LT Col. to go on trial on charges of aiding foe (cigars for Saddam)

Va. Officer to Go on Trial On Charges of Aiding Foe

Associated Press
Sunday, October 14, 2007; Page A25

BAGHDAD, Oct. 13 -- A Virginia man who commanded the jail that held Saddam Hussein will face trial in the coming week on charges of aiding the enemy by providing a cellphone to detainees and acting inappropriately with an interpreter, the military said Saturday.

Army Lt. Col. William H. Steele, a reservist from Prince George County, pleaded guilty Oct. 7 to three of seven charges, the military said, and he will be tried on the remaining charges. They include aiding the enemy by providing an unmonitored cellphone to prisoners, giving special privileges, acting inappropriately with an interpreter and failing to obey an order.

Steele already faces as much as six years in prison, forfeiture of pay and dismissal from the Army on his guilty pleas. If convicted of the remaining charges, he could receive a life sentence.

The trial, which has been delayed twice to give lawyers more time to prepare, is scheduled to start Monday.

The alleged incidents took place from October 2005 to February 2007, starting when Steele was commander of the 451st Military Police Detachment at Camp Cropper prison in Baghdad, and during his later post as a senior patrol officer at nearby Camp Victory with the 89th Military Police Brigade.

During pretrial testimony in June, witnesses said Steele approved buying Cuban cigars for ousted leader Saddam Hussein, fraternized with a detainee's daughter and used his service pistol to intimidate tower guards. He has been behind bars in Kuwait since March.

Saddam was held at Camp Cropper until he was hanged by Iraqi authorities in December.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/13/AR2007101301675.html

This guy acted like a raging nutty dictator for two years. The rules? They weren't MADE for him. No problem with fucking some girl from a traditional culture in exchange for giving Pa a cellphone, eh? Read up on this guy--you'll find that life is probably an appropriate sentence.

I'm sure the eleven year old he beat the shit out of feels that way....

There were no details in the story, and on the surface it sounded excessive.:hi:

And God only knows how many others got away with brutal acts.

I guess the Col's fatal mistake was having sex.

Cigars would have been fine to provide for Saddam as a former head of state and VIP prisoner. Cuban ones, though? Naaah. There are perfectly fine cigars available from the military exchange system.

This man exchanged SEX with the daughter of a detainee in exchange for allowing the detainee to use a cellphone, unsupervised, and unmonitored. For that alone, he could have faced the death penalty. He's actually quite lucky that the worst he's looking at is life.

I'm sure that daughter, from that society, was 'thrilled' at the prospect of fucking this clown so Dad could have a cellphone. The media is deliberately glossing over the fact that this guy was screwing Iraqi females, which in itself is interesting--some of that 'self-censorship' encouraged by DOD, perhaps?

Yep, femaleS. He also carried on an affair with an interpreter, and threatened tower guards with a pistol. And he mishandled classified material in ways that you learn not to do in boot camp.

Oh, but wait--there's more. He beat the living shit out of his stepson, aged eleven or so, and the charges were dropped in exchange for his ceding custody.

He also threatened a Lebanese American guy, a contractor, back here in the states, called him "Al Quaeda" and was a total asshole to the man. That wound up in court, too.

Don't cry for this jerk. He's an ASSHOLE.

At Hearing in Iraq, U.S. Colonel Is Cast As Flouter of Rules

By Karin Brulliard and Eric Rich
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 2, 2007

<snip>

In Florida, Steele was charged in 1993 with aggravated child abuse in connection with the alleged mistreatment of a stepson, 11. According to an arrest affidavit filed in court, Steele struck the boy for failing to complete homework and chores, deprived him of food and called him "worthless."

Steele was also charged with resisting arrest when deputies sought to take him into custody Nov. 1, 1993, in connection with the alleged abuse. Prosecutors dropped both charges, in part because of concern about requiring the child to testify. In a subsequent proceeding in family court, Steele and his wife lost custody of the child, according to a source with knowledge of the proceeding.

In Prince George County, Steele was charged with two misdemeanor offenses after a dispute over the construction of a shed in 2003. Complainant Bachir Jamil, a contractor, said in court papers that Steele menaced him, saying, "You better get out of here or I'll blow your head off," and that Steele accused him of working for al-Qaeda.

Jamil, who was born in Lebanon and has lived in the United States for 53 years, said in an interview that Steele bragged about being a "big guy in the Army."

Steele was convicted, in District Court, on one count of threatening bodily harm. He appealed to Circuit Court, where a judge found evidence sufficient to support the conviction but agreed to dismiss the charge, and later did so, after Steele completed anger management therapy, court records show.

<more>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/01/AR2007050101872_pf.html

Because he bullied and threatened the tower guards for a two year period while he was assigned to Cropper and they've made statements to the effect. What, you think they MADE IT UP?

