Diary Said to Show GI’s Intent

An Army sergeant charged in a deadly grenade attack on his comrades wrote in his diary that his fellow soldiers were mistreating him, and that once he was sent to Iraq, he was “going to try and kill as many of them as possible,” a jury was told Thursday.

An FBI agent read four passages to the 15-member jury before the prosecution rested its case in the court-martial of Sgt. Hasan Akbar. His lawyers are to begin calling witnesses in their insanity defense Monday.

Akbar, a convert to Islam, is accused of attacking his fellow soldiers in their tents at an encampment in Kuwait in March 2003, during the opening days of the Iraq war. Two U.S. officers were killed.

Prosecutors have said Akbar told investigators he was worried U.S. forces would harm fellow Muslims in the Iraq war. They are seeking a premeditated-murder conviction, which carries a possible death penalty.

In the diary entry dated Feb. 4, 2003, Akbar referred to mistreatment by his fellow soldiers:

“I suppose they want to punk me or just humiliate me. Perhaps they feel that I will not do anything about that. They are right about that. I am not going to do anything about it as long as I stay here. But as soon as I am in Iraq, I am going to try and kill as many of them as possible.”

Elsewhere, he wrote: “I may not have killed any Muslims, but being in the Army is the same thing. I may have to make a choice very soon on who to kill.”

The entries were found on a computer Akbar had put in a storage unit near Ft. Campbell in Kentucky before he was deployed.

Akbar’s lawyers contend their client was incapable of premeditation because he suffered from mental illness.