Another Haditha Marine Set To Sue Rep. Murtha

The reprehensible Democrat Rep. John Murtha, who claimed that the Haditha Marines murdered Iraqis in cold blood, must be held accountable for his outrageous statements.

Expect to hear crickets from Murtha and his press flacks when yet another lawsuit is filed against him for slander by one of those Marines smeared by the Member of Congress.

A local Marine cleared in the deaths of civilians in Iraq says Congressman John Murtha made public comments that were unproven, untrue and unfair.

Now, Lance Corporal Justin Sharratt is planning to file suit in federal court against Murtha on Thursday morning.

The suit accuses the congressman of slander and violating the Marine's right to a fair trial and due process.

That follows a lawsuit filed by Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich against Murtha for defamation. Murtha abused his position by making inflammatory statements that could prejudice the public and was meant as a way to pressure the outcome of trials against the Marines.

HT: Slublog at Ace

Marines Want Another Crack at Lt. Col. Chessani

Despite a judge dismissing the charges without prejudice, the US Marine Corps is looking to reinstate the charges against Lt. Col Jeffrey Chessani in relation to their claim of dereliction of duty.

The appeal was filed, but cited no basis for its appeal. It is almost as though they were going through the motions as the Marine Corps had three days in which to file the appeal.

Chessani, 44, is charged with dereliction of duty and failure to obey a direct order for not launching a war-crimes investigation into the killings.

Folsom ruled that Mattis erred by allowing Col. John Ewers, a Marine lawyer, to attend meetings where the Haditha prosecutions were discussed. Ewers was one of the lead investigators early in the case and most likely would be a key witness if Chessani goes to court-martial.

In its filing with the appeals court, the prosecution did not cite any basis for its appeal. Folsom had given prosecutors three days to appeal his ruling. He also permitted the Marine Corps to refile the charges although he ruled that the refiling would have to be done by a new convening authority not connected to the Camp Pendleton-based Marine Forces Central Command.

Considering that the charges against six of the seven other people indicted in the Haditha incident were exonerated or had the charges dropped, this is likely the only way that the prosecution could hedge its bets to get a single conviction, if any are to be had.

Another Haditha Marine Set To Be Cleared? UPDATE: Cleared

Someone get Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) on the line because his claims that the Haditha Marines engaged in cold blooded murder appears to be nothing more than a libel and bluster meant to intimidate and cow the Marines into taking disciplinary actions for a regrettable incident where civilians lost their lives in the middle of a warzone.

Six Marines have already been cleared. Two remain in the legal spotlight, SSgt. Frank Wuterich and Lt. Col. Jeffery Chessani and Chessani's case is being moved up today for a one hour hearing later today:

Officials with the law center today said Col. Steven Folson, the military judge assigned to the case, “informed counsel that the hearing in the Chessani case, originally scheduled for three days, June 16-18, has been changed to only one hour on Tuesday, June 17, 2008, at 9 a.m. PST.

“Col. Folsom indicated that the only business he will address is his ruling on the defense motion to dismiss Lt. Col. Jeffery Chessani’s case because of unlawful command influence,” the law center said.

Chessani was charged with dereliction of duty in failing to report the incident, which is absurd considering that he not only reported the incident up the chain of command, but provided a powerpoint presentation for the report highlighting the issues involved.

It is quite likely that Chessani's case will be dismissed with prejudice today, which sets the stage for Wuterich's case to be dismissed thereafter. So, after all of the bluster and anti-war and anti-Marine rhetoric, not a single charge stuck. Color me surprised at this - the investigation turned up no wrongdoing. The deaths of the civilians is certainly regrettable, but doesn't rise to the level of criminal homicide given the circumstances of the incident as it unfolded.

I'm awaiting Murtha's heaping serving of crow, but I sincerely doubt that he'll ever be held accountable for his statements. (HT: Let Freedom Ring)

UPDATE:
The charges have been dropped without prejudice, but the Marine Forces Central Command is barred from future involvement. For intents and purposes, Chessani was cleared of wrongdoing.

UPDATE:
When will we get Sen. Barack Obama's apology for trusting in Murtha's mad rush to judgment to convict and sentence the Marines involved before an investigation was even complete?

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.

Will Murtha Redeploy To Elevators Again After This?

This can't be good for Rep. Jack Murtha, who smeared the good names of several US Marines who were involved in an incident in Haditha that Murtha claimed was nothing but cold-blooded murder. It was his way of supporting the troops after all.

The presiding officer in the case, Lt. Col. Paul Ware, wants to dismiss the remaining murder charges against Sgt. Frank Wuterich and calls for criminally negligent homicide charges be brought instead.

The official, Lt. Col. Paul Ware, said in a recommendation obtained by the North County Times that rather than face murder charges, squad leader Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich should be tried for the lesser offense of negligent homicide in the deaths of five children and two women.

Ware recommended 10 other murder charges against Wuterich be dismissed.

"I believe after reviewing all the evidence that no trier of fact can conclude Staff Sgt. Wuterich formed the criminal intent to kill," Ware wrote in reference to the women and children. "When a Marine fails to exercise due care and civilians die, the charge of negligent homicide, and not murder, is appropriate."

