Soldier pleads guilty in Iraqi deaths (lesser charge: aggravated assault with dangerous weapon)

[Barrett808]

Soldier pleads guilty in Iraqi deaths
By ROSE FRENCH, Associated Press Writer

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. - A 101st Airborne Division soldier who had been charged with murder in the deaths of three Iraqi detainees pleaded guilty Tuesday to a lesser offense of aggravated assault with a dangerous weapon.

Spc. Juston R. Graber is accused with three others from the division's 187th Infantry Regiment of killing detainees during a raid of a suspected al-Qaida stronghold near Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad. They also were accused of trying to deceive investigators by saying the detainees were fleeing when they were shot.

Pfc. Corey R. Clagett, Spc. William B. Hunsaker and Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard are awaiting courts-martial in the case.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070109/ap_on_re_us/soldier_charged

[acmavm]

1. Wow, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. And what

was the 'aggravation'? They were breathing and it pissed these guys off?

[MasonJar]

2. I do not believe that the term means that the victims aggravated

their assault; it is just a particular level of "murder."

[Solly Mack]

3. You know, if soldiers are actually held accountable for the actual crimes

they commit, maybe others would see that the military will not tolerate such actions...however, if you slap a soldier on the wrist, more or less, for such crimes as murder, torture, etc..then what the military is really saying is..wink wink, nudge nudge...someone had to be the example (just not too harshly)

It's all show then. It means nothing.



But then I got to question my own sanity expecting to find any "right" or "fairness" in anything pertaining to America's criminal actions in Iraq.

[Imagevision]

4. temporary insanity I could live with