Analyst's note: This is absolutely perverted that our sovereign American citizens should be held accountable - in any form - to Sharia law. They're going to hang these guys because a gaggle of Islamist-Taliban thugs have no self control. We've already been told that the only acceptable solution is to burn our White House and/or hang our Generals.
"KABUL, Afghanistan - Three major investigations were under way on Wednesday into the Koran burning at Bagram Air Base by the American military last week, the event that plunged Afghanistan into days of deadly protests claiming as many as 30 Afghan lives and coinciding with the shooting deaths of four American soldiers.
[....] One investigation is American, one is Afghan and one is a joint Afghan-American inquiry.
The formal American military investigation is the only one that can lead to punishment, while the other two will include recommendations but do not carry formal legal weight.
The formal legal inquiry, opened by General John R. Allen, the senior NATO commander in Afghanistan, on Feb. 21 is designed to understand the events that led to soldiers throwing Korans and other Muslim religious texts into a burn pit at the military base more than a week ago.
The investigation, known as an AR15-6, the number in the Army regulatory code, is a first step in a process that could lead ultimately to criminal legal action or lesser administrative punishment.
[....] The inquiry will conclude with a final report, which could comprise a recommendation for further legal action, including a more formal process that could lead to court-martial. The final report is due to be handed to General Allen in the second half of March. Any legal action will be pursued under American laws and regulations, not those of Afghanistan.
[....] General Allen can choose to act on the recommendations of the AR15-6 investigation, ignore them or combine them with other steps, a military officer said in a background briefing.
Among the available punishments are everything from demotions and discharge from the military to imprisonment.
[....] The formal investigation overlaps with a joint inquiry that also includes three senior Afghan security officials from the Afghan Army, the National Directorate of Security and the Interior Ministry, who have been at Parwan and Bagram with the American brigadier general.
[....] More than 30 Afghans have died in the violence that followed the Koran burning, and there have been at least three assaults on American military personnel since thousands of Afghans took to the streets to protest.
These assaults on Americans took place in Khogyani District of Nangahar Province when a man in an Afghan Army uniform shot and killed two American soldiers; in Kunduz Province, where a grenade thrown by protesters near a base wounded at least six American service members; and in Kabul where two American military officers were shot in the head by an Afghan assailant who entered a secure area of the Interior Ministry where the two were working.
The third, purely Afghan investigation is by a task force that includes members of Afghanistan's Ulema Council and some Parliament members. The Ulema is the pre-eminent religious authority in the country and is made up of scholarly mullahs."
Related article:
Afghanistan; Understandable rage or Unacceptable Behavior?
Afghanistan: "NATO officials promised to meet Afghan nation’s demand of bringing to justice, through an open trial" -- "NATO must know full well that it is validating a process that, for many of its backers, can only rightly end through retribution in blood, and even that will not be the end; it will never be enough, because the response is not rational in the first place, and therefore has no rational end point."
2 more Americans killed inside the Afghan ministry
Afghanistan unrest stirs worries, but doesn't shake commitment
Afghanistan demands NATO adopt Sharia, put Qur'an-burners on trial -- Karzai says NATO agrees
20 members of the Afghan parliament & MPs call for jihad against U.S.
Using the Quran to Control Afghan Anger