Ware's report, issued to prosecutors and defense attorneys this week, found the evidence against Wuterich contradictory. Ware's role as the case's investigating officer is akin to that of a judge presiding over a pretrial hearing.

"The case against Staff Sgt. Wuterich is simply not strong enough to conclude he committed murder beyond a reasonable doubt," Ware wrote. "Almost all witnesses have an obvious bias or prejudice."

Of course, Murtha will attempt to claim that a conviction will vindicate his claims, even if not for the same crimes as alleged (in cold blood). He'll also try and spin that the incident occurred because of the pressures of fighting and fatigue and exhaustion, which can be used to attack the Administration and not the Marines directly.

As it is, charges have been dropped against the other Marines directly involved in the incident as they were operating within the rules of engagement at the time.

Classy

Bryan Preston of Hot Air tried getting Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) to comment on the dismissal of charges against Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt and Capt. Randy Stone yesterday.

What they got was a whole lot of no comment and a hang up.

Classy.

I wonder if his office would make the same statement to a constituent. If you are one of his constituents, would you please try to make contact with his office and see whether you do better than Bryan did?

So far, there's nothing on his website apologizing for his outrageous comments that essentially convicted these Marines of criminal actions before the investigation into the incident in Haditha, Iraq was complete.

Charges Dropped Against Two Marines In Haditha Incident

A U.S. Marine general dropped all charges on Thursday against two Marines in the shooting deaths of 24 civilians in Haditha, scene of what Iraqi witnesses said was a massacre by American troops.

The dismissal of charges means neither Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt nor Capt. Randy Stone will face a court-martial in connection with the events at Haditha, which have brought international condemnation of U.S. troops.

Five Marines still face charges in the November 19, 2005, shooting of two dozen unarmed men, women and children in Haditha, which prosecutors say came in retaliation for the death of a beloved comrade, Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, who was cut in half by a roadside bomb.

Sharratt, 22, had been charged with three counts of premeditated murder and Stone, 35, with dereliction of duty for failing to properly report the civilian deaths. Defense attorneys conceded civilians were killed at Haditha but said they died during chaotic fighting with insurgents after the roadside blast.

In dismissing the charges against Sharratt and Stone after what he said was an exhaustive review, Lt. Gen. James Mattis cited the difficult battle conditions and a “shadowy enemy” whose forces hid among civilians.

“With the dismissal of these charges Lance Cpl. Sharratt may conclude that he did his best to live up to the standards, followed by U.S. fighting men throughout our many wars, in the face of life or death decisions made in a matter of seconds in combat,” Mattis said. “As he has always remained cloaked in the presumption of innocence, with this dismissal of charges, he remains in the eyes of the law — and in my eyes, innocent.”

Mattis said that while Stone may have made mistakes, they did not “rise to the level of criminal behavior.”

This has been a long time coming for these two Marines, who have proclaimed their innocence from the outset, but who were smeared by the likes of Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), who proclaimed that they were absolutely guilty of the crimes alleged. Indeed, Murtha's reprehensible actions (HT: Geepers of LGF) in this regard can and should be considered grounds for action against him.

Murtha's actions could have prejudiced the military criminal justice proceedings and deprived those Marines of their rights under the law, not to mention the presumption of innocence. Murtha's rush to judgment was irresponsible, reckless, and calculated to inflict the maximum amount of damage on the Marine Corps mission in Iraq.

Murtha was not alone in this. There were others who rushed to judgment just as surely as he did. Murtha got an on-air assist from Chris Matthews. Alan Colmes for one (HT: Terp Mole at LGF).

Darryl Sharratt, the father of Lance Cpl. Sharratt, had this to say:

My son and his fellow Marines now find themselves in another battle. The Marine Corps, that which they once held so dearly, could now be the instigator of their demise. The charges are unnerving to me. A day hardly passes in which a tear is not shed. I have trouble finding sleep. My family thinks of these Marines daily. They are part of our family. Wuterich,Tatum,DelaCruz, McConnell,Chessani,Grayson and Stone- all part of our Marine family. They are in our prayers,our every thought. Some had made the Marine Corps their chosen life. Others like my son were just beginning the journey. Please allow them into your hearts and prayers. These Marines deserve so much more. They have earned so much more.

These Marines have remained strong throughout this ordeal. Some have remained silent. A few have spoken. Others have said they understand the process. I DON’T UNDERSTAND AND I MAY NEVER UNDERSTAND! These brave men answered the call for all Americans. They have sacrificed so much to defend this great nation of ours. We are at war. A war in which the enemy wears no uniforms, fights by no Rules of Engagement and uses civilians as human shields. Why has the Marine Corps abandoned these heroes? These men did not massacre, as Time magazine reported. These men are not cold blooded killers, as a US Congressman contends. Their Iraqi accusers have been shown to be liars and terrorists. I call on you to end this travesty of injustice. Is this the Corps of Belleau Wood, Iwo Jima, Tarawa, Okinawa, the Solomons , Inchon, the Chosen reservoir, Hue City and Khe Sanh fame? Do not go silently in the night, resolve to join in their fight!

