Related recent threads:
Attorney: Haditha leak could lead to dismissal request
Marines order probe into Haditha leak (Lt. Gen. Mattis orders investigation)
Posted on 02/07/2007 2:21:40 PM PST by RedRover
The U.S. Marines accused of murder and other charges in the case of the Haditha killings in Iraq cannot get a fair trial, says retired Air Force Lt. General Thomas McInerney.
Commenting on Rep. John Murtha's outrageous charges that the Marines of Kilo Company had committed cold-blooded murder of civilians in Haditha on November 19, 2005, McInerney said that the Pennsylvania Democrat's declaration "has certainly prejudiced the case."
In an exclusive interview with NewsMax.com, the general who served 35 years in the United States Air Force as a pilot, commander, and Joint Force Commander and retired from military service as Assistant Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force said: "The Marine Corps leadership who informed Murtha of this have, I feel, used undue command influence and these people cannot get a fair trial."
According to military law experts a charge of undue command influence, which is akin in civilian courts to the pollution of a jury pool from pre-trial publicity, is quite valid. If an appeals court determines undue command influence existed, all related punitive or legal proceedings can be overturned.
In United States v. Thomas, 22 MJ 388, 394 (CMA 1986) the court held that unlawful command influence was an error of constitutional dimension. Specifically, Thomas applied the test for constitutional error and held that an appellate court may not affirm the findings or sentence "unless it is persuaded beyond a reasonable doubt that the findings and sentence have not been affected by the command.
McInerney said the real issue "is the way the information was [obtained] through information deception by terrorists and forwarded to Time Magazine. We cannot have terrorists using disinformation on our troops and our system and our military overreacting to it."
"We need to give our people more latitude and not put handcuffs on them. This is despicable conduct by our leadership over there and I think that we've got to get with it and tell America what needs to be done.
"These poor guys [the Marine defendants] have been under a cloud for over a year and they still do not have an Article 32 hearing [to determine if a court martial is warranted] and that tells you something.
"I am very, very displeased with the Marine Corps on this issue."
As reported previously by NewsMax.com, Haditha Accusations Unmasked, the Marine Corps has adopted highly restricted rules of engagement based on false information about the Haditha incident, a fact that disturbed Gen. McInerney.
"Now every time they fire a weapon they have to fill out paper work," he said. "When guys are being fired upon in combat the oversight is unbelievable. We cannot fight a war like that. We just cannot have such perfect, strict peacetime thinking in wartime rules of engagement. We're not taking care of our people."
This, he said "is one of the reasons why we have not had more decisive results [on the ground in Iraq].
Related recent threads:
Attorney: Haditha leak could lead to dismissal request
Marines order probe into Haditha leak (Lt. Gen. Mattis orders investigation)
If you weren't pinged, let jazusamo or me know if you want on the Haditha Marine Ping List.
Haven't we here on FR been complaining about this very fact (they cannot get a fair trial after Murtha and his ilk chose to poison these men very publicly) for quite some time now? Nothing like being publicly decried as guilty of the most horrid of crimes against civilians (despite the evidence) by those who are suppose to be in authority...
PS, Did Watada get a mistrial?
This is lynching, pure and simple, like with the border agents who got 10 and 11 years for performing their duties. Enemies of America are successfully persecuting our fines. Now one of the agents was beaten up in jail. The thugs are in charge.
Good for Lt. General McInerney. He is a man of honor who is not afraid to speak out for what is right.
The General is the best military consultant on TV, IMO. It's a shame that Murtha doesn't have a tenth the integrity of McInerney.
Yes, a mistrial was just declared in the Watada case.
Thanks, I should have posted to you on the other thread.
Yes, there were threads about this before the last syllable of "they killed innocent civilians in cold-blood" was out of Murtha's mouth.
I wish the general would get out and say this on the O'Reilly Factor or one of the other Fox shows. This is not news to us, but it would be news to people outside the Pajama Belt.
Who is McInerney a consultant for on TV?
Fox News Channel. I don't know if he appears anywhere else.
I think they will walk.
Lt. General Thomas G. McInerney is retired from the U.S. Air Force as assistant vice chief of staff of the Air Force and director for the Defense Performance Review. A respected military analyst, he appears regularly on FOX News Channel, is a frequent nationally syndicated radio lecturer and guest, and has written for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times, the Washington Post, and USA Today. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and earned a master’s degree in international relations from George Washington University. He served four combat tours in Vietnam.
Lawmaker: Marines killed Iraqis ‘in cold blood’ (Traitor Murtha Alert) posted by tobyhill
Murtha Makes An Outrageous Allegation posted by Roscoe Karns
So Rep. Murtha Accused American Marines of Cold-Blooded Murder... So What? posted by Coop
Contact Information for Congressman John "Our Troops are Murderers" Murtha posted by new yorker 77
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Let me ask you Mr. Murtha to give us some details about that. Draw us a picture of what happened at Haditha.
REP. JOHN “JACK” MURTHA: Well, I’ll tell you exactly what happened. One Marine was killed and the Marines just said we’re going to take care – we don’t know who the enemy is, the pressure was too much on them, so they went into houses and they actually killed civilians. And, and –
MATTHEWS:—was this My Lai? Was this a case of – when you say cold blood Congressman, a lot of people think you’re basically saying you got some civilians sitting in a room around a field and they’re executed.
MURTHA: That’s exactly it.
Al the media, including Fox, is treating Haditha lke it's all over and the troops were convicted. There is no way any of these troops can get a fair trial. Semper Fi
Murtha Must Go has got it right, "Jihad Jack" is a proper reference to him.
Michael Savage and Sean Hannity got onboard with the Pendleton 8 when reports came out that they shackled. But then they dropped the story when the plea deals started.
The first guy to cop a plea in the Hamdania will be released next month--after serving 10 months for a murder charge. Hell's bells, I would have taken that deal, too.
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