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Col West Fined, But Allowed To Retire.

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Posted 13 December 2003 - 02:04 AM

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/1203/...3/13irwest.html

Iraq vet fined, allowed to retire

By GEORGE EDMONSON and YOLANDA RODRIGUEZ
In Washington And In Atlanta


WASHINGTON -- The Army officer who was charged with assault after he fired his pistol near the head of a man he was interrogating in Iraq will forfeit $5,000 in pay and return to Texas while his retirement request is processed, his lawyer said Friday.

Major Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, made the decision Friday after an administrative hearing in Tikrit with Lt. Col. Allen West, reported Neal Puckett, a retired U.S. Marine who represents West.

"The punishment does not affect his eligibility for retirement and pension," Puckett wrote in an e-mail announcing the decision.

West, 42, who grew up in Atlanta and plans to move to south Florida after his discharge, reached his 20th anniversary in the service last month. He also has filed to retire, Puckett said.

West, who commanded an artillery battalion, admitted that he had told the suspect, an Iraqi police officer, that he would kill him if he did not provide information about a planned attack, whose targets were believed to have included West. The officer also fired his 9 mm pistol beside the detainee's head, after which the man provided information.

West's case received widespread attention, especially in the time leading up to his hearing before a military panel last month. The recommendation after that procedure was that Odierno handle the case administratively.

Many of West's supporters believed he should not have been charged for taking actions to prevent what was believed to be an imminent ambush during a time of war. The officer's detractors said the military would be remiss if it condoned such behavior. But an Internet petition supporting West reported about 132,000 signatures.

Marian Kelly, chair of Grady High School's Language Arts Department, was the faculty adviser for the Student Government Association when West served as co-president of the Atlanta school's student body.

"He was always positive, cheerful. He wanted to do well. He wanted to succeed," she recalled. "He respected himself and therefore he was able to respect other people."

After learning about the incident in Iraq, she said she believed he "was just in an extreme situation" and "was doing what he thought was best for the men for whom he was responsible."

"I am disappointed for him, not in him," she said.

"We are still proud of him," said Douglas Slade, athletic director at Grady, where West also played football. "He is a true American."

Dave Winter, a journalism and history teacher at the school, said what West "did was wrong and he has already accepted that. [But] the punishment should fit the crime and not be excessive."

"A lot of students at Grady are really, really supportive of him," said Kimberly Hagan, 16, a junior who wrote a story about West for the school newspaper.

Hagan, who communicated with West by e-mail, said he comes across as a "really sincere person. . . . We are lucky. We don't have to be in that kind of situation and we don't have to face those kinds of decisions."

West, who declined a request for an interview Friday, earlier said he took responsibility for his actions, which he knew were not authorized. But he said he believed he had no other option to protect the lives of those under his command.

He was charged with three counts of assault and one court of communicating a threat, Puckett said.

West has been assigned to Fort Hood, the headquarters for the 4th Infantry.


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