Lt Gen Samuel Helland: One Small Step, But Not Even Close to Right Yet

Interesting developments in the Camp Lejeune case today.

RALEIGH , N.C. - Two Marine officers in a unit that was accused of killing as many as 19 Afghan civilians in 2007 will not face criminal charges, the military said Friday.

Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, the commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Central Command, made the decision not to bring charges after reviewing the findings of a special tribunal that heard more than three weeks of testimony in January at Camp Lejuene.

The tribunal investigated allegations that as many as 19 Afghan civilians died when a unit of Lejeune-based Marine special operations troops opened fire after a car bomb targeted their convoy on March 4, 2007 in Nangahar Province.

This decision is very significant for several reasons.  First, it's a small victory for those of us advocating on behalf of Marines and soldiers accused of "war crimes" while doing their job--which is primarily, by the way, killing the enemy last time I checked. 

What makes the decision interesting is that General Helland just happens to be the same officer who served as the convening authority in the SGT Lawrence Hutchins case.  Hutchins is better known as the squad leader of the Pendleton 8, a group of Marines who, together with their Navy Corpsman, were accused of murder after taking out a terrorist in April 2006.  All but Hutchins finally broke after 18-hour interrogations and months of confinement in solitary, shackled conditions that Gen. James Mattis called too severe. 

The men took plea deals, pointed the finger at Hutchins, and now all seven of them are free--or at least, not imprisoned.  Hutchins remains in the brig at Camp Pendleton, recently sentenced to 15 years in a kangaroo court-martial.  General Helland, even though the government still to this day cannot prove that the Marines killed anyone besides the terrorist they were sent to kill, reduced Hutchins' sentence to 11 years in what was apparently meant to be fair and just, but was still just a steaming pile of undue command influence.  The government's entire case rested on their ability to threaten seven men long enough and hard enough to get them to sign statements admitting something they did not do.  Everyone has a breaking point, and the NCIS made sure they found every single one.  The results are honorable Marines now facing life as federal felons and one in jail for the next six years--in return for doing their job.

Why the shortsightedness in the Hutchins case, and the contrasting willingness to do the right thing in the Lejeune case?  The evidence showing Hutchins to be innocent is overwhelming, public, and freely available.  The undue command influence recently found by a military judge in the Haditha case has been touted as a huge victory for not only LtCol Jeffrey Chessani, but also for Hutchins, who stands to benefit from the door finally being opened to show the same in his own case.

Whether Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland can and will do the right thing twice in a row remains to be seen.  Judging from his track record thus far, I'm not expecting much. These days in Marine Corps leadership, honor seems to be in short supply.

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Kit Lange is a freelance military investigative journalist who has investigated almost every  American "war crime" case since the Ilario Pantano case in 2005.  She also co-wrote the series Brother Against Brother, debunking criminal allegations against the F/58th Infantry LRPs in Vietnam.  She blogs at EuphoricReality.com.