CPL. TRENT THOMAS TRIAL

The trial of Trent Thomas is getting underway at Camp Pendleton today. A few things to look for in regards to the trial are, what defense will be presented. Thomas will always be remembered for a now infamous interview he did on CNN, pretty much going on camera and admitting his guilt and his remorse over what happen. A few days before he was supposed to be sentenced, Thomas had what he called an epiphany in his jail cell. As the reports come out of Camp Pendleton and other sources, his lead attorney Victor Kelley has stated that they are going to try and prove that Thomas was ordered to carry out the alleged murder, and he was ordered by Larry Hutchins, his fellow Marine. Thomas now has six lawyers, three military and three civilian attorneys. A few questions to pose, if it comes out Hutchins ordered Thomas, where does that leave Hutchins at his trial. And where does Nathan Phan fit into all of this. Will the classified information about AWAD be released into the courtroom? It should be an interesting two weeks in this story.

Last week I spoke with Jeremiah Sullivan III, the lawyer for Melson Bacos, I requested an on-camera interview, but Melson is obligated to testify at the trials of Thomas, Hutchins and Magincalda so the interview has to wait.

TECHNOLOGY AND THE PENDLETON 8 TRUE OR FALSE?

Murder by Numbers in Iraq: Step 1, Trick the Surveillance Drone
Marty Graham 03.22.07 | 12:00 AM
CAMP PENDLETON, California — As they carried out the killing of an Iraqi civilian, seven Marines and a Navy medic used their understanding of the military’s airborne surveillance technology to spoof their own systems, military hearing testimony charges.
“These are people who every day deal with such things and understand how the images are gathered, as much as understand other tactical and weapons issues,” says defense attorney David Brahms, who represents a Marine who’s pleaded guilty to conspiracy and kidnapping in the case. “They are warriors and this is what warriors do.”
The April 26, 2006, killing of disabled police officer Hashim Ibrahim Awad has been the subject of eight months of military hearings at Camp Pendleton near San Diego. Three defendants have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting court martial on murder charges. Five others have entered guilty pleas to lesser charges, receiving prison sentences from one to eight years. As part of their plea bargains, they’ve agreed to testify against the three remaining Marines.
The case is remarkable for the fact that the killers nearly got away with their alleged crime right under the eye of the military’s sophisticated surveillance systems. According to testimony, at least three times the warriors took deliberate, and apparently effective, measures to trick the unmanned aerial vehicles — UAVs in military parlance — that watch the ground with heat-sensitive imaging by night, and high-resolution video by day.
The images are routinely translated into PowerPoint presentations, systems manufacturers say. The PowerPoint of this particular killing was nearly accepted as proof of a “good shoot” until one of the troops, Navy hospitalman Melson Bacos, stunned investigators with a confession, according to the testimony of Special Agent James Connolly with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, or NCIS.
The killing took place in the early morning darkness of April 26, when a “snatch party” of three Marines and a medic set out to kill and make an example of a suspected insurgent named Saleh Gowad, who’d been captured and released many times, according to testimony. Not finding him, they went next door and seized the sleeping Awad from his home, while the four remaining squad members waited nearby.
They men allegedly flexicuffed Awad’s hands and marched him about a half-mile to a bomb crater, where they bound his feet and positioned him with a stolen shovel and an AK-47. Then they returned to an attack position and shot him.
On the way, according to testimony, the forward party took at least three steps to disguise its actions from aerial surveillance, steps that initially persuaded investigators the killing was justified. One Marine went forward and dug around in the crater. At the same time, the three other troops crouched with Awad behind a low wall in what Brahms described as a squad in a typical military posture.
They held that pose as the surveillance UAV passed over, creating an infrared tableau of four troops watching a bomber dig a hole along the road.
After the UAV passed, and they dodged being seen by a U.S. helicopter, the four rose from behind the wall to march Awad to the crater, according to the medic’s testimony. While they were moving Awad the final 125 yards to his death, according to Bacos, they heard the UAV return. Cpl. Trent Thomas quickly wrapped himself around Awad so that the two men would appear as a single person on the heat-reactive infrared sensors, according to testimony.
Then they put Awad in the hole where the Marine had posed with the shovel seconds before, backed off and signaled. Six of the eight troops opened fire — staging a firefight with a bomb-planting insurgent.
“Congratulations, we just got away with murder, gents,” the squad leader told them, according to Bacos’ testimony.
The routine investigation of the shooting — sparked by a complaint from Awad’s family members to their sheikh — became a murder investigation only because Bacos confessed, Connolly testified. His confession so startled the investigators that they struggled between reading him his rights and continuing the questioning, according to lawyers who read the interrogation transcript.
The Marine defendants’ version of the events — a firefight with a bomb-planting insurgent — was supported by the PowerPoint presentation shown to NCIS agents by the Marines’ commanding officer. The NCIS and lawyers close to the case would not confirm or deny that the presentation was derived directly from the overhead feed, but those familiar with the UAVs say PowerPoint presentations are routinely produced from UAV surveillance.
Winslow Wheeler, the director of the Strauss Military Reform Project at the Center for Defense Information in the Washington, D.C., area, says he’s not surprised that the UAV’s surveillance system was spoofed. Though he hasn’t heard of similar cases, the technology has its limits, he says.
“When people learn how they work and what happens when they’re used, they can figure out ways to trick them,” he says. “With infrared, the heat signal doesn’t penetrate moisture or dust, so you can hide things that way. Or you can heat them up. And when images go from a recording to PowerPoint, you lose some resolution so the images become harder to identify.”
Marines in Al Anbar province, where Awad was killed, rely on two systems: Boeing’s ScanEagle and the Pioneer, made by AAI. The Pioneer was most likely the system overhead that morning, because it was low and loud.
The aptly named Pioneer is one of the military’s original UAVs — during the first Gulf War, a Pioneer recorded a video of a group of Iraqis waving white flags and surrendering to the unmanned vehicle, apparently having learned that bombers came right after the UAVs.
The Pioneer’s night-vision system uses forward-looking infrared, or FLIR, the same technology used on many police helicopters. Its images are black on white, or white on black, with warm objects like humans, animals and car engines producing the contrasting hue.
“The image can be a little ‘ghosty,’” says Steven Reid, vice president of unmanned systems at AAI, who refused to discuss any aspect of tricking the technology, saying it’s classified. “It’s amazing where the heat may be — if a car goes through there’s a shadow on screen for a short while afterwards.”
Steps similar to those the alleged killers apparently took may someday be a routine part of planning a crime, as U.S. law enforcement agencies clamor to put UAVs over U.S. airspace for domestic surveillance. But police departments that use FLIR say they haven’t seen those tricks yet.
“People who are committing crimes at night are usually committing crimes of opportunity or passion and they aren’t planning ahead,” says Sgt. Bill Woods of the San Diego Police Department’s Airborne Law Enforcement unit. “They think if there isn’t a spotlight on them, they’re home free.”
In the Camp Pendleton case, Lance Cpl. Robert B. Pennington, Pfc. John Jodka, Lance Cpl. Jerry Schumate Jr., Lance Cpl. Tyler Jackson and Bacos have pleaded guilty to reduced charges and lost their ranks as part of the deals. Cpl. Trent Thomas, Cpl. Marshall L. Magincalda and squad leader Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III are headed for formal trial at separate courts martial scheduled for later this year.
The Marines and NCIS aren’t releasing the PowerPoint presentation that initially cleared the men, saying it’s part of an ongoing investigation. And they’ve rebuffed requests for the aerial imagery of what happened that night, defense attorneys say.

