A U.S. Army veteran recounted how he was blinded by a sniper’s bullet during the war in Afghanistan. A Florida father said he lost his best friend when his eldest son, a Green Beret, was killed in a roadside explosion. A former bomb squad member described the trauma and anxiety he felt after two decades of defusing a car bomb that could have killed him.
On Friday, prosecutors presented their case to a jury of 11 U.S. military jurors, which were hearing the verdict of a man named Abdul Hadi Iraqi.
Mr. Hardy, 63, sat silently throughout his testimony alongside his U.S. military and civilian lawyers, keeping his head down for much of the time. Next week, he will tell the jury his own Poor health and trauma suffered in U.S. custody, which began with months in CIA custody following his arrest in Turkey in 2006.
The case is unusual at the court, which mainly hears terrorism cases such as the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In an 18-page written confession, Hadi admitted that he served as a commander for al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan and committed classic war crimes, including using civilian cover to carry out attacks, such as turning taxis into car bombs.
Friday’s testimony focused attention on the invasion by an international coalition assembled by President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks to hunt down Osama bin Laden and dismantle the Taliban, which had provided safe haven to al-Qaeda. America’s Longest War The 10-month mission ended in August 2021 with the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Before Mr. Hardy pleaded guilty.
Sgt. Douglas Van Tasselwas an active-duty Canadian paratrooper who donned his uniform, including his jump boots, to witness the death of his fellow Cpl. Jamie Murphy, 26In 2004, they were killed when a suicide bomber attacked their two jeeps as they were travelling near Kabul.
Sergeant Van Tassel wiped away tears as he described how the fear and hardship of his continued service hurt his family. “I’m going to keep doing this until I can’t anymore,” he said, declaring that he was “terrified of not being busy after I’m done with the military.”
Under court rules, victims cannot make sentencing recommendations to the jury of U.S. Army, Air Force and Marine Corps officers, who will decide on a sentence of 25 to 30 years. Instead, witnesses will tell their stories of loss.
For Detective Maris Lebed of the Cape Coral Police Department in Florida, her brother, Captain Daniel W. Eggers;The 28-year-old was a leader and mentor to his six siblings, but he and three other members of his special forces unit were killed by a land mine in Afghanistan in 2004.
She called him “the solid foundation of our family” and a big brother who “always knew the right thing to say and the right thing to do.”
Their father, Bill Eggers, a Vietnam veteran, called his oldest son “my best friend, my son and my partner” and shared war stories with him while deployed to Afghanistan.
After learning of his death, Mr. Eggers said, “My post-traumatic stress disorder flared up.” He said the disorder caused cognitive difficulties, and he was treated at a Veterans Affairs facility in Florida.
Robert Stout, a former National Guard soldier and retired Master Sgt., broke down in tears as he struggled to describe the trauma he had endured since March 2004, when his six-car convoy was followed in Jalalabad by a suspicious taxi that the soldiers realized was likely a homemade car bomb.
The bomb did not explode, but Sgt. Stout, who in civilian life had been a bomb disposal expert with the state police, later discovered that it contained about 500 pounds of explosives and defused it. The incident has haunted him ever since and forced him to retire early from public service.
“I needed to regain my composure,” he said, describing himself as being in a constant state of high alert. Even now, two decades later, he said: “I still don’t cry over stupid things. It’s too embarrassing.”
Colin RitchieHadi, a retired U.S. Army sergeant major, was escorted by a prosecutorial team to the witness stand to describe how he was shot in the head by an enemy bullet on December 29, 2002. Hadi admitted that at the time he “directed, organized, financed, supplied and supervised al-Qaeda’s operations against U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan.”
Over time, Major Richey lost only 20 percent of his vision. “My days as a police officer were over,” he said, describing how he continued to work in an administrative capacity until he retired five years later for health reasons.
“I haven’t driven in 20 years,” he said. “I have to have people do my errands. I spend most of my time at home, waiting for the next seizure.”