As the father of Haditha Marine, L/Cpl Justin Sharratt, I have been searching for the answers. Why has the media vilified these Marines? Why have the politicians branded them as expendable? Why has the Marine Corps abandoned these brave men? These Marines need your help and support. Please continue your prayers for our Marines. Reach out to the media in your cities and demand the truth be told. Write your government officials and ask them to join the fight to expose the anonymous leaks. Join me in my fight to exonerate these Marines...our Marines. They will make you proud.

Darryl Sharratt Canonsburg, Pa.

www.justinsharratt.com www.frankwuterich.com

There are still five Marines who are being held in connection with the Haditha incident, and the disposition is yet to be resolved.

Eight Charged in Haditha Investigation

The investigators with the JAG found sufficient information to charge these Marines with the criminal acts.

Eight Marines were charged Thursday in the massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha last year.

At least two were charged with murder. Some of those charged were officers who were not there but were accused of failures in investigating and reporting the deaths.

A squad leader was charged with murdering 12 people and ordering other Marines to murder six people in the hours after a roadside bomb killed one Marine and injured two others.

The squad leader, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, 26, was charged with unpremeditated murder of 18 Iraqi civilians, including six people inside a house members of his squad cleared with deadly force. Wuterich also was charged with one count each of making a false official statement and soliciting another sergeant to make false official statements.

The highest ranking defendant, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, was accused of failing to obey an order or regulation, encompassing dereliction of duty.

UPDATE:
Allah at Hot Air has a roundup of where we've been on Haditha and notes that the indictments today don't help out Wuterich's defamation suit against Rep. Murtha. Yet, the fact is that Murtha jumped the guy and could have prejudiced the process by his statements.

Others blogging: Macranger, Sister Toldjah, and Blue Crab Boulevard.

Haditha in the News

Are six to eight of the Marines involved in the alleged Haditha incident on the verge of being indicted for their actions? That's apparently what sources at Time Magazine believe. Hot Air has the details.

Yet, one has to wonder whether the investigators were able to convince family members to agree to the exhumation of the alleged victims so that they can be autopsied and evidence gathered that might shed more light on the incident. We've had conflicting reports about what happened, there are questions about the timeline, and various news reports are based on leaks from prosecution and defense friendly sources that can affect the disposition of the case.

For those that need a refresher on what is involved here, see my earlier coverage: The Haditha Incident, Rushing to Judgment on Haidtha, The Waiting Game, No Coverup in Haditha Incident, and Haditha Investigation Findings, among others.

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

Haditha Investigation Findings

Evidence collected on the deaths of 24 Iraqis in Haditha supports accusations that U.S. Marines deliberately shot the civilians, including unarmed women and children, a Pentagon official said Wednesday.

Agents of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service have completed their initial work on the incident last November, but may be asked to probe further as Marine Corps and Navy prosecutors review the evidence and determine whether to recommend criminal charges, according to two Pentagon officials who discussed the matter on condition of anonymity.

The decision on whether to press criminal charges against four Marines ultimately will be made by the commander of the accused Marines’ parent unit, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif. That currently is Lt. Gen. John Sattler, but he is scheduled to move to a Pentagon assignment soon; his successor will be Lt. Gen. James Mattis.

No word on what that evidence includes or whether autopsies were conducted to obtain forensic evidence from the bodies of those purported victims. If this story is accurate, and remember that this is information put out by a leaker of one side in the matter at hand, the Marines involved in the incident have a whole mess of legal trouble heading their way.

Meanwhile, Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, one of the accused Marines, stands by his claims of innoncence and has filed suit in federal court against Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) that Murtha falsely accused Wuterich of murder and war crimes.

UPDATE:
Macranger questions the timing of this report, which really doesn't differ from the news reports about Haditha all along since there is no new news (try saying that 3x fast) in the report.

Meanwhile, it is interesting to note that one of Wuterich's lawyers is Mark Zaid, whose name should be familiar to folks following the Able Danger story. He's Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer's lawyer. Shaffer was one of the whistleblowers who says that Able Danger identified 9/11 hijacker Atta and others before the attacks, and then the 9/11 Commission ignored the program's findings.

Murtha Wanted SWIFT Story To Run?

Yesterday, I noted this posting by AJ Strata (blog currently down), which said that Rep. Murtha was among those calling on the Times not to run the story. Well, it turns out that Murtha did comment on the SWIFT story, but he appears to have wanted the Times to run the story. Hot Air has the details:

The Bush administration asked three prominent people outside the administration to contact the NYT and urge them not to publish the SWIFT story. Two of the three did urge the Times not to publish, but according to Times editor Bill Keller, “not all of them urged us not to publish.” A bit later in the CNN interview with Keller, we find out who the three Democrats are: Lee Hamilton (who was a conservative Democrat when he held office and a co-chair of the 9-11 Omission), Gov. Tom Kean (also from the 9-11 Omission) and Rep. Jack Murtha.

“Not all of them urged us not to publish,” says Keller. Which means one of them green-lighted the story, or at least didn’t go to bat for the administration. The boss has the definitive answer as to which two of the three did urge the Times not to publish: Hamilton and Kean, who were the co-chairs of the Omission. They’re identified by Treasure Secretary John Snow as having weighed in with the Times against publication.

