WIRED Staff
Science

Slideshow: UAV Fooled to Hide Iraq Murder

Eight U.S. military men involved in the murder of an Iraqi civilian carefully stage events for the benefit of an overhead surveillance aircraft. Only a confession trips them up. By Marty Graham.
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The bomb crater near the side of the road in Hamdania, Iraq, where Awad was positioned, flexicuffed, before he was shot to death April 26. Seven Marines and a Navy medic were accused of staging the scene to look like Awad, a disabled former police officer, had been planting a bomb when he was killed in a firefight.Photo: AP

See related story: UAV Fooled to Hide Iraq Murder

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A Pioneer unmanned surveillance vehicle demonstrates a remote-control takeoff.

Photo: AAI
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Photos of the bomb crater where Hashim Ibrahim Awad died, apparently taken by Naval Criminal Investigative Services agents who began their investigation in May believing the killing was a "good shoot," and were stunned when medic Melson J. Bacos confessed to being part of a staged killing.

Photo: AP
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U.S. Navy medic Melson J. Bacos, the first of the alleged conspirators to confess, on the way to an Oct. 6 hearing at Camp Pendleton, where he became the first to plead guilty. In exchange for an agreement to testify against his squad members, Bacos was sentenced to a year confinement, including time served, and has just been released.

Photo: AP/Denis Poroy
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Awad's sandal and the stolen shovel used to make it look like he was killed while planting a bomb.

Photo: AP