Panel clears Army sniper of murder charges in Iraq

BAGHDAD — A U.S. Army sniper was cleared of murder charges Thursday in a case that drew attention to allegations of a classified military program that allowed American sharpshooters to shoot people who had gone to pick up planted weapons materials.

The court-martial panel cleared Staff Sgt. Michael Hensley of three counts of murder and also of charges that he made false statements to investigators. He was found guilty of placing an AK-47 assault rifle on a man killed May 11 by a fellow soldier. Hensley also was convicted on two counts of insubordination for walking away from and cursing an officer. He faces sentencing today.

Hearings on the shootings gave a glimpse of the pressure U.S. soldiers said they felt from commanders in fighting south of Baghdad against Shiite militants and the Sunni extremist group al-Qaida in Iraq.

Hensley, winner of a 2002 Army-wide sniper competition, was brought in last spring to head the sniper section of the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment in the area around Iskandariya.

According to testimony from soldiers, the Army introduced a "baiting" program to selected platoon members before Hensley arrived. The team was visited in January by officers from the Pentagon's Asymmetrical Warfare Group, which proposed the idea of luring insurgents with planted weapons, platoon 1st Lt. Matthew Didier said in a sworn statement in June. A few days later, the battalion's operations officer approved the tactic, Didier said.

U.S. military officers in Baghdad have denied the existence of a baiting program. Senior officials in Washington have insisted whatever classified programs existed, none authorized killing Iraqi nationals and placing weapons by the bodies.

Hensley's section came under investigation in June after two of its members told the Army's criminal-investigation division that some of the platoon's snipers were shooting people and then planting weapons. The informants also described unit members carrying around a white bait box, according to court documents.

Defense attorneys had told a judge over the summer that the baiting allegation was crucial to their case. But, despite the prominence of the issue, the court barred most classified material from the trial.

Two charges against Hensley of premeditated murder stemmed from incidents April 14 and 27. In one case, he fired at an Iraqi man outside a house. In the other, he ordered one of the unit's snipers to fire on a man in a field who had been cutting grass. In both cases, his attorneys argued that the snipers felt a plausible threat and that the targets were likely insurgents.

In the May 11 case, an Iraqi man stumbled into the snipers' camp and was shot by Hensley's deputy, Sgt. Evan Vela. At the court-martial of another member of the sniper team in September, Vela testified that at Hensley's instruction he had fired two bullets into the Iraqi's head. That testimony helped clear Pvt. Jorge Sandoval of murder charges, but it was not admissible in Hensley's court-martial, nor will it be in Vela's upcoming trial.