Village Journals
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Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
To be muslim or not to be muslim...you might be sentenced to death if you think of becoming one...
The commander is going to be sentenced to death because he provided: "...an unmonitored cellular phone to detainees? at Camp Cropper"
and of "...conduct unbecoming of an officer for fraternizing with the daughter of a detainee since 2005."
Yet the guilty of the abu ghraib who did thousands more than what this colonel did are running free.
let alone the guilties who killed thousands of civilians in many part of the world...
I am sure he thought of becoming muslims which is a big no.
Also read the punch line of the article that follow and you will know why I wrote the last line about him becoming muslim. It is all about the psyche.
Hasbiyya allahu wa ni3ma al wakeel
The New York Times
April 26, 2007
U.S. Officer in Iraq Charged With ?Aiding the Enemy?
By DAMIEN CAVE
BAGHDAD, April 26 ? The American military has charged a top commander at its main detention center here with nine violations of military law including ?aiding the enemy,? a rare and serious accusation that could carry a maximum sentence of death.
The military said in a statement today that Lt. Col. William H. Steele provided aid to the enemy between Oct. 1, 2005, and Oct. 31, 2006, ?by providing an unmonitored cellular phone to detainees? at Camp Cropper, an expansive prison near Baghdad International Airport that held Saddam Hussein before he was hung.
The military statement said the charge was one of nine brought against Colonel Steele who ? until he was detained last month ? oversaw one of several compounds at Camp Cropper as commander of the 451st Military Police Detachment.
He was also accused of illegally storing and marking classified information, disobeying orders relating to his possession of pornography, dereliction of duty regarding government funds and conduct unbecoming of an officer for fraternizing with the daughter of a detainee since 2005 and for maintaining ?an inappropriate relationship? with an interpreter in 2005 and 2006.
Military officials said Colonel Steele was currently in Kuwait awaiting a military hearing to determine whether the case will proceed. They emphasized that he should be presumed innocent.
?Is there enough evidence or information that this needs to go to a court-martial?? said Lt. Col. Josslyn L. Aberle, a military spokeswoman. ?That?s where we?re at right now.?
Walt Huffman, a former Army judge advocate general who is now the dean of the Texas Tech University law school, said that in order to convict Colonel Steele of aiding the enemy, prosecutors would have to show that he meant to endanger American troops or missions. They would have to prove that Colonel Steele knew the phone was being used not to catch up with family, but rather to make calls that would put Americans at risk.
?That is a difficult charge to prove,? Mr. Huffman said. ?Would he be sentenced to death for that? I guess nothing?s impossible, but I doubt it.?
Mr. Huffman. who stressed that he had not seen the specific charges and could not comment on Colonel Steeless culpability, said the fraternization charge sounded as if it involved allegations of a simple impropriety of being in regular contact with a detainee?s relative, rather than anything involving sexual relations.
At first glance, he said, the individual charges may seem minor, but when combined they take on added gravity because they are said to have occurred at a maximum security prison at a time of war, in a Muslim country where speaking to young women outside of one?s family is considered highly inappropriate.
Colonel Steele?s rank and supervisory role at Camp Cropper also magnify the seriousness of the allegations, Mr. Huffman said.
?He?s the person in charge of enforcing the rules at the prison,? Mr. Huffman said. ?It makes it an even more egregious offense because of the context.?
Regardless of the outcome, the case amounts to another public relations bruise for the American detention system. Camp Cropper was meant to signify reform in handling Iraqi detainees. It was expanded in recent years to act as a replacement for Abu Ghraib, where American jailers photographed themselves humiliating and abusing Iraqi prisoners, and it now holds about 3,000 people.
Among the families of arrested Iraqis, Camp Cropper and Camp Bucca, the main American detention center in southern Iraq, have remained preferable to the prisons of the Iraqi system, which are widely describe as rife with corruption and torture. But Camp Cropper has also had its share of problems. Several detainees there have died mysteriously in the past year, with the most recent death occurring April 4. The causes of death for these detainees are rarely divulged.
The case announced today is at least the second to arise from an American military prison involving accusations of collaboration with the enemy. In September 2003, Capt. James J. Yee, a Muslim chaplain at the detention center at Guant?namo Bay, Cuba, was accused of mutiny, sedition, aiding the enemy, adultery and possession of pornography.
