Here’s a News Tribune piece on SPC Wagnon.

Soldiers who fought in Iraq alongside Spc. Michael Wagnon don’t recognize their friend when they read reports of his alleged role in a plot to kill civilians while deployed in Afghanistan this year with a Joint Base Lewis-McChord Stryker brigade.

Milblogging has alerted us to the new Social Media Handbook released this week to the Navy.

From 1986 until her retirement last year, Jaffe’s job with the California Army National Guard was to give away money — the federally subsidized student-loan repayments and cash bonuses — paid for by federal taxpayers nationwide — that the Guard is supposed to use to attract new recruits and encourage Guard members to re-enlist. Instead, according to a Guard auditor turned federal whistle-blower, as much as $100 million has gone to soldiers who didn’t qualify for the incentives, including some who got tens of thousands of dollars more than the program allows.

The Austin American-Statesman has an interesting piece about John Galligan and the MAJ Hasan case.

On Tuesday, Galligan will begin his courtroom defense of Hasan, whose Article 32 pretrial hearing — which will determine whether Hasan faces a court-martial and potentially the death penalty — is expected to feature weeks of testimony by dozens of witnesses, including all 32 wounded victims. But though his role as Hasan’s attorney has thrust him into the national discussion, Galligan has long been a polarizing figure in Bell County, where friends and foes alike describe him as a fearless fighter who has courted controversy — and the spotlight — in recent years.

Here’s a Austin American-Statesman piece on some of the players involved in the MAJ Hasan case.

Salon is reporting and has published an Article 32, UCMJ, report for United States v. Patano. Patano is running for Congress and it appears those who do not support him have obtained and released the Article 32. Patano had been charged with premeditated murder in violation of Article 118, UCMJ.

The military ultimately agreed with Pantano’s version of events, in which the two Iraqi men made a threatening movement toward him, and decided to drop the charges. Officials also opted not to subject Pantano to nonjudicial punishment for desecrating the bodies of the two men (by reloading his rifle and emptying another magazine into the men after they were already dead).

The Seattle Times reports on the Ramrod Five/Stryker Brigade cases.

A [] document[ review] raises questions about the oversight by the soldiers’ leaders. Why through most of the winter and spring months did they fail to uncover wrongdoing and remove rogue soldiers from the unit? Some officers and enlisted soldiers with direct oversight roles did have clues that something might be amiss, according to information in sworn statements they made in May to Army criminal investigators. But these leaders appear to have given the benefit of the doubt to their men, enmeshed in a difficult deployment in the heart of Taliban country

The News Tribune reports:

Col. Thomas Molloy found that Spc. Jeremy Morlock should be held accountable for any actions he might have committed. Molloy noted that Morlock was viewed by fellow soldiers “as an effective, reliable, engaged team leader,” rather than the picture painted by defense attorneys of a prescription drug-impaired soldier who was bullied by his squad leader.

The defense appears to be focused on two issues: fear of the squad leader and intimidation by him, and the issue of drugs, especially in regard to the supposed confession (some of which has been released to the public. See my post about unauthorized releases.)

Army Times has reported that,

They could face the death penalty if convicted.

Is there any information that the Army will in fact seek a death penalty referral? I had understood, perhaps wrongly, that the Army policy is to disclose that at the time of the Article 32, UCMJ, hearing and ask the IO to address that aspect of the disposition.

Interesting court order (thanks Oh For Goodness Sake) in a civilian case involving a retired Navy officer. Here are links to 10 U. S. Code Sec. 771, 772.

A U.S. soldier accused of killing civilians in Afghanistan should face a court-martial on murder and other charges, an Army officer has recommended. The recommendation, included in a document obtained by CNN, comes after prosecutors laid out their evidence against Spc. Jeremy Morlock in a hearing last week. Morlock is one of five members of the Army’s 5th Stryker Brigade who have been accused of premeditated murder in a series of incidents between January and May. The recommendation goes to the brigade’s commander. It was contained in a document that summarized last week’s hearing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, an Army-Air Force installation outside Tacoma, Washington.

