• 'An evil chuckle': Survivor recalls deadly shooting spree at US base in Iraq

    Russell family via Reuters

    Sgt. John M. Russell last month pleaded guilty to killing two medical staff officers and three soldiers.

    By Eric M. Johnson, Reuters

    TACOMA, Washington - A survivor of a shooting spree that killed five U.S. servicemen at a combat stress clinic in Iraq testified on Tuesday that he remembered the gunman, a fellow soldier, chuckling after he shot an unarmed man who had been trying to hide.

    U.S. Army Sergeant John Russell pleaded guilty last month to killing two medical staff officers and three soldiers at Camp Liberty, adjacent to the Baghdad airport, in a 2009 shooting the military has said could have been triggered by combat stress.

    He is facing a streamlined court martial at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state to determine the level of his guilt, a question that will hinge largely on whether the military judge finds he acted with premeditation, as prosecutors say, or on impulse, as the defense argues.

    Army Sergeant Dominic Morales, working at the clinic at the time of the attack, recalled that he hid under a desk beside another soldier and heard shots ring out and said he could smell gunpowder.

    Morales testified that Russell shot a soldier hiding near a filing shelf one time and chuckled as he moaned "Oh God, oh God..." and then shot him again.

    "I heard Sergeant Russell chuckle ... an evil chuckle," Morales said. "To me, a frightening chuckle."

    Russell then approached his hiding place and shot the soldier next to him, Specialist Jacob Barton, whose dead body fell onto him.

    Seconds later, with Russell out of sight, Morales sprinted out of hiding but the soldier fired at least two bullets at him.

    The testimony came on the second day of a court martial that is expected to focus largely on Russell's state of mind at the time of the shooting, which marked one of the worst episodes of soldier-on-soldier violence in the Iraq war.


    Defense attorney James Culp later established through questioning Morales that nightmares jogged his memory of Russell's laugh.

    Military prosecutors have focused this week on the more than 40 minutes Russell had to consider his actions as he drove back to the clinic with a stolen SUV and rifle and on his calm, stone-faced demeanor as he carried that rifle in a combat-ready position as he slipped into the clinic through a rear entrance.

    Russell, who agreed to plead guilty in a deal that will spare him the death penalty, faces up to life in confinement without the possibility of parole, forfeiture of pay and a dishonorable discharge.

    Defense lawyers, who had not yet made an opening statement, have said Russell suffered a host of mental ailments after several combat tours and was suicidal before the attack. With his mind damaged and unable to get the help he needed, they say, he cracked.

    An independent forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Sadoff of the University of Pennsylvania, concluded that Russell suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and psychosis at the time of the shootings.

    Sadoff suggested Russell, who was attached to the 54th Engineer Battalion based in Bamberg, Germany, was provoked to violence by maltreatment at the hands of mental health personnel at Camp Liberty.

    The presiding judge, Army Colonel David Conn, ruled on Monday that when Sadoff testifies he can draw upon another doctor's findings that the soldier had "brain abnormalities" in areas that govern behavior and emotion. Sadoff used that analysis in his own broader psychiatric evaluation.

    Prosecutors also asked Staff Sergeant Derrick Flowers, who jumped out of a window to escape the attack, whether Russell's gunshots were "erratic or controlled."

    "It was controlled, sir," Flowers said. 

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    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Soldier gets 12 years in Christmas Day killing at Alaska base

    U.S. Army via Reuters

    U.S. Army official photo of Army Specialist Marshall Drake.

    By Yereth Rosen, Reuters

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A U.S. Army soldier was sentenced on Thursday to nearly 12 years in a military prison for shooting and killing a fellow soldier early on Christmas Day, officials said.

    Army Spc. Marshall Drake, stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, shot Pvt. Grant Wise in the face in what military prosecutors described as an alcohol-fueled joke that went awry.

    Drake was convicted and sentenced in a military proceeding held Wednesday and Thursday on the Anchorage base. He pleaded guilty on Wednesday to violating military rules by failing to register his gun and storing the weapon in his barracks, but he defended himself against the charge of involuntary manslaughter.

    At the hearing, Drake's attorney described the shooting as a tragic accident that was not the defendant's fault, Army officials said.

    But military prosecutors presented testimony from a witness and other evidence showing that Drake had pointed the gun at Wise's face and fired, with the apparent belief that the weapon was not loaded, Army officials said. The two had been drinking all night and the witness testified that both appeared intoxicated prior to the fatal shooting, officials said.

