{"id":467146,"date":"2010-03-24T15:03:49","date_gmt":"2010-03-24T19:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com\/?p=14695"},"modified":"2010-03-24T15:03:49","modified_gmt":"2010-03-24T19:03:49","slug":"rapper-soldier-fights-charges-in-kuwait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/467146","title":{"rendered":"Rapper Soldier Fights Charges in Kuwait"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Army<\/p>\n

Army Spc. Marc Hall, Courtesy of Stars and Stripes<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Army takes all threats seriously. After a gunman killed 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas last November, it’s easy to see why. And it helps explain why Spc. Marc Hall is under arrest.<\/p>\n

Hall, a soldier out of Fort Stewart in Georgia, recorded a rap song last July called “Stop Loss\u201d after he was notified that his military contract was being extended. Army soldiers who are “stop-lossed” must complete additional tours of duty.<\/p>\n

In his song, Hall raps about walking up to soldiers and “surprising them all” with 30 rounds set to a “three-round burst.” Another lyric says: \u201cStill against the war \/ I grab my M4\/ Spray and watch all the bodies hit the floor\/ I bet you\u2019ll never stop-loss nobody no more.\u201d<\/p>\n

He sent a copy to the Pentagon, posted it on his Web site and gave copies to soldiers in his unit.<\/p>\n

In December, Jim Klimaski, of Klimaski & Associates, got a call from Hall, and he represented him in civilian court until last month. At the time, he was seeking a trial in the U.S. But that request was denied and now Hall is being held at Camp Arifajan in Kuwait awaiting a command decision on whether to go to trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [the Army] have a solider in Iraq who is not performing any duty and they have to guard him and they have to waste their time — they have to ask officers to come off the line to do this court-martial,\u201d Klimaski said.<\/p>\n

Hall is charged with violating Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Conduct. The charges range from making threats to distributing a copy of the rap song to fellow soldiers. Rather than bringing soldiers from Hall’s infantry to the states for trial, Hall\u2019s hearing is being conducted in Kuwait.<\/p>\n

And that poses a problem, Klimaski says. \u201cNot all witnesses are over there, defense witnesses, they\u2019re all here,\u201d he told Fox News, referring to Hall’s family, friends and mental health counselors.<\/p>\n

Gen. Carter Ham, a commander and adviser to the Department of Defense, said the military is taking the necessary steps to keep its men and women safe. “Commanders are the key to monitoring threats,” Ham told a House Appropriations Committee. “Policies must acknowledge the threat and help identify and address those likely to become violent.”<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Klimaski says, Hall’s rap song is a free speech issue. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a serious threat. Instead of thinking it through, they [the Army] wanted to show we are tougher than you are, we are going to beat you up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Army Spc. Marc Hall, Courtesy of Stars and Stripes The Army takes all threats seriously. After a gunman killed 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas last November, it’s easy to see why. And it helps explain why Spc. Marc Hall is under arrest. Hall, a soldier out of Fort Stewart in Georgia, recorded a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}