Who released the IO report?

Base officials would not confirm the authenticity of the document, which has not been publicly released.

You will recollect that we have the recent unauthorized (?) release of the Article 32, UCMJ, report in the Coast Guard boating tragedy.

The Army has postponed a hearing that had been scheduled for Tuesday for Staff Sgt. David Bram, who faces charges of conspiracy, striking another soldier, cruelty, dereliction of duty and impeding an investigation while serving in southern Afghanistan.

Military.com reports (no surprise here, the surprise would be not seeking a capital referral):

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s lawyer [Mr. Galligan] says he expects the Army to seek the death penalty for the Fort Hood shootings.

While UPI reports:

Galligan is likely to raise the “good soldier” defense, in part by introducing favorable officer evaluations. The defense also could contend Hasan had a mental breakdown.

Military.com reports:

Twenty months ago, Navy Sailor Darren Mackie, 22, killed his ex-girlfriend, Navy Sailor Caitlin Elizabeth Trask, 20, with a single bullet to the back of the head. Her parents are still waiting for the Navy to dishonorably discharge him.

I recently posted on that case here.

KansasCity.com reports:

An airman accused of having unprotected sex without telling partners he was HIV positive faces a[n Article 32, UCMJ, hearing 5 October].

SCOTUSBlog reports on an issue that might affect military prisoners:

Buried in this morning’s order list is an order that may be of special interest to members of the Supreme Court bar who represent indigent parties in the Court. The Court denied the motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis (IFP) and for appointment of counsel in Sossamon v. Texas, No. 08-1438, a case being argued in November. The denial may signal a change in the Court’s criteria for granting IFP status at the merits stage in some cases.

SCOTUSBlog reports here on the issue of the court and its intersection with the “Digital Age.”

Opening a new Term on Monday, the Supreme Court once again indicated that it is reluctant to get deeply involved in exploring new issues about privacy in the Digital Age. Without comment, it turned aside an appeal by the state of Ohio, asking the Justices to give police wider authority to check out the contents of a private cell phone they obtained during an arrest. The case was one of nearly 2,000 that the Court refused to hear in its new Term. It granted no new cases beyond the 14 it added to its decision docket last Tuesday. The Court has said explictly that it does not yet have a broad enough understanding of new electronic technology to make major pronouncements on the constitutional issues that are arising around it.

Recordnet.com reports, by Michael Fitzgerald, “Medics bravery in battle finally recognized.”

The Army drafted Yagi on Feb. 19, 1942 – the very day Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, the Japanese deportation. Suddenly, the hard-working Yagis had no constitutional rights. At first, Yagi refused to fight. It wasn’t right. The Army initiated a court martial. Yagi relented. He would go – but as a medic.

In 2008 family members decided to look into their secretive relations military past.

And made a discovery. Tom Yagi was supposed to have received the Silver Star.

Army Times reports:

All Spc. Bryan Roudebush wanted was a legal high. Trying to get some relaxation, he sat on a balcony in Waikiki, Hawaii, and took five hits off a small pipe packed with a drug called spice. He stepped back inside, dozed off on the couch beside his girlfriend Ola Peyton, and then — as if in a trance — he beat Peyton senseless and nearly pushed her off the 11th floor balcony.

The Peoplesvoice.org reports:

Mickey Weinstein and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation have been fighting the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs for a very long time. Weinstein’s group is working to restore normal constitutional rights and practices in a military organization that has been hijacked by Christian Zionists who call themselves “Evangelicals.” The idea is simple. To get into the Academy or to remain there, un-raped, unbeaten, you have to attend regular “bible study” groups and continually mumble prayers. No Jews allowed. No homosexuals allowed. No Muslims allowed. It doesn’t stop there[.]

See here for prior posts on this subject.

I got to the Wired piece through this from congressmatters.com blog.

