Army may have known in February about Afghan murder

[WestVirginiaRebel]

CNN:

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- The Army may have known months ago about serious misconduct -- including the apparently unprovoked murder of a civilian -- by members of a platoon in Afghanistan but failed to act on it before at least one other murder occurred.

In an interrogation tape obtained by CNN, Spc. Adam Winfield, 21, tells an Army investigator in May that he told his father in February that he feared for his life after hearing that others within his platoon had murdered an Afghan civilian. He feared that his comrades -- members of the 5th Stryker Brigade -- were hunting for other victims, he said.

But a warning to the Army by Winfield's father may have been ignored.

In an Army interrogation tape obtained by CNN, Winfield describes hearing members of his platoon bragging in January 2010 about having killed a man and then made the killing look like it was carried out in self-defense.

"They said the guy threw the grenade at them, and that's how the grenade went off, and then they shot him," Winfield told an Army investigator.

Asked what really happened, Winfield said on the tape that others in his platoon -- Cpl. Jeremy Morlock and Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs -- were involved. They are among five soldiers facing premeditated murder charges for the killings of three Afghan civilians between January and May of this year. Seven other soldiers face lesser charges.

"Morlock and [another soldier] were planning it for about a week or so," Winfield said. "Sergeant Gibbs, you know, put it into their heads that they could get away with doing these things."
________

If true, then these men are not soldiers, they are murderers and need to be punished. This is not what American servicemen are about.

On the other hand, I fully expect the MSM to play this up as being representative of what most American soldiers are about, a la the "Crazy Vietnam veteran" stereotype.

[pollyannaish]

So, will the press start playing this up as being Obama's fault and coming from the culture the Commander-in-Chief has created like they did when servicemen were accused of things during the Bush administration?

[Draggingtree]

MARCH 4, 2016 5:14 PM

Citing new evidence, convicted Afghan ‘kill team’ mastermind seeks new trial

 

BY ROB HOTAKAINEN rhotakainen@mcclatchydc.com

 

FORT BELVOIR, VA.

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, convicted of masterminding the murders of three Afghan civilians in 2010, asked a military appeals court in Virginia on Friday to consider new evidence in his case that could lead to a new trial.

 

Gibbs, a former soldier at Washington state’s Joint Base Lewis-McChord, is serving a life sentence at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, after a jury found him guilty of leading a team of Stryker soldiers in a scheme to slay innocent people while on patrol in a remote outpost in southern Afghanistan.

 

The group gained international attention and became known as the “kill team” after photographs showed them posing with Afghan corpses.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article64087522.html#storylink=latest_side