Prosecutors say US officers ignored Haditha reality
Reuters, June 11, 2007
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., June 11 (Reuters) - U.S. commanders' belief in their Marines blinded them to the reality of events that led to the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in November 2005, military prosecutors said on Monday.
"This is a classic case of things gone wrong. You want to believe in your Marine, but sometimes things go wrong," Lt. Col. Sean Sullivan, the lead prosecutor, told a military hearing. "There was was an absolute failure of the obligation to investigate the death of these civilians."
Prosecutors made the argument at the end of a 2-week-long evidentiary hearing against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, one of four officers and three enlisted men charged in the killings that sparked international anger.
Chessani, 43, is charged with two counts of dereliction of duty and a count of making a false report. Prosecutors argued that battalion commander Chessani should have immediately investigated the killings.
"There was a mind-set that was established at the Kilo Company base that this is partly the Iraqis' fault," Sullivan told the military proceedings. "No one said, 'Let's ask the hard questions, let's find the answers, let's quietly take a look at what happened out there and learn the hard lessons.'"
The officers are charged with failing to investigate the killings, while three Marines are charged with the actual killings.
Another courtroom on the Marine base heard testimony on Monday in the court-martial of Lance Corp. Justin Sharratt, charged with three counts of murder at Haditha.
Sharratt's attorney, Gary Myers, told the court that forensic evidence would clear Sharratt. "He is not a murderer, he is in fact an extremely brave Marine," Myers said.
The evidentiary hearing for another officer, Capt. Randy Stone, ended two weeks ago. On Monday, his attorney confirmed that Stone's hearing officer recommended the charges against him be dismissed and that Stone should face punishment within the Marines.
The recommendation will be reviewed by Gen. James Mattis, who makes the final decision on all the Haditha cases.
FAITH IN HIS MEN
Chessani, 43, was relieved of his command in April 2006 after a Time magazine story detailed the Nov. 19, 2005, killings that followed a bomb attack that killed a popular young Marine and wounded two others.
According to testimony, surviving Marines killed five unarmed men after ordering them out of a car, then, on orders, swept through four houses, killing 19 more people.
Chessani passed on a letter from the Haditha town council asking for a probe of the killings but did not begin an investigation.
Defense attorney Brian Rooney argued the charges amounted to second-guessing Chessani -- and making a past decision criminal.
"It's entirely possible that the Marines who did the shooting will be cleared for their part, but Colonel Chessani will not only lose his career but could spend time in the brig for having faith in his men," Rooney told reporters.
Accused Haditha Marine passed polygraph test
North County Times, June 12, 2007
CAMP PENDLETON ---- A lance corporal charged with murder in the death of three Iraqi brothers in 2005 passed a polygraph examination when asked whether he was being truthful when he said the first man he shot inside a home was holding an AK-47 assault rifle, according to testimony heard this morning.
The test administered last spring showed there was no apparent deception in the account provided by Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, said Naval Criminal Investigative Service Special Agent Nayda Mannle.
Sharratt is charged with three counts of unpremeditated murder for his role in the deaths of two dozen Iraqi civilians following a roadside bombing on the morning of Nov. 19, 2005. The 22-year-old rifleman from the base's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment could face life in prison if ordered to trial and convicted.
Mannle's testimony came on the second day of Sharratt's hearing. She eventually became the lead agent for the Haditha investigation, which resulted in Sharratt and two other enlisted men from the battalion facing homicide charges and three of its officers being charged with dereliction of duty for failing to investigate the incident.
While acknowledging that the polygraph did not indicate that Sharratt's account to investigators was deceptive, Mannle also testified that the account the Marines gave of what happened when four homes were stormed by the Marines did not match what some family members of the slain Iraqis said occurred.
Sharratt is accused of killing the three brothers inside the last of four homes that were assaulted by Marines after a roadside bombing that killed a lance corporal and injured two others.
His attorneys are trying to show inconsistencies in the investigation, focusing many of their questions on why government agents did not pursue full background reports on the men who died inside the fourth home, particularly one man who worked on the Jordanian border and may have had several Jordanian passports in his possession.
Mannle said that probably should have been done and agreed that agents can still try to piece that information together. But she also said that none of the 24 victims who died in Haditha had any known ties to the insurgency.
"We ran them through the database and all came up as negative for insurgents," she said during telephonic testimony from an office in the Pentagon.
The defense also is trying to show that forensic evidence taken from a bedroom where men died inside the fourth house is inconsistent with an account given by those men's surviving family members, who told investigators the men were herded into that room and executed in rapid succession.
For a full report on Tuesday's court proceedings, see Wednesday's North County Times.