Afghan-born Marine threatened with deportation

[unhappycamper]

Cpl. Imad Siddiqi sits a hotel room in Jacksonville, North Carolina on June 7. Siddiqi was questioning a suspect in Farah province, Afghanistan, in 2009 when he made an off-the-cuff comment to two of his fellow squad members over the radio that landed several Marines in the brig.


Afghan-born Marine threatened with deportation
By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Aug 1, 2010 11:40:34 EDT

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — A U.S. Marine was nearly stripped of his title and deported to his native country — Afghanistan — after making an off-color comment last Spring that prompted the beating of a suspected insurgent.

Cpl. Ahmad Siddiqi, who speaks Pashto, was questioning a suspect in Farah province, Afghanistan, in 2009 when the suspect verbally threatened him. Siddiqi got angry and made an off-the-cuff comment to two of his fellow squad members over the radio that landed several Marines in the brig.

~snip~

Staff Sgt. Melvin Jones, the squad leader, Cpl. Benjamin Turner and Lance Cpl. Bryan Kolton went to jail, got busted down in rank and discharged for their roles in the crime and cover up. Siddiqi, a non-U.S. citizen and one of only six Afghan Marines in the service, narrowly escaped deportation by negotiating a nonjudicial punishment instead of taking his chances at court-martial. A conviction could have sent him back to Afghanistan where, Siddiqi feared, he’d be a sure target for the Taliban.

The incident happened May 9, 2009, as Siddiqi and Jones stood talking with a village elder when a pair of motorcyclists roared past and sent the frightened old man running for cover.

Siddiqi questioned the bikers in their native Pashto and heard threatening enemy chatter over his unit’s radio related to the bikers’ detention.

[CBGLuthier]

1. It wasn't the comment that got him in trouble. It was the beating.

War Crime is a war crime is a war crime. Sickening.