Which leaves Murtha as the one who did not urge the Times not to publish the story. Murtha greenlighted it. That’s the same Jack Murtha who has been prejudging the Marines guilty of a massacre in Haditha and trying to get us out of Iraq quick enough so we can all watch the fledgling Iraqi government collapse rather than waiting until it can defend itself.

Has anyone asked Murtha directly whether he spoke to Keller and what he said? I'd be curious to see what he said on the matter. This goes to the credibility of all involved.

While we're on the subject of asking questions, Keller should be asked directly who said to run the story? That seems to be a matter of newsworthiness in and of itself. Where are the crack reporters on this story?

Also blogging: Sister Toldjah and Michelle Malkin.

New Evidence Emerges In Haditha Incident

Military sources familiar with the incident have told NewsMax:
Within minutes of the early morning IED explosion, a firefight erupted between insurgents and Marines. Civilians were caught in the middle of the firefight. Also, although civilians did die, their deaths were the result of door-to-door combat as the Marines sought to clear houses and stop the insurgent gunfire.

Ample evidence proves that a firefight took place. For example, every second of the ensuing firefight was monitored by numerous people at company, battalion, and regimental HQs via radio communications.

Video evidence supports the Marines' claims. Within a very few minutes, battalion, regimental, and division headquarters were able to watch the action thanks to an overhead ultralight aircraft that remained aloft all day. Photos of some of the action were downloaded and in the hands of Marines and the NCIS.

Some of the insurgents involved in planning the attack and firing at Marines during a daylong engagement have been apprehended and are in custody.

The NCIS investigation is still ongoing, so these latest leaks need to be taken with a grain of salt. However, compare and contrast this information with the information provided by Rep. John Murtha and earlier leakers, which all but convicted the Marines involved in the Haditha incident of murder despite the fact that an investigation was only starting and that there were serious questions about the witnesses and other forensic evidence. Someone else is trying to counter the earlier leakers, but this is getting out of hand.

The Newsmax article notes that that part of the incident may have been captured on reconaissance aircraft video. That evidence tends to support the Marines' contention that they got involved in a firefight following the detonation of an IED. Hot Air wonders about the timeline of what was captured on the video and what was captured on audio tapes of communciations between units.

Sweetness and Light is skeptical as well - noting that such information is too good to be true.

This is yet one more reason why we need to let the investigation continue without leaks - and punish those who do leak information. People on one side have tried to get these Marines convicted in the court of public opinion and the other side has responded with leaks of their own.

Others blogging: Flopping Aces, Prairie Pundit, and Liberty and Justice.

No Coverup in Haditha Incident

While a separate investigation into the incident in Haditha continues, the investigation into whether there was a coverup of the purported incident has been completed, and the result is that there was no knowing coverup (via the ubiquitous leakers):

The general charged with investigating whether Marines tried to cover up the killing of 24 civilians in Haditha has completed his report, finding that Marine officers failed to ask the right questions, an official close to the investigation said Friday.

Nothing in the report points to a "knowing cover-up" of the facts by the officers supervising the Marines involved in the November incident, the official said. Rather, he said, officers from the company level through the staff of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force in Baghdad failed to demand "a thorough explanation" of what happened in Haditha.

In an official announcement about the report by Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell, a military spokeswoman said that Army Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli would "thoroughly review the voluminous report as quickly as possible," but had no timetable.

"That means don't hold your breath," a defense official said.

That stands not only in stark contrast to the definitive statements made by one member of Congress, Rep. John Murtha, who declared:

"There has to have been a coverup of this thing," Rep. John P. Murtha (Pa.), ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, charged in an interview on ABC's "This Week." "No question about it."

but that it's completely the opposite conclusion from Murtha's statements. Unless Murtha is going to call the Army Generals investigating the incident liars, the only conclusion that can be reached is that Murtha himself was speaking without possessing the facts and made conclusions based on incomplete and inaccurate information.

Will we hear an apology from Murtha, or will he simply move on to the next situation, jump to conclusions, grab press, and move on once more? The Marine Corps deserves more from Rep. Murtha than this.

There is a significant difference between a coverup and a failure to ask the kinds of questions that should have been asked. A coverup is an act of comission, while the failure to ask questions is an act of omission.

Others blogging: Michelle Malkin, Flopping Aces, Small Town Veteran, and Macranger.

UPDATE:
Still others noting that the investigation into the coverup has revealed that while there were problems with communications and questioning the reports coming up the chain of command, there was no coverup: Sister Toldjah and Right Voices.

Three Soldiers Charged In Detainment Deaths

Three members of the 101st Airborne Division have been charged in connection with the deaths of three detainees during an operation near in southern Salaheddin Province, Iraq, on May 9, the U.S. military announced Monday.

A military news release said the charges in the case include murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, communicating a threat, and obstructing justice.

The release said the unit commander ordered an investigation on the day the alleged murders occurred, and the Army's Criminal Investigative Division is continuing the probe.

The soldiers charged in the case are in pretrial confinement, the release said, while it is determined if enough evidence exists to proceed with courts-martial.

This isn't related to the Haditha incident, where some are accusing Marines of massacring civilians, but those same Marines claim that they were responding to incoming fire from areas containing civilians.

