Newsgroup: it.cultura.storia.militare
Titolo: stragi nazifasciste : pochi processi, molte grazie

Oltre al recente processo al capitano delle SS Erich Priebk, rintracciato in
Argentina ed estradato e processato in Italia, davanti al Tribunale Militare
di Roma nel 1996, pochi altri criminali di guerra sono stati chiamati a
rispodnere alla giustizia.
E quelli che lo furono ebbero un trattamento piu' che magnanimo: pochi
furono i processo e molte furono le grazie.
Il processo piu' importante per crimini commessi in Italia fu quello contro
il feldmaresciallo Kesselring, svoltosi a Venezia nel 1947.
L'ex comandante germanico in Italia venne condannato a morte, ma sara'
graziato sei anni piu' tardi.
I generali Von Makensen e Maeltzer processati a Roma assieme, sono
condannati a morte ma poi la pena fu commutata in ergastolo.
Maeltzer morira' in prigione, von Makensen liberato nel '62 morira'
ultranovantenne in Germania.
Il generale Karl Wolff, arrestato dagli alleati nel 1945, evita di finire a
Norimberga per avere trattato la resa dei tedeschi in Italia.
Processato ad Amburgo, è condannato a 15 anni che sconta solo in parte.
Kappler processato a Roma nel 1948, è condannato all'ergastolo.
La condanna viene poi confermata in appello e in Cassazione.
Rimarra' in prigione fino al 1977, quando potra' fuggire in circostanze
misteriose dall'ospedale militare del Celio.
E nell'elenco si potrebbero aggiungere anche altri nomi come Raeder,
Borghese, Roatta ...
saluti
sergio
--------------------------------
Inviato via 
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Ti ricordo che il Tenente Calley,autore della strage di My Lay(guerra nel 
Vietnam),centinaia di civili(in maggior parte donne  
bambini,anziani),condannato ad una lunga pena detentiva è stato 
scarcerato SUBITO.
Anche all estero la giustizia lascia alquanto a desiderare....... 
--
Maximus
Inviato da 
www.mynewsgate.net

