By: E&P Staff Based on leaked court documents, The New York Times reports today that in March or April 2007, three U.S. Army non-commissioned officers (a first sergeant, a platoon sergeant and a senior medic) "killed four Iraqi prisoners with pistol shots to the head as the men stood handcuffed and blindfolded, two of the soldiers said in sworn statements.
"After the killings, the first sergeant told the other two to remove the blindfolds and handcuffs, according to the statements made to Army investigators.
"The statements and other court documents were provided to the New York Times by a person close to one of the soldiers who has an interest in the outcome of the legal proceedings."
Here is an excerpt. It is all at www.nytimes.com
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After removing the blindfolds and handcuffs, the three soldiers shoved the four bodies into a canal, rejoined their unit and drove back to their combat outpost in southwest Baghdad.
The soldiers have not been charged with a crime. However, lawyers representing other members of the platoon who said they witnessed or heard the shootings, said all three would probably be charged with murder.
The accounts of and confessions to the killings, by Sgt. 1st Class Joseph P. Mayo, the platoon sergeant, and Sgt. Michael P. Leahy Jr., the senior medic, were made in January in signed statements to Army investigators in Schweinfurt, Germany.
In their statements, Mayo and Leahy each described killing at least one of the Iraqi detainees on instructions from 1st Sgt. John E. Hatley, who the soldiers said killed two of the detainees.
Last month, four other soldiers from Hatley's unit were charged with murder conspiracy for agreeing to go along with the plan to kill the four prisoners, in violation of military laws that forbid harming enemy combatants once they are disarmed and in custody.
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