Marine Testifies His Unit Was Urged To Beat Iraqis, Viewed All Iraqi Men As Insurgents
July 15, 2007 1:41 p.m. EST
Christopher Rizo - AHN Staff Writer
Camp Pendleton, CA (AHN)-Testifying Saturday at the murder trial of a fellow Marine, Cpl. Sal Lopezromo said his unit began routinely beating Iraqis after being ordered by officers to "crank up the violence level."
Lopezromo, testifying at the murder trial of Cpl. Trent D. Thomas, when asked by a juror for further explanation, said: "We beat people, sir."
After being derided as less-than other platoons, seven Marines and a Navy corpsman went out late one night to find and kill a suspected insurgent in the village of Hamdaniya, near the Abu Ghraib prison.
Unable to find him, the Marines and corpsman dragged another man from his house, fatally shot him and then planted an AK-47 assault rifle near the 52-year-old man's body to make it appear he had been killed in a shootout, according to court testimony reported by The Associated Press.
The men, from the 2nd Platoon, Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment, were charged initially with murder in the April 2006 killing, but have pleaded guilty to reduced charges and been given jail sentences ranging from 10 months to eight years.
Thomas, 25, from St. Louis, Missouri, pleaded guilty but withdrew his plea and is the first defendant to go to court-martial, according to The Associated Press.
Lopezromo was not part of the squad on its late-night mission, and told jurors he said he saw nothing wrong with what Thomas did.
"I don't see it as an execution, sir; I see it as killing the enemy," said Lopezromo, adding that Marines consider all Iraqi men as part of the insurgency.
Thomas' defense team have argued their client suffers from post -traumatic stress disorder and from a traumatic brain injury stemming from combat duty in Falluja in 2004. Thomas, they argue, believed he was following an order to get tougher on insurgents.
