Haditha Article 32: Capt. Randy W. Stone

The accused: Capt. Stone was the staff legal officer for the 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment when the incident occurred. Stone, who completed his officer training course in August 2003, was on his first tour in Iraq at the time of the Haditha incident. He is a 34-year-old Maryland native, currently assigned to legislative affairs duties. Capt. Stone is facing up to two years in prison and dismissal from the service if ordered to trial, convicted and sentenced to the maximum punishment.

Convening authority: Lt. Gen. James Mattis, commanding general for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Forces Central Commander for Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa.

Unprecedented prosecution: The charges against Capt. Stone represent the first time a legal officer has been accused of a crime arising out of his handling of a battlefield report.

In Capt. Stone's defense: Lead civilian attorney, Charles Gittins, says, "General Huck did not believe there should have been an investigation, nor did the staff judge advocate for the regiment. My client was the lowest-level guy and he reported everything that he had been told. There was no requirement that he should have done more. I don't think the people who made the charging decision thought it through -- it seems like they just threw everything at a dartboard."

Expected witnesses: Maj. Gen. Richard Huck (former commanding general of the 2nd Marine Division based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, who at the time of the incident, was in charge of troops in Haditha ), "two other Marine officers who were in Iraq when the killings took place" (according to the North County Times), Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz.

What's crucial: Maj. Gen. Huck's testimony could clear Capt. Stone. (As a side note, it's very rare for a general to testify for either side in a court case. Naturally, the investigating officer will give a great deal of weight to his testimony.)

Also at stake: Three other officers are facing charges similar to those of Capt. Stone: Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, Capt. Lucas McConnell and 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson. The result of Capt. Stone's hearing will impact the other three officers, as well as the three enlisted Marines (Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich andÂ Lance Cpls. Justin Sharratt and Stephen Tatum). All the accused are from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment.

From the AP (via the Washington Post)

Haditha Hearing Enters 4th Day

By THOMAS WATKINS / The Associated Press

Friday, May 11, 2007

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- The biggest U.S. criminal case involving civilian deaths in the Iraq war begins its fourth day in court Friday with mounting testimony that Marines initially considered the killings of 24 Iraqis an unfortunate, but legitimate, consequence of urban combat.

Witnesses have testified at a preliminary hearing for Capt. Randy W. Stone that the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians came on a brutal day of combat on Nov. 19, 2005 in Haditha. They said they did not see any need for an investigation at the time.

Stone is one of four officers charged with dereliction of duty for failing to investigate the killings. Three enlisted Marines are charged with murder. An intelligence officer and an operations officer were among those expected to testify Friday.

The attack occurred after a roadside bomb struck a Humvee convoy, killing one Marine and injuring two others. In the aftermath, Marines shot five Iraqis standing by a car and went house to house looking for insurgents, using grenades and machine guns to clear houses.

Maj. Gen. Richard A. Huck, the top general in charge of Marines in Iraq's Al Anbar province when the killings occurred, testified Thursday that he knew about the deaths the day they took place, but considered them simply a "truly unfortunate" consequence of war at the time.

"I had no information that a law of armed conflict violation had been committed," he said by video link from the Pentagon.

Huck said he initially saw no reason to investigate the killing of women and children by troops, and said he didn't learn about allegations that civilians were intentionally targeted until three months later when a Time magazine reporter raised questions.

Stone's attorney, Charles Gittins, called Huck to testify in an attempt to show Stone did nothing wrong because Marines throughout the command chain knew about the killings but agreed not to order an investigation because the deaths were deemed to have been lawful.

On Wednesday, a Marine sergeant testified that his squad leader, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, shot five Iraqi men as they stood with their hands in the air and then told comrades to lie about it.

The hearing is part of an Article 32 investigation, the military's equivalent to a grand jury proceeding. Maj. Thomas McCann, the investigating officer, will hear evidence and recommend whether the charges should go to trial.

Good piece by Diane West at Townhall: Eating our own.

