A military tribunal will begin today for the first of twelve US soldiers accused of forming a secret “kill team” in Afghanistan that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies. The tribunal will decide whether Army Specialist Jeremy Morlock’s case proceeds to court-martial. Morlock is charged with premeditated murder in the deaths of three Afghan civilians, assaulting a fellow soldier, and “wrongfully photographing and possessing visual images of human casualties.” Morlock and other soldiers allegedly took photos posing with the dead Afghan civilians. In May, Morlock spoke to investigators and reportedly made a number of statements implicating him and four other soldiers. Morlock’s attorney now says the statements should be discounted because Morlock talked while under the influence of up to ten prescription drugs. The trials of Morlock and the other soldiers will likely be the most high-profile prosecutions of US war crimes to result from the nearly nine-year-old conflict in Afghanistan.