The military dropped all the criminal charges the following March, citing national security concerns that would arise from the release of evidence against him. A month later, Capt. Yee?s record was wiped clean when an Army general dismissed his convictions for adultery and pornography.
North of Baghdad, two Iraqi women and two children were believed to have been killed by an American airstrike that killed four insurgents, according to a military statement.
Soldiers were searching for car bomb factories near Taji, about 12 miles north of Baghdad, when they came under small arms fire, the statement said. The soldiers called in an airstrike, and later discovered all eight bodies at the destroyed building.
Citing the presence of weapons in the building as evidence, military officials blamed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia for the deaths of the women and children.
?Unfortunately, Al Qaeda in Iraq continues to use women and children in their illegal activities,? said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a spokesman for the Multi-National Force in Iraq. ?Al Qaeda continues to demonstrate they do not care about the future of Iraq, and we will continue to target all terrorists in Iraq regardless of their titles or positions within the community.?
Elsewhere in Iraq, the bloodshed continued. The police said a suicide car bomber exploded his vehicle south of Khalis, in Diyala Province today, killing six Iraqi policemen. The police said four bodies, showing signs of torture, were also found nearby in a grove of palm trees.
In Baquba, the largest city in Diyala, clashes broke out between militants and the police, who were assisted by American forces. At least two policemen were injured.
In Baghdad, roadside bombs, mortars and car bombs across the city killed at least nine people and wounded scores. One roadside bomb exploded near a major rotary in central Baghdad, killing at least two people and injuring 10, an Interior Ministry official. Three car bombs ? two in west Baghdad, one in a southern neighborhood ? killed at least five people, and wounded more than a dozen. In Abu Dshir, an area of southern Baghdad near Dora, killed two and wounded 11 others.
Violence also broke out in northern Iraq, with two suicide bombers detonating themselves at an office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party near Mosul, killing three people and injuring 13, according to the mayor of Tal Afar, a city about 30 miles to the south.
Police said gunmen in Tikrit stormed the home of Hashim al-Majeed, a cousin of Saddam Hussein, and shot and killed his wife and daughter. Mr. Majeed, who disappeared soon after Mr. Hussein?s in 2003, was not home at the time.
Reporting was contributed by Abdul Razzaq al-Saiedi and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Baghdad, and Paul von Zielbauer and Michael Moss from New York.
An earlier version of this article gave an incorrect given name for Capt. James J. Yee.
and of "...conduct unbecoming of an officer for fraternizing with the daughter of a detainee since 2005."
Yet the guilty of the abu ghraib who did thousands more than what this colonel did are running free.
let alone the guilties who killed thousands of civilians in many part of the world...
I am sure he thought of becoming muslims which is a big no.
Also read the punch line of the article that follow and you will know why I wrote the last line about him becoming muslim. It is all about the psyche.
Hasbiyya allahu wa ni3ma al wakeel
The New York Times
April 26, 2007
U.S. Officer in Iraq Charged With ?Aiding the Enemy?
By DAMIEN CAVE
BAGHDAD, April 26 ? The American military has charged a top commander at its main detention center here with nine violations of military law including ?aiding the enemy,? a rare and serious accusation that could carry a maximum sentence of death.
The military said in a statement today that Lt. Col. William H. Steele provided aid to the enemy between Oct. 1, 2005, and Oct. 31, 2006, ?by providing an unmonitored cellular phone to detainees? at Camp Cropper, an expansive prison near Baghdad International Airport that held Saddam Hussein before he was hung.
The military statement said the charge was one of nine brought against Colonel Steele who ? until he was detained last month ? oversaw one of several compounds at Camp Cropper as commander of the 451st Military Police Detachment.
He was also accused of illegally storing and marking classified information, disobeying orders relating to his possession of pornography, dereliction of duty regarding government funds and conduct unbecoming of an officer for fraternizing with the daughter of a detainee since 2005 and for maintaining ?an inappropriate relationship? with an interpreter in 2005 and 2006.
Military officials said Colonel Steele was currently in Kuwait awaiting a military hearing to determine whether the case will proceed. They emphasized that he should be presumed innocent.
?Is there enough evidence or information that this needs to go to a court-martial?? said Lt. Col. Josslyn L. Aberle, a military spokeswoman. ?That?s where we?re at right now.?
Walt Huffman, a former Army judge advocate general who is now the dean of the Texas Tech University law school, said that in order to convict Colonel Steele of aiding the enemy, prosecutors would have to show that he meant to endanger American troops or missions. They would have to prove that Colonel Steele knew the phone was being used not to catch up with family, but rather to make calls that would put Americans at risk.
