by Thomas Gatta
“Of course. We had information from several sources that known Taliban—men who worked with al-Qa’ida and were responsible for making, smuggling, and laying improvised explosive devices—were going to be at the compound. Many of these guys had participated in attacks against coalition and Afghan forces.”
“How confident were you in your sources?”
“Very. They had provided good information in the past.”
“I see. And what efforts did you make to verify the information?”
“We didn’t. If we had waited to verify it, the suspected Taliban would have left the compound, and we would have missed our chance. They would have gotten away and tried to kill our soldiers.”
“Thank you, Mr. Mortimer. Now can you tell me what happened the day after the raid? You told the court yesterday that your unit decided to do site exploitation the next day?”
“Yes. We returned with our cameras to photograph the scene and to collect weapons, bomb making materials, and anything of intelligence value.”
“And what weapons and material did you find?”
“As I said yesterday, we found some texts and books—not much use there. But we also found some guns – the old AKs, and some other weapons, mostly Soviet-made stuff. It’s documented in our report. We also found fertilizer, which the terrorists could use for their bombs.”
Maddie said, “Objection, your honor. The witness is speculating that the fertilizer could be used for bombs. Could it not also be used for growing plants?”
Judge McNamara replied, “Sustained. Mr. Mortimer, please say what you found without editorializing.”
Simon asked, “Mr. Mortimer, where did you find the weapons?”
“We found them scattered throughout the compound. You can see them in the photos.”
Simon said, “For the record, please note that exhibits 79-85 describe in text and show in photographs what the team found at the compound.”
“And, Mr. Mortimer, did you find some of the guns in the room with the dead Taliban?”
Maddie stood and called, “Objection, Your Honor. The court has not established that the dead were Taliban.”
“Sustained.”
Simon said, “Please let me rephrase, Mr. Mortimer, did you find guns in the room with the bodies?”
“Yes, the guns are shown in the photos.”
“Thank you. Oh, and Mr. Mortimer, are you sure of what you heard the defendant say and do the previous evening?”
Mortimer raised his eyebrows and said, “I don’t understand. I already told you what I know. What do you mean?”
Simon said, “Mr. Mortimer, can you tell the court whether you have a hearing problem?”
Mortimer rolled his eyes and said, “Yes, my hearing has been damaged by using and being near loud weaponry.”
“I see. And Mr. Mortimer, have you ever been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, known as PTSD?”
Maddie said, “Objection, Your Honor. What is the relevance here?”
Simon said, “Your Honor, this is directly relevant to Mr. Mortimer’s testimony.”
“I’ll allow it.”
“Yes. I have been diagnosed with PTSD.”
“And have you ever suffered memory lapses?”
“Yes.”
“I see. So it’s possible that you might not have heard and might not recall everything that happened the night of the raid? In particular, you might not have heard or might not recall exactly the defendant’s efforts to determine whether the men in the second room of the main house on the compound were Taliban? Or his efforts to have them identify themselves? Or the defendant’s efforts to prevent the men from attacking the Afghan soldiers who were assisting with the raid and who had gone up the staircase before the defendant?”
Maddie said, “Objection, Your Honor. This is all speculation.”
Judge McNamara said, “Sustained. Mr. Smith, please limit your questions to the facts. Mr. Mortimer, remember that you were under oath yesterday, as you are today. Do you stand by what you have told the court?”
“Yes, I recall pretty well what happened.”
Simon said, “But Mr. Mortimer, is it possible you may have had a hearing or memory lapse that caused you to forget some of the details?”
“Yes. It’s possible.”
“Thank you. No further questions at this time.”
Simon returned to the defense table. On his way, he glanced toward the rear of the courtroom. He saw the SU lawyers conferring quietly. Joan caught his eye briefly and nodded.
- 10 -
Maddie, after swallowing a mouthful of tuna sandwich, said to Scott, “You did a fantastic job with the medical examiners this morning. I watched the faces of the jurors, and they were mesmerized.”