This is a separate incident where there are questions as to the conduct of soldiers, and the military is taking the appropriate actions. The next step would be a court martial, where those accused would be tried based on evidence presented and defend themselves. We haven't gotten to that point yet. There is still a presumption of innocence.

Initial Haditha Investigation Report Completed

The initial Haditha investigation report has been completed and submitted.

Bargewell has just one piece of the investigation — whether the Marines followed proper procedures in reporting about the incident to commanders, or whether anyone engaged in a cover-up. His investigation also may consider whether any criminal charges should be brought in connection with deliberate attempts to lie about the incident.

A second probe is also under way by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service into what exactly happened that day, and whether criminal — or even murder — charges should be brought against those involved.

Officials have been expecting Bargewell's report. Members of Congress have said they want to hold hearings into the matter and said they would like to hear first from Bargewell.

Martin-Hing added that Chiarelli will make no public statements on the report that could interfere with the ongoing criminal investigation.

Expect leaks of portions of the report to come out in the coming weeks and months despite the hope that there will be no public statements made. Holding Congressional hearings on the matter will only increase the possibility that potentially damaging leaks will occur. The New York Times calls the situation thus far one that is clouded in contradictions and yet proceeds to declare that the situation is grim and that one of the Marines may be cooperating with investigators.

Investigators and townspeople have said that marines overreacted to a fatal roadside bombing and shot the civilians, only one of whom was armed, in cold blood.

Marines and their lawyers, who are only now beginning to speak out after months of harsh portrayals of their actions, contend that they believed they were under a concerted attack, and entitled under their rules of engagement to use lethal force against those who they believed were responsible for a roadside bomb that killed a marine.

The 24 Iraqis killed included 5 men in a taxi and 19 other civilians in several houses, where, marines have contended, their use of grenades and blind fire was permitted under their combat guidelines when they believed their lives were threatened.

However, investigators have found evidence that the men in the taxi were not fleeing the bombing scene, as the marines have told military officials. Investigators have also concluded that most of the victims in three houses died from well-aimed rifle shots, not shrapnel or random fire, according to military officials familiar with the initial findings.

The houses where the killings took place show no evidence of the violent room-clearing assault described by the marines and their lawyers, the officials said.

The bodies have not yet been exhumed for autopsies, and defense lawyers can be expected to challenge the narrow use of photographic evidence on these points. But according to two people briefed on the investigation, one member of the Marine squad at Haditha, himself closely tied to some of the deaths, is now cooperating with investigators.

The taxi shootings appear to be the most troubling for investigators. And key pieces of forensic evidence may be compromised because we're relying on a situation that occurred months ago. Autopsies have not been conducted because the families refuse to allow the exhumations because of religious objections. Lawyers for one of the Marines implicated in the Haditha incident have serious questions about one of the people making claims who happens to run a human rights group and produced a tape of the incident months after the incident occurred about what happened. Sweetness and Light has the details. The man in question, 43-year-old Thaer Thabit al-Hadithi, was originally described by Time magazine as a journalism student but is in fact the founder of Hammurabi human rights group and one of only two employees. One of the two members of the group happened to have relatives detained by coalition forces because they were considered insurgents. But here's the kicker:

Abdul Rahman al-Mashhadani, director of Hammurabi Human Rights and Democracy Monitoring, declined to answer questions from Reuters about the organization.

"We don’t answer such questions that we consider as intelligence and information gathering," he said. "They (Reuters) should have monitored the media so that they can get a good image of us."

Curious. They claim to be a human rights group, but refuse to answer questions about their own actions and what they've done? Very curious.


Meanwhile, the seven Marines and one Navy corpsman who have been detained by the military at Camp Pendelton over another alleged incident in Iraq have had their security situation improved. To this point, they had been detained in solitary confinement with leg shackles at all times. In other words, they were being more harshly treated than many of the worst enemy combatants held at GitMo. After an outcry over their situation this past week, their situation has improved:

Military officials on Friday said they have decided to remove shackles put on seven confined Marines and one sailor whenever they’re outside their individual cells at the Camp Pendleton brig, a Marine Corps spokesman said.

The eight men, confined at the brig since May 24, were being held with “maximum” restraints based on their battalion commander’s decision following an initial investigation into the shooting. As of Friday, they were shifted into what’s called “medium-in” restraint in pre-trial custody, which does not require shackles to be worn, although they remain escorted anytime they are outside their cell, according to 2nd Lt. Lawton King, a base spokesman.


Under “medium-in,” they won’t have any personal restraint while inside the brig, but once outside – such as to go to a court hearing – each “is restrained with handcuffs attached to a leather belt … and their respective escorts carry along leg cuffs in the event they are needed,” King said.

The decision to lower the restraint level came after a June 15 review by the brig commander, he said.

The seven Marines and Navy corpsman, all members of the Pendleton-based 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines currently deployed in Iraq, were first confined to quarters in Iraq on May 12 after allegations rose over the April 26 death of an Iraqi man in the village of Hamdaniya.

