Retired Head JAG Interferes in Plans For Lawsuit Meant to Free Marine Sergeant Hutchins

by Kit Lange

JAG HUNTER HERE (posting from the Sweetwater, Tennessee Library):

~~~~~~~~~~

Congress especially created and stewards those military proceedings that give legislative life to environments poisonous to our Constitution. In those courts-martial, military commissions and tribunals where military governors thrive--but deadly to juries and innocence;

GUILT is a living thing!

~~~~~~~~~~

IN CONGRESS (AS AN ACT OF ATTAINDER)
PROVIDED BY CONGRESS FOR THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF

AND EVERY SURROGATE COMMANDING OFFICER

EVER EXISTING AND CURRENTLY A MATTER OF

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT POLICY

"...the essence of all military proceedings is summary and vigorous action, and moreover, courts-martial are no part the Judiciary of the United States, are not even courts..., but are, in peace as well as in war, simply bodies of military men ordered to investigate accusations, arrive at facts, and--where just--recommend [to the President of the United States (POTUS) as Commander-in-Chief (CINC)] a punishment [the POTUS/CINC should award to the affected person(s) like U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Kevin Holt, Marine Sergeant Lawrence G. Hutchins, III, and Army RANGER, Staff Sergeant Raymond L. Girouard].

"...In the absence, therefore, of [constitutional protections, no military proceeding] can scarcely be held bound to the same strict adherence [to the United States Constitution] as are the true courts of the United States [created under the Constitution's Article III] and upon [military punishment ceremonies (be they courts-martial, tribunals, or commissions), the bodies of military men ordered by the CINC/POTUS to investigate accusations, arrive at facts, and--where just--recommend punishment] may properly be allowed [to ignore the Constitution and its protections against government tyranny] to pursue a more liberal course in regard to the administration of testimony and the examination of witnesses...

"Courts-martial are not courts, but are, in fact [POTUS/CINC expressions] of the executive power provided by Congress for the President as Commander-in-Chief to aid [the CINC] in properly commanding [the armed forces of the United States] and enforcing discipline therein, and utilized under [POTUS/CINC] orders...they are indeed, creatures of orders [that are unconstrained, unbounded, and completely free to ignore THE CONSTITUTION and each of the constitutional protections against government protection and tyranny]."

--WILLIAM WINTHROP
former U.S. Army Judge Advocate General

"[The POTUS/CINC wants] to get at the fact (no matter how) for the sake of discipline [and to that end,]...THERE IS NO BETTER WITNESS AGAINST A MAN THAN HIMSELF!"

Samuel T. Ansell
Former U.S. Army Judge Advocate General
(in paraphrase quoting a distinguished British officer/practitioner of the Roman Code)

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attainder is the practice of legislating guilt and punishment in the absence of a Jury's permission. The Constitution contains in Article I, Section 9, eight specific prohibitions on congressional action. The specific prohibition against Attainder is contained in the the third clause.

The Defense Department policy narrated above are the processes by which ALL SERVICE MEMBERS, civilians, and foreign nationals are brought to U.S. military hearing rooms--UNARMED--to discover what the President of the United States/Commander-in-Chief will decide upon receipt of those recommendations received from his surrogate commanders, who are under the CINC's orders.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The "military proceedings," the courts-martial, military tribunals and commissions are the places innonce goes to die.

Innocence does not exist in the world of attainder.

Hutchins, Girouard, Holt along with every other U.S. warrior presently are congressional prisoners of war. They're entombed behind rocks put in place under presidential order as the commander-in-chief. Federal legislators such as those listed here, although constitutionally forbidded to do so, empowered the President to forever imprison free men, to exercise the power of attainder!

~

Federal legislators presently and criminally responsible for the crime of Attainder include: William "Bill" Delahunt (MA.), Delahunt's staff attorney John Kivlan, Norm Dicks (WA.), Norm's Executive Assistant George Behan, John J. Duncan, Jr., Duncan's National Security Advisor Jonathon "who wants to take on the Defense Department" Griswold, John "Faith of our fathers" McCain (Az.), Barack "Audacity of hope" Obama (Il.), Walter Jones (N.C.), Ted Kennedy (Ma.), John Kerry (Ma.), Patty Murray (Wa.), Maria Cantwell (Wa.), Jon Kyl (Az.), Jay Inslee (Wa.), Adam Smith (Wa.), Slade Gordon (former Senator, Wa.), Lamar Alexander (Tn.), Bob Corker (Tn.), John Shaddegg (Az.) joined by every other U.S. Representative and Senator, and lest we forget...there's

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Haditha's own John "Jack Massacre Murtha!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~

America's Articles of War, renamed the Uniform Code of Military Justice over half a century ago, meets each of the three U.S. Supreme Court tests that once met, declares an Act of Congress as the specific constitutional expression of the crime of attainder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

COURTS-MARTIAL ARE NOT COURTS!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here endth the lesson.

http://euphoricreality.com/2008/05/10/sgt-lawrence-hutchins-stay-in-jail/

Patriot Ledger Ignores Evidence, Says Sgt Hutchins Should Stay in Prison

by Kit Lange - 10 May 2008


I read the following screed about Sgt Lawrence Hutchins this afternoon and was so disgusted I had to sit down and write a counterpoint to it. This could get long, so grab a cup of coffee and have a seat. We're going to go through this line by line, so the holier-than-thou folks at the Patriot Ledger who wrote this trash can figure out just how stupid this article is. I'd name the article's author, but he was too much of a coward to put his name on it. This editorial is actually the only one currently on the Enterprise News Opinion page without a name on it. Interesting, isn't it? But let's get started.

Compassion is an essential element of justice, but U.S. Rep. William
Delahunt's plea to free a Plymouth Marine convicted of murdering an Iraqi
civilian is beyond mercy and sends a horrible message about what we will allow
our military members to do in the name of combat.

