Military makes little effort to punish deserters (AP)

[Yrys]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19489285/

Although numbers rising, only 5 percent of lawbreakers reprimanded

FORT BRAGG, N.C. - There is no crack team of bounty hunters, no elite military unit whose job is to track them down and bring them in.

Despite a rise in desertions from the Army as the Iraq war drags on into a fifth year, the U.S. military does almost nothing to find those who flee and rarely prosecutes those it gets its hands on.

An Associated Press examination of Pentagon figures shows that 174 troops were court-martialed by the Army last year for desertion — a figure that amounts to just 5 percent of the 3,301 soldiers who deserted in fiscal year 2006. The figures are about 1 percent or less for the Navy and the Marines, according to data obtained by the AP under the Freedom of Information Act.Some deserters are simply allowed to return to their units, while the majority are discharged in non-criminal proceedings on less-than-honorable terms.

Pentagon officials say that while the all-volunteer military is stretched thin by the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the number of deserters represents an extremely small percentage of the armed forces, and it would be a poor use of time to go after them, particularly when there is a war on. As a result, the Pentagon does little more than enter deserters’ names into an FBI national criminal database.

'Looking over his shoulder'

In most cases, as long as a deserter stays out of trouble — as long as, say, police don’t pull him over for speeding and run his name through the computer — he is in little danger of getting caught. “A deserter either returns voluntarily or he spends the rest of his life looking over his shoulder wondering when he’ll be discovered,” said Maj. Anne Edgecombe, an Army spokeswoman. She added: “Rather than dedicate seasoned noncommissioned officers to the task of tracking down a deserter, commanders choose to spend time and resources to ensure their soldiers are properly trained and prepared to perform the missions they will be tasked with in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Sgt. Ricky Clousing of the Army’s storied 82nd Airborne Division found that out after he slipped away from Fort Bragg in the middle of the night in 2005 rather than return to Iraq. Having left a note in his barracks announcing his intentions, he was sure police would be waiting for him with handcuffs by the time he reached his home in Washington state. But no one was there. A year later, when he tried to turn himself in near Seattle to make an anti-war statement, he was not hustled off to the stockade in leg irons. He was given a bus ticket and told to report to Fort Bragg on his own.

“I thought I would be more of a priority,” said Clousing, a 24-year-old paratrooper and military intelligence interrogator with combat experience. Clousing ultimately pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of being absent without leave. He was given a bad-conduct discharge and sentenced to three months in prison.

rest of article on link

 

[Greymatters]

I'd agree with their logic. Why waste valuable manpower and resources to capture a guy that you will then have to clothe, feed and guard, taking up more manpower and resource, and then prosecute, taking up more mampower and resources, in the end for a guy whose of no use to you anyway?

 

[geo]

The deserters don't deserve the publicity!

Strip em down and march / run em out -  let em live with the shame without the oportunity to moralize

 

[GAP]

What people in Canada don't realize is that a dishonorable discharge from the military in the USA, will get you only a McJob....not much else.....there are some that have overcome it, but not many.

 

[Greymatters]

The article proves that the US military has better things to do than worry about a few drifters. 

 

[razorguns]

all the army has to do, is enter hteir name into NCIC

then they can spend the rest of their lives driving the speed limit.

they'll get caught one day, throw into county jail.  then told 'this will happen everytime until you fly yourself down to the base in ky and clear this up'.

majority will get tired of watchign their shoudler, and fly down and face the consequences.  what's the worst that'll happen?  30 days in a safe jail? 

but they have to live the rest of their lives knowing they let their unit down.

r

 

[Trooper Hale]

Well said old boy. It certainly seems like that.
I cant imagine living what that shame, and the worry and knowing how your mates will never really want to talk to you because you guts out. Its a pretty soft option, suck it up and hang on till the end of your contract. You signed the line, you do the time.

 

[razorguns]

getting out is so easy.  just a trip to the chaplain and blurt out 'i think i'm gay'.  that's it.

awol is for losers.  even if u really really really didn't want to deploy - the army can work with you and maybe reassign you, maybe make u a full-time 'fobbie' (guys who never leave the wire).  but going awol gives them no way to work with u.  u just wimped out and ran.

r

 

[Yrys]

Captured Marine provoked curiosity in Mexico

SAN JUAN DE LA VINA, Mexico (AP) -- People wondered about the bearded foreigner who moved into a rustic cabin weeks ago in the pine-clad mountains surrounding this picturesque village. Some thought maybe he was a drug trafficker -- something not unheard of in these parts.

It was not until Friday when they saw Cpl. Cesar Laurean's photograph in the local newspaper that they learned he was a U.S. Marine suspected of killing a pregnant colleague.
Police arrested Laurean, 21, on Thursday as he was walking along the main street in San Juan de la Vina in the municipality of Tacambaro, ending a three-month manhunt.
He is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, 20, who had accused him of rape.

Lauterbach's burned remains were found in January in the backyard of his home near Camp Lejeune, a coastal North Carolina base that is home to roughly 50,000 Marines.
FBI Public Affairs Specialist Amy Thoreson said FBI agents were present at Laurean's arrest in Mexico, but it was unclear what role they played. Bearded and thin, Laurean told police he survived for months largely by eating avocados from the orchard in the mountains where he lived in Michoacan state.

After his arrest Thursday, a slightly disoriented Laurean spoke briefly with The Associated Press while being held by Mexican police. "You know my name. You know who I am," Laurean said. Asked if he wanted to say anything, Laurean answered, "Proof," but would not explain. Asked what he would do next, he replied, "Do I have a choice? ... I don't know."

Residents here said Laurean lived in a three-room wood cabin with a corrugated metal roof where he slept on a bed of crushed cardboard boxes. On Friday, there was a notebook on the cabin's floor showing that he kept a diary of his daily exercise routine, including push-ups, sit-ups and crunches. There were two shelves filled with canned tuna, instant soup and candy.

