A former US military police commander said to have allowed Cuban cigars for the imprisoned late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was to go on trial yesterday on charges of aiding the enemy, giving special privileges to detainees and inappropriate conduct with an interpreter.
Army Lieutenant-Colonel William Steele, a reservist, had already pleaded guilty at a pretrial hearing on Oct. 7 to three of seven charges on the indictment sheet.
The three carry a maximum sentence of six years in prison, forfeiture of pay and dismissal from the Army, the US military said.
Steele will be tried on the remaining charges, including aiding the enemy by providing an unmonitored cellphone to prisoners, giving special privileges to detainees and acting inappropriately with an interpreter and failing to obey an order, the military said.
If convicted, Steele could face life in prison.
He initially faced a possible death sentence on the charge of aiding the enemy -- which under US military law is a capital offense -- but a former acting commander general of US forces in Iraq opted to make it a non-capital case, US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Rudolph Burwell said last week.
The trial has twice been delayed to give lawyers more time to prepare.
The alleged incidents in the case took place from October 2005 to February this year, starting when Steele was commander of the 451st Military Police Detachment at Camp Cropper prison in Baghdad, and in his later post as a senior patrol officer at nearby Camp Victory with the 89th Military Police Brigade.
In pretrial testimony in June, witnesses said that Steele approved buying Cuban cigars for Saddam, fraternized with a detainee's daughter and used his service pistol to intimidate tower guards. He has been behind bars in Kuwait since March.
Saddam was held at Camp Cropper until he was hanged by Iraqi authorities last December.
Steele originally faced nine charges, but prosecutors dismissed allegations connected to an inappropriate relationship with the daughter of a detainee and the improper spending of government money by buying comfort items, including cigars, for prisoners, Burwell said.
The only other US officer known to have been accused of collaborating with the enemy since the start of the Iraq war was Captain James Yee, a Muslim chaplain who was linked to a possible espionage ring at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison. He was eventually cleared and given an honorable discharge.
In pretrial hearings earlier this year, preceding the decision whether the case would go to a court martial, Brigadier General Kevin McBride, a former commander of the 43rd Military Police Brigade in Iraq, said Camp Cropper was positively reviewed by the international Red Cross during Steele's time there.
But McBride also said that Steele had used his service pistol to intimidate some of the tower guards at the jail.
Another witness, Special Agent John Nocella, said Steele allowed Iraqi detainees to use his cellphone for unmonitored calls from the prison even though he knew it was wrong.
Nocella also said Steele empathized with high-value detainees, who included Saddam and other key figures from his regime. None of the former regime detainees who allegedly used Steele's cellphone have been publicly identified.
A third witness, US Special Agent Steven Thomas Barnes, said that highly sensitive classified documents regarding the Army's mission in Iraq were found during a military search of Steele's living quarters in Baghdad.
It was not clear whether Barnes, McBride and Nocella would be testifying in the trial, which was expected to last through the week at a military base in Baghdad.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
RSS