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January 28, 2012 Life after Haditha... by Andy McNeil, Staff writerFormer U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt said he was relieved when Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich walked away a free man earlier this week following a six-year prosecution for a 2005 attack that killed two dozen unarmed Iraqis. "Everybody else went through hell five years ago and we all got the opportunity to move on with our lives. Frank was the one that was stuck behind, still in the military on legal hold," said Sharratt, whose family lives in Canonsburg. "I'm just happy that he has the chance to...

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. -- A Justice Department attorney said U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., should be immune from a defamation lawsuit filed by a former Marine from western Pennsylvania. Murtha Essentially, Murtha's attorney said the lawsuit filed in September by Justin Sharratt, of Canonsburg, should be dismissed for the same reasons that a federal appeals court struck down a similar suit by Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, of Meriden, Conn., last week. The court ruled that Murtha couldn't be sued because he was acting within the scope of his employment when he accused Wuterich's squad of killing innocent civilians "in cold blood"...

PITTSBURGH - U.S. Rep. John Murtha shouldn't be immune from a defamation lawsuit for saying Marines killed Iraqi women and children "in cold blood," because the lawmaker's comments came outside the scope of his official duties, a former Marine's attorney said. The attorney, Noah Geary, on Wednesday filed an amended federal defamation lawsuit on behalf of Justin Sharratt, 24, a former lance corporal from Canonsburg. The new complaint, which adds 13 paragraphs to a lawsuit originally filed in September, was prompted by the dismissal of a similar suit against Murtha by Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich.

I missed two award ceremonies this past week and these two ceremonies make interesting contrasts regarding Marines. I must admit that I was not invited to the first ceremony nor is there any earthly reason why I should have been. I read about it in a Bing West article, "Distinguished Disservice: In honoring Murtha, the Navy insults its own". Mr. West, a Marine veteran, is the noted author of several books. His latest is an excellent work about the Iraq War entitled, The Strongest Tribe. The Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Donald C. Winter, awarded the Distinguished Public Service Award...

Watch the interview at the source: Fox News (while it's up). Or see it now in Windows Media or as a Flash file (these are large files: they will take a couple-few minutes to load). Interview transcript:MEGYN KELLY: It has been one of the most talked about stories of the Iraq War: the so-called Haditha Massacre. Two dozen Iraqis killed by US Marines. After the news first broke, Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha, a former Marine himself, was quick to condemn the accused Marines, saying they quote “murdered these Iraqis in cold blood”. Take a look at this exchange from MSNBC......

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Marine Corps lance corporal from Pennsylvania has sued U.S. Rep. John Murtha, saying the Democrat lawmaker slandered him by saying he and other marines killed 24 Iraqis in Haditha in "cold blood."

He’s a 17-term incumbent who’s bloated his district with so much pork that the Journal once described him as having practically built the town himself. Nothing’s going to dislodge him unless he commits a major felony — and even then, per Abscam, I wouldn’t be so sure — but if there’s any justice this clip will put Bill Russell within single digits. Russell’s active military duty ended just two days ago so presumbly this signals the start of his campaign in earnest. I can’t find any polls online, but follow the last link to MM’s post and you’ll see that...

Haditha Exposed- The “Shadow Conspiracy” Since 21 December 2006 seven Marines and their families have been persecuted by the United States government. The Thomas Moore Society has taken the first steps in exposing the “shadow regime” agenda to vilify Our Haditha Marines.” The battle for three of these Marines is not over. I shutter to think of the tactics which will now be employed against these brave and honorable men. I don’t know how far up the chain this conspiracy goes, but if you follow the money, it leads me to one place. Donald C. Winter is the 74th Secretary...

Evidence exonerated Sharratt January 17,2008 This is in reply to the letter from Joe Farrell about Rep. John Murtha and my son, Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt. Justin was honorably discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps. Justin was and always will be a Marine, not an ex-Marine. Justin was exonerated of all charges involving the Haditha incident in a military Article 32 hearing (the civilian equivalent of a grand jury.) The evidence exonerated my son, and the general officially dismissed the charges because the evidence showed him innocent. Full disclosure of this evidence and the Article 32 testimony appears on the...

Murtha should have apologizedA few months ago, we expressed the opinion that it was time for Rep. John Murtha to apologize to Justin Sharratt. As our story Sunday mentioned, though, neither Sharratt nor his parents, who live in Canonsburg, has heard anything from the congressman. Sharratt was one of a group of Marines whom Murtha accused of having "killed innocent civilians in cold blood" in the Iraqi city of Haditha. The congressman's office later put out a news release that said the Marines had been charged with murder when in fact no charges had yet been brought at the time....