He walked to town daily, greeting those he passed, and spent hours at the local Internet cafe. "He always seemed really happy to see us. He was serious, respectful," said Tomasa Boteyo, 78, who lived near his cabin.Then on Thursday afternoon, state police officers drove through town looking for someone, residents say. They spotted Laurean walking toward the Internet cafe.

Lorenza Olayo, 96, who would greet Laurean daily from her front stoop, said he did not fight back when officers grabbed him. She said she did not know why the young man was taken away until she saw his picture in the local newspaper the next day. Lucio Tapia, 22, said before his arrest, Laurean told him he had just returned from Spain and that his parents were punishing him by making him live on an avocado orchard in Mexico.

Laurean was born in Guadalajara but reportedly moved to the U.S. more than 10 years ago. "I thought he was a drug trafficker," Tapia said. "There's a lot of drugs here and drug traffickers hide out in the mountains here."

On Friday, Onslow County District Attorney Dewey Hudson said Laurean and his wife, Christina, sent Internet messages to each other through the MySpace social-networking service. Christina Laurean used her sister's computer, which was seized, Hudson said. Christina Laurean did not break any laws by communicating with her husband as long as she did not provide him with money or aid of any other kind, Hudson said.

Onslow County Capt. Rick Sutherland said Cesar Laurean "repeatedly asked for resources from family members" and that his wife "specifically denied those resource when she was asked." Christina Laurean fully cooperated with investigators, he said, "and got us to the point where we are today."

The FBI said Cesar Laurean, of Las Vegas, is awaiting extradition to the U.S., although local authorities in North Carolina cautioned the process could take a year or more if he decides to fight it. They encouraged him Friday to waive extradition, saying the process -- however lengthy -- will inevitably lead to his return. Laurean was being held at a Mexico City prison. Hudson, the district attorney, agreed not to seek the death penalty against Laurean in order to win the cooperation of Mexico authorities, who refuse to send anyone back to the U.S. unless assured they will not face execution.

Authorities believe that on December 14, Laurean killed Lauterbach, who was eight months pregnant, after forcing her to remove money from her bank account, On Friday, Navy investigators said they would wait until Laurean is returned to the United States to perform a paternity test to determine if he was the father of the unborn child, because they want a reliable DNA sample from him.

Lauterbach and Laurean were both personnel clerks in a logistics unit at Camp Lejeune. Detectives have said Laurean left behind a note for his wife in which he denied killing Lauterbach but admitted burying her remains. In the note, Laurean said Lauterbach committed suicide by cutting her own throat, an assertion authorities have rejected, citing evidence that she died of blunt force trauma to the head.

Maria's mother, Mary Lauterbach, said Friday that a sheriff telephoned her with news of Laurean's capture. "This has been a terrible tragedy, not only for our family but for Cesar and Christina and Laurean's family," she said as she backed out of her driveway at her Vandalia, Ohio, home.

In a separate statement released through her attorney, Lauterbach added that "nothing can replace the pain" of Maria's death. "At the same time, we know that Maria would want justice to be done in this case."

 

[geo]

Well, if he is in a Mexican jail, he has a roof over his head but, family (or US Gov't) are expected to provide the rations.
Mexican prisons are certainly not the comfy joints we have in Canada and the US.....

If he wants to contest his extradition.... let him ROT in his own personal hell.

 

[tomahawk6]

I dont agree that the military gives deserters a pass. But the military doesnt waste alot of time hunting them down either. Most deserters get caught when they have an encounter with law enforcement or file for a tax return. The same was true during the Vietnam War. Of course some of these people turn themselves in when they get tired of looking over their shoulder.

 

[Greymatters]

Despite the "innocent until proven guilty" aspect, reads more like he was fleeing arrest, and desertion is just another charge that can be pressed against him...

 

[tomahawk6]

Well the body was in his backyard. The fact that he was a serving member of the armed forces makes him answerable to military authorities. He killed another Marine that makes it a federal crime as well as a local.

 

[Greymatters]

"Lauterbach and Laurean were both personnel clerks in a logistics unit at Camp Lejeune. Detectives have said Laurean left behind a note for his wife in which he denied killing Lauterbach but admitted burying her remains. In the note, Laurean said Lauterbach committed suicide by cutting her own throat, an assertion authorities have rejected, citing evidence that she died of blunt force trauma to the head."

Was that on the base or on a private residence?

 

[tomahawk6]

Private residence off base.

 

[Greymatters]

Hmmm, not familiar with how that would work.  Would that mean a fight for jurisdiction between the state and the military?  Or is it automatically a military trial because he's a military member?

 

[tomahawk6]

The civil authorities would work out with JAG jurisdiction. I think this case will remain in military jurisdiction but we will have to see how this shakes out.

 

[tomahawk6]

Soldier accused of going AWOL in 1999 arrested

The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Apr 17, 2008 7:02:02 EDT
 
CADIZ, Ky. — Police arrested a man wanted for deserting the Army nearly nine years ago after at traffic stop in Kentucky.

Cadiz police on Tuesday morning arrested Jason Miskell, 32, after an officer found him listed as a military deserter in the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database.

Police Chief Hollis Alexander told The Paducah Sun that Miskell and his wife moved to Kentucky, where she has family, after deserting the Army in 1999. He was being held in the Christian County Jail.

According to military records, Miskell was a specialist serving in the infantry at Fort Carson. After enlisting in 1994, he was charged with being absent without leave on Aug. 3, 1999.

 

[geo]

Boggles the mind... esp considering he was a volunteer in an army that was, at that time, at peace.

You made a mistake... finish serving your term and leave..... Idjit.