FALLUJAH MURDER TRIAL UNDERWAY By: Nathaniel R. Helms

Thursday, August 21, 2008 | 

View from the courtroom: The Nazario trial, day one Riverside, CA – Former Marine squad leader Jose L. Nazario showed little emotion Thursday morning when the presiding US District Judge granted a defense motion to exclude the incriminating statement of a former squad member that triggered the world-wide investigation.

Nazario is charged with voluntary manslaughter, abetting murder and unlawfully using his weapon in a crime. He was charged under a new federal law that provides the government with the authority to prosecute former service members who have completed their military obligation and no longer subject to military law.

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Ex-Marine decries prosecution in civilian court (Chelsea Carter’s call)

[Blog Note:  Jose Nazario is NOT an "ex-" Marine. He is a FORMER Marine...Murtha IS an EX-Marine!]

By CHELSEA J. CARTER – 23 hours ago

IRVINE, Calif. (AP) — A former Marine sergeant facing the first federal civilian prosecution of a military member accused of a war crime says there is much more at stake than his claim of innocence on charges that he killed unarmed detainees in Fallujah, Iraq.

In the view of Jose Luis Nazario Jr., U.S. troops may begin to question whether they will be prosecuted by civilians for doing what their military superiors taught them to do in battle.

Nazario is the first military service member who has completed his duty to be brought to trial under a law that allows the government to prosecute defense contractors, military dependents and those no longer in the military who commit crimes outside the United States.

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Whether or Not I Know for Sure: How NCIS Got Its Man in Fallujah Murder Case
 
by Nathaniel R. Helms | July 15, 2008
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Marine Sgt. Ryan Weemer is accused of murdering an enemy combatant captured a few hours after his squad crossed the line of departure on November 9, 2004 to attack Fallujah, Iraq.

The government claims somebody gave Weemer’s squad leader an order over a radio to kill four prisoners they had just captured and Weemer was one of the Marines who complied.

Weemer’s former squad leader Jose L. Nazario, and Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, an assaultman attached to his squad, are also accused of murder in the affair.

After Weemer and Nelson waived their right to legal counsel they both gave voluntary sworn statements to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service attesting to their guilt.

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By Allison Hoffman
ASSOCIATED PRESS

4:49 p.m. July 11, 2008

CAMP PENDLETON – A military investigating officer hearing the case of a Marine sergeant accused of shooting an unarmed Iraqi detained in Fallujah said Friday it would be a struggle to determine whether the killing amounted to murder amid the “kinetic environment” of war.

Sgt. Ryan Weemer is one of three current and former Marines accused of breaking rules of engagement and killing four men they had captured after a platoon commander radioed to ask whether the Iraqis were “dead yet.”

The killings allegedly happened in November 2004 during the invasion of Fallujah, one of the fiercest ground battles of the Iraq war.

The case came to light in 2006, when Weemer volunteered details to a U.S. Secret Service job interviewer during a polygraph screening [BLOG NOTE: Remember, polygraphs require only a "yes" or "no" response] that included a question about the most serious crime he had ever committed.

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UPDATE to this post:
July 4, 2008
A federal judge Thursday ordered two Marines released from jail despite their refusal to testify before a grand jury probing the alleged killing of four Iraqi prisoners by Marines during the battle for Fallouja in late 2004.  U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson said that Sgt. Jermaine Nelson and Sgt. Ryan Weemer are still in contempt of court, but that keeping them behind bars was futile. Their lawyers had argued that they would never testify before the grand jury, which in particular is looking at the actions of former Sgt. Jose Nazario.

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“JUDICIAL WATERBOARDING” OUR MARINES

By: GI Wilson and William McNulty

Marine Sergeants Jermaine Nelson and Ryan Weemer are currently in jail for refusing to testify in a civilian war crimes trial against fellow Marine and former squad leader Jose Nazario, now a civilian and honorably discharged Marine.

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