Ex-CO Gets Reprimand, $300K Fine

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany -- Col. James Johnson, convicted of fraud, bigamy, and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, was sentenced Thursday to a reprimand and a $300,000 fine.

The court-martial panel also imposed a sentence of five years’ confinement if Johnson, the former commander of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, fails to pay the fine. He was not dismissed from the service and was not sentenced to forfeit his pay and allowances. His convictions all had to do with an affair he had with an Iraqi woman he met while deployed and his efforts to help her family.

Thursday’s hearing began when Johnson addressed the panel for the first time in the proceedings.

He implored the five colonels deciding his fate to let him leave the courtroom a free man so that he could protect the woman, Haveen Al-Atar, from the damage inflicted by the pair’s illict love affair.

"She has nowhere to go,” Johnson said. “She’s hiding in an unnamed hotel, waiting to see if anybody will show back up to care for her,” Johnson told the court. “I passionately ask that you consider that.”

Haveen Al-Atar’s father, who has disowned her, has threatened to send her back to Iraq, Johnson said, where she’d either live a destitute life on the street or even be murdered in an honor killing. Her ex-husband, whom she was forced to marry, then forced to divorce when her relationship with Johnson came to light and dishonored the family, he said, has threatened to take away her beloved 4-year-old daughter.

“Haveen and her daughter are at the center of my life,” Johnson said.

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