    A military judge ruled that Drake's gross negligence caused Wise's death, said Army spokesman John Pennell.

    "It was an accident. However, it was an accident of his own making," Pennell said.

    Drake, 23, will be demoted to the rank of private and dishonorably discharged and will lose all pay and benefits, Pennell said.

    Drake, from Mount Pleasant, S.C., joined the Army in 2009 and served in Afghanistan from December 2011 to October 2012, officials said

    Wise, from Fairport, N.Y., was 25. He joined the army in 2011 and was assigned to Fort Bragg in North Carolina before being transferred to Elmendorf-Richardson, officials said.

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Judge accepts Bradley Manning's guilty pleas on 10 lesser charges; trial on 12 others set for June

    Patrick Semansky / AP file

    Army Pfc. Bradley Manning steps out of a security vehicle as he is escorted into a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., on Nov. 29, 2012, for a pretrial hearing.

    By Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube, NBC News

    FORT MEADE, Md. – A military judge on Thursday accepted guilty pleas by  Army Pfc. Bradley Manning to 10 lesser charges against him, leaving the ex-intelligence analyst to face 12 other counts for allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of government documents to the WikiLeaks website. 

    The acceptance of the "naked guilty pleas" -- meaning there is no agreement between the government and the defense that would limit the sentence – at a pre-trial hearing means that Manning faces up to 20 years in prison, even if he is ultimately acquitted of the most-serious charges against him. 

    Col. Denise Lind, the military judge presiding over the case, also accepted Manning’s “not guilty” pleas to the remaining charges, including "aiding the enemy." His court martial on those charges, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison, is scheduled to begin on June 3. 

    During the day-long pre-trial hearing, Manning acknowledged that his actions were a discredit to the service and that he knew WikiLeaks was not authorized to have the information he provided. 

    At one point when Lind asked him whether he knew what he was doing was wrong, he answered simply, "Yes, your honor."

    More than an hour of Thursday's hearing was consumed by Manning's composed reading of a 35-page prepared statement that offered his first public explanation of his motives for leaking the government documents to WikiLeaks. He said he did so to “spark domestic debate” on foreign policy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

    Manning painted himself as a young man with an "insatiable thirst for geopolitical information" and a desire for the world to know the truth about what was happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he said he became increasingly disillusioned after being sent to Iraq by actions that "didn't seem characteristic" of the U.S., the leader of free world.

    Manning said under oath that the first documents he sent to WikiLeaks in early 2012 were the combined information data network exchanges for Iraq and Afghanistan, which he described as the daily journals of the "on-the-ground reality" of the conflicts in Iran and Afghanistan. 

    He said he sent the information while on leave and staying at his aunt's house in Potomac, Md., using a public computer at a Barnes & Noble store in Rockville or North Bethesda. He said included a brief note calling the information the most significant documents of our time, and closing with, "Have a good day." 

    He said he tried to send the information to the Washington Post and the New York Times before turning to WikiLeaks.  He said he later sent information to WikiLeaks eight other times from his personal laptop at Contingency Base Hammer in Iraq. 

    Manning is facing 22 criminal charges that include "aiding the enemy" and could face a life sentence if convicted of the most serious charges. 

    Manning said he decided to release the first batch information because he was depressed and frustrated, and felt "a sense of relief" when he returned to Iraq. He said he finally had a "clear conscience" because someone else knew what was happening. 

    His most detailed explanation involved the release of aerial weapons team video showing airstrikes that killed some Iraqi civilians and several Reuters journalists.

    “It was troubling to me" that the U.S. military in Iraq wouldn't release the video, he said. Also disturbing was the "seemingly delightful blood lust" exhibited when members of the air crew referred to the civilians as "dead bastards" and congratulated one another on their ability to kill large numbers of people. He said he was encouraged by the public response, that others were "as troubled" as he was.

    In addition to the charge of aiding the enemy, Manning pleaded not guilty to counts alleging theft of U.S documents or videos -- including allegations that he stole the list of all of the emails and phone numbers of U.S. military and personnel in Iraq at the time -- unauthorized access of that information and downloading unauthorized software onto government computers.

    The charges to which he pleaded guilty included intentionally causing intelligence information to be published on the Internet, improper handling of classified information and counts of conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline.

