Mom says soldier son followed attack orders

Google "War is Hell" and you'll come up with references to William Tecumseh Sherman, the Civil War hero who's credited with saying it, a novelist who has used the phrase, a website of military jokes and a video game.

But for Melanie Dianiska there's a new, very personal meaning, because her son went to war, followed orders and killed the enemy. Now he's among four soldiers being given a military hearing in Iraq on charges they killed three Iraqi men.

Army Pfc. Corey Clagett

The defense for Dianiska's son, Pfc. Corey Clagett, and co-defendants Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard, Spc. William B. Hunsaker, and Spc. Juston R. Graber said the soldiers were just following orders May 9 near Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, when they moved onto an island in a canal.

Dianiska yesterday told WorldNetDaily she was talking to her son while he was being held in Kuwait a few weeks back when he described what happened to the four members of the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. It happened in the area where an al-Qaida training post was believed to be and Special Forces had been turned back.

"His voice changed, and when he gets serious he says 'Mom.' Mom, if anything happens and it goes to trial and there's a possibility he's going to go to jail, please say something on my behalf," Dianiska said.

Afterward, some rumors started floating, then investigators asked some questions, a few stories changed, and the soldiers who initially had been cleared by their military commanders, found themselves under lock and key.

So Dianiska, a Charleston, S.C., mother of four, is keeping her promise to her second-born. She's established a website to draw attention to the case, she's talking with reporters and others at news agencies, she's trying to raise money (friends say a few hundred dollars so far) so she and her husband can be close if there's a trial, and she's working to generate support for her lawyer's expenses.

"I had to let people know what type of person Cory is. I know the military is very quiet and you wouldn't know anything. I need to get the word out there," she said.

She said her son had contacted her after the sortie that left the three Iraqi men dead and expressed concern over having killed someone. She said he asked her to question friends who had been in the military: "Is this how you feel when you kill somebody?"

Then he described the situation: "They approached a building and a gentleman was standing in the window. He would not come out. One soldier shot in the window and accidentally killed him. Then Cory and his partner went into a building, and there were two men inside and they had two women in front of them," Dianiska said.

Her son and his partner took the men into custody, then went outside the building where another man was holding a 2-year-old in front of him. "They got that child away and still didn't feel it was a threat."

When they returned to the building to secure additional restraints on the first two, the Iraqis attacked the soldiers, injuring both, she said. Her son was hit in the head and the other soldier was slashed on the arm.

"Cory said it took him a few seconds to get his senses and then he saw his partner bleeding, and saw the guys running, and that's when he fired," she told WND.

She said she asked why he didn't let them run, and he said, "They could pick up a bomb, trigger an explosion."

A lawyer for Hunsaker, who was working with Clagett, said the detainees were killed in self-defense after the two soldiers were attacked.

"When they were attacked," Dianiska added. "They were taught to shoot." Now the four face murder and obstruction of justice counts. Their sworn statements say they were ordered to attack the island and kill militants.

Supporters of the four say the charges are politically motivated, since they were developed after their commanders had cleared them. They also note one of the commanders is Col. Michael Steele, whose actions in 1993 in Somalia were put on the silver screen in the movie "Black Hawk Down." Eighteen American soldiers died then.

The soldiers also note that they had been given orders to kill any military-age Iraqi man they encountered. Prosecutors allege the soldiers took the men into custody and then killed them, but Dianiska said there were no witnesses to the actual shootings.

She said the conspiracy allegation came up because someone saw the soldiers talking to each other. "It's not unusual to gather and discuss plans," she said her son told her.

The decision from the Article 32 hearing in Tikrit is expected soon, and if a trial is ordered, the four are expected to be returned to Fort Campbell, Ky., an eight-hour trip for Dianiska.

In addition to this case, another Article 32 hearing was begun this week for the "Pendleton 8," seven Marines and a Navy corpsman accused of conspiracy, kidnapping and murder for the death of Iraqi Hashim Ibrahim Awad, 52.

The government alleges in that case the soldiers kidnapped the man, tied him with plastic cuffs, put him in a hole and shot him April 26, then put a gun in his hands.

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