On the 60th anniversary of VJ-Day in 2005, Marine Capt. Randy Stone, a military lawyer serving in Iraq, became a presidential poster boy. Capt. Stone's two grandfathers fought at Iwo Jima, so George W. Bush, in a celebratory speech, turned the whole family into a gold-braided rhetorical flourish to depict the continuity of American character and courage from one war to another.

"Capt. Stone proudly wears the uniform just as his grandfathers did at Iwo Jima," said Bush. "He's guided by the same convictions they carried into battle. He shares the same willingness to serve a cause greater than himself. ... Randy says, 'I know we will win because I see it in the eyes of the Marines every morning. In their eyes is the sparkle of victory.'" That was then. I wish the president would look into Capt. Stone's eyes now as the officer finishes up his first week of Article 32 hearings, the military's equivalent of a grand jury proceeding, to determine whether dereliction of duty charges against him will go to trial.

What would Bush see? I can only imagine that if I were Capt. Stone, in the uniform my grandfathers wore, with their convictions and willingness to serve, that "sparkle of victory" the 34-year-old Marine once talked about would be lost in the hard-eyed look of the betrayed. Capt. Stone is the first of four Marine officers to be charged with dereliction of duty for failing to investigate "properly" 24 civilian deaths in Haditha in November 2005. Having reviewed the facts -- what you might call his politically correct job as battalion lawyer -- Capt. Stone determined no further investigation was warranted. In other words, he came to a politically incorrect conclusion. (So did his superiors, but he's the guy on trial -- another story.) Capt. Stone could get three years in prison. Three enlisted Marines are charged with unpremeditated murder. They could get life. At least eight other Marines may have been granted immunity to testify. The whole case exudes the terrible, rotting stench of eating our own. Described in the heavy-breathing press as "the biggest U.S. criminal case involving civilian deaths in the Iraq war," the incident sounds less like a war crime than, well, a war.

Here's what happened: A convoy of Marines trolling insurgent-riddled Haditha was hit by a huge IED. A Humvee was destroyed. One Marine was killed (split in two). Two other Marines were wounded (one grievously). There was a lot of shooting at an approaching Iraqi car. There was a lot of shooting at two nearby Iraqi houses where Marines heard, as The New York Times put it, "the distinct metallic sound of an AK-47 being prepared to fire." As one Marine witness explained, "the squad leader thought he was about to kick in the door and walk into a machine gun." In the end, no additional Marines had died, but 24 Iraqi civilians, including some children, had been killed.

And here lies a hunk of the politically correct outrage fueling prosecutorial fires. According to a leaked report chiding Marines for not investigating further, Army Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell was apparently appalled by "statements made by the chain of command" that "suggest that Iraqi civilian lives are not as important as U.S. lives, their deaths are just the cost of doing business. ..." Maj. Gen. Bargewell was also apparently exercised by the Marine consensus that "civilian casualties were to be expected" due to such insurgent tactics as hiding among civilians. "Although this proposition may accurately reflect insurgent tactics," he wrote, he heard it so often "that it almost appeared rehearsed."

Rehearsed? Notice the contorted way military brass disparages the exculpatory reality of the Iraqi battlefield.

Meanwhile, three cheers for the Marines. If only someone would mention to the Waughian-named Maj. Bargewell that when the "business" is war, the chain of command darn well better consider "U.S. lives" more important than "Iraqi civilian lives" (many "civilian" in name only), or guess what? Too many U.S. lives will be lost and the United States won't win.

Victory, however, isn't the objective of our increasingly PC military. This is becoming more and more apparent as the war continues. Which calls into question our very capacity -- not military, but psychological -- to wage war. It also calls into question our continuity with our forbears -- Capt. Stone's grandfathers, for instance. They might know the uniform but, watching their grandson's show trial, I doubt they'd recognize much else.

Diana West is a columnist for The Washington Times. She can be contacted via dianawest@verizon.net.

Latest news! This is a sketchy mid-day report. Nothing much new. I'm going to wait for it to be fleshed out before posting as a thread: Battalion commander said 'men aren't murderers' when confronted with Haditha allegations.

