Army Captain Won't Be Charged in Iraqi Deaths
FORT WORTH -- An Army captain investigated for allegedly ordering his troops to kill suspected Iraqi insurgents in retaliation for a deadly attack on a U.S. base will not be prosecuted, Army officials said Friday.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington, a 4th Infantry Division spokesman, said the case against Capt. Matthew Cunningham "lost prosecutorial merit" after Staff Sgt. Shane Werst, one of Cunningham's subordinates who shot an Iraqi during a raid, was acquitted of murder.
Cunningham, 31, left the Army on Friday after his case was closed.
In January 2004, the day after Capt. Eric T. Paliwoda was killed in a mortar attack on a U.S. base in Balad, Iraq, Cunningham was accused of giving soldiers a list of suspected Iraqi insurgents who "were not to come back alive" if they were found during raids, prosecutors said. About a dozen Iraqis were detained that night. Two were killed -- including one by Werst, who testified that he shot the Iraqi as he tried to grab another soldier's gun.
Cunningham was one of three officers reprimanded last year for trying to cover up another incident in which armed U.S. soldiers forced two Iraqi curfew violators into the Tigris River.
A manslaughter charge against 1st Lt. Jack Saville was dropped after he pleaded guilty to lesser charges in connection with the incident. Saville, who was sentenced to 45 days in prison, agreed to testify against Cunningham.
"... charging a man with murder in this place was like handing out speeding tickets in the Indy 500."
- Willard, Apocalypse Now
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Think not of the faults of others, of what they have done or not done.
Think rather of your own sins, of the things you have done or not done.
-Buddha
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Gary Jungling
www.jugbo.com
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