    Specifically, Manning acknowledged that he had unauthorized possession of information, that he willfully communicated it, and that he communicated it to an unauthorized person. However, he only acknowledged that for nine specific files or pieces of information, including: 

    • Combat engagement video of a helicopter gunship;
    • Two Army intelligence agency memos;
    • Certain records of the combined information data network exchange Iraq (which tracks all significant acts and patrol reports);
    • Combined information data network exchange Afghanistan records;
    • Some SOUTHCOM files dealing with Guantanamo Bay;
    • An investigation into an incident in a village in Farah, Afghanistan; 
    • Some Department of State cables.

    Related story: WikiLeaks case: Bradley Manning seeks first public statement on motive

    At his court martial, Manning’s defense is expected to argue that he considered himself a "whistleblower" and released the documents with "no malicious intent" or the intent to do "any harm to anyone." The government contends the release of the documents put some lives at risks, including the names of Afghans who were working with the U.S. military and intelligence.

    Jim Miklaszewski is NBC News’ Chief Pentagon Correspondent and Courtney Kube is NBC News’ National Security Producer.  

     

    This story was originally published on Thu Feb 28, 2013 11:00 AM EST

  • Judge denies Manning motion to dismiss charges in WikiLeaks case

    By NBC News staff and wire services

    Jim Watson / AFP - Getty Images file

    Pfc.Bradley Manning is escorted by military police as he departs the courtroom at Fort Meade, Maryland on April 25, 2012.

    A military judge denied a motion to dismiss charges against Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is accused of providing reams of classified documents to WikiLeaks, but agreed that Manning should have a 112-day reduction from his sentence, if convicted, due to mistreatment during confinement.

    Col. Denise Lind, who made the announcement during a four-day pretrial hearing that started Tuesday at Fort Meade, Md., said that Manning's confinement at a military jail in Quantico, Va., was "more rigorous than necessary," and "became excessive in relation to legitimate government interests."

    Even so, Lind said dismissal of charges is "not appropriate," and would make sense only in the case of "outrageous" conduct on behalf of Manning's jailers.

    Manning faces 22 charges, including aiding the enemy, which carries a maximum of life behind bars.

    His defense attorney David Coombs argued that the military held the 25-year-old intelligence analyst in unduly punishing pretrial conditions for nine months after his 2010 arrest.

    A 28-page motion filed in August said Manning was locked up alone in a small cell for nearly nine months at Quantico and forced to sleep naked for several nights — treatment his lawyers say constituted illegal punishment.


    The document said Quantico officials operated in a culture where "anything goes" and "nobody is held to account for their conduct," willfully ignoring the advice of medical professionals who did not support the solitary confinement.

    Jailers at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico testified that they considered Manning a suicide risk and that they were only trying to keep him from hurting himself and others by keeping him in a windowless, 6-by-8-foot cell for 23 hours a day.

    In December, prosecutors conceded that Manning was improperly held on suicide watch for seven days and recommended he get seven days' credit at sentencing.

    Bradley Manning heads to court to argue against trial in Wikileaks case

    Manning has been held in pre-trial detention since May 29, 2010.

    The judge's rejection of the motion to throw out the charges had been expected by legal observers.

    Do motives matter?
    This week's pretrial hearing includes arguments on whether Manning's motivation matters.

    Prosecutors want the judge to bar the defense from producing evidence at Manning's March 6 trial regarding his motive for allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of secret war logs and diplomatic cables. They say motive is irrelevant to whether he leaked intelligence, knowing it could be seen by al-Qaeda.

    Manning allegedly told an online confidant-turned-informant that he leaked the material because "I want people to see the truth" and "information should be free."

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    Attorney Coombs said Tuesday that barring such evidence would cripple the defense's ability to argue that Manning leaked only information that he believed could not hurt the United States or help a hostile power.

    Manning has offered to take responsibility for the leaks in a pending plea offer but he still could face trial on charges that include aiding the enemy.

    The Associated Press and NBC News' Kari Huus contributed to this report.

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  • Witness: Sgt. Bales, accused of Afghan massacre, was deemed a top soldier

    Lois Silver/Reuters

    A courtroom sketch shows U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, center, and his defense attorneys Emma Scanlan, second from left, and Maj. Gregory Malson, left, listen to witness Sgt. Jason McLaughlin (R) testify at a U.S. Courts Martial pre-trial proceeding, at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington on Monday. Col. Lee Demecky, top center, is seen presiding over the hearing.