LARRY HUTCHINS/Alan Dershowitz

I read the following post at the JAG HUNTER web site, and a few things caught my attention and they are questions I will investigate and questions that I will raise in the course of investigating for my documentary: What role is Dershowitz playing in these talks with Anita Gorecki and Rich Brannon, and why is he being consulted? I will be sending out some emails to evaluate this situation.

Here is the post.
Congressman William Delahunt (D–10th MA) asked his counsel, Atty. John P. Kivlan, to act on Delahunt’s behalf to gather evidence in support of Sgt. Hutchins’ innocence. Regrettably (working for Delahunt) attorney Kivlan introduced Alan Dershowitz to Richard Brannon (Hutchins’ lead defense counsel). Now that Dershowitz and Brannon are good friends, Marine Sgt. Larry Hutchins finds himself defenseless and on a fast track to join Ray Girouard at Ft. Leavenworth.

Kivlan informs us (in a conversation with Tim Harrington) that students matriculated by Alan Dershowitz are perfecting Lootenant Culpepper’s defense (no defense at all) in the looming court-martial of Marne Sgt. Larry Hutchins.

During a recent phone conversation between Lawrence (father) and Kathie (mother), parents to Sgt. Hutchins, John Kivlan implied heir son was going to prison. All that was left to do was to determine for how long. Moreover, in a separate conversation, Kivlan explained further to Tim Harrington that he (Kivlan, with other staffers nodding heads north and south in agreement) knew the courts-martial system was crooked, but couldn’t be repaired in time to save Marine Sgt. Hutchins.

All this while, right there and in plain view, there exist clear and rock solid reasons to release Marine Sgt. Hutchins immediately.

