The head of a rogue US army unit that murdered Afghan civilians
for sport has been found guilty of a swathe of charges for his
role in the thrill killings.  Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs was
convicted by a military jury on Thursday on 15 counts, including
three counts of premeditated murder while stationed in
Afghanistan's Kandahar province.  After the five-person military
panel gave its verdicts following a week-long court martial, the
trial was set to move to the sentencing phase.  The pre-
meditated murder charges normally carry a life sentence.   Three
members of the rogue army unit have pleaded guilty in a scandal
that has threatened embarrassment for the US military on the
scale of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse in Iraq disclosed in 2004.
In an unexpected appearance at the court-martial on Friday he
claimed his unit was engaged in genuine combat, while admitting
he took fingers and teeth from the corpses.   But the military
prosecutor dismissed those claims during a closing argument at
the Joint Base Lewi