Because one of the two individuals he fucked have come forward and given statements. The other one ran like hell.

WTF is WRONG with you? What would MOTIVATE the military to drag this embarrassing, incompetent asshole forward and splash his name and crimes all over the media? If anything's RIPE for a coverup, this sort of thing would be, to save their reputation--but they can't cover it up, because this guy's offenses are way over the top, and way greater than just a few cigars.

Why do you think they're trying to DOWNPLAY the 'fucking' aspect? They're very concerned about Iraqis getting exorcised about an American soldier screwing (raping) the local women.

Have you no capacity whatsoever to distinguish between events? Is everything "lumping" as far as you are concerned when it comes to military matters? This guy beat the shit out of an eleven year old child, let detainees use a cellphone without having anyone monitor their conversations, and sexually abused two women (at least). And you go after the MILITARY for calling him on it? They've made plenty of mistakes, but they got this one right.

Pat Tillman's situation was a coverup of an event that took place in a moment, a blink of an eye, with a swift attempt to try to hide what happened--that he was killed by friendly fire. They took shit, and tried to make lemonade, with no long term success. Their lies were exposed.

This situation, OTOH, was MASSIVE misconduct over the course of a two year tour. You'd think they'd WANT to cover this one up, if they were being nefarious, because revealing it makes them LOOK BAD. This guy was the poster child for LOUSY LEADERSHIP.

The cigars are the lead in the story (and, FWIW, that charge has been DISMISSED)http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g3Hep4ZF3Uj3sfKjutcqvXJG5EdAD8S8GS9G0 , but the REAL issue, the women-fucking, is the major (unmentioned) problem. That's a culture that doesn't take too kindly to that shit. It's imperative that they call this guy to account, nip that behavior in the bud, punish it severely, because that kind of abuse can't be tolerated.

This guy is a real charmer, sure:

After Steele was charged with aiding the enemy, the press reported on two earlier incidents in which Steele had been involved with the courts. In November 1993, he was charged with felony aggravated child abuse for his verbal and physical abuse of his 11-year-old stepson. From court records, " was punched. He was thrown across the room for eating food without asking." Steele was also charged with resisting an officer with violence, another felony. Both charges were dropped when he agreed to give up custody. <7>

In 2003, Steele was charged with two misdemeanor offenses during a dispute with a contractor. The contractor, who was born in Lebanon, accused Steele of saying: "You better get out of here or I'll blow your head off," and said that Steele "accused him of working for al-Qaeda". Steele was convicted on one count of threatening bodily harm, but upon appeal the charges were dismissed after Steele completed anger management therapy.<8>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Steele

BAGHDAD, April 30 — A senior commander in the American military’s main detention center here testified Monday at a military hearing that his predecessor, Lt. Col. William H. Steele, gave computer programs and other gifts to the daughter of a high-value detainee.

The commander, Lt. Col. Quentin Crank, whose military police unit took over for Colonel Steele’s at Camp Cropper in October 2006, said the gifts, which would be a breach of military law and Iraqi cultural norms, were given after Colonel Steele had moved to another assignment in Iraq. The detainee was said to be outraged by the personal contact with his daughter, telling American officials that Colonel Steele was trying to supplant his role as father.

A computer forensics expert testified that an IBM laptop recovered during the investigation contained classified material, 37 adult pornographic videos, 122 adult pornographic images and an e-mail message to an undisclosed person that “appeared to be adulterous in nature.” A second laptop, a Dell, contained the text of a secret document, the investigator said. ... The hearing is to weigh the evidence against Colonel Steele, 51, a married reservist from Prince George, Va., who has had prior scrapes with the law. In November 1993, he was charged with aggravated child abuse and resisting an officer with violence, both felonies, according to Hernando County, Fla., court records.

A state prosecutor accused Colonel Steele, a former Hernando County sheriff’s deputy, of physically and verbally abusing his 11-year-old stepson for homework errors, and of padlocking the family’s refrigerator and food cabinets to prevent the boy from eating, according to court records. The charges were dropped when Colonel Steele, an Army reservist at the time, agreed to give up custody of the boy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/01/world/middleeast/01steele.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

Yeah, this guy is a "poor victim" of the military machine....NOT. He's an asshole. I hope they throw not just the book, but the whole damned law library, at him.

:hide:

You couldn't give Saddam cigars from the exchange system because the Geneva Convention specifically forbids providing White Owls to detainees. They had to get them from somewhere, and once you get outside the United States, cigars come from Cuba. The United States is the only country in the world that doesn't allow Habanos to be sold openly.

I figure Saddam probably got half the sticks that were originally purchased with tax dollars...because when you're screwing prisoners' daughters and pointing loaded pistols at YOUR OWN TOWER GUARDS, what's a little misappropriation of funds among friends?