CAMP PENDLETON -- A Marine colonel in charge of troops involved in the 2005 slaying of Iraqi civilians in Haditha reacted with anger when confronted two months after the incident with allegations the deaths may have resulted from a violation of the military's rule of engagement.

"My Marines are not murderers," Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani responded when the allegations were brought to him, according to testimony Monday morning from Maj. Samuel Carrasco, the operations officer for the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment when the killings took place on Nov. 19, 2005.

Carrasco's testimony came on the sixth day of a hearing to determine if Capt. Randy Stone, the battalion's legal officer, should stand trial on dereliction of duty charges for failing to initiate an investigation of the killings. Carrasco described Nov. 19 as a day of numerous engagements in and around the city of Haditha, saying it was the busiest combat day throughout the battalion's entire deployment.

The allegations that two dozen civilians who died at the hands of the battalion's Kilo Company on Nov. 19 were killed in violation of the rules of engagement did not emerge until a Time magazine reporter began asking questions in January, Carrasco said.

Immediately after receiving an e-mail listing of the reporter's questions, Carrasco said he took the information to Chessani.

Until then, Carrasco said no one throughout the battalion or from higher headquarters asked any questions that would suggest the killings were anything other than a result of combat action.

The civilians were killed after a roadside bomb destroyed a Humvee, killing a lance corporal and two other Marines. Five men who drove up in a car immediately after the bombing were shot and 19 civilians in three nearby homes died afterword when troops from the battalion's Kilo Company stormed them, suspecting insurgents were inside.

The Marine Corps initially said that 15 civilians died in crossfire and that eight insurgents had been killed.

Despite that first report, when the service charged four officers including Stone and Chessani with dereliction of duty and four enlisted men with murder, it said that 24 civilians were killed and did not identify any of the victims as suspected insurgents.

In the end, the Marine Corps made death benefit payments to survivors of all 24, Stone's attorney Charles Gittins said Monday.

The testimony continues this afternoon and could last through Wednesday.

Hi there. Have been silent i know. I told you that there was 8 insurgents, 15 casualties and one Marine = 24. The Prosecution will not be able to come up with 24 death certificates because one was Marine Terrazas.

The importance of Michael Moore? The Haditha incident took place during Iraq’s first election. Michael Moore was in Iraq filming to make sure voting went “correctly”.

Fahrenheit 9-1-1 was against trade embargo with Iraq, still under sanctions at that time. Perhaps was still under US trade sanctions during their voting. The reason Michael Moore is significant is because....... in my belief.....
Michael Moore was working under the TIME umbrella. The embedded reporter Lucian Read was with the Kilo company but went missing 2-3 days before the Haditha incident. Suddenly reappeared the day after Haditha incident.

The other opinion that i have conveyed to defense is that the car was not a car. It was a TAXI. I believe the TAXI was sent to the area with the IED. TAXI people, the best i can find out on office of foreign assets control watch list. Of course if it is them they need to be removed from the list or classified as dead.

The TAXI driver, KHALID in my opinion was an insurgent working with Abu Musab al-Zaqawri.

If i am correct, Lucian Read sent the TAXI into Haditha giving location of our troops. The mayor of Haditha at that time, according to General Huck, was an insurgent. Today he is asking for the US to stay, because the last time (after the pullout of Haditha) the town suffered a massacre at the soccer field for all those that agreed with Americans.

If Lucian Read (embedded Kilo company reporter) teamed up with TIME a day AFTER Haditha, then Michael Moore would have the evidence through TIME. Let’s recall who started this investigation. TIME January 24, 2006, Two Months and 5 days after the incident.

Huck recalled it was several weeks passed before he asked Am i the last one to know? The reason is that TIME had to stage the incident, make a terror training video (for Michael Moore), call for an investigation, THEN let HUCK know.

I can tell you all i am working with some pretty reliable people and media “in the loop”. Some of the defense lawyers have even written me a short “thanks”.

I will be back with more later. That’s pretty much the update as i see it.

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