I’ve embraced the teachings of W. Edward W. Deming for many years, especially his emphasis upon the business practice regarding trend analysis. Watching trends is also aggressively advocated as a best practice in the engineering disciplines.

It is significant then to recognize in the study of military discipline the anomaly (the outlying discrepant practice) is when advocates employed to defend a military member actually put up a fight protesting their client’s innocence.

For anyone keeping any sort of score card I’d like to observe:

Ray Girouard is an Army Ranger,

Larry Hutchins is a Marine from a family proudly steeped in Marine Corps service,

Alan Dershowitz is an ogre,

Lootenant Culpepper, er…I mean Rich Brannon is a bastard, and

Anita Gorecki is ah…well, a monster.

With that I offer this gentle suggestion that attorneys are feeding upon America from within, and that we’ve got the wrong people in our prisons.

Here endth the lesson.

Copyright © 2007: The JAG Hunter

Nick Broomfield’s Battle For Haditha

I came across the film trailer of Battle For Haditha, as part of my process in terms of documentary filmmaking I always like to analyze and also delve into projects that are similiar to the film I am making. I recieved a phone call from Thomas Watkins of the Associated Press to talk about the film and also speak about Broomfield’s project, I am a huge fan of Nick, mainly his work with Biggie and Tupac and all his other films are an inspiration, he is fearless. The new film was shot in Jordan and is a narrative feature and not a documentary. I have heard that some of the families are terrified that he has taken on the subject, but I have read a few reviews that says he has painted a pretty fair picture. I am hoping that Thomas Watkins does write about ARTICLE 32 the more press the better at this stage. The trials of Thomas, Hutchins and Magincalda will start in July and this story will continue on. Send comments in about the trailer.

BATTLE OF HADITHA FILM

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has commented on the site and sent new information and help, it all is greatly appreciated. I found out yesterday that documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield is actually in post-production on a feature film about Haditha that he shot in Jordan. If anyone has information about the film, please pass it on to me. I plan on touching on the incident in Haditha within Article 32. The story of the 8 Marines is the main thrust of the narrative, but I feel in many ways the two are connected through the NCIS. Both incidents are rife with confusion, rife with a media taking sides and information that is being hidden from the general public. With that said please check back in for more updates and video footage in the weeks to come, I am in the editing studio working on the preview of the film.

FROM TERRY PENNINGTON

I recieved a message from Terry Pennington, the father of Robert Pennington, Robert is one of the Pendleton 8. Here is some of the backstory about his trial, then you can read the comments from Terry, I have been using a few sources to write the narrative summary of the film, one main source or paper and one of the few to cover this event has been the NC Times, some people dispute them as a credible source.
(excerpt from Rob’s web site)
“Rob went to court on February 13th and pled guilty to kidnap and conspiracy. He did so on the unanimous advice of his four-member defense team. This advice was based on the fact that four other members of his squad had already pled guilty and were under a mandate under the terms of their agreements to testify against the remaining four. The government is in possession of statements prepared by the NCIS as well as the testimony of the four junior members of the team. Chances for a conviction in a contested court martial were too high to take that risk.

We are so proud of Rob. We sat through the court process which was scheduled for 2 days, but took 5. We listened to Rob’s testimony of that April night, but also heard a lot of information that we never heard before about the previous two deployments, and we have to say that we don’t believe there was any other path than the one they took. I’m going to be very careful here at this point because we have only begun the process to help Bobby come home, and we don’t want to say anything that would unwittingly harm his case, but please know that there IS more to the story and that the we have seen many untruths printed in the press.”

Here is the comment from Terry Pennigton, and information that has not been released in the mainstream press that we will be investigating in the film:

As the father of one of the “8″ I would like to correct a couple of statements made on the home page of this blog. Gowad’s nickname was “Prince of Jihad” and not “Prince of Anbar”. And second, the government case stipulated the squad went after “any man of military age” when they could not find Gowad. My son agreed with that in order to get a plea deal but it IS NOT TRUE. Awad, the person who was killed that night was in the second house. The house immediately next door to Gowad. They were best friends. They were members of the same tribe. Awad was Gowad’s number two killer of Marines. They knew what they were doing. It was a “good kill”. If they had taken out Gowad they’d all be free as birds. They took out number two, NCIS came forth after the alleged families whined about it and the rest is history.
There has been no evidence presented anywhere that the people who whined about this were even family. They were probably members of the same tribe, but no one knows who they really were.
Please someone set my son and the others free. They are heroes. They are not bad people. They don’t belong in jail. Hopefully this film will show that.
Terry Pennington
Proudest Marine Hero Dad in the World.