UPDATE:
Others noting the confinement issue at Camp Pendelton: Michelle Malkin, Blue Crab Boulevard, Coalition of the Swilling, memeorandum

Gateway Pundit notes that the initial investigation has been completed and also relates a claim that some of those killed may have been shot by AK-47s, which is a common weapon used by insurgents and terrorists - not US armed forces. If confirmed, that would significantly change the story.


Posted to Wizbang's Carnival of Trackbacks, Stop the ACLU's Friday Free for all,

Own Goal

The purported Israeli artillery attack on a Gaza beach resulting in civilian casualties was nothing of the sort.

It was a Hamas terrorist operation gone awry, which is what I ha[d] surmised. Here are the particulars:

An Israel Defense Forces intelligence officer has confirmed that the explosion that killed eight Palestinians on Friday, was caused by a stockpile of Hamas explosives.

"Shortly after we stopped defensive firing at Hamas rocket launch pads which were deployed behind Palestinian human shields, members of Hamas scrambled to fire more rockets at our positions," said Col. M. "We have eyes on every meter of Gaza, from the sky, from the ground and from the sea. One of their rocket tripods collapsed inadvertently setting off an explosion of a stockpile of Qassam rockets. The Palestinians killed their own children. And this was not the first time."

Hamas terrorists fired rockets and mortar bombs from a crowded Gaza beach at southern Israel. Some of the rockets fell near the Israel city of Ashkelon. Some 17 rockets were fired between Saturday and Sunday morning. A man at a school in the Israel town of Sderot was wounded, Israel officials said.

It isn't the first time that the Palestinians have killed their own in terrorist operations.

More importantly, it isn't the first time that Hamas and the Palestinians have smeared the Israelis for killing Palestinians despite the fact that the facts and circumstances all point to Palestinians doing the killing.

Israel shouldn't be apologizing for the deaths, but instead holding the Palestinians and Hamas in particular accountable for their heinous actions. Indeed, Hamas used the self-inflicted casualties as an excuse for further rocket and missile attacks against Israel. Israel should not limit its retaliatory response only to those firing the rockets, but expand its response to include the Palestinian leadership who is extolling and exhorting the foot-minions to kill Israelis. This is a war of the Palestinians own making and the leadership should be made to feel the pain they're inflicting on Israel and on the Palestinian civilian population (though one has to wonder just what a bunch of civilians were doing hanging around terrorists setting up rockets and mortars - knowing full well that Israel could and would fire counterbattery fire to eliminate threats).

And on that question, there is unequivocable evidence that the Palestinians simply use civilian populations (especially women and children) as cannon fodder for this kind of media outrage against Israel. The Palestinians know that the media will quickly cover any deaths of civilians, and never pay heed to the questionable circumstances - or bald-faced lies of the Palestinians.

UPDATE:
Fixed typo above.

The Jerusalem Post has a report confirming the earlier report that chances are slim that the casualties were the result of Israeli shelling of the area.

According to Channel 2, the findings, expected to be formally released on Tuesday, showed an inconsistency between the shrapnel found in the body of one of the wounded babies and the metal used in IDF artillery. Moreover, the investigation noted the absence of a large enough crater at the site of the explosion, as would be expected if an IDF shell had landed there.

The third observation casting doubt on the possibility of IDF shelling was the gap between the time when the army shot the artillery and when the commotion on the beach began. According to the probe’s findings, several minutes past after the shelling, before the Palestinians on the beach reacted. ...

The leading theory currently entertained, suggested that an explosive charge, buried by Palestinians on the Gaza beach to prevent Israeli infiltration, was behind the explosion.

Throughout the whole investigation, army officials complained about the lack of Palestinian cooperation. Unconfirmed reports further suggested attempts by Palestinians to remove shrapnel from the bodies of the wounded, treated in Israeli hospitals, thus impeding the investigation.

Of course the Palestinians wouldn't cooperate and otherwise impede investigations into the cause of the casualties. The Palestinians wouldn't want to have the truth exposed to light - that it was the Palestinians themselves who killed their own in yet another attempt to kill Israelis.

Others blogging: John Hawkins, Biased BBC, Captain Ed, Blue Star Chronicles, The Daily Tidbit, The City Troll, and Partisan Times.

Haditha Pushback

A sergeant who led a squad of Marines during the incident in Haditha, Iraq, that left as many as 24 civilians dead said his unit did not intentionally target any civilians, followed military rules of engagement and never tried to cover up the shootings, his attorney said.

Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, 26, told his attorney that several civilians were killed Nov. 19 when his squad went after insurgents who were firing at them from inside a house. The Marine said there was no vengeful massacre, but he described a house-to-house hunt that went tragically awry in the middle of a chaotic battlefield.

"It will forever be his position that everything they did that day was following their rules of engagement and to protect the lives of Marines," said Neal A. Puckett, who represents Wuterich in the ongoing investigations into the incident. "He's really upset that people believe that he and his Marines are even capable of intentionally killing innocent civilians."

This is apparently the first statement from anyone who has direct knowledge of the events relating to the Haditha incident. Other soldiers and witnesses have thus far made statements relating to what they saw after the alleged incident occurred.

