USA PMC in AFG Faces Murder Charges...

[milnews.ca]

...linked to the shooting of an AFG national after an American social scientist was doused with gasoline and set afire earlier this month. Moderators - couldn't find earlier reference through search, but feel free to move this if another thread is a better fit.

Contractor who shot Afghan stands trial
American shot Afghan dead when told of colleague's horrific burns
Quqnoos.com (AFG), 20 Nov 08
Article link

An American security contractor who shot an Afghan man is standing trial for murder in America. The American is understood to have shot the man after hearing that the Afghan had injured a fellow contractor, reports say.

Don M. Ayala, 46 and Paula Loyd were accompanying an American foot patrol through an Afghan village near Kandahar on November 4. Afghan Abdul Salam threw a container of flammable liquid onto Loyd during the operation and was detained.

About ten minutes later, when Ayala was told that Loyd was badly burnt, he shot Salam dead, according to American soldiers who witnessed the scene.

Since leaving the US military, Ayala had guarded top Afghan and Iraqi VIPs. He had been working for BAE Systems since September 1.

It is unclear how Ayala was brought before the US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.

The trial continues.

[kville79]

The fact that they're targeting HTT teams shows that the program is being very successful. I feel bad for the contractors, both the female social scientist and the man who shot her assailant. But that man acted on emotion, not logic. If the assailant was still alive he would be a valuable intelligence asset on finding the names and locations of those planning the attack and those observing and reporting on HTT team movements.

Not to mention that man must have known he was in the wrong, the assailant (as I read it) was already detained. I do hope the Jury recognizes the emotional duress the man was under and he probably wasn't thinking straight when he shot him.

[Ken White]

of figuring that nice law abiding Americans wouldn't do what was done -- and smarted off ex post pyro to the wrong guy.

Thus your hope:

...I do hope the Jury recognizes the emotional duress the man was under and he probably wasn't thinking straight when he shot him.

is shared by me but is probably forlorn in this day and age -- unless there's a romance angle; that usually sways 'em...

As for this:

"...If the assailant was still alive he would be a valuable intelligence asset on finding the names and locations of those planning the attack and those observing and reporting on HTT team movements.

Perhaps but most likely not. He could've been acting alone on a whim or he could've been told what and where with no knowledge of names and locations.

People sometimes act illogically. That applies to bad guys and good guys and to most of us who fall in between.

[Ron Humphrey]

But a note of curiousity in context with the realities of life there versus here.

Had this been an Afghan official in the role of the HTT member who was burned and an Afghan security person. Wouldn't this have most likely been exactly the reaction you would have seen and would anyone in that area have felt that this was anything more than justice?

Not to be mis-understood as denying that things were done badly but rather trying to think about how differently those there might actually percieve such a set of events.

[120mm]

It's also possible that Mr. Ayala has a highly developed sense of "On".

I can think of several people I would go to prison or die for. Especially if they were set on fire, and their assailant were going to be scolded harshly and then put back into the "catch and release" terrorist program.

Of course, I've been on fire before, so this particular act has special repugnance for me.

[Featherock]

Does anyone know of any other PMCs, in Iraq or AFghanistan, who has been charged with murder? Is this a first?

How do Blackwater guys kill dozens of Iraqis at a traffic circle and not get charged with anything and this Ayala guy gets charged immediately?

Regardless, he did the wrong thing, big time, no doubt about it. We can sympathize and put ourselves in his shoes all we want. It doesn't change what he did. We can't operate by two sets of rules, the 'good' one and the 'conditional' one.

[Rex Brynen]

The fact that they're targeting HTT teams shows that the program is being very successful. I feel bad for the contractors, both the female social scientist and the man who shot her assailant. But that man acted on emotion, not logic. If the assailant was still alive he would be a valuable intelligence asset on finding the names and locations of those planning the attack and those observing and reporting on HTT team movements.

While this is possible, my first guess would be a spontaneous reaction by a local angry at being spoken to, and questioned, by an adult woman to whom he wasn't closely related.