ARTICLE 32: THE STORY

In the early morning hours of April 26th, 2006
Eight Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 5th regiment pounded on the door of a small house in Hamdania, Iraq. The Marines were on a mission looking for a suspected terrorist, Saleh Gowad, the “Prince of Anbar.” He had been arrested on three previous occasions, and according to Marine intelligence, was a known insurgent, planting improvised explosive devices and organizing other terrorists. Gowad spent many nights at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, only to be released the next day, with no charges being filed.
The leader of the platoon, Sgt. Larry Hutchins, was a hard-nosed kid from Plymouth, Massachusetts. Larry’s father and grandfather were both former Marines. Hutchins and six other marines stood around the perimeter of the house.  One of the men was Navy Corpsman Melson J. Bacos, the son of Filipino immigrants, on his second tour. On his first Bacos had two of his fellow soldiers die in his arms, and nineteen Marines from his battalion lost their lives.
Saleh Gowad was not at the house; however, as they left, it has been reported that one of the Marines grabbed an AK-47 that had been in the house. Each Iraqi family is allowed one rifle. Someone else grabbed a shovel that was resting in front of the home. Trent Thomas, the only African-American in the group, on his second tour of duty in Iraq, continued with the others to the next house. On his first tour, he won a Purple Heart and saw his best friend killed in a firefight. The Marines and Bacos went to two other homes asking if there were any men in the house.
At the fourth stop, Hashim Ibrahim Awad, a former Iraqi policeman, answered the door of his family home. Some of the Marines grabbed him by his hands and pulled him out of the house.
Accounts differ because there were no witnesses to what happened after he was dragged from his home in the pre-dawn light. Thirty minutes later, gunshots were heard. Awad and the other Marines are the only ones who know what truly happened. The facts according to those involved are as follows:
At daylight the next day, Awad’s family found a wide, bloodstained hole in the dirt about 500 yards from their home littered with discarded plastic gloves. Family members were told that the Marines had brought the body of Awad to a local police station. The family eventually recovered the dead body of Awad from a hospital at the Abu Ghraib prison.  Larry Hutchins wrote a statement at the Iraqi police station the morning after the incident:

”On 60425 at approx. 0300 we spotted a man digging on
the side of the road from our ambush site. I made
the call and engaged. He was pronounced dead at the
scene with only a shovel and AK-47.”

The marines went back to their duties in Iraq even though they were under immense pressure. Just eight weeks prior Lieutenant Nathan Phan had told them they would travel to Hamdania from the Zaidon area near the city of Fallujah. The transfer came less than two months after the platoon arrived in Iraq in early January 2006.  They were trained to execute combat and patrol missions, but were sent to Hamdania to help the 1st Battalion 1st Marine Regiment by focusing on counter-insurgency efforts.
They set up a patrol base in a two-story house and called it Patrol Base BUSHIDO. They immediately were told to find those responsible for roadside bombings, sniper attacks, and other insurgent activity. The work was arduous because these combat Marines were not trained in detainee handling, and their counter insurgency work was limited to a forty-five minute class they attended before they left for Iraq.
The commanders became increasingly reliant on Phan and Hutchins to identify and detain suspects who were considered “high-value individuals.” They were successful, eliminating a deadly Iraqi sniper cell that had killed many Marines in the area; they discovered numerous weapons caches and consistently developed solid tactical intelligence.
On May 10th, 2006, all seven Marines and Melson J. Bacos were taken off active duty in Iraq and held at their base. The military then announced that there would be an investigation into the death of Hashim Awad. Shortly thereafter, Sgt. Larry Hutchins, Trent Thomas, Melson J. Bacos, Marshall Magincalda, John Jodka III, Tyler Jackson, and Robert Pennington returned to Camp Pendleton in San Diego and were placed in the military brig or jail. Their hands and feet were shackled, and they were kept in lockdown for twenty-three hours a day. Simultaneously, the body of Hashim Awad was flown to Dover Air Force Base for a forensic examination. Suddenly, these brave soldiers were renamed the Pendleton 8, and some in the media coined the death of Awad as the Hamdania Incident.
The timing of the incident in Hamdania would follow on the heels of the killing of twenty-four Iraqi civilians by another unit of eight Marines from Camp Pendleton, led by Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich in Haditha, Iraq. Haditha was an on-going investigation and as the Pendleton 8 started to acquire legal counsel, a report on Haditha was delivered to Lt. General Peter Chiarelli. The timing and the similar story lines would prove to be a mixture of political and media dynamite. The two investigations were bound to be confused, intertwined, and discussed in the same context.

Article 32: A Documentary Film Directed by D.Sikorski

Welcome to the on-line diary and production blog of the feature film Article 32.