With this opening statement, the author throws any fairness, truth, or even interest in justice out the window. Actually, what sends a horrible message is training Marines to do a job, then prosecuting them for doing it. The reason Delahunt is making a plea for Hutchins' release is because he has seen the evidence. Delahunt's lawyer sat in the courts-martial. They're quite aware of the situation. Now, believe me when I say Delahunt is a schmuck. He's not supporting Hutchins out of the goodness of his heart. He's doing it because those of us who fight for Larry made sure Larry's congressman knew about the evidence. You can't claim plausible deniability when you own a copy of the documents that prove a Marine innocent.


Delahunt is between a rock and a hard place. If he comes out and asks for Larry to be released, then he has improperly-named rags like the "Patriot Ledger" verbally slapping his limp wrists. If he sits there and prays it all goes away, then people like my friend Tim Harrington will be camped out in front of every news and radio station in New England talking about how Delahunt knows the government railroaded Sgt Hutchins and did nothing. [By the way, the only reason Delahunt is covering this at all is because Tim already did that.] Not everyone in New England is a wacked-out Kennedy liberal, so think about that a moment. Delahunt is simply playing the political game for his own gain–and the Patriot Ledger is even worse because their JOB is to tell the truth.

Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III just had four years of his 15-year prison
term reduced after a plea of clemency to his commanding general. The sentence
and the resulting reduction were sufficiently compassionate for the crimes for
which Hutchins was convicted. Any further reduction would be a perversion of our
military justice system.

Let me explain what "a perversion of our military justice system" really is. Eighteen-hour interrogations with no bathroom breaks. Not recording any of it, and making the Marines sign statements that were not written by them, but constructed by NCIS agents from their memory of the interrogation. How about telling the Marines that asking for a lawyer would "be the worst mistake they ever make?" How about denying them medical attention for their combat injuries while they're in shackles for months before the government even charged them with a crime? Let's not forget the part where the government just happened to "accidentally" stop paying these men before they were ever convicted or even tried, and the part where Sgt Larry Hutchins was in solitary confinement for ten months, even though he had always been a perfect Marine and a stellar example.

Hutchins, 24, and other members of his eight-man squad were convicted or
pled guilty to abducting and killing Hashim Ibrahim Awad, 52, in the Anbar
Province town of Hamdania. But according to testimony by members of his unit,
Hutchins hatched the plot to kill Awad and then cover up the crime to make it
look like the victim was preparing to bury a roadside bomb.

In the most damning piece of testimony, Navy Hospitalman Melson Bacos,
testified that Hutchins shot Awad in the head to prevent the body from being
identified. Bacos testified Hutchins declared: "Congratulations gents, we've
just gotten away with murder." [emphasis added]

Here we have Example #4,478,897 of someone talking about things he knows nothing about. First of all, Hutchins performed a dead check, and this is done by shooting the person in the head and face. [How many times do I need to go over this?] The idea of him shooting the insurgent in the face to "prevent the body from being identified" is so stupid it defies logic. The Ledger ignores the fact that not even the Iraqis who claimed to be this man's family could identify him before the shooting, let alone after. The government has no idea if it even exhumed the right body–not because Hutchins shot him in the face too many times, but because it relied on a corrupt NCIS agent. Until Agent James Connolly pulled Awad's name out of a hat, those eight men had no idea they had killed anyone but Gowad (the original target)–and there's still no way to know if they didn't.



Consider the number of cases where NCIS has actually been caught fabricating evidence, adding sentences and words to statements that change their meaning, and other such disgusting tactics. In one case a few years ago (the Daniel Scott King case), NCIS agents literally interrogated a Navy enlisted man to the point where he was hallucinating from lack of sleep and writing down his hallucinations and dreams as confessions. NCIS took it all and tried to see him prosecuted for it. They grilled him for almost 20 hours a day, every day, for almost an entire month. Agents even tried to take his young daughter from her elementary school for interrogation after King's wife would not give NCIS access to the girl. [Side note: It's important to mention that they do these things routinely and with impunity. A military judge in the King case ruled that the NCIS was "immune" from prosecution--no matter what.]

We have a Uniform Code of Military Justice and our soldiers, sailors and Marines
are tried under that system because they are held by peers and superiors who
understand the pressures and situations troops in combat encounter. Civilians
cannot begin to grasp that context

.

Soldiers, sailors, and Marines are being tried under a system that is broken, by peers and superiors looking for their next stripe or star. They may understand the pressures of combat, but they have lost their integrity and personal honor. They do not operate from a standpoint of loyalty and truth, but from one of cowardice, self-service, and political expediency. For the Patriot ledger to paint the military justice system as anything but a broken sham of a system is irresponsible and misleading.

In World War II, few cases of crimes or atrocities were found because at
that time, we were considered to be defending ourselves. There was a
righteousness to our cause and our soldiers' actions reflected that.

In Korea and Vietnam, the enemy forces often used women and children to
ambush American troops so soldiers had to make split decisions as to what course
of action to take when confronted by civilians.

Some of the same scenarios exist in Iraq, perhaps even more so as we engage
in an urban war where the enemy is not easily or readily identifiable.

But because we entered their country as liberators, our troops must be held to a
higher standard. In Hutchins' case, they dragged an innocent man from his home
and then killed him in cold blood. No one disputes that. But a military jury,
all fellow Marines who served in Iraq, convicted Hutchins of unpremeditated
murder, larceny and making a false official statement.

The Iraq War veterans who heard the case determined Hutchins actions were
neither bad decisions in the course of combat nor acceptable military conduct.
They were crimes. [emphasis added]

I don't even know where to begin with this drivel. "In Hutchins' case, they dragged an innocent man from his home and then killed him in cold blood. No one disputes that." We don't? Actually, this statement is the most dangerous of the whole article, for it takes an untruth and raises it to "of course it's true" status. The man was not innocent, and he was not killed in cold blood. The evidence shows that, and the Patriot Ledger knows better.