“Thanks,” said Scott. “The experts are pretty clear that the photographic evidence shows execution-style killings. And the Army ME was adamant that you just don’t see the sort of bullet to the center of the forehead shots in that many bodies in a combat situation. As he said, who has the time in the heat of battle to do that kind of aiming? What you would expect is a far more messy, bloody room, with wounds to more than just the heads and torsos.”
Maddie nodded and said, “And you would have expected at least one of the victims to have gotten off a shot against Bennett.”
“Exactly. Even without NVGs, at least one of the victims should have seen the flashes from Bennett’s guns and been able to aim his way. And you should see bullet holes in the walls. That is, if the victims had had guns and they had been able to fire them.”
Maddie responded, “Yes, and your redirect on Mortimer’s testimony was spot on. Saying he couldn’t recall whether the team had moved weapons near the bodies the day after the raid? Who’s he kidding?”
Scott smiled and picked up a dill pickle. Waving it in the air as he made his point, he said, “Don’t you recall? It was PTSD that prevented him from remembering whether they’d moved the weapons.”
Maddie snorted, “Or added weapons and placed them by the bodies.”
Scott dropped the pickle, began collecting his lunch trash, winked at Maddie, and said, “I’m looking forward to calling our next two team members this afternoon. I wonder how their memories are.”
- 11 -
Scott watched as Fred Jones seated himself in the witness chair. Jones, like Mortimer, appeared nondescript. Scott picked up his notes and walked over to Jones. “Mr. Jones, could you please describe to the court what happened that night in May 2009 during the raid on the compound? Please begin with your role in the raid.”
Jones looked at the back of the courtroom and then at the defense table. He said, “Yes, I was there to assist and advise. I helped clear huts and then went into the main house with Sean and some Afghan troops to assist in the search of the bottom floor. Sean and his guys went one way; I and my men went the other. We found a couple of guys, drug them out, and left them with our Afghan troops. Sean and his guys found an old couple that Sean brought out. Then, Sean said he needed to check on his Afghans and the second floor and to wait until he called us. He went back into the house. A few minutes later, we saw some flashes through a second story window. Sean came out shortly after and ordered us in and upstairs.”
Scott said, “Mr. Jones, you said Mr. Bennett came out of the building and ordered you in?”
“Um, yes, I think so.”
“You don’t recall?”
“Well, I recall going into the building and up to the second-floor room.”
“Did Mr. Bennett enter the room with you?”
“It’s kind of blurry.”
“I see. Well, what did you see in the second-floor room? And were you wearing NVGs at the time?”
“We were wearing our NVGs then, but I didn’t see much. Just the Afghans who’d been with Sean. No terrorists in the outer room.”
“Do you recall Mr. Bennett being in the second-floor room?”
“Yes, he was there.”
“And did he say anything to y
ou and the team?”
“Yes, he said to come take a look in the back room.”
“Those were his words?”
“I don’t really recall. It was a long time ago.”
Scott asked, “And do you remember going into the back room?”
Jones said, “Yes.”
“Were you still wearing your NVGs?”
“No, we took them off and used flashlights.”
“You’re sure? It was a long time ago.”
“Yes, we took them off.”
“What did you see in the back room?”
“A bunch of dead Afghan guys.”
“And how old did the ‘Afghan guys’ appear to you?”
Smith called, “Objection, Your Honor. Speculation again, and we’ve already established that the Afghans appeared young. The photos also have been admitted as evidence.”
Scott looked at the judge and said, “I’ll withdraw the question.” He turned back to the witness stand and asked, “Mr. Jones, do you recall Mr. Bennett’s comments and actions in that backroom?”
“Umm, not exactly. I think he said something like he got them all before they could shoot him.”
“Thank you, Mr. Jones. And were the ‘Afghan guys’ armed?”
“Unh, I think so. There were weapons there.”
