United States v. Hasan K. Akbar

Hasan Akbar
Born	(1971-04-21) April 21, 1971 Watts, Los Angeles, California
Allegiance
Service / branch	United States Army
Years of service	1998–2004
Rank	Former sergeant, reduced in rank to private after sentencing
Unit	326th Engineer Battalion, 101st Airborne Division

The Hasan Akbar case refers to the prosecution of Hasan Karim Akbar, a United States soldier, for the murder of two United States Army officers and wounding of 14 other soldiers on 23 March 2003 at Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait, during the United States invasion of Iraq. (He was given the name Mark Fidel Kools at birth.)

Army Captain Christopher S. Seifert and Air Force Major Gregory L. Stone were killed, and Akbar wounded fourteen soldiers in the incident. He was convicted in a trial in April 2005 and sentenced to death. The sentence of death, which was approved by the commander of the 18th Airborne Corps, was argued before the Army Court of Criminal Appeals in January 2012. Akbar is confined in the United States Disciplinary Barracks.

Akbar was the first person to be convicted since the Vietnam War for fragging cases among United States soldiers overseas during wartime. Alberto Martinez, charged in the 2005 deaths of two officers in Iraq, was acquitted in February 2009.

Persons involved

• Akbar, named Mark Fidel Kools when born on 21 April 1971, grew up in Watts, Los Angeles, California. His father John Kool converted to Islam while in prison on a gang-related charge, and changed his surname to Akbar. He was released in 1974. Mark's mother later converted to Islam before marrying William M. Bilal, also a Muslim convert. She took the name Quran Bilal. She changed her son's name to Hasan Karim Akbar, to reflect his father's surname and their religion. He was raised from a young age as a Muslim. After five years, the Bilals divorced. The step-father had been investigated for sexual abuse of Hasan's sister, which the boy witnessed. This situation was believed to contribute to Akbar's developing emotional problems as a teenager. Kools attended local schools as a boy and teenager.

In 1988, the youth was admitted under the name of Mark Fidel Kools to the University of California, Davis. He graduated nine years later in 1997 with Bachelor's degrees in both Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering.

The university said that Kools had stopped and restarted his studies during those years, which lengthened the time it took him to complete his degrees. He joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps during college, but he did not receive a commission and left with the rank of sergeant. According to the Los Angeles Times, college graduates usually are commissioned as lieutenants (officers) if successful in completing the ROTC program. Deeply in debt, he joined the Army.

After joining under the name of Hasan Karim Akbar, he was assigned as a sapper to Company A, 326th Engineer Battalion of the 101st Airborne. Because of his sub-standard performance, he was demoted from squad leader and given lower-level tasks. Fellow soldiers said that Akbar was isolated, “rarely in the company of others and was seen talking to himself.” In Akbar's early years with the unit, superiors had noted the sergeant had "an attitude problem." He was eventually deployed to Kuwait in 2003, as part of the United States buildup for its invasion of Iraq and start of the war. He was the only suspect in the attack at Camp Pennsylvania, which occurred a few days before the unit was to join the invasion.

Victims

• Army Captain Christopher S. Seifert was a member of the 101st Airborne Division.
• Air Force Major Gregory L. Stone, a member of the 124th Air Support Operations Squadron, Idaho Air National Guard, was attached to the 101st Airborne Division.
• 14 other soldiers were wounded.

Killings and aftermath

The inscription of Christopher Seifert was placed on the Williams Township Veterans Memorial in Williams Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania.

Akbar was charged in a hand grenade-and-shooting attack that killed two officers and wounded 14 other soldiers on March 23, 2003. The attack occurred at Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait, a rear-base camp for the invasion of Iraq which had started on March 19 that year. Akbar turned off the generator so that lights were off. He threw four hand grenades which he had taken from supplies into three tents during the early morning, when the majority of troops were sleeping. He also fired his rifle at soldiers during the ensuing chaos.

It was just days before his unit was scheduled to move into Iraq. News reports at the time claimed that Akbar had recently been reprimanded for insubordination, and was told he would not join his unit in the invasion.

