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Colonel may testify in Iraqi detainee murder trial

Defense attorneys for a soldier charged in the death of three Iraqi detainees want the soldier's commanding officer to testify about whether he ordered the brigade to kill all military-age Iraqi men.

A military judge was due to hear arguments yesterday about whether the commander should testify in the murder trial of Staff Sargeant Ray Girouard scheduled for March 13.

Colonel Michael Steele, former commander of the 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade, has denied giving such an order, and he invoked his right not to testify during an earlier hearing.

"The government is attempting to preclude us from soliciting any testimony that has to do with any orders given by Colonol Steele," attorney Anita Gorecki told reporters.

Military prosecutors at Fort Campbell will not discuss the case.

Girouard, 24, is the last of four soldiers charged with murder to face trial. The others pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

The soldiers initially told investigators they shot the detainees during a May 9 raid in Samarra because they were attempting to flee and because commanders had given them orders to kill all military-age men.

But two of the soldiers now say Girouard ordered them to cut the detainees free and shoot them as they fled. One soldier also said Girouard cut him to make it look as if there was a struggle.

Gorecki also said that prosecutors were rying to limit her cross-examination of Private first class Corey Clagett and Specialist William Hunsaker, who both agreed to testify against Girouard in plea agreements.

Clagett and Hunsaker were sentenced in January to 18 years in prison. A third soldier, Specialist Juston R. Graber, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and was sentenced to nine months in a military jail.

"Staff Sargeant Girouard is a scapegoat for the actions of others," Gorecki said. "The key witnesses against him have, in return for drastically lower sentences, agreed to testify against Girouard and have been granted immunity."

The case is one of two involving soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division accused of killing Iraqis during a deployment to Iraq that ended in September.

Four soldiers from the division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team were accused of raping and killing an Iraqi teenager and killing three others in her family last March. A former Army private also faces murder and rape charges in federal court.
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