US 'kill team' trial: jury considers Calvin Gibbs verdict

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

A military jury is considering its verdict in the trial of a US soldier accused of leading a "kill team" in Afghanistan which murdered unarmed civilians and collected body parts as war trophies.

Staff sergeant Calvin Gibbs, 26, faces a range of charges including murder, assault and conspiracy over the killings of three Afghans in separate incidents last year, in situations allegedly staged to look as if the victims were combatants.

In one of the most serious accusations of war crimes to emerge from the Afghan conflict, Gibbs is alleged to have recruited other soldiers to murder civilians he called "savages" after he took over command of a US army platoon in Afghanistan's Kandahar province in November 2009.

The military prosecutor, major Rob Stelle, told the court: "Sergeant Gibbs had a charisma, he had a 'follow me' personality. But it was all a bunch of crap, he had his own mission: murder and depravity. No one died before Sergeant Gibbs showed up".

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/10/trial-jury-calvin-gibbs-verdict

[lunasun]

1. One of his victims was sleeping! none of them armed= psycho plus coward

sick that others followed him so eager
how did he get to stf sgt?
bet they sent those pictures out with little truth to accompany and a false story/show of bravery
.................................................................................................................
Gibbs is accused of inciting two soldiers to kill 15 year-old Gul Mudin, who was working in a field. Gibbs allegedly gave a grenade to one of the soldiers, Jeremy Morlock, who threw it at Mudin. A second soldier, Andrew Holmes, then shot the boy. Gibbs played with the corpse of the teenager "as if it was a puppet", Morlock told the trial.

Gibbs and another soldier, Michael Wagnon, are alleged to have shot dead a man sleeping by a roadside, Marach Agha, and then to have planted a Kalashnikov next to the corpse to make it look as if he was a fighter. Gibbs allegedly kept part of the victim's skull as a trophy.

Gibbs, Morlock, and a third soldier, Adam Winfield, allegedly killed a Muslim cleric, Mullah Adahdad, with a grenade and then shot him.

The soldiers are alleged to have collected fingers, teeth and other body parts as trophies. They also took photographs of themselves posing next to their dead victims. In one of the pictures, Morlock is seen lifting Mudin's head by its hair for the camera, and smiling.

[alp227]

2. UPDATE: Soldier Convicted of Killing Afghan Civilians for Sport

The soldier accused of being the ringleader of a rogue Army unit that killed three Afghan civilians last year for sport, crimes that angered Afghan leaders and villagers and rattled high levels of the American military, was found guilty of all charges on Thursday.

The soldier, Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, 26, of Billings, Mont., was found guilty of three counts of murder, of conspiring to commit murder and several other charges, including assaulting a fellow soldier and taking fingers and a tooth from the dead. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/11/us/calvin-gibbs-convicted-of-killing-civilians-in-afghanistan.html

Happy veteran's day, murderer!