This is how it ended

The captives were brought in, but by this time, they were no longer suspects. An American soldier was the new suspect. He was found bleeding, with missing grenades and was a few rounds short. The story I overheard (I was a professional eavesdropper after all) being told to SSG Carville was that he had already confessed. However, they wanted us to talk to the Kuwaitis anyway. They also wanted them protected. The word hadn’t spread around that a soldier was the new suspect, and no one wanted someone to take vigilante justices against these two innocent people. SSG Carville made up a lie to tell the Kuwaitis. He was supposedly just some random soldier who had lived in Egypt for a while. He was the only one who understood any Arabic so they chose him. They thought he might make them feel more comfortable. His story was weak, but they were so scared that they didn’t notice. Besides, they were speaking in English. They were hired as translators and they only spoke Arabic to one another when SSG Carville left the room. I never spoke to them, so they didn’t know that I was listening.

I could tell that they had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were sleeping in the same tent that the grenades were thrown into. They ran when the soldiers ran, and they went where the soldiers went. They were “captured” hiding in a SCUD shelter with a bunch of other soldiers. They had no idea why they had been taken, and no real idea what had happened. We never told them. As far as they knew, Saddam had attacked us. The older guy was so scared that he was almost in tears. “How could this happen here?” He said, “I thought we were safe from Saddam. I want to go home. I quit.” The younger one was more determined to fight for his homeland, and was very composed and ready to keep working.

Chad, Mike, and I spent that evening in the wooden building with them. Their only protection from a base full of soldiers who thought they were terrorists. We were relieved at dawn by another team. Our convoy didn’t leave for Iraq that day because the Colonel had been injured and people had been killed. That one fact may have saved me from some of the early fighting in Southern Iraq, which is the only good thing that can be said about the whole event. 

Sergeant Akbar was sentenced to death on April 28, 2005 after being convicted of the premeditated murder of Army Captain Christopher Seifert and Air Force Major Gregory Stone. SGT Akbar had thrown grenades into a sleep tent and then shot Captain Seifert in the back while he was fleeing the tent. Shrapnel from a grenade killed Major Stone. At least 14 others were wounded in the attack, and the entire Brigade was shaken. It was the first major episode of the “war” for the “Sabre Tooth Tigers”, but we were not alone.