On October 26, 2010, CNN had an article about 5 US soldiers charged with killing civilians in Afghanistan for sport. The group faces charges such as drug use, premeditated murder, possessing pictures of corpses, and possessing body parts. The group smoked hashish, and when another soldier blew the whistle on their drug use, staff sergeant Calvin Gibbs allegedly threw human fingers at him. Soldiers in the group collected body parts as war trophies and posed them in photographs. One soldier was charged with possessing a human skull.
[Afghan Kush is some of the most potent marijuana in the world. And hashish (hash) made from it would be even more potent. In the early 90s, James A. Inciardi wrote that the THC content of hash varies from 15 to 70%, and the THC content of hash oil varies from 30 to 90%. On a related note, you may be interested in reading about the Hashshashin, which is where the word assassin comes from.]
The youngest of the 5 men, Pfc. Andrew Holmes, a 20-year-old from Idaho, came home on leave in April 2010. During that time his mother said he was paranoid, worried someone was going to harm his family, and always asking where his family was.
Around April 2010, the Army began an investigation into suspected illegal drug use by their platoon, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, Fifth Brigade.
Some of the men are being held, awaiting court martial, where the platoon was based, Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington.
Holmes is accused of conspiring with Cpl. Jeremy Morlock to shoot at a civilian in January and throw a grenade to make it look like they were under attack. Morlock's civilian attorney Michael Waddington said his client was suffering from brain damage during that time and not properly treated by the military.
Three civilians were shot. Waddington said "There is a question of who shot them, whether or not my client was mentally responsible at the time of the shootings and what role he played in the shootings."
Holmes insisted on having an attorney present during questioning, and was placed under guard for weeks and told he did not need one. Holmes's civilian attorney Dan Conway said he was tricked into talking, thinking he was getting representation when he wasn't. His attorney said he was ordered by his supervisor, staff sergeant Calvin Gibbs, to keep a human finger. Conway said his client didn't kill any civilian. Holmes was charged with possessing a dismembered human finger, wrongfully possessing pictures of human causalities, and smoking hashish.
Army documents described how killings were staged,
But it was the Army's own charging documents that portrayed a platoon gone rogue. In explicit detail the Army wrote how killings were staged -- how a fellow soldier was beaten and how Gibbs threw human fingers at another soldier believed to have snitched about the group's hashish smoking. It even charged one soldier with possessing a human skull.
A spokesman for the DoD, Geoff Morrell said "These remain allegations." He continued, "They are abhorrent, even as allegations. But I think they are, they are an aberration in terms of the behavior of our force, thankfully, and so I don't think they are in any way representative of how, you know, American military men and women behave in the field."
Spc. Adam Winfield was charged with premeditated murder. Winfield's lawyer Eric Moltavo said his client was not guilty. In an interrogation tape Winfield says he aimed his rifle high and fired and missed. He told his father Christopher Winfield about the first murder, and the father told CNN he tried to report it to the Army but was ignored; the Army is investigating that allegation.
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