“You think so? Where in the room were the weapons?”
“Yeah, there were weapons in the room. I don’t remember exactly where they were, but they’re in the pictures.”
“And when were the pictures taken?”
“The next day when we came back.”
“I see. And did you or your team move the weapons?”
Jones asked, “What do you mean? That night?”
Scott said, “Remember, Mr. Jones, you are under oath. Did you or members of your team move weapons near the bodies the night of the raid or the day after when your team returned to the compound?”
“Unh, I don’t remember moving any weapons. We might have moved them some to take pictures. So we could get them all in.”
“Mr. Jones, did you or members of your team move any weapons closer to the bodies?”
“I don’t know. It was a long time ago.”
“I see.”
“Mr. Jones, do you recall adding the pictures of the dead Afghans to a wall back at your facility? The wall where you had pictures of other Afghans your team had killed?”
Smith called out, “Objection. Your Honor, this isn’t relevant.”
McNamara looked over her glasses at Smith and said, “Overruled. Answer the question, Mr. Jones.”
“Well, I didn’t add the photos.”
Scott said, “But someone did? Who was it?”
Jones looked at the defense table, shrugged his shoulders, and said, “I think Sean did. After all, they were his kills.”
“Thank you, Mr. Jones, I have no more questions now.”
Judge McNamara asked Smith, “And does the defense have questions for the witness now?”
Smith said, “Yes, Your Honor, just a few.”
Smith asked, “Mr. Jones, what do you recall Mr. Bennett telling you about why he shot the terrorists?”
Scott said, “Objection, Your Honor, we have not established that the boys were terrorists.”
Judge McNamara rolled her eyes and said, “Sustained. We also have not established that they were ‘boys.’ Continue Mr. Smith.”
Smith said, “Mr. Jones, what did Mr. Bennett say about why he did the shooting?”
“I remember Sean saying he needed to prevent them from laying any more IEDs and killing our guys.”
“And was Mr. Bennett worried about the welfare of the Afghan troops who’d accompanied him into the house to the second floor?”
“Oh, yeah. Sean said he didn’t think our Afghans would get out of there alive without his help. They were pretty green.”
“So, Mr. Bennett was assisting his Afghan forces in the backroom?”
“Umm, maybe. I wasn’t there.”
Scott called, “Objection, Your Honor. We’ve already established that the Afghan forces were in the main room, not the backroom. I don’t know how this is relevant.”
Smith said, “This is relevant, Your Honor, because Mr. Bennett was not just going after terrorists but also helping to defend the Afghan forces his unit was advising and assisting.”
McNamara said, “Okay, I’ll allow it for now, but, Mr. Smith, don’t begin any wild goose chasing.”
Smith nodded and said to Jones, “I understand, Mr. Jones, that you were outside when the shots were fired, but did Mr. Bennett or the Afghans who were with him on the second floor say anything about how the action began in those second-floor rooms?”
“Oh, okay, well, not exactly, but the Afghans did say Sean went in first because they thought they’d heard something in the back room, and he was the best shot, and they were not so good. Really, they weren’t. Sean was lucky they didn’t go in with him and fire, because they might have hit him.”
“So, Mr. Jones, Mr. Bennett went into the back room, from which he and his team had heard noises, to protect his Afghan team?”
Scott called, “Objection, Your Honor. Conjecture.”
“Sustained.”
Smith said, “Thank you, Mr. Jones, no more questions for today.”
- 12 -
Assadullah got out of his cab in Alexandria and looked at the courthouse. He knew from reading in the papers that that this was where the trial was taking place. The Washington Post hadn’t had much detail. The trial was mostly closed to the press, and the reporters who were attending hadn’t managed to get much detail out. Still, the Post had reported that the trial involved an allegation that a Special Unit, Ghost officer had been involved in a raid in Khandahar in 2009 in which at least a dozen schoolchildren were killed. Assadullah knew about the raid. His brother, Haji, had been killed during it.
