Guantanamo defense: Friendly fire killed sgt.

[unhappycamper]

Guantanamo defense: Friendly fire killed sgt.
By Ben Fox - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Apr 12, 2008 15:43:38 EDT

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — A U.S. soldier who died in a firefight in Afghanistan may have been killed accidentally by his comrades — not by a young Canadian facing a war crimes trial at Guantanamo, a military defense lawyer said.

The accounts of other U.S. troops interviewed by attorneys for Omar Khadr suggest that someone other than the prisoner could have thrown the grenade that killed the soldier, the lawyer, Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, said Friday.

The U.S. government insists Khadr threw the grenade that killed Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, who is from Albuquerque, N.M. Khadr, who was 15 at the time of the firefight, faces life in prison if convicted of charges that include murder.

Kuebler said he knows of no physical evidence that would confirm that so-called friendly fire killed Speer, but other U.S. soldiers recalled throwing grenades around the time the he was killed in July 2002.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/04/ap_guantanamocase_041208/

“When Sergeant Speer was in the compound, these witnesses say that they were throwing hand grenades into the compound,” Kuebler told reporters.