Joint BASE LEWIS, Washington MCCHORD - members of a unit of the U.S. Army consumed drug use randomly drawn Afghan civilians to kill and then not to report abuses of fear that would suffer reprisals from their Commander, according to testimony in the court-martial Monday.
The testimony at a hearing to determine whether one of these soldiers, specialist Jeremy b. Morlock, would face a military court and a possible death sentence, came the same day that leaked a video tape in the case shows Morlock specialist talking to researchers of the murders in macabre detail with no apparent emotion.
Senior army officials fear that the case against specialist Morlock and four other soldiers accused in the murder of three Afghan civilians will undermine efforts to build relations with the Afghans in the war against the Taliban.
The soldiers are accused of possession of the dismembered body parts, including fingers and a skull and collect pictures of dead Afghan. Some images show soldiers posing with the dead. They are believed to evidence as 70 images.
Some of the soldiers have said in documents of Court were forced to participate in the killings, a supervisor, Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, who is also accused of the murders. Said all five accused are not guilty.
In one incident, Morlock specialist in the video, described the Gibbs Sergeant identification without apparent reason, an Afghan civilian in a village, then go specialist Morlock and another soldier fired on the man after Sergeant Gibbs commiserate a grenade in their direction.
"Type of me post Winfield out of here so it had a line of sight of this guy, you know, he pulled one of his grenades, an American grenade, came me, throws the grenade and says I and Winfield: ' well, this type of wax. This guy kill, kill this guy,' "specialist Morlock said in the video.
Referring to the Afghans, the researcher asked: "made him see present arms? Was it aggressive towards you at all? "
Specialist Morlock responded: "No, not at all. There is nothing. Was not a threat. "
As the hearing on Monday it was launching, CNN and ABC News broadcast video. In the CNN clip and the clip of ABC, specialist Morlock, speaking in a monotone nearby, seems a teenager tells a story to his parents.
CNN also broadcasts video of the interview of a soldier who is not accused of the murders, but he has been accused of lesser crimes, held Emmitt r. Quintal.
When asked by a researcher when and how often the members of the unit used illegal drugs, Corporal Quintal, sitting on the fatigue of camouflage, said was in "bad days, stressful days, days that we only needed to escape".
He was the interview with Morlock specialist in Kandahar in may, while it was en route to an evaluation medical for what lawyers said was possibly a traumatic brain injury suffered during its implementation. They say that he was taking medication prescribed by the medical military muscle stress, pain and sleep deprivation, although they said it didnt they could still establish exactly when taken the medication and how it could have affected him.
Specialist Morlock, who grew up in Wasilla, Alaska, appeared in court Monday, but did not testify.
Michael Waddington, his lawyer, questioned the Army investigators by telephone from their place of destination in Afghanistan. Mr. Waddington asked several times whether specialist Morlock was found to be under the influence of medication in interviews. Some researchers describe specialist Morlock as tired and sometimes apathy, but was told that it was consistent and had a strong memory for details.
The video to the defence lawyers to help them prepare their case, was not going by the military to make public.
"The disclosure of these video recordings is worrisome because it could affect the process of military justice," said Colonel Tom Collins, a spokesman for the army.
The power of images in the case was evident last week, when the Commander of the Stryker Brigade that served soldiers ordered photographic evidence strictly controlled by researchers in joint Base Lewis-McChord, with limited access to lawyers.
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