The court-martial of Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, 26, marks
the climax of an 18-month investigation of the most egregious case of
atrocities US military personnel are accused of committing during a decade of
war in Afghanistan.
Pentagon officials have said the misconduct exposed by the
case, which began as a probe into hashish use within Gibbs’ unit, had damaged
America’s image around the globe.
Published photographs showing two fellow soldiers posing
with the bloodied corpse of an Afghan boy they had just killed have drawn
comparisons to the inflammatory Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq in
2004.
Gibbs, from Billings, Montana, is charged with three counts
of premeditated murder, as well as cutting fingers off dead bodies and beating
a fellow soldier who had alerted superiors to widespread drug abuse within
their unit.
Charging documents said he was found in possession of
"finger bones, leg bones and a tooth taken from Afghan corpses." If
convicted of all charges, Gibbs faces a maximum sentence of life in prison
without the possibility of parole.
Prosecutors have cast him as the chief instigator among five
infantrymen from the 5th Stryker Brigade accused of slaying civilians in random
killings staged to look like legitimate combat casualties in Kandahar province.
Seven others soldiers were charged with various lesser
offenses, ranging from assault for opening fire at civilians to using illegal
drugs. Most have already reached plea deals.
About 30 witnesses are expected to testify during the
court-martial, slated to run through next week at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near
Tacoma, Washington, according to Army spokesman Major Christopher Ophardt.
The first day of proceedings will likely be devoted to
selecting a jury panel and handling procedural motions.
