



On Monday, at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in western Washington, Specialist Jeremy N. Morlock, one of five American soldiers accused by Army investigators of taking part in the murders of three Afghan civilians this year, appeared at a hearing to determine the formal charges against him.

Specialist Morlock was accused by the Army of taking part in all three killings during his deployment in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, as The Lede noted in a prior post on the killings. Other soldiers in the unit told investigators that the accused ringleader, Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, collected fingers and other body parts from Afghan corpses after the killings and said that he had gotten away with similar killings in Iraq.

As Reuters reported:

Morlock, from Wasilla, Alaska, is the first to be brought before a military court for a so-called Article 32 hearing, in which prosecutors and defense lawyers present evidence to an investigating officer who will determine whether the defendant should be formally tried in a court-martial. If found guilty of all the charges against him, Morlock, could face the death penalty.

The news agency added, “Four of the soldiers have been charged with keeping body parts, including finger bones, a skull, leg bones and a human tooth.”

Before Monday’s hearing, ABC News broadcast what the network said was a portion of a leaked interrogation tape of Specialist Morlock describing one killing to Army investigators.

United States Army

Matthew Cole and Brian Ross of ABC reported that Specialist Morlock also said that Sergeant Gibbs carried a Russian grenade to place next to the body of one dead Afghan to make it seem as if he was about to attack the American soldiers.

Hal Bernton of The Seattle Times, who has been following the investigation closely, reported on Monday that Specialist Morlock’s lawyer argues that his client’s confession could not be trusted because he was on several prescription drugs at the time. Before Monday’s hearing began, Mr. Bernton wrote:

In May, when Morlock was questioned about alleged war crimes, his prescription drugs included two antidepressants, one potent muscle relaxer, two sleep medications and a pain reliever infused with codeine, according to a list provided by his defense attorney. In two interviews with investigators, the 22-year-old Alaskan made a series of stunning allegations that implicated him and four other soldiers in what Army prosecutors assert were premeditated plans to murder three Afghan civilians. These statements now form a central part of the Army’s case against the five soldiers. In a hearing scheduled for Monday at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Morlock’s civilian defense attorney, Michael Waddington, is expected to argue that his client’s statements should be discounted because they were given while Morlock was under the influence of some of these drugs. “We pulled at least 10 prescriptions out of his bag. They were giving these out like candy,” Waddington said. “His memory of events is very foggy.” Other lawyers who have reviewed the statements, one of which was on videotape, said Morlock sometimes sounded confused and the information he provided was sometimes contradictory.

Last week, my colleague William Yardley reported that a senior defense counsel at Lewis-McChord said in an e-mail that the military had photographs taken by the men, showing some of them posing with the corpses of the three Afghans they had killed, “as a kind of morbid sport.”

On Monday, CNN also broadcast a report featuring portions of Specialist Morlock’s interrogation, and part of another soldier’s description of what he said was frequent drug use by the soldiers in the unit charged with the killings.

As The Lede explained earlier this month, the soldiers accused of murder have claimed that they are innocent and intend to fight the charges.

In addition to the five soldiers accused in the killings, seven others members of the brigade have been accused of other crimes, including drug use and trying to impede the Army’s investigation.

Nicholas Riccardi of The Los Angeles Times reported from the base, “Of the 18 witnesses listed for Monday’s hearing, 14 invoked their 5th amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid testifying, including the lieutenant of the platoon.”

On Monday, The Associated Press reported:

The case raised serious questions about the Army’s handling of it. Specialist Adam Winfield, who is charged in the final killing, sent troubling Facebook messages home to his parents in Florida after the first killing. He wrote that he was being threatened to keep his mouth shut about it and that he didn’t know what to do. His father made nearly half a dozen calls to military officials that day, and he said he warned them about the ongoing plot and the threats against his son.

Also on Monday, the BBC reported:

Three Australian former special forces soldiers have been charged over an operation in Afghanistan in which six civilians died and four were injured. The ex-commandos conducted a night-time raid in February 2009 on a residential compound in Uruzgan province, where a Taliban leader was said to be hiding. It is alleged they attacked the wrong house. Five of the dead were children. The charges include manslaughter and dangerous conduct.

Recently, Britain’s Channel 4 News visited Fort Hood, in Texas, to report on how the United States Army is trying to deal with the mental health problems caused by repeated deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.