Chapter 10 - The Verdict
Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Webb was convicted on all counts.
He was convicted of espionage, of conspiracy to commit espionage, of obstruction of justice, and of eleven counts of felony murder. He was convicted of eleven counts of felony murder because eleven people had died in Deh Bala as a direct result of the intelligence he had passed. Six of them were children.
He was sentenced to life in federal prison without the possibility of parole. He was ordered to forfeit all pay and allowances. He was dismissed from the United States Army. He was ordered to pay restitution to the families of the eleven people who had died in Deh Bala in the amount of four point four million dollars.
He is currently serving his sentence at a federal penitentiary in Florence, Colorado. He will not be eligible for parole. He will die in prison.
Karim Saleh was arrested in Dubai six months later. He was extradited to the United States. He was tried in federal court in Washington, D.C. He was convicted on the same charges. He was sentenced to life in federal prison. He is currently serving his sentence at a federal penitentiary in Marion, Illinois.
Derek Halloran — the Army civilian employee who had helped Webb alter the recording — was charged with obstruction of justice and with conspiracy to alter evidence. He pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to five years in federal prison. He is currently serving his sentence at a federal penitentiary in West Virginia.
Major Stephen Knox was not charged with any crime. He had been granted immunity in exchange for his testimony. He was, however, relieved of his duties as the commander of the military intelligence training command at Fort Huachuca. He was reassigned to a staff position at the Army's intelligence center at Fort Belvoir.
He retired from the Army two years later, at twenty-four years of service, without ever having been selected for promotion to lieutenant colonel.
Elena Vega was not charged with any crime. The formal reprimand for her unauthorized phone call to Webb was amended in writing by her commander. The amendment said, in careful language, that "the reprimand was issued in good faith on the basis of the information available at the time, and that subsequent events have established that Staff Sergeant Vega's concerns about the conduct of Lieutenant Colonel Webb were substantially correct."
The amendment did not remove the reprimand from her file. It did not change the fact that she had made a mistake. It did not change the fact that the investigation had been delayed by six weeks because of her actions.
The amendment simply recorded, in the record of the United States Army, that the mistake she had made had not been a mistake of intent. It had been a mistake of protocol. And it had not been made out of malice. It had been made out of love for her father and love for the eleven people who had died in Deh Bala and love for the truth.
She was promoted to sergeant first class nine months after the verdict. She was awarded the Army Commendation Medal. She was assigned to Fort Huachuca as the senior enlisted instructor for the Dari and Pashto program.
She taught the phrase "As-salaamu alaykum, sang-e ma" on the first day of every class.
She taught it because her father had taught it to her.
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She taught it because it meant "Peace be upon you, my stone."
She taught it because it was the phrase that had exposed the lie.