Still, it would behoove anyone reading Sgt. Wuterich's statements to await the results of the investigation, including forensics and potential autopsy results. Thus far, the families have not agreed to allow forensic examination of the remains of those alleged to have been involved in the incident. Such an examination could yield exculpatory evidence that could exonerate those Marines, or else find that some of the Marines committed criminal acts in Haditha.

UPDATE:
Quite a few folks have taken notice of the Washington Post article that relates statements made by Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, who is the only person to have been actually involved in the alleged incident. Will this particular news story get nearly the same kind of widespread coverage as the initial reports, and attendant statements from politicians, including one Rep. John Murtha (D-PA)? I'm not convinced.

Democracy Project notes that Wuterich states that the rules of engagement were followed, and while there were civilian casualties, they were not purposeful or intended. Indeed, it would fit the modus operandi of the terrorists and insurgents who hide behind civilian populations - so that the US can be blamed for any resulting casualties.

In Search of Utopia shares my observation that we should wait for the investigation to be completed before pass judgment. The truth about Haditha will lie somewhere in the murky middle.

Rick Moran thinks that there needs to be better reporting and more investigations into Haditha:

This much is clear more than two weeks after the story broke that Marines in Haditha allegedly massacred 24 civilians “in cold blood,” a descriptive used by Representative John Murtha who supposedly has seen excerpts of the military report on the incident.

One side or the other is lying in spectacular fashion.

And not just little inconsistencies in eyewitness testimony that one would expect in a war zone either. There are extremely disturbing indications that press reports detailing eyewitness accounts have failed to reconcile what Iraqis in Haditha were telling them with other known facts that were either conveniently left out or ignored altogether. There are also clear and unambiguous cases where Iraqi eyewitnesses have changed their stories 2, 3, and even more times.

While it is not unusual for small details to be lost or found in different translations, these discrepancies are huge, up to and including one 12 year old girl (or 13 or 15 depending on which report you are reading) being in different houses, being shielded from the wrath of the Americans by 3 different family members, and telling completely different and ever more bloodcurdling details of how the Marines killed her family.

Hot Air has a roundup and asks the key question - what would you have done?

Mudville Gazette notes:

The accounts given are actually consistent - on the broader story - with reports from Iraqi civilians (houses were entered, non-combatants were killed). But the Devil's in the details, as they say, and in this case (as with most such cases) that's where divergence occurs.

The issue will indeed be settled by a determination of whether the Marines followed rules of engagement for the circumstances. Two questions that are key to that issue are 1) did they correctly assess the situation and 2) did they respond appropriately to that assessment. On-the-scene decision makers have broad latitude to act in response to attack (this is not to imply they can shoot children with reckless abandon), must rely on training and experience to do so (the Marines had both), and obviously can't pull out an instruction manual to determine what to do in any combat situation.

It's worth noting that there are two investigations ongoing into events at Haditha, and that this report addresses both. The first is to determine what happened, the second to evaluate if a "cover up" followed. Obviously, initial reports that civilians were killed by the IED were wrong - but initial reports more often than not are wrong.

Sweetness and Light, who's been all over the inconsistencies and misleading reporting on the Haditha incident thinks that Wuterich's explanation and description of actions and events is the most likely explanation for what happened.

Still others blogging: Sister Toldjah, Blue Crab Boulevard, AJ Strata, Stop the ACLU, Confederate Yankee, Ranting Profs, Politburo Diktat, Dan Riehl, Blue Star Chronicles, and Atlas Shrugs.

Unraveling Haditha

Sweetness and Light has been all over this issue, and notes that Time Magazine, which had the most in depth coverage and broke the story, is walking back key details in the form of corrections to the original story:

In the original version of this story, TIME reported that "a day after the incident, a Haditha journalism student videotaped the scene at the local morgue and at the homes where the killings had occurred. The video was obtained by the Hammurabi Human Rights Group, which cooperates with the internationally respected Human Rights Watch, and has been shared with TIME." In fact, Human Rights Watch has no ties or association with the Hammurabi Human Rights Group. TIME regrets the error.

In fact, the Hammurabi human rights group is the creation of one person, Thaer Thabit al-Hadithi, who Time magazine has mischaracterized in its reporting as a young man who wanted to remain anonymous because he feared for his safety. In fact, he's a 43 year old man who created the group 16 months ago and worked directly under the head of Haditha’s hospital, Dr. Walid al-Obeidi, who pronounced that all the victims had been shot at close range.

Meanwhile, Time magazine's Matthew Cooper had to walk back from the characterization surrounding a claim that there's a photo showing an Iraqi kneeling and presumably no threat to Marines, but now the provenance of the photo is questionable. A more interesting question is why Time Magazine is relying upon Human Rights Watch for knowing what kind of evidence is in the possession of investigators - was the NCIS unavailable to confirm or deny the existence of such photos? Instead, Time, HRW, and Cooper are all pushing forward with a narrative that has a growing number of problems based on the evidence.

Without an autopsy to obtain the forensic evidence to determine how the individuals died, there's only circumstantial evidence implicating Marines. And that circumstantial evidence is showing signs that all is not what those implicating the Marines in a massacre claim it to be.

This is a separate issue from submitting false reports up the chain of command, which is subject to its own investigation and disciplinary action has already begun against those involved.

Others blogging: Dan Riehl (and here).