Hannity's America EXCLUSIVE: The Truth About Haditha Sunday, October 28 at 9 p.m. ET: Justin Sharratt, one of the Marines accused of murder in Haditha, Iraq, tells his story for the first time. Cleared of all charges and honorably discharged from the Marines, he tells Sean what happened that day. — And he responds to Rep. John Murtha's charges against him and his fellow Marines

Sean Hannity interviews Haditha Marine smeared by Murtha.

DEFEND OUR MARINES THEATER PRESENTS... Verbatim testimony from the LCpl Sharratt Article 32 hearing--dramatized for your reading pleasure.With guest star Lizzie McGuire as NCIS Special Agent Nadya Mannle!______________________________________________________ Bumbling and corrupt NCIS agents have been on horrifyingly hilarious display in the Haditha hearings. It was clear to anyone watching LCpl Justin Sharratt's hearing that he should never have been charged in the first place.The media (naturally) has ignore this facet of the hearings, but NCIS agents broke every rule of an unbiased investigation: exculpatory evidence was ignored and incriminating evidence was not tested. Democrats, usually so vocal about the rights...

Good Words For Cpl. Sharratt 2007-08-16 Before he is forgotten by the media, a few good words should be said about Marine Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt. After all, he was on the receiving end of a great many malicious and defamatory ones. Cpl. Sharratt was involved in a firefight at the town of Haditha in Nov. 2005. Later, there were allegations civilians were killed in the town. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., declared at a press conference, "our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood." The Los Angeles Times ran an editorial...

On May 31, 2006, the Los Angeles Times editorially bellowed, "What happened at the Iraqi My Lai?" The charge was that on Nov. 19, 2005, the Marines of Kilo Company, Third Battalion, First Marine Regiment, had gone on a killing rampage in the town of Haditha in Anbar province. The rampage was said to be in response to the killing by IED of one of their comrades. That May, Rep. Murtha, D-Pa., vowed at a press conference an investigation would prove "our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood." As the...

Day Two / Tuesday, June 12 / NCIS Special Agent Mark PlattBumbling NCIS agents have been on horrifyingly hilarious display in the Haditha hearings. It was clear to anyone watching LCpl Justin Sharratt's hearing that he should never have been charged in the first place. Agents broke every rule of an unbiased investigation... Exculpatory evidence was ignored (such as a suitcase filled with Jordanian passports found in a house and the fact that among the dead was a man named Kahtan who fit the profile of an insurgent). Incriminating evidence was not tested (suspicion fell on LCpl Sharratt and his...

n exonerating Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt of all charges against him arising out of the incident in Haditha in November 2005 including murder, Lt. Gen. James Mattis praised the young Marine who is among the Marines who were accused of cold-blooded murder by Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa. As correspondent Nat Helms has written, Murtha publicly labeled the Marines cold-blooded murderers and liars who covered up the crime to protect their skins last year. He repeatedly told reporters interviewing him on CNN and other news outlets that he obtained his evidence from the Time magazine stories, which he failed to explain...

IT’S BEEN MORE THAN A YEAR SINCE JOHN MURTHA charged that U.S. Marines “killed innocent civilians in cold blood” in Haditha. Yesterday, a military commander lifted Murtha’s preemptive conviction. Last May, John Murtha held a press conference accusing our soldiers of slaughtering 24 Iraqis – including women and children – in the town of Haditha in late November 2005. He guaranteed an investigation would determine “[o]ur troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood.” His words ricocheted around the Arab world, as Al Jazeera dutifully quoted him. This “pressure,” Murtha said, could...

Corps clears Canonsburg Marine the killing of 3 Iraqi civilians A Canonsburg native did his best to live up to the Marine Corps' standards when he killed three Iraqis during a house search in Haditha, Lt. Gen. James Mattis said Thursday in dropping charges against him. Mattis dropped all charges against Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, 22, one of four enlisted Marines charged with murder for killing Iraqi civilians following the Nov. 19, 2005, ambush of a Marine convoy in Haditha. The Marine commander dropped charges against another Marine in return for his testimony, and dropped charges against one of...

Murder charges against a US Marine accused of killing three Iraqi civilians during an alleged massacre in Haditha two years ago have been dropped, the military said on Thursday. A statement released by the Marines at their Camp Pendleton base in southern California revealed that three charges of unpremeditated murder against Lance Corporal Justin Sharratt had been withdrawn. The decision was announced in a written ruling from the commander Lieutenant General James Mattis and followed a recommendation from an investigator last month that the charges should be dropped. "An independent Article 32 investigating officer has considered all the facts and...