User:Geo Swan/look/Jeffrey Waruch

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Update[edit]

I requested userification of of Jeffrey Waruch earlier this year when Edward L. Richmond (Pfc) was discussed at {{afd}}. I agreed, at that time, that Richmond's article should be changed into an article about the shooting incident.

Earlier today I looked at this article, and considered either placing a {{db-author}} on it, or merging it with the article on the Richmond shooting incident.

I found there were possibly enough references to support Waruch being involved in 2 events. So I am going to ask for input from others as to:

  1. deletion
  2. merge to the Richmond incident
  3. restore to article space... Geo Swan (talk) 23:57, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Content[edit]

Sergeant Jeffrey Waruch was a witness against his subordinate, Edward L. Richmond, who was convicted on involuntary manslaughter.[1][2][3][4][5] On February 28 2004, Richmond shot an unarmed, bound Iraqi captive in the back of the head. Waruch, and others, testified that Richmond had asked for permission to shoot cowherd Muhamad Husain Kadir. Waruch's team had Kadir under observation, prior to investing his village. Kadir was unarmed, and they had no reason to assume he had any ties to resistance fighters. Yet, according to the testimony of Waruch and other, Richmond asked permission to shoot Kadir, and said he "wanted to shoot an Iraqi".

On October 3 2005, Richmond's lawyer, Charles Gittins, initiated an appeal based on the allegation that Waruch himself had been involved in a civilian shooting ten days earlier, on February 8, 2004.[6]

According to Gittins:

The Army confirmed that investigators are looking into the February 8, 2004, incident in which 14-year-old Intisar Saleh was shot along with her sister and mother as they fled the scene of a roadside bomb attack on a U.S. convoy.

In January 2006 Waruch too was discharged from the Army, for the earlier February 8, 2004 shooting.[7][6][8] James M. Skelly, a senior fellow at the Baker Institute for Peace & Conflict Studies, described several problems that cropped up prior to Waruch's deployment to Iraq. Marcus Warner, the Staff Sergeant of Waruch's platoon, described Waruch as "a cancer to my soldiers", that he didn't him deployed to Iraq, and that he wanted him "to get … out of my platoon." According to Skelly not long before his Iraqi deployment two women had restraining orders filed against Waruch, and that he had been required to surrender his personal weapons.

The trigger for the shooting was an improvised explosive device explosion that caused minor injuries.[8] Waruch shot Shaha Jawad al-Jabouri, her daughter Intisar al-Jabouri, and another daughter, who had been weeding a beanfield half a mile away when the explosion went off.

Skelly wrote that, after the explosion:

...Waruch, who spotted the women tending their crops, ran hundreds of yards from the bomb site toward al-Jabouri and her daughters, Samira and Intisar. As they attempted to flee, Waruch shot them all.

Skelly wrote that Major-General Benjamin R Mixon, the commander of Waruch's Division chose to discharge Waruch, rather than lay charges against him, even though he had been told Waruch violated the rules of engagement.[8]

A 2012 article in The Atlantic, about what can go wrong when soldiers are tasked to a police role, specifically cited Waruch's instructions prior to the incident where Waruch was shot.[9] Rizer noted that Waruch's instructions to his men were authorized to shoot all men who fled the village, but they should ask a superior first -- if one was conveniently nearby. Rizer represented Richmond's request to shoot Muhamad Husain Kadir as a follow-up to Waruch's initial order.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Gregg Kakesako (2004-08-05). "Schofield soldier gets 3 years for killing Iraqi citizen". Honolulu Star Bulletin via the Information Clearing House. Archived from the original on 2010-11-18. A Schofield Barracks soldiers was sentenced today to three years in prison and given a dishonorable discharge for shooting to death an unarmed Iraqi cowherder who was handcuffed. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead= ignored (help)
  2. ^ Peter Boylan (2004-06-18). "Schofield soldier faces court-martial for Iraqi death". Honolulu Advertiser. Archived from the original on 2010-11-18. "There have been relatively few number of cases where specifically servicemen were charged and court-martialed for murder," said Marine Corps Capt. Bruce Frame, a U.S. Central Command spokesman in Tampa. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead= ignored (help)
  3. ^ Peter Boylan (2004-06-30). "Murder charge is unjust, soldier says". Honolulu Advertiser. Archived from the original on 2010-11-18. A Schofield Barracks soldier facing a court martial on a charge of murdering a handcuffed and unarmed Iraqi cowherder said he shot the man to defend another soldier. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead= ignored (help)
  4. ^ Michael St. Jacques (2004-02-28). "The Military Criminal Revealed". OpEd News. Archived from the original on 2010-11-18. On Feb. 28, 2004, in al-Hawijah, a city southeast of Kirkuk, Pfc. Edward L. Richmond Jr and Sgt. Jeffrey Waruch were part of a raid, in which they received radio orders to detain all males in the village. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead= ignored (help)
  5. ^ Steve Liewer (2004-06-17). "Court-martial set for soldier charged in Iraqi man's death". Stars and Stripes. Archived from the original on 2010-11-18. Pfc. Edward L. Richmond, 20, of the 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, is scheduled for court-martial about Aug. 1, said Maj. Debra Stewart. She said Maj. Gen. John Batiste, commander of Task Force Danger, referred the charges to a court-martial Tuesday after reviewing an Article 32 report — the military equivalent of a grand jury investigation — of the killing. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead= ignored (help)
  6. ^ a b Kevin Whiteman (2010-05-25). "Army Refuses Soldier Chance To Clear His Name". Wilmington Conservative Examiner. Waruch was accused in the other shooting, in which a 13-year-old girl was killed and her mother and sister wounded. Waruch was discharged without being accused of a crime. Army officials determined it was unlikely they would find sufficient evidence against him. {{cite journal}}: |archive-url= requires |url= (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Unknown parameter |dead= ignored (help)
  7. ^ "Soldier who killed Iraqi girl in 2004 discharged; no criminal charges filed". Molokai Advertiser. 2006-03-29. Retrieved 2010-11-18.
  8. ^ a b c James M. Skelly (2006-06-08). "American soldiers and war crimes in Iraq". Open Democracy. Archived from the original on 2010-11-18. An example of such individuals is Sergeant Jeffrey Waruch, who was discharged from the United States army in late January 2006 after shooting a mother, Shaha Jawad al-Jabouri, and her two daughters in mid-February 2004. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead= ignored (help)
  9. ^ Arthur Rizer (2012-01-17). "Asking Our Soldiers to Do Police Work: Why It Can Lead to Disaster". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2015-03-01. Richmond's squad leader, Sergeant Jeffrey Waruch, instructed the squad on its rules of engagement: "Shoot any males fleeing the village, but check with [the squad leader] if possible before firing."{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

External links[edit]