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Charges dismissed against officers in Kabul run-in with contractor

Air Force officials have dismissed charges against two lieutenant colonels accused of assaulting a contractor last year in Afghanistan, and an investigation has commenced into allegations the evidence used to charge them was manipulated, the service reported March 31.

Charges against Lt. Col. Gary W. Brown and Lt. Col. Christopher R. Hall were dropped “after careful consideration of all the evidence in the case, to include the Article 32 report,” according to a statement. The officers, who faced lengthy jail terms and abrupt ends to their military careers, were accused of assaulting Blackwater USA contractor Jimmy Bergeron on Sept. 19 during an altercation outside the Afghan Defense Ministry in Kabul.

Read the investigating officer’s report on Brown in which she recommends dismissal of all charges against both officers.

The scuffle occurred after a vehicle driven by Bergeron and one carrying Brown and Hall collided on the road from Kabul Area International Airport to Camp Eggers. Prosecutors said the officers initiated contact between the vehicles, escalated the incident when the two vehicles met again outside the Defense Ministry, then shoved and hit Bergeron before Hall finally removed the safety from his M4 and pointed the gun at him.

An investigating officer concluded in March that the charges against Brown and Hall should be dropped.

“Given the security situation in Kabul at the time, and the facts and circumstances of their encounter with Mr. Bergeron on the road, and then at the gate, I believe that they truly felt threatened and reacted exactly as they were trained to do,” she wrote.

Moreover, her report to the convening authority, Lt. Gen. Gary North, head of Central Command Air Forces and 9th Air Force, included allegations of witness tampering, attempted bribery, falsified evidence and doctored charging documents.

“In this case, the Article 32 investigation uncovered information that someone may have attempted to influence the testimonies of several local national witnesses,” the Air Force statement released Saturday reads. “The possibility of witness tampering raised questions about the integrity of critical evidence in the case. An investigation into this allegation is under way.”

Brown is a C-17 pilot based at Charleston Air Force Base, S.C. Hall is an instructor pilot at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas. The two deployed to work with the Afghan air force until the incident.

At their Article 32 hearing in late February, Brown and Hall testified that Bergeron initiated the incident. As they were driving in their Toyota Land Cruiser, Bergeron drove his black-windowed sport utility vehicle into their vehicle, they said. Fearing a terrorist was trying to attack them, the two officers sped off, they testified. Then, as they waited at a traffic gate outside the Defense Ministry, Bergeron, bearded and dressed in civilian clothes, allegedly approached their car screaming and threatening them.

Hall and Brown got out of the vehicle with their weapons and ordered Bergeron to the ground, according to their testimony. He refused, so they tried to force him down. When that proved unsuccessful, Brown raised his weapon and clicked off the safety. According to the officers, only then did Bergeron comply and tell them he was American. Before leaving, Brown threw Bergeron’s keys into a bush so he wouldn’t be able to follow them. They then went to the Camp Eggers Provost Marshal’s office to report the incident.

The government’s case fell apart because the investigating officer, Lt. Col. Leslea Pickle, would not let Bergeron testify by phone. It’s unclear where Bergeron is now and Blackwater has declined to discuss the case with Air Force Times, saying company policy precludes them from doing so.

Bergeron was willing to attend the hearing “had the government invited him before 15 Feb 07, just 8 days before the hearing began,” Pickle wrote in her report. He was “key to the government’s case, and therefore, his presence at the Article 32 hearing was crucial to a fair and impartial hearing” for Brown and Hall.

After the Article 32 ended, the police commander in charge of the Afghan gate guards who witnessed the events told Pickle that he had been contacted many times in an effort to have the guards provide false testimony, and that someone had attempted to bribe some or all of the guards to give false testimony.

“I have sent a request to Army CID, through the Army legal personnel at Kabul, to have this information investigated,” Pickle wrote.

Related reading

Analysis: Kabul clash tests combat rules, raises questions across the force

Related: Officers in scuffle called sticklers for rules

DISCUSSION

Read the stories, then tell us what you think: Is sending these two officers to trial the right move?