We empathize with Hutchins and other young soldiers and Marines placed in
an untenable situation with ever-changing rules of engagement. But if we are to
hold our cause of freedom and justice as a beacon for those on whose behalf we
intervene, we cannot lower the standard for ourselves.

The standard has already been lowered, and not in the way the Ledger thinks. We took men willing to lay down their very lives for our nation and put them in shackles without a conviction or even charges being filed. We denied them legal counsel, due process, and nearly every other right afforded to them under the Constitution. We ignored evidence that exonerated them, and fabricated evidence that vilified them. We wrote about them like they were zoo exhibits, every detail of their lives picked over and pried into as people looked for the "reason" why such good-looking, all-American boys would "kill in cold blood." No one could find a reason–because no cold-blooded killing ever happened. Unless, of course, you think that the killing of the enemy in war is cold-blooded.

If Delahunt is successful in freeing Hutchins, the convicted Marine will
indeed have gotten away with murder.

No. If Delahunt is successful in freeing Hutchins, that Marine will have lost the last two years of his life, had his name dragged through the mud by thousands of "news" outlets across the country, missed two years of his little girl's growing up, and lost a career that he lived for because he believed in its justice and rightness, and that's all just for starters. But at least he'll be able to walk outside and smell the fresh air. He'll get to wake up in the morning and choose the clothes he'd like to wear.

No one "got away with murder." And the Patriot Ledger will not get away with their libel. You see, the Patriot Ledger has had the same information that Delahunt does. They already have everything they need to tell the truth. They are knowingly ignoring that truth and printing the same dangerous lies as everyone else. Their articles consistently paint Hutchins as a cold-blooded murderer, when all along they've had the information proving him innocent.



Where's the real crime?

POSTINGS FROM THE SWEETWATER LIBRARY

(SIXTH IN A SERIES)

RONIN'S MEMOS

(Tim and Mary Harrington, George Reilly co-contributors)

"No one knows the meaning of innocence except those who are!"

-Unknown

~~~

"Convince your colonies that you are able,

and not afraid to control them,

and depend upon it,

obedience will be the result of

your deliberations."

Lord North in a speech to the English Parliment before Parliment's 1774

passage of the Quartering Act and other Coercive Acts

American colonists condemened as the "Intolerable Acts."

~~~

JAG HUNTER HERE:

Preamble - Just last evening Tim and Mary Harrington and myself were told, while putting the final flourishes to this posting, our importunities will be ignored, we're wasting our time. Supremely powerful military governors know all of what's to be exposed here (it's common knowledge), nothing's going to change (the Constitution is old news), it's just the way things are, and Larry Hutchins and Ray Girouard are going to stay locked up as innocents (with all the others)...move along, move on, there's nothing here to see.

Then the following arrogant taunts were given voice: Whatta ya goin' to do about it! And why are we surprised!

Lord North's comments are quoted above because they chillingly proclaim what America's military politicians are doing to us--American citizens here at home. But now--speaking personally--having suffered for almost twenty years the insolence, haughtiness, audacity, arrogance, and pride first from John Bitoff, then most recently David Brahms, Jim Mattis, I must tell you Lord North's words starkly depict what America's professional criminals holding high command are doing to peoples worldwide without fear of criminal consequence.

Command racketeers--from Commander in Chief Bush down the chain of command--are so ashamed, so fearful about their personal fates should America's populace be made aware of and then scrutinize their scheme of military operations their willing to bury alive innocent servicemen (our sons and daughters, our comrades) to enrich, shield and save themselves.

I'm not concerned here with questions swirling about the rightness or wrongness of the tactics our troops employ to seek out, locate, engage, and destroy immoral insurgent street fighters who refuse to wear uniforms and threaten the lives of those U.S. servicemen every moment of every day.

I am instead outraged beyond description that America's senior commanders are capable and willing to imprison innocent U.S. servicemen to quell or altogether block discussion and debate of politically sensitive military adventures if only to protect their careers and themselves from perceived political danger.

I'll do my best to communicate plainly and clearly. I singularly accept in advance all responsibility by any failure to do so.

With that I pass to you, the reader, the taunts of Navy Rear Admiral John Bitoff and Marine Corps Brigadier General David Brahms taunts.

As you absorb these words, are you surprised?