    By NBC News staff and wire services

    Sgt. Robert Bales, accused of carrying out a massacre of Afghan villagers in March, had been chosen for an especially challenging assignment in southern Afghanistan because he was deemed a top soldier, according to testimony on Wednesday by 1st Sgt. Vernon Bigham, the News Tribune reported.


    "We needed to put our best guys" with a Special Forces team at Village Stability Platform Belambay, the Tribune said, quoting Bigham, who testified over a video teleconference link from Kandahar Air Field to the hearings at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.

    Defense attorneys called witnesses Wednesday in hearings that mark the start of the military justice process for Bales, who is accused of slaughtering 16 Afghan villagers, mostly women and children, in a pre-dawn rampage on March 11.

    Bales seemed remorseful after he was taken into custody and seemed to want to confess, but Bigham discouraged it, according to the testimony.

    "He invoked his rights, so I didn't want him to talk about those things to me," said Bigham.

    Bigham's testimony painted a picture of Bales as a capable soldier whom he was trying to groom for a promotion, according the the Tribune. He said that Bales missed the cut for 2011 sergeant first class promotion and was disappointed.

    The mission he was on, as part of an attachment to Special Forces across southern Afghanistan, split up the company of men across 14 different sites, limiting normal oversight of the soldiers, he said.

    "We gave up control of our guys" to the Special Forces teams, Bigham said.

    In testimony later on Wednesday, Special Agent Matthew Hoffman said U.S. Army criminal investigators could not reach the scene of the alleged massacre for three weeks, because American and Afghan leaders considered the area too dangerous.

    Focus on Bales' state of mind
    The Article 32 hearing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., where Bales is based, are to determine whether there is enough evidence to put Bales through a full court martial.

    Proceedings started Monday with prosecutors laying out their version of the events. They said the sergeant acted alone and with "chilling premeditation," leaving his base in Kandahar province twice in one night and killing 16 people, mostly women and children in nearby villages as they slept.

    Bales faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder, as well as charges of assault and wrongfully possessing and using steroids and alcohol while deployed.

    Military prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

    The defense team has not revealed its strategy, but lead civilian defense attorney John Henry Browne has suggested over the past few months that Bales may not have acted alone and may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Bales was on his fourth combat deployment in 11 years and suffered a concussive head injury in a previous deployment.

    Bales has not participated in a medical evaluation known as a "sanity board," because his lawyers have objected to having him meet with Army doctors without them present.

    The defendant has appeared in court wearing camouflage fatigues with his head shaved, but has remained silent except to say he understands the charges and his rights. Bales has not entered a plea, and is not expected to testify.

    Conflicting accounts
    On Tuesday, Bales' defense team began calling witnesses who gave testimony that appeared to cast doubt on the assertion that Bales acted entirely alone.

    Testifying Tuesday, Private First Class Derek Guinn said he was told by Afghan guards that two U.S. soldiers were seen entering the compound in the early hours of March 11, and one was seen leaving again.

    But Guinn, who spoke to the guards through an interpreter, said he personally did not see anyone leaving or entering Camp Belambay.

    His testimony was at odds with the U.S. Army prosecutor's case — supported by several witnesses on Monday — that Bales, 39, left and entered twice on his own, and was solely responsible for the Afghans' deaths.

    Witnesses from the Afghan villages where the alleged killing spree took place are set to testify on Friday via video link to the hearings, expected to last two weeks. Some villagers have said that more than one U.S. soldier was present during the attacks.

    Guinn's testimony was the first notable discrepancy from the version of events laid out by military prosecutors on Monday.

    Covered in blood
    In the first session of the hearing, lead prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Jay Morse said Bales alone was responsible for the deaths, in two premeditated attacks. He showed the court a video taken from a surveillance balloon apparently of Bales returning to the base for a second time, just before 5 a.m.

    An Army medic testified on Tuesday that he saw Bales covered in blood and that he knew from experience that the blood was not his own.

    The medic, Sgt. First Class James Stillwell, said he asked Bales where the blood came from and where he had been.

    Bales responded with a shrug, Stillwell testified, and then said, "If I tell you, you guys will have to testify against me."

    The shooting, which if proven at trial would be the worst civilian slaughter by U.S. forces since the Vietnam War, eroded already-strained U.S.-Afghan ties after over a decade of conflict in the country.

    NBC News' Kari Huus, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Captain: Army general in sex case threatened to kill me

    U.S. Army via Reuters

    Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair, a U.S. Army general facing charges of forcible sodomy and engaging in inappropriate relationships stemming from allegations that got him sent home from Afghanistan this year, is seen in this handout photo received September 26, 2012.

