FORT CARSON, Colo. – One of four soldiers charged with shoving two Iraqi civilians into the Tigris River where one of them drowned says his superior officers ordered up the incident and told him what to say to officials looking into the death, an Army investigator testified Wednesday.
Spc. Terry Bowman said he “was told by his chain of command what version to give CID,” Sgt. Irene Cintron of the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command (CID) said during a teleconference from Iraq as the military convened a hearing to determine whether the soldiers will be court-martialed.
Bowman said he had been ordered to push the men into the river, Cintron said. No names were disclosed, though three of the soldiers’ commanders have received nonjudicial punishments for their roles in the incident. None of the punishments include jail time.
Sgt. 1st Class Tracy E. Perkins, 33, 1st Lt. Jack M. Saville, 24 and Sgt. Reggie Martinez, 24, are charged with involuntary manslaughter in the Jan. 3 drowning death of a man identified by family members in Iraq as Zaidoun Fadel Hassoun, 19.
Bowman, 21, is charged with assault for allegedly pushing the second man into the river at the same time. That man, a cousin of Hassoun named Marwan Fadel Hassoun, 23, survived the incident and described what happened to The Associated Press several weeks ago.
Marwan Hassoun said he tried to help his cousin swim to safety, only to lose his grip as the soldiers watched and laughed from above.** “They were behaving like they were watching a comedy on stage,” he told the AP.**
According to Cintron, investigators learned of the death in an e-mail from the victim’s family. She said she met with Marwan Hassoun on Jan. 16, and he told her how they were stopped after getting supplies in Baghdad and then driven to the bridge several miles north of Samarra.
Marwan Hassoun said he watched the soldiers push his cousin into the water and then he was pushed in, Cintron testified. He said he could hear his cousin screaming.
“He said it was eight meters (24 feet) deep and at no point did he feel the bottom of the river,” she said. She described the drop from the bridge as 10-12 feet.
A search was begun for a body and it was found two or three miles downriver.
US soldiers push Iraqis of Bridge to their death!
This is what Amerikkan liberation in Iraq is about death and destruction!
:mad2: