Another Day, Another Marine Charged In Haditha Incident Cleared

Today, we learn that yet another Marine charged in the death of civilians in Haditha Iraq was acquitted of the charges against him.

A military jury acquitted a Marine intelligence officer Wednesday of charges that he tried to help cover up the killings of 24 Iraqis.

Cheers erupted as the seven-officer panel cleared 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson, who was the first of three Marines to be tried in the biggest U.S. criminal case involving Iraqi deaths linked to the war. The verdict came just five hours after deliberations began.

The judge, Maj. Brian E. Kasprzyk, admonished the noisy courtroom, saying: "There will be no more of that."

Grayson, who has always maintained he did nothing wrong, was not at the scene of the killings of men, women and children on Nov. 19, 2005, in Haditha. He was accused of telling a sergeant to delete photographs of the dead from a digital camera and laptop computer.

That's six of the eight Marines charged in the incident in Haditha, Iraq, declared not guilty or had their charges dismissed.

Two Marines are still awaiting trial. Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who faces charges of voluntary manslaughter, and Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, of Rangely, Colo., charged with dereliction of duty and violation of a lawful order, are still awaiting trial.

We're still awaiting to hear from the reprehensible Rep. Jack Murtha, who threw those Marines under the bus calling them murderers even before they were charged with a crime. And that means that Barack Obama owes those Marines an apology as well, since Sen. Barack Obama (and presumptive Democratic party nominee for President) is on the record as saying he trusts Murtha's judgment on such matters.

This incident was a rallying cry by the anti-war types, many of whom attempted to portray the Marines as mindless killers. Murtha threw the presumption of innocence and due process out the window when he made his statements. He was trying to get the US to cut and run from Iraq, and the Haditha incident played into that calculus. And Obama, who claims to have gone to law school and edited the law review, should have known better as well than to follow along with Murtha's nonsense and clear violation of constitutional protections for our Marines.