Assadullah had come to Virginia five years before. He was lucky to get out of Khandahar alive. Like Haji, many of his family members were dead now. Some the Taliban had taken, and others the coalition forces had killed.
Assadullah liked Virginia. So did his wife, Atefa. Assadullah had a small apartment in Herndon, and, besides driving his cab, he was going to school at NOVA, the Northern Virginia Community College. He wanted to be an accountant. His wife was working at Macy’s and had made friends there as well as in their immigrant community.
Assadullah walked to the courtroom where the officer at the entrance to the courthouse had directed him. Another officer was stationed outside the courtroom. The officer told Assadullah that the trial was in progress and that he would need to wait before he could enter. Assadullah nodded to the officer and sat on a bench just down the corridor. He leaned his head back against the wall and replayed in his mind the events that had brought him to the courthouse.
*
Haji had been 14 and eager to learn. He was the one who had really wanted to come to America. Haji had liked animals and science and wanted to go to the University of Nebraska and become a veterinarian. It didn’t happen.
Assadullah thought that Khandahar was one of the worst places in Afghanistan to be, especially in 2008 and 2009. NATO forces and the Taliban were battling almost constantly, with one side telling civilians to flee and the other directing them to remain in their homes. Afghan Government forces were no help to civilians. The Government troops were feckless, corrupt, or both. And if the war didn’t get civilians killed, disease, hunger, and the drug traffickers were waiting for their opportunities. But Assadullah’s father and uncles, as they had during the Soviet occupation, had thought they could hunker down and survive. They were wrong.
Assadullah’s family had grown and sold the best pomegranates in the area for hundreds of years. They had no love for the Taliban or the Government; both were destroying the orchards and the family’s livelihood. The Taliban slept in the orchards in the spring, because the leaves offered concealment, particularly from the coalition air surveillance. The Taliban
also planted bombs in the orchards to get the coalition troops who ventured in. When the bombs went off, they didn’t just kill coalition forces and people working in the orchards. The bombs also destroyed the trees, the family’s livelihood. Assadullah’s father, Akhtar, wanted neither the Taliban nor coalition troops in his orchards.
Akhtar, while willing to wait out the Taliban and coalition, was afraid for Haji, his youngest son, and had wanted him away from all the fighting. Akhtar feared the Taliban would conscript Haji or kill him with a bomb. So, Akhtar had arranged for Haji to attend a school in the quieter, northeastern part of the Arghandab River Valley, believing he’d be safer studying and living there than he would be at home. Assadullah’s mother wasn’t pleased. She, too, was worried about Haji but wanted him near her. Her husband had ignored her pleas to keep Haji close. After all, Akhtar said, it wouldn’t be for so long; the family planned for Haji to come home to help with the harvest in October. By that time most of the Taliban probably would have moved back into Pakistan.
Haji’s body had come back before the harvest.
Assadullah remembered the day in May, because he had gone with his father to the school to get the body. They had gotten word that there had been fighting in the area of Haji’s school and that Haji was among the dead. Assadullah and his father had met the family members of the other boys at the school. Those boys, too, had been killed—most, like Haji, shot in the head and chest. Assadullah and Akhtar learned from the other family representatives that a joint Afghan-American force was responsible for the killings.
Assadullah felt queasy every time he remembered going to the room upstairs in the school to collect Haji’s body. He recalled Haji’s face, the brown eyes glazed and a round hole in the center of his forehead. There wasn’t much blood on his face. But Haji’s clothes were soaked from the wound to his heart. Despite having seen death many times in Arghandab, Assadullah had to leave the room and retch outside in the bushes before he could return to help his distraught father. They had taken Haji home and buried him in the orchard while the Taliban were away. Akhtar had declared that, if the Taliban or coalition forces touched Haji’s grave, he would burn the orchard down with the violators in it. And Akhtar also had gone to the elders in the area, who had visited President Karzai to demand justice.