When bad news breaks it has become almost routine for those at the top to disavow all knowledge and let the hammer come down on those well down in the hierarchy. The pattern showed up again twice this week, and is now so common as to be almost standardized. Ackerman’s piece sounds a similar warning. Although command responsibility has not existed in practice for the military for quite a while (the aftermath of Abu Ghraib was perfectly consistent with how military higher-ups evaded blame for the Tiger Force and My Lai atrocities decades earlier), there is now enough of a history for an attentive observer like Ackerman to outline just how the probable cover up will proceed, which is a remarkable development. Maybe the public has become so weary (via) of America’s endless, pointless conflicts that even war crimes can, when massaged with some rote denials, pass by with barely a ripple.

Media access.

Has the Army introduced an issue into the Stryker Brigade cases going to Article 32, UCMJ, hearing over the next few weeks. The New York Times reports. The hearings will be at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. “The case against Specialist Morlock is the first of the five to move to what the military calls an Article 32 hearing, in which the Army determines formal charges.”

A top Army official has ordered that images of dead or wounded “casualties or detainees” may not be made public during hearings involving an American soldier accused of murdering three Afghan civilians during a deployment to Afghanistan this year. “I have determined that the risk of potential prejudice to the substantive rights of the accused, as well as negative impact on the reputation of the armed forces, associated with the potential public dissemination of these images outweighs minimal hardship upon the accused as a result of this order,” wrote Colonel Huggins.

The memorandum does not appear to address the media issue. See this post for a discussion of media access to Article 32, UCMJ, hearings in the MAJ Hasan murder case at Fort Hood. As the NYT reports,

Questions have been raised over the Army’s handling of the cases.

Spc. Jeremy Morlock, a 22-year-old Army soldier from Wasilla, Alaska, will face charges in connection with the murders of three Afghan civilians and other crimes at a hearing scheduled Monday at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

And here’s a Foreign Policy note.

As the case unfolds, Mr. Patterson gives the reader a tutorial in military justice as well as the complexities of PTSD. He also makes clear his stand against the war through testimonies from personnel involved with McCarran in Iraq. The tension rises throughout the court-martial: Will the judge allow PTSD as a defense? Will the jury believe how the war changed not just McCarran, but the man he killed?

Haven’t read it and probably won’t until it’s free. Hollywood did for me watching fictional movies about military justice (remember all the issues in A Few Good Men, and of course JAG, and Navy NCIS [how sweet that a show about NCIS should be called Navy Navy Criminal Investigative Service])

Despite the federal court ruling in California, it would be unwise for active duty servicemembers who are gay to assume the military will immediately change its policy.

The Frontiersman reports (this is Ramrod Five related):

In addition to murder, Morlock is also now charged with using an illegal drug, hashish, and with beating a civilian “on the body with his hands and feet, threatening to kill him if he spoke about hashish use within the platoon,” the amended charging document says.

Here is a link to a New York Times article which is part of its Women in the News section and focuses on the judge.

In her 86-page opinion, she called the law, passed by Congress in 1993, an unconstitutional violation of First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and Fifth Amendment guarantees of substantive due process.

CAAFLog reports that Sgt Quintanilla was sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday.

Sgt Quintanilla was convicted in 1996 of the premeditated murder of his squadron’s executive officer, the attempted premeditated murder of his squadron’s commanding officer, and the attempted premeditated murder of a gunnery sergeant. In 2005, the Navy-Marine Corps Court set aside the findings and sentence. 60 M.J. 852. In 2006, CAAF reversed the portion of NMCCA’s opinion setting aside the findings, but affirmed the portion setting aside the sentence. 63 M.J. 29.

The crimes and trial occurred before life without parole was a permissible sentence.

CAAF action in United States v. Trigueros, a discovery case. CAAF denied a petition. See posting about the case here.