per codesto anche in Italia al Cermis
Pomero

 scarcerato SUBITO.
My Lai, non My Lay, perdona la correzione :)
Per la precisione venne dichiarato colpevole di 22 omicidi e
condannato ai lavori forzati a vita. Successivamente ci fu
una revisione del processo che ridusse tale pena prima a 20
poi a 10 anni. Alla fine fu liberato sulla parola nel
1974 dopo 3 anni e mezzo di arresti domiciliari. Venne
assolto anche il suo diretto superiore, Cpt. E. Medina
(in quanto, secondo la giuria, Medina non sapeva
esattamente cosa stesse succedendo). Insieme a Calley
e Medina, altri 12 furono accusati, ma solo in cinque
subirono il processo, e cmq nessuno fu condannato. Il
Generale della divisione (la 23rd Americal,  forse la
peggiore delle divisioni US Army in VN,  creata  alla cazzo
di cane riunendo alla menopeggio 3 brigate separate di
fanteria leggera, la 11st, la 196th e la 199th),  Koester, fu
accusato di aver insabbiato la vicenda, ma  anche in questo
caso non ci fu nessuna condanna.
Interessante notare come in patria, ma anche all'estero,
sebbene in misura minore, la maggioranza dei pacifisti o
antivietwar, era contraria ad una condanna del Lt.Calley,
che all'epoca venne definito, senza mezzi termini, un
"capro espiatorio", una vittima da sacrificare. Le dita
ovviamente erano puntate da ben altra parte, verso
Washington D.C. tanto per capirci.
In quel giorno infernale, ci fu anche chi si ribello', uno
di questi era il WO-1 Hugh C. Thompson. Alcuni link
x ricordare il suo gesto, che salvo' vite umane :
http://www.uic.edu/depts/rotc/refer/leader.htm
http://www.acadianhouse.com/hughthompson/story.htm
Qui sotto un articolo del Baltimore Sun risalente al
18 novembre del 1997 :
WASHINGTON -- On the morning of March 16, 1968, Warrant Officer Hugh
C. Thompson Jr. skipped his helicopter along the tree line in
Vietnam's Quang Ngai province and saw a hellish scene below: a
massacre at a village called My Lai.
Thompson set down his chopper, angrily confronted a fellow American
soldier and saved more than a dozen villagers cowering in a bunker.
He then plucked an injured child from a body-filled trench before
heading back to headquarters. Throwing down his helmet, he told
commanders what he saw. They ordered a cease-fire, and the killing
ended.
Now, nearly 30 years later, an effort to finally recognize Thompson's
heroics is being stalled by Army politics. Approved for the Soldier's
Medal in August 1996 -- thanks largely to a nine-year effort by a
Clemson University professor -- Thompson has not yet received the
decoration or even been officially notified by the Army that it has
been granted.
Amid this unusually long delay, Army officials are debating whether
to award the medal in a private or public setting. Some argue a
public ceremony would rekindle interest in one of the Army's most
sordid episodes, sources said. "It's really disappointing," said one
Defense Department official involved in the effort to approve the
decoration. "The whole intent was to present a medal to a guy who
was truly a hero."
Said Lt. Col. Peter Dagnes, an aide to Assistant Army Secretary Sara
E. Lister, the top personnel official: "The award was approved and
the Army is just trying to figure out how to make a presentation."
But Dagnes could not explain why nearly 15 months later Thompson has
yet to be notified of the award.
Lt. Col. Bill Harkey, an Army spokesman, could not explain the delay
either. But he dismissed the notion that it resulted from a dispute
over whether Thompson should be given the award publicly or
privately. "We're just trying to come up with a proper location," he
said.
The setting doesn't matter, he said, since any ceremony would dredge
up memories of the My Lai atrocities.
Thompson's efforts are not in dispute. W.R. Peers, a three-star Army
general who spearheaded the official inquiry at My Lai in 1969,
later wrote of Thompson: "He was the only American who cared enough
to take action to protect the Vietnamese noncombatants. If there was
a hero at My Lai, he was it."
Those who have championed Thompson's cause are dumbfounded that the
Army would not want to publicize his actions, accounts of which have
been woven into cadet ethics courses at the U.S. Air Force Academy
and in a mock My Lai trial at West Point.
"If the Army had any sense they'd call attention to it," said
retired Army Col. Harry G. Summers, Jr., a decorated Vietnam veteran
and syndicated columnist who has written about Thompson.
Thompson, now an official with the Department of Veterans Affairs in
Louisiana, was traveling and could not be reached. But Larry
Colburn, who was his 18-year-old door gunner that morning, vividly
recalls that day.
Flying a reconnaissance mission on a clear March morning with
Thompson and Glenn Andreotta, another crew member from Chicago,
Colburn suddenly saw the trench full of bodies.
"I think we were all shocked to see that many kids and women and old
men," said Colburn, now a manager for a medical supply company in
Atlanta, "and not see any [arms] fire, no captured weapons."
Thompson set down his chopper and approached the more senior Lt.
William L. Calley. He got into a bitter argument with Calley about
what was occurring, according to "Four Hours in My Lai," a 1992 book
by Michael Bilton and Kevin Sim. Calley would become the only
soldier convicted at My Lai.
Taking off again, the crew soon saw other soldiers running toward a
bunker where villagers had fled. "I remember he [Thompson] said,
'This is not right, what's going on here,' " recalled Colburn.
Thompson set down the helicopter.
"He said, 'If they fire on those people, shoot them,' " Colburn
remembered. "He wanted me to cover him." After telling another
officer not to fire at the civilians, the muscular 25-year-old
Georgia native walked to the bunker, as a dozen U.S. soldiers stood
by.
"I remember thinking to myself, 'He's crazy. He could die right
here.' Then [the villagers] all came out of there like he's their
cousin," Colburn said.
Climbing back into his chopper, Thompson hovered above the
irrigation ditch, dropping down once more to pick up a toddler, who
was covered in blood and slime but not seriously hurt. By now,
Thompson was overcome. "He was in tears," said Colburn.
Colburn is not surprised that the Army seems reluctant to publicly
celebrate Thompson for his actions. Both men testified in courts-
martial against the soldiers charged with complicity in My Lai, and
at Pentagon and congressional investigations. "We're not popular,"
said Colburn. "The Army doesn't admit mistakes."
"For the past 30 years no one has wanted to admit that actually
happened," Colburn continued. "A lot of Europeans have done
documentaries. They've shown more interest than the United States."
It was in 1988, while watching a My Lai documentary produced by the
British Broadcasting Corp. on the 20th anniversary, that David Egan,
a professor emeritus of architecture at Clemson, heard the story of
Thompson and his crew.
Egan remembers thinking: "Wow, this guy really did something
extraordinarily brave. When he came home, did he get a pat on the
back?"
He found that Thompson had been awarded a lesser decoration, the
Distinguished Flying Cross, for his actions. That medal recognizes
"heroism or extraordinary achievement in aerial flight," but fails
to reflect the risks Thompson took that day.
Although he never spoke with Thompson until years later, Egan wrote
more than a hundred letters to officials pressing for a higher award
for him. "I thought it was something that ought to be done," said
Egan, a former Army officer who served in France during the early
1960s. "I kind of felt each time I did something it would be the
end."
His efforts paid off last year, when the Army agreed to award
Thompson the more coveted Soldier's Medal, for heroism and risking
his life. The citation -- which Egan obtained unofficially -- says
Thompson not only personally saved lives but led commanders to order
a cease-fire.
Egan is also pushing for a Meritorious Service Medal for Colburn,
along with a posthumous one for Andreotta, who was killed in Vietnam
a month later. "I don't know anything about those," said Harkey, the
Army spokesman.
BYeZ
Aleks / The best medal is a live man's smile
--
Http://www.MACV.has.it/
 - Military Assistance Command Vietnam HQ
Http://www.IHHC.net/
 - It.Hobby.Home-Cinema
Http://sherylcrow.rocks.it
 - 1st Sheryl Crow Italian Webiste (96/03)

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