A military judge at Fort Knox has sentenced US war resister James Burmeister to six months in jail after Burmeister pleaded guilty to going AWOL. The twenty-three-year-old soldier served as an Army scout in Iraq but fled to Canada in May 2007 while on leave. After leaving Iraq, Burmeister revealed that US troops in Iraq were planting equipment, such as AK-47s, to lure Iraqis to spots where American snipers could shoot them. The practice was known as bait and kill. Burmeister said, “I know going AWOL was wrong, but I thought it was the best way to stop the small kill teams.”