And whatta goin' to do about it when you're done?

~~~~~~~

Marine Sergeant Lawrence G. Hutchins' squad mission that night and early morning (25/26 April 2006) was to set up an ambush in the vicinity of checkpoint 203. This day was just like yesterday, and would be just like tomorrow. Higher command were detailing Hutchins' men with other Marine infantry units to patrol, raid, and ambush in a watch bill like rotation each day, every day, months without end.

Hutchins and his men would come to be known as the Camp Pendleton Eight.

Sgt. Hutchins' team stepped out at 1700 hours for their twelve-hour ambush operation en route to a palm grove previously used as a patrol base. This position offered good concealment and decent cover but Hutchins could not make out the road ahead even using his night vision goggles. It was too dark.

Hutchins moved his men closer to the road at about 2200 hours sacrificing cover in exchange for a more optimal field of view. The sergeant pushed Corporals Thomas and Magincalda, Lance Corporal Jackson and Private First Class Jodka in to the tall grass about 70 meters north of his position. Lance Corporals Pennington and Shumate and Navy Third Class Petty Officer--Hospitalman Corpsman Bacos were with Hutchins next to a tree.

"It appeared to be a quiet night with no vehicle or personnel traffic until 0238 hours on the 26th."

"At 0238 Lcpl. Shumate spotted movement on the east side [of the road]. Hutchins immediately reported this to KILO TWO." Before KILO TWO could get the question out of his mouth regarding a shovel, Hutchins' spotted the shovel with the stranger insurgent and ordered engagement in accordance with his rules of engagement for an ambush.

"We initiated the ambush with M16 fire...volleyed with my two SAWs [squad automatic weapons]. A moment later we began to take AK47 fire..."

HM3 Bacos pronounced the stranger dead at the scene after the shooting stopped. The QRF [quick response force] arrived soon after to retrieve the insurgents body. Hutchins' squad accompanied the QRF to link up with RAZRO SIX.

This narrative, taken directly from Larry's combat action report, has never before been publicly reported. A Navy doctor's autopsy examination narration (released just days ago) is completely consistent with Sgt. Hutchins' official written submission dated 26 April 2006. No one was ever able to identify the dead insurgent stranger.

Three weeks after the Hutchins' ambush, on 9 May 2006, Army Staff Sergeant (Ranger) Raymond L. Girouard led another infantry unit into combat against a known enemy hard target near Hutchins' area of operations. Ray's operation was a larger, daylight airborne assault with the objective to wipe out a snake pit terrorist training camp.

In the days leading up to the training camp raid Staff Sergeant Girouard and his men were told they were going on a "suicide mission" against a hard target fortress providing cover to a large, well armed enemy.

Girouard and Hutchins' missions were grandly successful. In reward and recognition of their bravery, gallantry, intrepidity and valor in battle Marine Sergeant Lawrence Hutchins was sentenced to 15-years in a military dungeon. Army Ranger Staff Sergeant Raymond Girouard was awarded 10-years. Their men received greater or lesser punishments.

After action reports, computer ledgers, logs, and records with recorded personal accounts revealed in the past two weeks allied with previously published public reports regarding ongoing U.S. military operations and planning shed bright for the first time upon politically sensitive, highly controversial, newly developed urban warfare combat tactics and intelligence gathering methods.

The tactics Sergeants Girouard and Hutchins rehearsed in real world, real time environments (undergoing trial and error research and development 2006, now adopted as standard operating procedure) are the brain-child of Marine four-star General James Mattis in association with companies of other Marine and Army flag officers.

Neither Hutchins or Girouard were told, nor did they realize they were field-testing the "Warrior Monk's" (General Mattis' nom de guerre) scheme of urban street-fighting. Neither did either sergeant apprehend their most dangerous enemy was behind them, a threat soon manifested in betrayal at the hands of their own senior officers.

Negative and stereotypical reports were already flooding the airwaves thanks to those segments of the press corps and Congress who hate the military. Abu Ghraib and Pat Tillman were stories of grand political theatre. General Mattis (and his cohorts), frightened by the withering congressional and media scrutiny they'd surely suffer, developed a public relations counter-offensive to deflate and defeat a foreseeable runaway, uncontrollable, frenetic public assault should Mattis' urban warfare plan be exposed.

Mattis' public relations counter-assault demanded the ritual sacrifice of Girouad, Hutchins, and any other expendable warrior who could (unknowingly) take a bullet in service to what Mattis regarded a cause transcendent to constitutional protections of life and liberty. Girouard and Hutchins and their men were sent to military prison camps, innocent all, to change the subject and divert and deflect attention in anticipation of what Mattis feared was a potential leak regarding his supremely controversial and politically explosive urban war-fighting methods.

Exploiting the facility of courts-martial, devious and clever public affairs officers, judge advocates, military detectives, and command racketeers--under orders from Commander in Chief Bush and General Mattis and his minions--first cobble together, then perfectly crafted fictional cover stories of war crimes committed by errant and inept Soldiers and Marines.

Innocent infantrymen and mud-Marines were charged and chained like animals while the bogus cover stories were leaked to hyper-active media personalities and blabber-mouth congressmen. Courts-martial were announced and docketed. Press conferences gave voice to the make believe criminal accusations. A million dollar media center was designed and constructed. The flames of the funeral pyre grew to consume innocent grunts while hypnotized media moths (Mattis' moths) drew near. Mattis' last-ditch media/congressional counter offensive worked like a charm as Hutchins and Girouard were burned at the stake as the mouths of the easily manipulated opened wide and watched in wonderment.

(Note: For more on the efficacious use of cover-stories see Ed Offley's recently published expose--SCORPION DOWN--regarding the charade perpetrated to prevent news of the communist-Russian attack and sinking of a U.S. submarine.)

