Found this old story from The Seattle Times via Cold Fury. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
Retired Sgt. Berentson, the man who has kept Muhammad's name and dog-tag number in his wallet for the past 11 years, says the road should have dead-ended for Muhammad years ago. Why Muhammad didn't end up behind bars in 1991, neither Berentson nor anyone else in the U.S. Army's 84th Engineering Company can explain. In the first months of that year, the unit was in the Middle East preparing for the ground-attack phase of the Gulf War. The story, according to Berentson and at least two other former members of the 84th, was that Muhammad threw a thermite grenade into a tent housing 16 of his fellow soldiers. Thermite grenades — made of finely granulated aluminum mixed with a metal oxide, and blasting heat up to 1,200 degrees — are used to destroy equipment during battle. The attack could easily have killed or maimed, but all 16 in the tent, some coughing and choking, escaped unharmed. Berentson was in the tent. He says the grenade went off near him and near a staff sergeant with whom Muhammad had fought earlier that day. The Army's Criminal Investigation Division, Berentson says, concluded Muhammad (then named Williams) was the lead suspect. Muhammad was led away in handcuffs and eventually transferred to another company pending charges. He had been court-martialed twice before for lesser incidents while serving in the Louisiana National Guard. But an indictment over the grenade incident never materialized, and Muhammad's Army file has no record of it.
John Muhammad, in case anyone has forgotten, was one of the D.C. snipers. |