Written, Silent Laws of War Entangle Virginia Native

A member of the sheik's extended family has since been named Iraq's new president, and Petraeus has been promoted to oversee the building of an Iraqi army and police force.

The case of the seized SUV has elicited opposing, and fervent, interpretations. Williams and his defenders say he was following orders under a code that was both written and simply understood: Secure whatever equipment was necessary to fight the war. The war was in its second month, and Williams's 326th Engineer Battalion was in Mosul, headquarters of a division of Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard. Two of the platoon's four Humvees had broken down.

A court motion by Williams's attorney includes a copy of words on the wallet-size card given to soldiers there:

"Seize PRIVATE property only if it has a military use (e.g. weapons, ammunition, communication equipment, or transportation) & your commander authorizes the seizure based on military necessity. Give the owner a receipt. Check to see if PUBLICLY owned property can substitute. TAKING WAR TROPHIES IS PROHIBITED."

Although both sides agree that Williams failed to give a receipt -- he claimed fear of the escalating tension -- his attorney and some military experts said that vehicles and other property are often taken during wartime emergencies. Williams, who commented only through his attorney, Bernard Casey, said that he is being made a sacrificial lamb to please a powerful Iraqi and that the SUV was used for normal duty for days until the sheik complained.

"The idea that stealing a sheik's SUV will prevent us from winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people while the United States is bombing them is a load of baloney," said David Sheldon, a Washington lawyer who specializes in military law. "This is wartime, and a lot is left up to judgment."

Phil Cave, a Virginia lawyer who represents defendants at courts-martial, noted the case of a group of Ohio reservists who face larceny charges for dismantling military vehicles in Iraq for parts to keep fuel-distribution vehicles running in the march to Baghdad. One of those reservists first received the Bronze Star and then was court-martialed.

"The reaction to this has been all over the board," Cave said. "Some people are being cited as heroes, and some are being court-martialed. None of this was done for profit. It was to keep people in the war."

There is no military-wide standard on seizing property; the rules vary from unit to unit, mission to mission. However, military prosecutors argued at Williams's initial hearing in the spring that his unit's rules had been updated before the SUV incident to forbid taking vehicles. Casey -- a former Army judge advocate general who now practices in San Francisco -- countered that there has been no evidence of such an update.

Army officials say it is irrelevant whether Williams's superior ordered him to do it or whether it met the rules of engagement. "The government's position is that the rules of engagement had nothing to do with this criminal act," Fort Campbell's statement said. "The government does not believe the facts in this case constitute a justified taking of civilian property."

Gary Solis, a former Marine Corps judge who teaches military law at West Point, said he had never heard of any authorization to seize civilian vehicles. "If I were a judge, I wouldn't slow down for this," he said of Williams's case. "It doesn't pass the smell test."

Pvt. Alberto Lozano, who was with Williams when the SUV was seized, pleaded guilty to robbery and making a false statement. He was sentenced to 30 months in jail and given a bad-conduct discharge. Second Lt. Bradley Pavlik, the platoon commander, faces a court-martial next month and is expected to argue that although he told his men to get a vehicle, he did not tell them to take one at gunpoint.

Of the 20,000 members of the 101st deployed for the Iraq war, fewer than 20 have ended up in courts-martial, Fort Campbell officials said.

Williams wears a dour expression these days that brightens only when chat turns to war stories from his service in both Iraq conflicts. His wife and children live in Cameron, N.C., but three siblings and his mother still live in Virginia's Westmoreland County, where he visited last week before heading to Fort Campbell. A hearing is scheduled tomorrow on his attorney's motion to dismiss the case.

Regardless of what happens in court, he believes his career is over, his sister said.

"I think he was searching for something," Alice Winebarger, 48, said, noting that her brother was first drawn to the military by his father's World War II stories. "He found a lot of pride in the Army, found his belonging. . . . But this is the end of it, I'm sure."

She paused to consider a better-case scenario. "If he gets out of this and gets sent back to Iraq or Afghanistan or anywhere where there's conflict, he'll go," she said, "because as far as he's concerned, that's his job."

Special correspondent Naseer Nouri in Baghdad contributed to this report.