Mattis' diversion works flawlessly to this moment. Distracted from the real-world of inter-city combat, press professionals and cozy congressman gravitate to warm hearing rooms and klieg lights lulled by duplicitious military royalty. There, smooth generals and PAOs assure their gullible audiences, those stuck on stupid, that the few ugly details of street fighting--what Mattis and his merry men call "war crimes"--are (were) the unavoidable results and consequences of reckless and incompetent Soldiers/Marines that beneficient and just commanding officers are more than capable of punishing.

The cover stories are swallowed whole.

But from combat after action reports, combat journals, and log books, and intelligence reports there emerges the real scope and operation of our brave warriors. There exist graphic accounts depicting the emotionally charged stark reality regarding CINC Bush's approved and ordered rules of engagement (ROE) for urban combat operatons against terrorists insurgents in the badlands.

But none of these reports were admissible (in fact the information was banned outright) at courts-martial to defend innocent warriors.

Teresly, CINC Bush's ROE (authored by the Warrior Monk) authorizes Army and Marine infantrymen to "get the job done." Marine Lieutenant Nathan Phan (call sign "RONIN") instructs and informs us that "what is necessary" for American gound troops to complete their assigned missions routinely causes "unnecessary suffering" for Iraqi civilians.

Here is a portion of what Lt. Phan recounts: "Our company's area of operation [AO] is the province of [deleted] about a 20x30 square kilometer piece of real estate. The city of Falluja can fit over twenty times in our AO...[province deleted] is a hotbed of arms smugglers, dealers, and black market traffickers, not to mention fanatical insurgents."

"So in order to establish security and stability in this...region, we are forced to move around constantly. Since [province deleted] is mostly flat irrigated farmland, there is no covered and concealed position to establish patrol bases. So the only practical alternative is to take a [civilian] house for a few days."

"I'm what they call a Paying Agent. It means I'm authorized [by CINC Bush's ROE] to reimburse Iraqi civilians with U.S. government dollars as restititution in the event we damage their personal property or cause unnecessary grief."

"This tends to happen a lot."

"We conduct raids in the dead of night, kick families out of their homes and take over, sometimes for a few hours, usually for a few days. We do this on a regular basis."

"We use the house as a patrol base, a safe haven for Marines, to conduct operations. Then pay the homeowner for 'wear and tear' for their homes. It's either this or put my Marines in the open, in Harm's Way, exposed to indirect fires and snipers."

"Screw the civilians."

"This is why I'm a Paying Agent. So I sign for my U.S. government cash and go on my way."

CINC Bush knows all this as do uncounted generals and admirals (flag officers).

Our commanders don't want you, the public, to know.

Ergo: Invented cover stories and counterfit courts-martial of innocent warriors.

I'm not going to recount here how a court-martial is used to routinely punish the innocent. Nor am I going to recount the fictions that were created around Hutchins, Girouard, and their men.

I will tell you this: Naval Criminal Investigative Service Special Agent James H. Connolly dug up a stranger in Iraq. Then Connolly (with his team of NCIS goons) wrote a ghost story about how Sgt. Hutchins and his men murdered a man no one was ever able to identify.

The autopsy report (now revealed) was blocked from use in Sgt. Hutchin's defense. So was every other physical piece of exculpatory evidence.

You've already read in Larry's own words what happened on the night/morning of 25-26 April 2006. Larry's was under orders that day to kill enemy insurgents in ambush.

Staff Sergeant Ray Girouard was under the same orders issued by Black Hawk Down's Army Colonel Michael Steel in May. Army Criminal Investigative Division (CID) detectives didn't bother with autopsies in Ray's circumstance. The bodies, never identified, were collected up by Army personnel and allowed to disappear.

Raids and ambushes in the target-rich Iraqi urban environs are so frequent, so necessary, and time sensitive that infantry units are rotated hourly, daily, in a month-to-month schedule that reads like a watchbill.

RONIN logs: "I get to Camp [deleted] and find my guys busy preparing to push out to the field."

Sounding just like Col. Steel in his pre-battle exhortations (captured on DVD, suppressed from public view and denied as exculpatory evidence in defense of Ray Girouard during his March 2007 court-martial) RONIN tells us: "Believe it or not, I love the field. It's where Marines get to really be Marines. It's the reason why so many of my guys joined the Corps. To go out in the 'bush' look for the enemy, kill him and come back to tell stories about it. It's where Marines build camaraderie and esprit de corps.

It's where I really get to know my guys. Most importantly, it's where I get to do my job (my emphasis), conduct counterinsurgency operations in order to destroy the enemy and establish stability. As a bonus, in the field, time goes by a hell of a lot faster than being in the rear."

This is the world of the urban combat infantryman and mud-Marine that no warrior is allowed to speak about publicly in a politically charged, politically correct atmosphere where lurks military-hating segments of the media and congress ready to cannibalise our own troops.

The betrayal.

America's military politicians are so afraid to explain and display to regular citizens the violence that is the soul of modern day urban combat. So they selectively pick isolated events, magnify them out of context and proportion, wrongly (but intentionally) name them war crimes, and then rob innocent warriors (and their immediate families) of their liberty and lives.

The scheme of maneuver in urban street fighting--now adopted as standard operating procedure--is precisely as narrated above by the brave men who are there! We are targeting all military aged males (MAMs--a euphanism to describe all males capable of inflicting injury on U.S. troops). Infantry units just like Hutchins' and Girouard's are deployed hourly in "HUNTER-KILLER TEAMS" to seek out, engage, and destroy enemy personnel and equipment. Intelligence is collected in every way possible.

But you're not to know any of this.

Instead, random, elaborate, and unbelievable cover stories are fabricated and crafted, built around innocent warriors like Hutchins and Girouard to divert attention away from the brutal reality of urban, insurgent, terrorist street fighting.

Courts-martial operations discussed and exposed on these JAG HUNTER pages for almost six years are known to you as prefect instruments in the advancement of the criminal adventures of corrupt military detectives making work for corrupt JAGs to effectively shield and protect the command racketeers.

