Ken Macdonald QC
Director of Public Prosecutions

Dear Mr. Macdonald,

Further to the Coroners investigation into the death of Mr Terry Lloyd the ITN reporter killed near Basra in 2003 I understand that a verdict of “Unlawful Killing” has been recorded. I further understand that the Coroner in question, Mr. Andrew Walker has written to you and the Attorney General requesting that charges be brought against the American troops responsible for Mr. Lloyd’s death, along with the killing of Mr. Osman and Mr. Nerac the other members of the ITN team who were killed in the same incident.

I am writing to you to urge you to take up this case and to prosecute the soldiers involved as matter of urgency. As you may be aware, this is not the first time a UK Coroners office has found US military personnel responsible for the unlawful killing of UK citizens. In 1992, the Oxford Coroner found that 9 British soldiers killed by US pilots to have been unlawfully killed. In this case, the UK did not pursue any criminal or other proceedings against those responsible and an internal US military investigation cleared the pilots of any wrongdoing.

Based on the US military and civilian court’s appalling record of investigating and subsequently charging servicemen accused of un-lawfully killing or abusing civilians or other soldiers, I do not believe that the UK government can rely on the US justice system to act on its behalf. All major Human Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have repeated called on the US government to thoroughly investigate the ever growing backlog of credible cases of US military abuse or unlawful killings, yet very little progress has been made. HRW studies indicate that as of Apr06, of the 600 US military personnel implicated in the Abu Ghraib abuses, only 40 are currently serving jail time and only 10 US personnel have been sentenced to more than 1 year in jail, with no US Officer having been held account for the actions of their subordinates.

Even when US military personnel are found guilty of murder, the sentences meted out fall far short of the equivalent sentences imposed by US Civil courts. I cite the cases of Staff Sgt Horne Jr, jailed for 3 years for murdering an Iraqi civilian, Staff Sgt Cardenas Alban, jailed for 1 year for the same murder and the 60 days confinement along with a $6000 fine imposed on CWO Welshofer for suffocating to death a captured Iraqi General during an interrogation.

In summary, serious doubts exist about the US Department of Defense and the US Department of Justice’s political impartiality, their willingness to prosecute serving military personnel and the fairness of the sentences issued for grave crimes against Iraqi civilians. It is therefore vital that the UK CPS pursues the case against those responsible for Mr. Lloyds death in Iraq as the US Justice system cannot be relied upon to impartially investigate or prosecute this crime.

Allegations of excessive or reckless use of force by US forces against Non combatants have continued to emerge from Iraq and Afghanistan since the end of major hostilities in 2003. I note the recent comments of Lance Corporal Gerrard, a soldier wounded in 2003 during an attack on his vehicle by a US A-10 pilot in Iraq, which killed one and wounded 4 British soldiers – “There was a boy of about 12 years old. He was no more than 20 meters away when the Yank opened up. There were all these civilians around…….. He (the pilot) had absolutely no regard from human life.”

When the number of incidents in which US forces are alleged to have used excessive or reckless force are steadily mounting and the US President asserts his right to indefinitely imprison suspects, denying them access to the courts to challenge their detention and then seeks to reinterpret the Geneva Conventions to permit their “enhanced” interrogation, it becomes a moral obligation of the UK government to challenge these abuses, especially when, as in the case of the death of Terry Lloyd, they involve the interpretation and adherence to the Geneva Conventions. I urge you not to defer to political pressure or to be dissuaded by the practical challenges which pursuing this case will involve.

I understand that the UK has recently signed a bi-lateral extradition treaty with the USA, which has now been ratified by the US Senate, making the reciprocal extradition of suspects a straight forward matter. A number of UK citizens, the majority accused of white collar crimes have been extradited to the USA under this agreement. Given the seriousness of the charges, I urge you to demand the extradition of the US service members implicated in this crime so that they may be tried by a British court.

To fail to prosecute this case would be a tragedy for the families of Terry Lloyd, Hussein Osman and Fred Nerac. It would also show the world that the UK applies its code of justice selectively and only where it is politically expedient. It would further compound the current immunity from justice that US servicemen enjoy when operating in Iraq and Afghanistan with the attendant risks this poses to non combatants in these countries.

Yours sincerely

AJ Bladderwait.