The New York Times reported during Akbar's court martial in 2005:

"In earlier proceedings, fellow soldiers testified that Sergeant Akbar's behavior was bizarre enough to make some of them think he should not go into combat. Sgt. First Class Daniel Kumm, Sergeant Akbar's platoon sergeant, said in a June 2003 hearing that he told his superiors of his concerns but was told: 'You will take him. We need the numbers. We need to take full strength into Iraq.'"

Akbar, the sole suspect, was tried in a court martial in 2005 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in front of a military jury of nine officers, with ranks from Major to Colonel, and six senior Sergeants. The jury was composed of thirteen men and two women. Although Akbar confessed to the crimes, his lawyers claimed during the 2005 trial that he had a history of mental illness which was known to the military.

His military defense attorneys said that Akbar was diagnosed with psychiatric problems at the age of 14. He had suffered worsening symptoms in the military, which included "paranoia, irrational behavior, insomnia and other sleep disorders," making it impossible for him to do his job. During his court martial, Akbar tried to explain his actions: he said he felt his life was "in jeopardy" and he had "other problems".

At one point, Akbar smuggled a sharp object out of a conference room. He asked the Military Police officer guarding him to remove his hand cuffs so he might use the restroom. When the MP removed the restraints, Akbar stabbed the MP in the shoulder and neck before being wrestled to the ground by another MP. The U.S. Army Judge did not allow this attack to be admitted as evidence prior to sentencing, describing it as "opportunistic violence".

Verdict and appeals

The United States Disciplinary Barracks, where Akbar is confined

On 21 April 2005, Akbar was found guilty of two counts of premeditated murder (of Captain Seifert, who was shot in the back, and Major Stone, struck by shrapnel), and three counts of attempted premeditated murder. He was sentenced to death on 28 April, the jury deliberating for approximately 7 hours. Hasan Akbar was confined in the United States Disciplinary Barracks while waiting for additional steps in his case.

On 20 November 2006, Lieutenant General John Vines, commander of the 18th Airborne Corps, affirmed the death sentence against Akbar. Under an automatic appeal because of the sentence, the case was forwarded to the Army Court of Criminal Appeals. If the appeal fails, his case will automatically be appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeals for the Armed Forces. It was heard in 2012 but the ruling has not been issued yet, as of February 28, 2013. Akbar has a final right of appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. According to the military justice system, once Akbar's appeals are exhausted, if the conviction and sentence stand, the President of the United States (in his role as the Commander in Chief) must order the execution, which will be done by lethal injection.

Since the Vietnam War, when there were more than 200 confirmed fatalities due to soldiers' killing officers and NCOs by fragging, Akbar is the first U.S. soldier to be charged during wartime with the murder of another soldier. In 2005, an enlisted soldier was charged in the the deaths of two officers, also during the Iraq War, but he was acquitted at trial.

Possible motives

Background accounts of Akbar's life suggested previous difficulties in adjusting to university and to the military. His father John Akbar was reported by the Associated Press as saying that his son had told him of complaining to superiors about "religious and racial harassment." The defense did not produce any witnesses at the his court martial related to this assertion.

Military officials attributed Akbar's motive in the immediate case to resentment. Akbar was reported as having been recently reprimanded for insubordination, and was told he would not join his unit's push into Iraq. Excerpts from his diary have been released. In an entry dated 4 February 2003, Akbar referred to mistreatment by his fellow soldiers:

"I suppose they want to punk me or just humiliate me. Perhaps they feel that I will not do anything about that. They are right about that. I am not going to do anything about it as long as I stay here. But as soon as I am in Iraq, I am going to try and kill as many of them as possible."

In another entry written before the attack, Akbar wrote: "I may not have killed any Muslims, but being in the army is the same thing. I may have to make a choice very soon on who to kill." Prosecutors alleged in the court martial that his diary entries, together with his actions of stealing hand grenades and turning off the generator that lit the camp, showed that the attack was premeditated. His conviction on these charges led to the death sentence.

See also

• 2005 Deaths of Phillip Esposito and Louis Allen

External links

• US Air Force Major Gregory Stone