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BAGHDAD — Eight-year-old Rudenah al-Hillali cried as the two American soldiers
led her father into their apartment with a rifle barrel at his back and forced
the family to stand in a corner at gunpoint.
"She was scared," said her father, Issam Abdul Jabbar al-Hillali,
adding that the soldiers refused to let him give Rudenah water.
Al-Hillali said Army Pfc. John N. Lee and Spec. Timothy I. Barron claimed
to be Marines searching for weapons. But once inside his house, he said, they
used a knife to pry open a briefcase filled with money and eventually stole
$2,000 in cash, silver and other valuables.
Although Army officials found some of the missing items in the soldiers'
possession and they admitted to robbing houses under the guise of looking for
illegal weapons, the Army dismissed the charges. In exchange, Barron said, both
soldiers agreed to leave the military.
Using previously undisclosed Army records, the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News found
that dozens of soldiers have been accused of crimes against Iraqis since the
first troops deployed for Iraq. But despite strong evidence and convictions
in some cases, only a small percentage resulted in punishments nearing those
that civilian justice systems routinely impose for such crimes.
In a number of other cases, there was no evidence that thorough or
timely criminal investigations were conducted. Other cases weren't prosecuted,
and still others resulted in dismissals, light jail sentences or no jail sentence
at all.
"I've been surprised at some of the lenient sentences," said Gary
Solis, a former military judge and prosecutor who teaches military law at the
U.S. Military Academy at West Point. "I have an uneasy suspicion that it
relates to the nationality of the victim."
Soldiers' criminal acts, and the lack of punishment, add to the hatred
that is fueling the insurgency in Iraq, putting soldiers at greater risk, Solis
and other experts said.
"There's been a decline for the respect for the rule of international
law and a failure to understand that we, the United States, have to be the good
guys," Solis said.
Pentagon defends probes
A Daily News analysis of records from the Army Court-Martial Management Information
System database found that 226 soldiers were charged with offenses between the
first deployments and Jan. 1, 2005.
Of the 1,038 separate charges, fewer than one in 10 involved crimes against
Iraqis. Virtually all of the rest, more than 900 charges, involved crimes against
other soldiers, property, drug or alcohol offenses and violations of military
rules.
Charges involving Iraqi victims were three times more likely to be dismissed
or withdrawn by the Army than cases in which the victims were soldiers or civilian
military employees, the examination found.
The Air Force and the Navy, which includes the Marine Corps, did not release
comparable copies of their databases.
The Army did not challenge specific findings of the Daily News examination,
but a Pentagon spokeswoman defended the service's overall handling of criminal
cases in Iraq.
"The Army has investigated every credible allegation of abuse or misconduct
by U.S. soldiers toward Iraq citizens," says a written response from Lt.
Col. Pamela Hart. "The process is designed to both assure proper punishment
of offenses and protect rights of the accused. The end result is that punishments
can vary based upon the myriad of potential facts and circumstances present
in each case."
The Daily News examination found that soldiers accused of property
crimes or violations of military rules sometimes were dealt with more harshly
than soldiers convicted of beating, robbing and even killing Iraqis.
Spec. David Driggers Jr. was convicted of adultery, wrongfully consuming alcohol
and committing an indecent act by having consensual sex with a female soldier
in an "open sleep area."
Driggers was sentenced to six months, the combined sentence the Army handed
out to both Genaro Trevino and Pfc. Raymond Garrett. The two were convicted
of robbing an Iraqi shop owner at gunpoint after he allegedly sold them liquor.
The charges are felonies in virtually every jurisdiction in the United States,
but the Army sent Trevino's case to its version of misdemeanor court, which
found him guilty of armed robbery and sentenced him to five months. Garrett,
who was convicted of armed robbery as well as assault and battery, was sentenced
to a one-month confinement. Each was found not guilty of kidnapping.
Solis, who presided over about 350 cases as a military judge and another 450
as prosecutor during his 26 years in the Marine Corps, said the sentences may
reflect an attitude that all Iraqis are linked to the insurgency and are not
deserving of justice.
"I think it's an attitude that starts at the very top that these people
(insurgents) somehow are beyond the law, and if they are beyond the law, they
are essentially fair game," he said.
Prosecutions tell only part of the story. In response to a Daily News federal
Freedom of Information Act request for records on all deaths caused by soldiers
in Iraq, the Army Criminal Investigation Command acknowledged 114 investigations
between Jan. 1, 2003, and August 2004, and sent records on 105 cases.
Of those, 78 involved deaths of Army soldiers, while 27 involved Iraqis and
other foreigners, about half the number of investigations the Army conducted
into vehicle accidents involving soldiers.
During that same period, Iraqis filed at least 353 separate claims seeking
compensation from the military for more than 400 deaths, and those claims represent
only a portion of the civilian deaths U.S. troops allegedly caused.
"In numerous cases, there are significant allegations that weren't followed
up on," said Jameel Jaffer, an attorney who has investigated civilian deaths
in Iraq for the American Civil Liberties Union. "We need to ask the question:
Who's responsible for creating the climate in which soldiers felt like these
kinds of abuses, this kind of conduct, was acceptable or would be winked at?"
Christopher Grey, spokesman for the Army Criminal Investigation Command, said
it's possible more cases are being investigated in Iraq but that field agents
have not been able to do the paperwork.
He acknowledged that he had no records of investigations into four cases the
Daily News examined that resulted in civil claims: separate shooting deaths
involving an 11-year-old boy, an Iraqi judge, a taxi driver at a checkpoint
and two Iraqis at a demonstration.
"If you have pertinent information or information where you believe a
death has occurred that involves criminality, please bring it to our attention,"
Grey said.
Even in cases in which the Army conducted criminal investigations, only a small
percentage resulted in prosecutions, despite findings of sufficient evidence
in some cases.
Of the 27 cases involving deaths of Iraqis and other foreign nationals identified
in the files the Criminal Investigation Command released, 19 were determined
to be accidental, justifiable or otherwise not warranting prosecution.
Of the remaining eight cases, four resulted in criminal convictions: two involving
deaths of Iraqi civilians, one an Iraqi soldier and the other an Iraqi police
officer.
An Army investigation found probable cause to believe that an Army specialist
committed voluntary manslaughter when he "intentionally shot and killed"
Malik Ghafel Mattar as the Iraqi teenager stole a box of military food rations
in June 2003.
Military personnel have been giving the same rations to Iraqis, and Mattar
was among children standing alongside the road waiting for candy and food from
soldiers, Army records show.
A soldier riding in a vehicle directly behind the shooting scene told investigators
that he didn't see any Iraqis throwing rocks or other objects and that he never
felt threatened.
"Most were waving as they usually do," the soldier told investigators.
Army records show that the military convoy didn't stop to render aid to Mattar
or to report the shooting.
An Army investigator's report says the accused soldier was surprised that the
incident was under criminal investigation.
"He seemed to be under the impression no one would care that he shot an
Iraqi," the investigator wrote.
The investigation was stopped after a commander decided to take no action against
the soldier, and Army records show the soldier's punishment was to be "counseled"
by a commander.
Al-Hillali, whose home in Baghdad was ransacked by the two American soldiers,
said the robbery changed his family's "thought picture of Americans"
and left his daughter, now 10, traumatized.
"Even now, when Rudenah sees Americans, she gets very scared. She hides
in the car," he said, adding that she became hysterical again in July when
U.S. soldiers took cover near their house.
"She thought they had come back to our house."