Detainee killings were for revenge, witnesses testify

[unhappycamper]

Detainee killings were for revenge, witnesses testify
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, December 4, 2008

VILSECK, Germany — A company first sergeant told his men that four Iraqi detainees were killed to avenge the deaths of three members of his unit, according to soldiers who testified at an Article 32 hearing Wednesday.

It was Sgt. Joseph P. Mayo of the 172nd Infantry Brigade, who appeared at the Rose Barracks courthouse on Wednesday on charges of premeditated murder. But it was 1st Sgt. John E. Hatley who was the subject of much of the testimony.

Mayo, Hatley and Sgt. Michael P. Leahy Jr. — then members of Company A, 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment — allegedly shot the detainees before dumping their bodies in a Baghdad canal in March or April 2007.

Several members of the company who were at the canal when the killings occurred testified during the hearing after making deals with the government that grant them immunity from prosecution.

Pfc. Joshua Hupp said he was at the canal but didn’t see who pulled the trigger because he was on a security detail.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=59199