News-Press reports: (related to Ramrod Five Article 32s)

The parents of a U.S. soldier from Cape Coral who, with other troops, is accused of killing Afghan civilians say they have evidence their son is innocent. Christopher Winfield, the father of Army Spc. Adam Winfield, 22, says he tried five times to pass urgent Internet messages from his son to the Army. Troops in his unit had killed an Afghan civilian, planned more killings and threatened him to keep quiet about it.

See also this New York Times piece.

BOLO: The AP reports:

Four prisoners with links to al-Qaida being guarded by American troops escaped from a maximum-security prison in Baghdad and are still at large, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday. . . . U.S. troops found two detainees attempting to escape from the compound on Wednesday evening, the military said in a statement. When they conducted a sweep of the whole facility, they discovered that four other detainees were missing. This is not the first time that prisoners have broken out of American-run detention facilities in Iraq; 11 Iraqis broke out of the U.S.’s Camp Bucca in April 2005 although many were later recaptured. A month earlier U.S. officials there discovered a 600-foot tunnel leading out of Camp Bucca. In 2006, five detainees escaped from the Fort Suse Theater internment facility near Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad; they were later apprehended by Kurdish security officials.

Are you being stalked – by the police? That’s becoming the fourth amendment issue de jour. I posted about x, and here is a piece in the Washington Times that sets the issue up nicely. There is a great deal of attention paid to stalkers who take advantage of technology to victimize people for fun or hate – behavior characterized as creepy.

A dissenting judge in that case wrote that the police behavior was “creepy and un-American.”

Twelve American soldiers face trial over an secret “kill team” that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies. Five of the soldiers are charged with murdering three Afghan men who were allegedly killed for sport in separate attacks this year. Seven other soldiers are accused of covering up the killings as well as a violent assault on a new recruit who exposed the murders when he reported other abuses, including members of the unit smoking hashish stolen from civilians. Following the arrest of the original five accused in June, seven other soldiers were charged last month with attempting to cover up the killings, blocking the investigation and violent assault on the soldier who reported the smoking of hashish. The 74 charges against the 12 soldiers include accusations of illegal drug and alcohol use.

KLEWTv reports:

At least two of the five Army soldiers charged in the deaths of three Afghan civilians had kept body parts taken from Afghan corpses, according to new documents released by the Army on Wednesday.

A military prosecutor says she may pursue charges against several Australian troops in a raid in Afghanistan last year in which five children died. Brig. Lyn McDade, the director of military prosecutions, says she is considering the unprecedented step of charging several Defense Force commandos, a move that has infuriated senior officers, The Sydney Morning Herald reported Thursday.

The point being that issues such as Wuterich, trial now underway, and the Ramrod Five (or possibly a total of 18) are not confined to the U.S.

Last December, Army Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs began joking with other Soldiers about how easy it would be to “toss a grenade” at Afghan civilians and kill them, according to statements made by fellow platoon members to military investigators. . . . The Seattle Times has reviewed court documents — filed by a defense attorney with a U.S. Army magistrate — that summarize some of the evidence in the case. The Times also has interviewed attorneys for three of the defendants. The documents give new insight into how the murder plot may have evolved, but they give few clues about motives.

The Seattle Times has this report.

In one of the most serious war-crimes cases to emerge from the Afghanistan war, five soldiers from a Stryker infantry brigade based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord are now charged with murder for their alleged roles in killing three Afghan civilians.

Fox5News (Las Vegas) reports:

The Army isn’t saying what motivated the killings of three Afghan civilians, whose deaths have led to charges against a Nevada soldier and four others from Washington state’s Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The Army’s charging documents say all three of the victims were shot and two of them were hit by grenades in separate incidents in Kandahar Province earlier this year.

Seattle Times reports:

Five soldiers accused of murdering three Afghan civilians earlier this year allegedly threw grenades at them and shot them with rifles, according to charging papers released Wednesday by Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Two of the soldiers also are accused of beating a fellow soldier who might have been an informant, while a third is accused of trying to impede the investigation by asking a colleague to erase a computer hard drive which contained evidence of the crimes.