UPDATE
AJ Strata also comments, and points to a couple of American Thinker pieces that summarize and take the media reporting of the incident to task.

UPDATE:
Still others noting the inconsistencies and massacring of the facts (by overstating the case against the Marines despite a presumption of innocence guaranteed under the US Constitution): Sister Toldjah, Flopping Aces, Wizbang, Mark in Mexico, Hot Air, Fmragtops, and Small Town Veteran.

The Haditha Smear Continues

Michelle Malkin notes that the Chicago Sun Times ran a cartoon by Jack Higgins utilizing the discredited and mischaracterized photo run in the Times Online that ostensibly attributes a scene of dead civilians to US Marines, when they were, in fact, lined up by insurgents and murdered at a sports stadium as another photo with a wider view of the scene indicates. Head over to Michelle and see the cartoon and the image from which he lifted his idea.

No matter how quickly the photo was removed from the Times Online story and a correction placed at the top of the story, the fact remains that there are those who quickly latched onto the image regardless of its provenance and are utilizing it in an ongoing smear campaign against the Marines and the US efforts in Iraq. Here's what the Times Online included at the heading of the story:

[Note: This story originally appeared with a picture of slain Iraqis whose caption erroneously described the scene as being related to the alleged incidents in al-Haditha. The image was in fact from a separate incident in the area in which Iraqi insurgents are believed to have massacred local fishermen. We apologise for the mistake.]

The apology within the story was insufficient as we are seeing. That's why I felt that the retraction and apology needed to be on the front page. It's because a simple note will not do. The apology still needs to be made to the US Marines as Higgins' cartoon shows. The damage is ongoing.

Malkin goes on to say:

Did he or his editors take any steps to ensure the accuracy of the image Higgins simulated to indict the Marines? Or will Higgins somehow argue that he is not implying that the Marines were the perpetrators of the atrocities in the stadium scene he copied from the AP photo?

Ask them:

E-mail letters@suntimes.com
Editorial page editor Steve Huntley: shuntley@suntimes.com
Publisher John Cruickshank: jcruickshank@suntimes.com
Jack Higgins: jhiggins@suntimes.com

My prior coverage can be found here and here.

UPDATE:
The Chicago Sun Times has issued a correction and apology. The apology can be accessed from the Sun Times commentary page:

An apology
A cartoon by Jack Higgins in Tuesday's Chicago Sun-Times incorporated inaccurate imagery to make a statement about the allegations that U.S. Marines killed Iraqi civilians in Haditha.
Jack Higgins and the Sun-Times deeply regret the mistake and apologize to the U.S. servicemen, especially those in the Marine Corps, and to our readers who were understandably offended by the cartoon. Higgins, in doing Web research on the Haditha story, searched the Internet for images. A Yahoo search engine displayed a number of photos, one of which was labeled "IraqBodi...rd.jpg." Clicking on that image took Higgins to the MSNBC/Newsweek site. On his screen then was the original Yahoo search preview image and under it a Newsweek page with a small image of the magazine's current cover with the headline "The Haditha Question."

Higgins made the erroneous assumption that the image in the photo preview was a photograph of victims of the killings that unproven allegations say were committed by U.S. Marines. Further scrolling down the page would have produced another image of this photo with a caption that clearly identities the dead as victims of Iraqi insurgents. The caption reads, "Insurgents in Haditha executed 19 Shiite fishermen and National Guardsmen in a sports stadium."

Again, Higgins and the editors of the Sun-Times apologize for this egregious error.

Updating the Story on Slandering US Marines

Michelle Malkin got a response from Gerard Baker, editor at the Times Online. His response was as follows:

Thank you for pointing out the dreadful error on our website involving the wrong picture and capture of murdered Iraqis. I have asked that it be removed immediately and an apology issued.
I'm sorry you have jumped to the conclusion that this was a deliberate misrepresentation and the result of slanted journalism and sorrier that you have shared that view with your readers without any attempt to verify it. The Times has been meticulously fair in its coverage of the Iraq war and of US policy in general. Our editorial line has been to support the war and we continue to do so, though not without some reservations, of course. We have eschewed completely the sort of vile anti-Americanism so common in much of the British press and our correspondents have done their level best to paint a fair picture of conditions in Iraq today.

I'm personally offended both by the error on the Times website and by your association of me with what you call the intentional slander of US marines..

You're probably not aware of my writing but I think I think most readers would probably describe myself as one of the most pro-American columnists currently employed by a British paper. I have repeatedly defended the Bush administration's foreign policy; I supported the Iraq war, and continue to do so. Please be apprised that this was a genuine and very unfortunate error.

Gerard Baker
US Editor
The Times

The Times Online has indeed removed the highly offensive photo, but questions remain how and why the editors or other newsroom workers thought it appropriate to conflate the slaughter of innocents by insurgents with the allegations against US Marines through the use of photos accompanying a story on Haditha.

Strangely, there's no note on the site that the photo was removed or that there was any issue with the story in the first place. No letters to the editor. Curious. And there's no online corrections section where this issue was addressed.

The Times Online should do more than simply pull the photo. They need to run an above the fold correction and apology. The Marines deserve as much.