Picture of the supposed Haditha victims.
Check these two pictures carefully and read the captions on both.
Posted on 06/05/2006 4:42:06 AM PDT by IrishMike
These two children in neighboring houses in Haditha tell heart-rending stories of Marines brutally killing their relatives.
Yet, Iman reveals in one interview that she knew in advance of the IED that would explode to kill the passing Marines. If the child knew, isn’t it likely their adults knew? Isn’t it likely that they may have more than knew?
The unnamed interviewer doesn’t follow-up, any more that the earlier “Iraqi journalism student” did. Anymore than the many MSM remote reporters and commentators who so frequently repeat the childrens’ likely tutored comments.
For example, here’s the ABC narrative:
May 28, 2006 — After a small group of Marines stormed the Younis family home in Haditha last November, everybody inside was killed — except one person.
ABC News has obtained an interview with the sole survivor, 12-year-old Safa Younis. The interview was done by a local Iraqi journalism student about one week after the killings on Nov. 19, 2005….
On the new tape shot by an Iraqi journalism student and given to ABC News by the Hammurabi Human Rights Group in Iraq, Younis, soft-spoken, with rounded cheeks and a headscarf, begins by calmly telling the interviewer, "My name is Safa Younis. I'm 12 years old." The interviewer asks, "What did the American soldiers do when they broke into the house?"
"They knocked at the door," Younis says. "My father went to open it, they shot him dead from behind the door, and then they shot him again after they opened the door."
(Excerpt) Read more at democracy-project.com ...
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's plenty of evidence civilians were killed in Haditha -- 24 bodies were counted.
At the morgue, women and children among the dead. Many images too graphic to show. But the dead can't speak.
So at CNN's request, a human rights organization went back to Haditha with a camera to interview survivors. The interviewer found three, all children.
For each, the story begins here. Where a roadside bomb struck a humvee carrying American Marines, killing one of them.
It was 7:30 in the morning. 12-year-old Safa Younis was getting ready for school. She says she was the only survivor in her house. Eight relatives killed.
SAFA YOUNIS, FAMILY KILLED (through translator): A bomb exploded on the street outside. We heard the sound of the explosion, and we heard shouting. We were inside the house when U.S. forces broke through the door. They killed my father in the kitchen. The American forces entered the house and started shooting with their guns. They killed my mother and my sister Noor (ph). They killed her when they shot her in the head. She was only 15 years old. My other sister was shot with seven bullets in the head. She was only 10 years old. And my brother, Mohammed (ph), was hiding under the bed when the U.S. military hit him with the butt of a gun, and they started shooting him under the bed. The U.S. military then shot me, and I was showered in blood. We couldn't leave the house because the U.S. military surrounded the area with a large number of soldiers.
...........................
CHILCOTE: Iman (ph) is initially poised. She has clearly told the story many times. She needs no questions to prompt her.
IMAN (through translator): My grandmother, she decided to open the kitchen door. Before she opened it, she said, maybe they will break it otherwise. I wish she hadn't.
CHILCOTE: Iman's (ph) brother, Abdul Rahman, doesn't say much. The interviewer asked him to show his wounds.
Off camera, a voice in the room is heard asking, he didn't have a weapon. What danger did he pose? But there is an intriguing variation in Iman's (ph) account. The third time she tells it, she says she was expecting the bomb.
WHAT WAS NOT REPORTED ..................... The third time she tells it, she says she was expecting the bomb. .........The third time she tells it, she says she was expecting the bomb.
Yeah. They're real professionals, alright.
Which version? It reminds me of a sequence in JFK. Joe Pesci's character, David Ferry, is being questioned. After relating many versions of a story, he is told it is unbelievable. His response: "Really? Which part?"
Check these two pictures carefully and read the captions on both.
That looks like the same scene - so does this mean the AP originally blamed insurgents?
Well, they certainly cannot base the testimony just on the military's version of what happened, or they run the risk of not getting the whole story. And, needless to say, the adult Iraqis seem to be--ahem--unavailable for comment.
Pretty much irrelevant.
Civilians are under no obligation to report insurgent or enemy activity to our troops, especially at obvious risk to their own and their family's lives.
If we were justified in making reprisals against uninvolved civilians, based simply on their knowledge of upcoming attacks, then German reprisals against uninvolved civilians in WWII were equally justified. But we call those war crimes.
I do not know if Haditha was a war crime, and neither does anyone else at this point. But intentional killing of civilian bystanders is a violation of US military law and should be prosecuted when it happens.
Good catch metesky.
Those are clearly the same picture, one cropped of course.
The "whole story?" What story is there? The evidence - if it can be called that - is based upon the testimony of three children whose parents were evidently involved in a plot to blow up Marines.
There is no "story."
If it happened, you know there will be prosecutions for violations of the UCMJ.... if it happened.
Something happened, something happens each and every day.
Bullet holes to the heads of civilians is an insurgent tactic. Probably a daily occurance in Iraq.
Another good highlight.
Is that so? So you're saying that somehow Nazi Germany - a fascist dictatorship - and America are, in this case, equally morally culpable if civilians are killed. In - one would suppose - every circumstance.
That's an interesting perspective, I guess, if one ignores the differences between fascism and democracy.
I will wait until all the facts are in before making a judgement for myself.
Just because someone is a woman or child doesn't mean that person is an innocent... remember Vietnam.
Think of this scenario... IED explodes. Gunfire erupts from surrounding houses at the Marines. One of the Marines notices some fire coming from a window; he aims a little low, shooting below the window, through the wall. The shooting from that location stops. The Marine looks for the next target.
Inside the house, the body lies motionless under the window, the Kalashnikov only fired half a dozen times. Another insurgent empties the magazine of his rifle, throws it aside, and picks up the rifle next to the body. He then moves out of the room, carrying the rifle with him.
Finally the Marines eliminate all of the threats; they start entering the houses. Under the window is the body of a 10 year old boy, with no weapon near him. Now all of a sudden, they've killed an 'innocent,' when in actuality, the boy was firing upon the troops and another insurgent took his rifle before the troops came in for his own use.
Another possibility is that the insurgents could have been hiding amongst them, and shot the civilians themselves, knowing how we tend to strangle ourselves with our own righteousness.
Nothing is black and white in wartime.
Nope. Collateral damage is unavoidable and expected, although highly regrettable.
Intentional murder of uninvolved civilians in revenge for an attack by insurgents is not collateral damage. It is equally wrong regardless of the political leanings of the occupying power.
I support the war.
I also support the prosecution of those who break our laws by murdering civilians. (Although, as stated, I don't know if that is what actually happened here.)
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