?That is a difficult charge to prove,? Mr. Huffman said. ?Would he be sentenced to death for that? I guess nothing?s impossible, but I doubt it.?
Mr. Huffman. who stressed that he had not seen the specific charges and could not comment on Colonel Steeless culpability, said the fraternization charge sounded as if it involved allegations of a simple impropriety of being in regular contact with a detainee?s relative, rather than anything involving sexual relations.
At first glance, he said, the individual charges may seem minor, but when combined they take on added gravity because they are said to have occurred at a maximum security prison at a time of war, in a Muslim country where speaking to young women outside of one?s family is considered highly inappropriate.
Colonel Steele?s rank and supervisory role at Camp Cropper also magnify the seriousness of the allegations, Mr. Huffman said.
?He?s the person in charge of enforcing the rules at the prison,? Mr. Huffman said. ?It makes it an even more egregious offense because of the context.?
Regardless of the outcome, the case amounts to another public relations bruise for the American detention system. Camp Cropper was meant to signify reform in handling Iraqi detainees. It was expanded in recent years to act as a replacement for Abu Ghraib, where American jailers photographed themselves humiliating and abusing Iraqi prisoners, and it now holds about 3,000 people.
Among the families of arrested Iraqis, Camp Cropper and Camp Bucca, the main American detention center in southern Iraq, have remained preferable to the prisons of the Iraqi system, which are widely describe as rife with corruption and torture. But Camp Cropper has also had its share of problems. Several detainees there have died mysteriously in the past year, with the most recent death occurring April 4. The causes of death for these detainees are rarely divulged.
The case announced today is at least the second to arise from an American military prison involving accusations of collaboration with the enemy. In September 2003, Capt. James J. Yee, a Muslim chaplain at the detention center at Guant?namo Bay, Cuba, was accused of mutiny, sedition, aiding the enemy, adultery and possession of pornography.
The military dropped all the criminal charges the following March, citing national security concerns that would arise from the release of evidence against him. A month later, Capt. Yee?s record was wiped clean when an Army general dismissed his convictions for adultery and pornography.
North of Baghdad, two Iraqi women and two children were believed to have been killed by an American airstrike that killed four insurgents, according to a military statement.
Soldiers were searching for car bomb factories near Taji, about 12 miles north of Baghdad, when they came under small arms fire, the statement said. The soldiers called in an airstrike, and later discovered all eight bodies at the destroyed building.
Citing the presence of weapons in the building as evidence, military officials blamed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia for the deaths of the women and children.
?Unfortunately, Al Qaeda in Iraq continues to use women and children in their illegal activities,? said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a spokesman for the Multi-National Force in Iraq. ?Al Qaeda continues to demonstrate they do not care about the future of Iraq, and we will continue to target all terrorists in Iraq regardless of their titles or positions within the community.?
Elsewhere in Iraq, the bloodshed continued. The police said a suicide car bomber exploded his vehicle south of Khalis, in Diyala Province today, killing six Iraqi policemen. The police said four bodies, showing signs of torture, were also found nearby in a grove of palm trees.
In Baquba, the largest city in Diyala, clashes broke out between militants and the police, who were assisted by American forces. At least two policemen were injured.
In Baghdad, roadside bombs, mortars and car bombs across the city killed at least nine people and wounded scores. One roadside bomb exploded near a major rotary in central Baghdad, killing at least two people and injuring 10, an Interior Ministry official. Three car bombs ? two in west Baghdad, one in a southern neighborhood ? killed at least five people, and wounded more than a dozen. In Abu Dshir, an area of southern Baghdad near Dora, killed two and wounded 11 others.
Violence also broke out in northern Iraq, with two suicide bombers detonating themselves at an office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party near Mosul, killing three people and injuring 13, according to the mayor of Tal Afar, a city about 30 miles to the south.
Police said gunmen in Tikrit stormed the home of Hashim al-Majeed, a cousin of Saddam Hussein, and shot and killed his wife and daughter. Mr. Majeed, who disappeared soon after Mr. Hussein?s in 2003, was not home at the time.
Reporting was contributed by Abdul Razzaq al-Saiedi and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Baghdad, and Paul von Zielbauer and Michael Moss from New York.
An earlier version of this article gave an incorrect given name for Capt. James J. Yee.