Courts-martial are not courts. Juries don't wear uniforms. Courts-martial don't allow a defendant to confront an accuser. Innocent acts are regularly criminalized. Forced confessions are a staple, common place and encouraged. Exculpatory evidence is withheld or destroyed as a matter of course. Information impeaching the government's case is made to disapppear. Summary judgments by professional criminals in command is standard operating procedure.

None (and so much more) of information presented here--always available and now released--was allowed for use in the defense of any infantryman in any of the hundreds of courts-martial so far suffered by U.S. ground combat troops.

Warriors are ordered to military catacombs to waste away until they're forgotten.

Girouard and Hutchins never stood a chance.

The generals know both men did exactly what they were ordered to do!

Mean while, America's flag officers are conducting raids and ambushes in the dead of night against U.S. citizens stateside destroying families and homes on a regular basis.

Unfortunately for families of Hutchins and Girouard (and all the rest) there's no "Paying Agent" authorized to reinburse U.S. citizens with U.S. government dollars as restitution for the unnecessary and wanton damage.

Girouard and Hutchins and their men (with so many others) are wasting away in military dungeons--innocent men all!

Screw the sergeants!

Screw the civilians!

Pin medals on the generals!

Here endth the lesson.

BEWARE THE FURY OF THE PATIENT MAN!

© Copyright 2008 The JAG HUNTER

JAG HUNTER HERE: We will never know the truth regarding the combat action that occurred on 26 April 2006 in Hamdania, Iraq.

Due to Jim Connolly's BIG LIE happily repeated by the likes of Marine Corporal Marshall Magincalds, counselor Joseph Low, and AP reporter Tom Watkins, it's impossible to even know what happened that day - if it were ever possible.

We do know NCIS Special Agent Jim Connolly and his goon squad team invented or destroyed or withheld information and the best evidence depicting Marine engatement with an enemy force in Hamdania in April 2006.

Jim Connolly is a criminal. Members of Connolly's NCIS henchmen team are criminals. The truth of their illicit business is in plain view and growing.

Jim Mattis, one-half of the "JIM & JIM SHOW" wrongfully disciplined nine Marines based upon what Jim Mattis knows to be the fiction of Jim Connolly. Putting aside motives for the moment, we do know JIM & JIM rigged all nine military ceremonies.

The truth will out.

Here endth the lesson.

MAGINCALDA COURT-MARTIAL:
From the North County Times

NCIS AGENT JAMES H. CONNOLLY TO OUR U.S. MARINES:

YOU ARE EXPENDABLE!!

by Walt Fitzpatrick and Tim Harrington (“Flight line”)

_______________

Tim Harrington and I received word within the past few hours that Rich Brannon, lead defense attorney to Marine Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins, will rest his defense this morning at 9:00 a.m. PDT (0900 hours local Camp Pendleton). Hearing room observers report Brannon and his defense team have examined only Nathan Phan and Melson Bacos.

Tim and I have been frantic in our attempts to intervene in the court-martial getting word to Sgt. Hutchins that Rich Brannon is setting up Hutchins for a fall. James Connolly will not be recalled to the stand (as Tim and I are told) as this posting is published. Advising Brannon is John Kivlan, staff attorney to William Delahunt (D-10th MA.). Delahunt is Sgt. Hutchins' federal representative. Both Kivlan and Delahunt are working under the advice of Alan Dershowitz (previously reported in The JAG HUNTER). Kivlan is actually present at the Hutchins court-martial, sitting directly behind the defense table, and regularly consulting with Brannon and Hutchins' assigned military defense counsel during recesses.

In review of press reports regarding development in the Camp Pendleton Eight series of courts-martial, Tim and I have discerned James Connolly and his NCIS investigation team planted a fictional story about the death of Awad, and have successfully advanced this fantasy with the full criminal complicity and knowledge of Lt. James Mattis, Mattis' staff JAG Lt. Col. Riggs, other senior Marine Corps officials, Bill Delahunt, John Kivlan, and Al Dershowitz (recall the the court-martial of Staff Sgt. Raymond Girouard).

NOT RECALLING CONNOLLY TO THE STAND

Rich Brannon is about to willfully forfeit on an opportunity to publicly undue all eight courts-martial. Not calling Jim Connolly as a defense witness in this case is like Anita Gorecki not calling Army Colonel Michael Steele in the SSgt. Ray Girouard military ceremony. The Lootenant Culpepper defense is being played out (predictably) before our very eyes.

James H. Connolly is a liar. His theory of the 26 April 2006 combat events in Hamdania, Iraq is a total fiction. Connolly’s accusations against the Camp Pendleton Eight are completely false. And the Naval Criminal Investigative Service supervisory special agent and companion special agents have yet to produce a single shred of physical evidence, nor any record (chain-of-custody) that any evidence was ever collected. Agents working under Connolly are liars as well as Connolly.

Recalling the first five of the Camp Pendleton Eight cases concluded by way of government coerced deals—horse-trading bargains wherein sweetheart sentences were offered up for suborned, perjurious testimony—it’s worth taking note of emerging information from the contested military ceremonies over the past two weeks (as well as from earlier Article 32 hearings, plea-deal hearings, and press reports).

Ø James H. Connolly is a known and reported federal felon. Connolly is the supervisory Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) special agent in charge of the investigation of all eight servicemen now famously known as the Camp Pendleton Eight. Connolly is charged with protecting the practice of forced and coerced confessions that Connolly now himself exploits in all eight cases regarding Hamdania, Iraq.[1]

Ø Connolly’s NCIS team forced incompetent confessions form the only basis in the case against the CP8 Marines (no physical evidence exists).

Ø Connolly and his NCIS team planted the identity and name of 52-year old Hashim Ibrahim Awad into their reckless, incompetent, and politically motivated work (think Mike Nifong and the Duke Lacrosse team rape cases). Connolly even collected DNA samples. Yet, today, no person alive can verify Connolly's identification. Every mention of Awad's name after Connolly's construct is merely a repetition of Connolly's big lie.

Ø Physical evidence reported to exist has either been destroyed (Lt. Phan's computer records) or is being concealed (Connolly's "fliers," Connolly's DNA samples, unmanned airborne vehicle camera footage, and DNA autopsy lab reports).

