U.S. officer in Iraq charged with aiding the enemy
Another black eye for the US military but the fact that they're taking care of guys like this themselves shines well on the system.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070426/ts_nm/iraq1_dc
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The officer in charge of a key U.S. military detention camp in Iraq has been charged with "aiding the enemy" and having improper relationships, including one with a detainee's daughter, the military said on Thursday.
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Lieutenant-Colonel William Steele, commander of the 451st Military Police Detachment, was in charge of the detention facilities at Camp Cropper near Baghdad international airport.
"He has been in detention in Kuwait since last month pending an Article 32 hearing, which is a preliminary hearing where evidence will be presented to determine whether this should go to court-martial," said U.S. military spokeswoman Lieutenant- Colonel Josslyn Aberle.
Saddam Hussein spent his last days at the camp before his execution last December. It holds more than 3,000 detainees.
Steele was accused of "aiding the enemy" by providing detainees with unmonitored mobile phones, a U.S. military statement said.
He was also charged with having an improper relationship with a translator and with the daughter of a detainee, as well as wrongfully keeping pornographic videos. The offences are alleged to have occurred between October 2005 and February 2007.
"These charges are merely an accusation of wrongdoing. Lieutenant-Colonel Steele is presumed innocent unless and until he is proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of any alleged offence," the statement said.
Former senior members of Saddam's regime are held at Cropper. But the U.S. military confirmed for the first time on Thursday that Saddam himself had been kept in another, secret facility and only visited the camp for medical check-ups. He stayed there in the days leading up to his execution on December 30.
CHECKPOINT ATTACK
In fresh violence, a suicide car bomber killed 10 Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint north of Baghdad. The bomber rammed his car into a checkpoint in the town of Khalis, 80 km (50 miles) from Baghdad, police said. Another 15 people were wounded.
It was the third major bomb attack this week in volatile Diyala province, where U.S. and Iraqi forces are engaged in fierce fighting with entrenched insurgents and al Qaeda militants as part of a security crackdown.
Tens of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops have been deployed in and around Baghdad since mid-February as part of the crackdown which is seen as a last-ditch attempt to stop all-out sectarian civil war in Iraq.
At least another six people were killed and 15 wounded in a car bomb blast in the religiously mixed Jadriya district in southern Baghdad on Thursday, police said.
In Washington, the House of Representatives defied President George W. Bush's threat of a veto and approved a bill providing new funds for the war while at the same time setting a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops by March 31, 2008.
U.S. officials say the Baghdad crackdown is part of a plan to buy time for the government of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to reach political benchmarks aimed at reconciling warring communities so U.S. troops can eventually leave.
Maliki says U.S. troops will not leave until Iraqi security forces are ready to take over.
U.S. military officials said they had anticipated that the crackdown around the "Baghdad beltway" would force insurgents to focus their attacks outside the capital on areas like Diyala, which has a mixed population of Sunni Arabs and Shi'ites.
"Diyala is one of the hotspots in Iraq right now, along with Baghdad and Anbar province, where much of the insurgents' effort is going to," said U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver. "Diyala has become a battleground."
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Originally Posted by LiberalNation