    By NBC News wire services

    Updated at 12:39 p.m. ET: FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- A former subordinate to an Army general facing sex crimes charges testified Tuesday that the general started an affair with her in Iraq and later threatened to kill her and her family if she told anyone.

    The woman said she was honored at first by the attention from Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair, who she said was highly regarded. They first had sex in 2008 at a forward operating base in Iraq, she said.

    "I was extremely intimidated by him. Everybody in the brigade spoke about him like he was a god," she said. NBC News and The Associated Press do not identify victims of alleged sexual assaults.

    Now a captain, she testified on the second day of a military hearing at Fort Bragg on whether there was enough evidence to court-martial Sinclair on charges including forcible sodomy, wrongful sexual conduct and engaging in inappropriate relationships.

    It is a rare criminal case against a general and the details from the hearing are the first public narrative of the alleged offenses that prosecutors say involved a total of five women: four of them military subordinates and one a civilian.


    The Fort Bragg-based general is accused of 26 violations of military law including forcible sodomy, wrongful sexual conduct, possessing pornography while deployed and conduct unbecoming of an officer.

    Prosecutors seek death for soldier accused of Afghan massacre

    Prosecutors said the alleged sexual contacts took place in Afghanistan, Iraq and Germany, as well as at military bases in the United States. Sinclair was sent home in May from Afghanistan, where he had served as a deputy commander for support, officials said. 

    During testimony on Tuesday, Sinclair repeatedly rolled his eyes, sighed audibly and stared at his former aide from the defense table. She did not look at him.

    The captain testified that she believed Sinclair's threats because he had gone through special forces training, knew how to kill with his hands and had a reputation as a killer in battle.

    Sinclair was deputy commander in charge of logistics and support for the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan before being abruptly relieved in May amid a criminal probe. He has been on special assignment since then at Fort Bragg, the sprawling post that is home to the 82nd Airborne.

    Sinclair's former commanding officer, Maj. Gen. James Huggins, testified Monday that he launched the criminal investigation that led to the charges after the female captain told him Sinclair forced her to have sex.

    Nearly 30 Air Force Academy cadets injured as ritual turns into 'brawl'

    Huggins said that on March 19, the captain came to his office late at night in tears. She reported that she had been involved in a three-year sexual affair with Sinclair, then her direct commander and a married man. Adultery is a crime under the military code of justice.

    According to Huggins, the captain said Sinclair had once forced her to perform oral sex on him, but that she also had sex willingly with her boss at Army bases in the United States and on deployments to Germany, Iraq and at the airborne division's headquarters in Afghanistan.

    When she had tried to end the affair, Sinclair had threatened her and persisted in pushing for sex, according to Huggins' testimony. But she also told Huggins she finally decided to report Sinclair after finding emails exchanged with other women in his account.

    The captain testified that Sinclair could be cold and demeaning to her and other women in the brigade, calling some of the other women degrading names.

    She testified she told him he shouldn't talk about female officers that way.

    "He said, 'He was a general and he could say whatever the (expletive) he wanted," she testified.

    She said Sinclair was extremely controlling, even telling her when and where she could use the bathroom.

    She described two instances where he forced her to perform oral sex. Prosecutors asked if he would have been able to determine that she did not want to participate and she responded: "Yes, I was crying."

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Manning ordered to face court martial in WikiLeaks case

    By msnbc.com staff and NBC News

    Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is charged in the biggest leak of classified information in U.S. history.

    Bradley Manning, the Army private accused in the WikiLeaks scandal, was ordered Friday to face a general court martial on charges he released thousands of documents of classified information.

    Maj. Gen. Michael Linnington, commander of the Military District of Washington, made the decision after reviewing the case and the recommendations from two other officers.  A military judge will set the date for his arraignment, motion hearings and trial.

    Manning, 24, is charged with "aiding the enemy" and stealing hundreds of thousand of classified US government secrets and cables, which were eventually made public on the internet by WikiLeaks.  The charges claim that Manning illegally downloaded the documents while he was an Army intelligence analyst in Iraq, and that he released those documents knowing they would be published on the Internet and accessible to the enemy.

    If convicted of all charges, Manning would face a maximum punishment of reduction to the lowest enlisted pay grade, total forfeiture of all pay and allowances; confinement for life; and a dishonorable discharge.

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