If you accept an illegal order, then you ARE guilty. I am sorry if it is illegal to "bait"shrimp in South Carolina, then any soldier should know it's illegal to shoot someone just for picking something up just because it's laying on the ground, especially since you are the one who put it there, KNOWING you are going to blow them away for picking it up. Bottom line it's a CRIME.
In this mornings Seattle Times this article goes into some of the details of the program that is supposed to have come from the Pentagon, a new office called the "Asymetric Warfare Group" unlike the program at Abu Grahib where it is surmised that Major General Miller brought to Iraq from Gitmo and the trail was never followed to the Pentagon. Leaving only the enlisted men and women to pay the price of torturing detainees in American detention, none of the people responsible for authorizing these reprehensible acts were ever held accountable.
I have no sympathy for the officers and NCO's of these units that accpeted these illegal "orders" or suggestions" on battlefield techniques, they need to be prosecuted as well as the soldiers that carried out these "bait" and murder missions.
The excuse that I was ordered to do it, is no more acceptable now than it was during the Nuremberg Trials in the late 40's. I hate relating anything to WW2 Germany, but unfortunately our military is not exactly clean in carrying out civilian approved illegal war crimes.
I am deeply saddened by the military, where I spent most of my adult life serving, has allowed itself to be used in the manner this administration has used and abused it. But it is time for the professional Officers and NCO's to keep their oaths to uphold the Constitution of the United States against all enemies "foreign and domestic" they have a duty to report "illegal orders" to their chain of command, and if they cI am deeply saddened by the military, where I spent most of my adult life serving, has allowed itself to be used in the manner this administration has used and abused it. But it is time for the professional Officers and NCO's to keep their oaths to uphold the Constitution of the United States against all enemies "foreign and domestic" they have a duty to report "illegal orders" to their chain of command, and if they carry out thse illegal orders, then they deserve to be prosecuted.
A Pentagon group has encouraged some U.S. military snipers in Iraq to target suspected insurgents who pick up scattered pieces of "bait," such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, a tactic that allegedly led to the killings of Iraqis, according to military court documents.
The classified program was described in investigative documents related to recently filed murder charges against three snipers who are accused of planting evidence on Iraqis they killed.
"Baiting is putting an object out there that we know they will use, with the intention of destroying the enemy," said Capt. Matthew P. Didier, the leader of an elite sniper scout platoon attached to the 1st Battalion of the 501st Infantry Regiment, in a sworn statement. "Basically, we would put an item out there and watch it. If someone found the item, picked it up and attempted to leave with the item, we would engage the individual as I saw this as a sign they would use the item against U.S. forces."