Ø Connolly perjured himself in the Corporal Trent Thomas court-martial.[2]

Ø NCIS officials are withholding exculpatory evidence from the defense teams (citations below).

Ø Connolly did not read the Marines their Miranda protections prior to initial questioning.

Ø The Marines repeatedly requested, and Connolly repeatedly denied, attorney representation during NCIS interrogations.

Ø NCIS medieval interrogation techniques were employed. Questioning was conducted immediately after the men had returned from a battlefield patrol, was conducted for upwards of 14-hours without “head-calls” (bathroom breaks), and in the stifling Iraqi heat. The Gulag-like inquisitions were neither video nor audio recorded.

Ø Connolly’s NCIS goons found no physical evidence. Connolly is unable to produce the two DNA samples Connolly reported under oath he collected. No chain-of-custody is in evidence. Marine “Prosecutors called James Connolly, the lead investigator who has 19 years experience with [the NCIS], who said that he [Connolly] took samples from one of the alleged victims (sic), as well as from a pair of pants seized from Hutchins, the squad leader.”

Ø No one knows the identity of the alleged “victim” who first misidentified as Hashim Ibrahim Awad, was reduced to an “unknown Iraqi male.” Although medical experts from Dover AFB conducted an autopsy on a headless cadaver, no DNA was matched in support of a positive identification. Outside observers are scratching their heads trying to figure out how anyone even knows the sex.

Ø Sgt. Hutchins is charged with firing three “dead-check” head shots. How can that charge possibly be advanced considering the exhumed corpse reported returned to Dover for autopsy was severely decomposed and decapitated? No photos were taken.

Ø There is no corpse . It’s reported a copse was exhumed, examined, and returned to Iraq for reburial, but there’s no independent confirmation any of this occurred.

Ø An autopsy was conducted, but upon whom? Defense team forensic pathologists were denied access to the corpse for independent autopsy scrutiny. No pictures were taken. The complete autopsy report remains concealed. No DNA was recovered nor matched at least two DNA samples S/A Connolly stated under oath he obtained.

Ø Connolly once testified "arrogant" Marines distributed fliers in and around Hamdania two days after (28 or 29 April 2006) the initial combat that announced, in Arabic, AWAD had been killed caught trying to plant an explosive device. Connolly planted this story and it's a lie. Connolly's "flier" are missing.

Ø Witness intimidation tactics are ubiquitous (threats of charging perjury against Marines at Lt. Phan's Article 32 hearing, and yesterday as voiced by Lt. Col. John Baker in threatening HM3 Bacos).

Ø Earlier reports of Awad’s “relatives” reporting war-crimes committed by our Marines are completely undone. There are no relatives. There are no witnesses. There are no accusers.

Ø Connolly can be queried regarding problems found in the timeline.

Ø Lance Corporal Robert Pennington narrated during the ongoing Sergeant Lawrence Hutchins’ court-martial that Connolly’s NCIS henchmen commanded Pennington three times to rewrite his “statement” until it satisfactorily conformed to the NCIS’s fantasy theory of the war-crime.

Ø Jackson and Jodka have testified (during the Hutchins’ court-martial) that Connolly’s NCIS team forced their written statements and actually personally authored parts of the Marines’ written narrative.

Ø Marines and at least one JAG participated in the destruction of (then) Second Lieutenant Nathan Phan’s computer records. In a press release, Phan’s defense team decried the seizure and destruction of Phan’s thumb (flash) drive containing operating orders, after action reports, insurgent identity lists, and operational notes and details.

Ø Photographic evidence is compromised. Pictures used to force plea deals are different from government displayed photos during the Trent Thomas hearing.

Ø Marine intelligence experts quietly report their forensic analysis supports the Marines’ complete innocence. Classified information proves the Camp Pendleton Eight acted fully within the laws of land warfare, and their rules of engagement.

Ø Lcpl. Robert Pennington is caught in numerous testimonial contradictions. (See endnote 2)

Ø Previously leaked NCIS reports are proven false. No one knows yet who leaked the NCIS investigative work product.

Ø Unmanned airborne vehicle camera footage cleared all eight men of any wrongdoing. That UAV film footage is being withheld from public view.

Ø Connolly planted an unsubstantiated story regarding the UAV footage that Sgt. Hutchins and his squad were able to disguise ground activities by “tricking” the drone. The UAV film footage is not reported seized by NCIS agents as evidence.

Ø Defense teams were denied full access to the Hamdania urban area to conduct an independent and comprehensive investigation regarding accusations made against the Camp Pendleton Eight. Our government maintained Hamdania was too hostile and investigators could not be properly protected.

Here endth the lesson.

Beware the fury of the patient men!!

References:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/02/

http://jaghunters.blogspot.com/2007/06/lootenant-culpeppers-defense-court.html

http://jaghunters.blogspot.com/2007/07/james-connollys-ncis-team-rigged-all.html

http://jaghunters.blogspot.com/2007/07/ncis-special-agent-james-connolly.html

http://jaghunters.blogspot.com/2007/07/marine-says-james-h.html

http://www.usmc.mil/lapa/Iraq/Hamdania/Hamdania-Timeline.htm

http://www.usmc.mil./lapa/iraq-investigations.htm

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/01/13/news/top_stories21

http://www.10news.com/print/13674156/detail.htm

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/02/08/news/top_stories/1_0

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20070726-9999-1m

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/01/11/news/top_stories/1_0

http://signonsandiego.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&t

http://www.msnbc.msn/id/14810343/print/1/displaymode/1098/

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/05/18/military/1_01_321_1

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/07/26military/15_01_237_

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/printer_9503.shtml

http://www.house.gov/delahunt/hutchins.shtml

http://www.wnd.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51329

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/01/28/news/top_stories/01_

http://www.house.gov/delahunt/hutchins0228.html

http://www.wired.com/print/politics/security/news/2007/03/UAV

http://jaghunters.blogspot.com/search?q=for+immediate+release

---

