The Waiting Game

If you're in the media, you can't wait for a story to unfold, especially one as potentially explosive as the Haditha incident. You've got to scoop your competition, work your contacts, and hope for leaks that will produce copy. It doesn't matter that this case has the potential of causing lasting damage to the credibility of the military. There's deadlines to meet, and regurgitating news is sufficient despite the fact that we're not getting any new news.

The military, on the other hand, does not work nearly as fast. They're still investigating the matter such that the longer it takes to complete, the more some anti-war anti-US folks (usually the same group) complains that this is all part of a coverup.

They might release names today, but might wait until Monday.

U.S. military prosecutors were expected to charge seven Marines and a Navy corpsman in the death of an Iraqi civilian, a defense attorney who represent two of the Americans said late on Thursday.

Marine officials "told us charges would come Friday, but then let us know they probably will not release them until Monday," said attorney David Brahms, who declined to identify his clients.

The eight men are being held in the brig at Camp Pendleton in the April 26 killing of a Hamandiya man and a subsequent attempt to make the dead Iraqi appear to be an insurgent by placing an AK-47 near his body.

The investigation is not connected to the alleged massacre of 24 Iraqis in the town of Haditha by Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Division, Kilo Company on November 19, that was denounced on Thursday by President George W. Bush and leading Iraqi politicians. That investigation is continuing.

Seven Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Division, Kilo company are under investigation in the Hamandiya killing. A Navy corpsman stationed with the Marines is also expected to be charged.

Some of the Marines in the Hamandiya case are expected to face murder charges, while others may face dereliction of duty charges for assisting in the cover-up, Brahms said.

The Washington Post reports that investigators are hoping to exhume the bodies of the alleged victims so that they can process the bodies for evidence.

Criminal investigators are hoping to exhume the bodies of several Iraqi civilians allegedly gunned down by a group of U.S. Marines last year in the city of Haditha, aiming to recover potentially important forensic evidence, according to defense officials familiar with the investigation.

A source close to the inquiry said Naval Criminal Investigative Service officials have interviewed families of the dead several times and have visited the homes where the shootings allegedly occurred to collect as much evidence as possible. Exhuming the bodies could help investigators determine the distance at which shots were fired, the caliber of the bullets and the angles of the shots, possibly crucial details in determining how events unfolded and who might have been involved.

Of course, as I noted earlier in the week, Time Magazine reported that the families refused to cooperate in that request - citing religious beliefs. In other words, the WaPo is trying to cover the same ground covered by Time Magazine, but fails to mention that the families refused to allow the exhumation. That's a crucial omission on their part. Why would they omit the fact that the families refused to allow exhumation? Did they even visit those families and ask whether they would permit the examination of the bodies if it would help bring those responsible for the deaths to justice?

Those are unasked and unanswered questions.

However, the WaPo does provide some interesting nuggets of information:

The gap between the incident and the beginning of the NCIS investigation is going to cause major problems in prosecuting any charges, a Marine officer familiar with the case agreed. "They have huge proof problems," he said, citing the lack of identified bodies.

"The long and the short of it is, until they prove the cause of death," they don't have anything, said one civilian defense lawyer representing a Kilo Company Marine. "Photographs won't be enough to do it. Good luck with that."

Marine spokesmen at the Pentagon and at Marine Corps Forces Central Command have declined to comment, citing the investigation.

A separate investigation has found several failures in the aftermath of the shootings, according to top officials familiar with the probe. These include Marines giving false statements and officers in the chain of command not providing proper oversight in the weeks and months that followed. That probe, by Army Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell, is expected to be finished this week.

The investigators and prosecutors have a proof problem, which is why the NCIS is hoping (perhaps all hope) that the victims' families will permit exhumation of the bodies. Without the bodies to examine, there's no way to know what actually happened and who did the shootings. There's no way to compare the accused Marines' weapons and the victims.

Meanwhile, Sweetness and Light notes some peculiarities in reporting on Haditha. Namely, S&L wonders about the background of Reuters journalist Ali al-Mashhadani, who was responsible for some of the first reports on the Haditha incident. He had been incarcerated by US forces for five months in 2005 and was again incarcerated for two weeks this year. Could it be that he's harboring some anti-American sentiment as a result? And what about the fact that some of his sources on the story have the same name? Coincidence? Possibly, but then again the US did hold him as a security risk because they were concerned about the nature of pictures he took of US operations in Anbar province (Haditha is located in the Anbar province). There are also questions about one of the doctors who proclaimed that the alleged victims were shot and not bombing victims.

These are all aspects that the investigators have to examine and catalogue. I have no doubt that the defense attorneys will look at those discrepancies, alleged ties, and problems with the forensic evidence to defend their clients.

UPDATE:
Check out postings at Mudville Gazette and Michael Yon for more insight into the Haditha incident and surrounding media coverage.

UPDATE:
Michelle Malkin and Hot Air have more on the Haditha incident and the alleged incident in Ishaqi.

UPDATE:
Looks like the BBC should be not only ashamed of themselves, but should issue apologies to the US Armed Forces. They run a story about a purported incident in Ishaqi claiming that US military forces slaughtered a number of Iraqi civilians. Their primary source for this information? Iraqi insurgents.

That's right. They were carrying water for the enemies of the Iraqi people. The US military had already looked into the incident and found there was no substantiation for the claims that the soldiers acted improperly.

Others noting the insanity over at the BBC: Confederate Yankee, Rick Moran, Texas Rainmaker, Politburo Diktat.

Of course, the media meddling doesn't stop across the Pond. Over at the NYT, they're busy taking the Iraqi Prime Minister's statements out of context. Or making up the news as they go along. Go figure. Newsbusters and Hot Air have the details.

Others blogging on Haditha: Sister Toldjah, Sundries Shack, Cold Fury, Ed Morrissey, and All Things Beautiful.

Technorati: haditha, iraq, war+crimes, murder, jag, marines, investigation.