Alleged baiting of insurgents under spotlight

[unhappycamper]

Alleged baiting of insurgents under spotlight
By Pauline Jelinek and Robert Burns - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Sep 24, 2007 22:20:34 EDT

WASHINGTON — Army snipers hunting insurgents in Iraq were under orders to “bait” a targeted area with suspicious materials such as detonation cords and then kill whoever retrieves the planted items, according to the defense attorney for a soldier accused of planting evidence on an Iraqi he killed.

~snip~

“We believe that our client has done nothing more than he was instructed to do by superiors,” Myers said in a telephone interview.

Myers and Vela’s father, Curtis Carnahan in the state of Idaho, said in separate interviews that sworn statements and testimony in the cases of two other accused Ranger snipers indicate that the Army has a classified program that encourages snipers to “bait” potential targets and then kill whoever takes the bait.

The Army declined on Monday to confirm that such a program exists.

“To prevent the enemy from learning about our tactics, techniques and training procedures, we don’t discuss specific methods targeting enemy combatants,” said Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman.

Boyce also said there are no classified programs that authorize the murder of Iraqi civilians, and the use of “drop weapons” to make killings appeared to be legally justified, which is what Vela and the two other snipers are accused of doing.

Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/09/ap_snipersiraq_070924/