[1] In a criminal complaint filed with the FBI, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and NCIS.

[2] As reported by court-martial observers.

NCIS SPECIAL AGENT JAMES CONNOLLY
&
MARINE CORPS LIEUTENANT GENERAL JAMES MATTIS "THE WARRIOR MONK"
ARE CRIMINALS!!

CONNOLLY DIDN'T READ MIRANDA PROTECTIONS
TO OUR MARIES

JAG HUNTER HERE:

Sergeant of Marines Tim Harrington called with an update. Tim reports sources attending Sgt. Hutchins' court-martial heard Lance Corporal Robert Pennington testify yesterday in service to the government's fiction regarding enemy contact in Hamdania, Iraq on 26 April 2006. Tellingly and predictably, Pennington can't remember the BIG LIE and has stumbled through his government suborned perjury and is now caught in multiple contradictions to earlier statements.

NCIS agents, members of JIM CONNOLLY'S NCIS EDITORIAL BOARD, forced Pennington to rewrite his plea-deal statement three times before it was accepted for NCIS court-martial use.

Lt. Col. John Baker, puppet prosecutor working for Lt. Gen. James Mattis, came unglued when Pennington went off-script describing Marine Corps training techniques at the USMC "VIPER SCHOOL" for urban warfare. "DEAD CHECKS," Pennington said, are taught as standard operating procedure. Pennington also related that Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins was not on-scene during the brunt of the fire-fight, but instead monitored the situation by radio as narrated by Pennington who was in the fight.

The only shots Sgt. Hutchins fired were in accordance with his strict Marine Corps training, in defense of himself, in defense of his men, and well within Sgt. Hutchins' rules of engagement.

JIM CONNOLLY IS A LIAR! MEMBERS OF CONNOLLY'S GOON-SQUAD ARE LIARS!

Sgt. Hutchins is telling the truth!!

Lt. Gen. JAMES MATTIS, the WARRIOR MONK, is directly responsible and accountable for this entire outrage. MATTIS perfectly describes what I've described as a criminal in command and part of a military RICO (racketeer influenced corrupt organization). Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba has described the same group of senior officers as a military "Mafia" in Taguba's interview with Seymour Hersh!!!

Two days ago, in a separate court-martial ceremony of Marshall Magincalda, Pennington performed like a circus monkey wrestling on the floor with a crash-test-like dummy. Pennington's circus act was intended to "visualize" the government's fiction.

Lt. Col. Baker, unannounced to to the defense or hearing officer, attempted the performance again yesterday in the Hutchins' military hearing. The hearing officer closed the show, disallowing Pennington to grovel on the deck with Baker's "visual aid."

Private First Class John J. Jodka, III and Lance Corporal Tyler A. Jackson testified Wednesday that Jim Connolly's NCIS henchmen coerced Jodka's and Jackson's written statements. Lance Corporal Pennington is the third Marine reporting NCIS criminal conduct publicly. Connolly, called to the stand Wednesday, was dismissed by the hearing officer within minutes. CONNOLLY is already tangled up in perjury. CONNOLLY is expected recalled to the stand in the Hutchins court-martial to finish up his prosecutorial dirty work.

It's expected CONNOLLY will be read his Miranda rights next time CONNOLLY shows his face.

Worth remembering is that Hutchins' platoon commander, Second Lieutenant Nathan Phan, was forced to speak statements against self-interest while military officers, including at least one JAG, destroyed Phan's computer records. These same records are believed exculpatory and could have been used in Sgt. Hutchins' defense.

Destruction of Phan's thumb drive is a criminal act!

Here endth the lesson.

Beware the fury of the patient man!!

Copyright © 2007

JAMES CONNOLLY'S NCIS TEAM RIGGED ALL THE HAMDANIA MARINES' COURTS-MARITAL!!

(Connolly needs to be read his rights next time he appears on the stand!!)

"Under questioning from the judge overseeing Hutchins' case, Jodka said that agents with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service encouraged him to include lies in a statement he gave when he agreed to describe the details of the plot and what had happened to Awad.

'Did the NCIS, with their heavy-handed tactics, convince you to make that statement?' asked Lt. Col Jeffrey Meeks, the military judge.

'Yes, sir,' responded Jodka, who pleaded guilty in exchange for testifying against his squad mates.

Meeks twice used the term 'heavy-handed tactics' when referring to questioning by criminal investigators, and twice Jodka agreed that they had falsely shaped pieces of his statement.

Jodka said he adopted the falsehoods because the agents told him it might make his story 'look better.'

Among the falsehoods was a statement that there was division in the squad about going along with the slaying plot, Jodka said."

JAG HUNTER HERE:

Tim Harrington, my good friend and fellow JAG HUNTER, called last evening with news directly from the hearing room of Sgt. Larry Hutchins court-martial with this news. NCIS Special Agent Connolly was called to the stand and dismissed by the hearing officer after only five minutes interrogation by Rich Brannon.

Tim (former Segeant of Marines - "Flightline") reports we've seen only the first few ow-level explosions in an ammunitions magazine containing thousands of high-explosive ordnance nearby. Stand by for sympathetic explosions that will make the Port Chicago tragedy look like a child's sparkler (go look it up).

JIM CONNOLLY and his NCIS buddies have covered-up the use of forced and forged confessions for decades. Their cover-up is used to allow guys like Connolly to reenact the tactic to ensnare military men like Sgt. Hutchins in service to political expedient and self-aggrandizement.

Here endth the lesson.

Beware the fury of the patient men!!

"U.S. and Iraqi authorities released more than 200 prisoners Sunday in an ongoing bid to promote national unity, but that effort faltered as Sunni Arabs demanded more releases and the Shiite-controlled parliament locked in stalemate.

Sunni Arab Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi congratulated dozens of inmates waiting at the Abu Ghraib detention center west of Baghdad to board buses carrying them to freedom. He urged the Shiite-led government to free more prisoners and demanded compensation for the former detainees."

Hm.m, U.S. military commanders are releasing enemies who fired upon and killed our soldiers and Marines while innocent military men such as RANGER Staff Sergeant Ray Girouard and MARINE Sergeant Lawrence Hutchins remain entombed in martial catacombs.

What's wrong with this political theater Lieutenant General Mattis?

Here endth the lesson.

Beware the fury of the patient man,
/s/
Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III
United States Navy, Retired
USNA '75
Posted at The JAG Hunter