March 23, 2003
SHOCK AND AWE:
EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT: Tragedy at Camp Pennsylvania (Jim Lacey, March 23, 2003, TIME)TIME's Jim Lacey has been traveling with the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division. Over two weeks ago, they had set up camp in northern Kuwait just 20 miles south of the Iraqi border. Then the drama began:It was 1:45 Sunday morning when I was awakened by the first blast—a boom 10 times louder than a car backfiring. Ten seconds later there was a second blast, and then soldiers started screaming, "Get out! Get out!" Someone had slipped two hand grenades into the tent housing more than a dozen of the brigade's officers. One woman in my tent, which was 10 yards away from the explosion, yelled, "I'm hit." A piece of shrapnel from the grenade had lodged in her leg.
I ran out of my tent into total chaos.
We're supposed to be making Saddam wonder who's loyal to him, not having to wonder who amongst us is loyal. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 23, 2003 1:36 PM
Time Magazine said the soldier had a "Muslim name".
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030331-435901,00.html
Take it from an old-time Marine Judge Advocate: this is a capital offense, much more serious than mere murder. If this guy is other than a real McNaughtin nut case, he's going.
Posted by: Lou Gots at March 23, 2003 3:23 PMThe U.S. just executed a solider last week for a rape-murder committed nine years ago against a female solider, both of whom were stationed at an air force base in San Angelo, Texas. Obviously not the same thing, but it does show under the current conditions, the military and civilian higher-ups in charge are not likely to go easy on this guy if he is guilty, though the actual execution would probably be several years away.
Posted by: John at March 23, 2003 4:29 PMLou:
He hid, so he doesn't get a McNaughtin (sp?) defense.
M'Naghten, I believe.
My paper did not mention the Muslim angle,
though there were plenty of references to it
in the blogosphere before the presses rolled.
People go nuts in a war zone. It might well be
that a Muslim convert is even more likely to go
nuts.
Despite my Islamophobia, my first impression is
that this was just a stray event of the kind
you get in armies. Time will tell.
I await CAIR's spin.
I can't imagine a worse crime than being a turncoat and attacking your comrades in arms. If true I hope he is executed swiftly. Is it true that one of the DC snipers commited a similar grenade attack in 1991? If true why was he not punished?
Posted by: Thomas J. Jackson at March 23, 2003 11:06 PMYes, he was suspected of rolling a grenade into a tent. Unfortunately, assaults on your own are rather frequent in war.
Posted by: oj at March 23, 2003 11:28 PMI read that this guy's name was not originally
Muslim. It was Fidel.