Haditha Article 32: Capt. Randy W. Stone

Defend Our Marines ^ | May 4, 2007 | David Allender

[RedRover]

Hearing fact sheet

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.

Preferred Charges and Specifications:

Charge: Violation of the UCMJ, Article 92

Specification 1 (Violation of a lawful order): wrongfully failed to ensure accurate reporting and a thorough investigation into a possible, suspected, or alleged violation of the law of war by Marines from his Battalion. (Maximum punishment dismissal, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 2 years).
Specification 2 (Dereliction): negligently failed to ensure that this possible, suspected, or alleged violation of the law of war was accurately reported to higher headquarters.
Specification 3 (Dereliction): negligently failed to ensure that a thorough investigation was initiated into this possible, suspected, or alleged violation of the law of war. (Maximum punishment: [willful] Dismissal, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 6 months [through neglect or culpable inefficiency] Dismissal, forfeiture of two-thirds pay per month for 3 months, and confinement for 3 months).

Investigating officer: Maj. Thomas McCann

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

Expected duration of the hearing: At least four days.

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 and  Lance Cpls. Justin Sharratt and Stephen Tatum). All the accused are from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment.

Information drawn from various articles in the North County Times

[Girlene]

These look good for Kallop, Espinosa and Dela Cruz. Re. Huck:

Huck didn’t ask for an investigation, Chiarelli did. See this article by Thomas Watkins, AP http://www.pe.com/ap_news/California/CA_Marines_Haditha_287194C.shtml

...”Huck, who has not been charged, said he learned Feb. 12, 2006 in an e-mail from his boss, Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, that a Time magazine reporter asked about several allegations that challenged the official U.S. account, including one that “four young men were herded into a closet and sprayed with bullets.”

“I support our account and do not see a necessity for further investigation,” Huck replied.

On Feb. 13, Chiarelli called for an investigation.”

Also from this article:

“Court documents show that Huck was briefed about the killings soon after they occurred and they did not seem suspicious to him. Huck told investigators that “no bells and whistles went off.”

“It was just here is something that happened, and it was onto the next thing,” Huck told investigators.

[Girlene]

From that same link by Thomas Watkins, AP, 1st Lt. Adam Mathes, Executive Officer

“1st Lt. Adam Mathes said he felt at the time that the questions reflected an agenda to discredit the Marine Corps and President Bush.

“It sounded like very negative spin,” Mathes testified from a secret location by video link. “This guy’s looking for blood and blood leads headlines.” “

From this link, Marty Graham of Reuters had more to say about Mathes, http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070510/ts_nm/iraq_haditha_dc

“...from Kuwait, 1st Lt. Adam Mathes, the company’s executive officer at the time, said the Haditha town council lodged a complaint on November 27 that 15 civilians had been killed.

Mathes said he told his superior officer, Capt. Lucas McConnell, 31, one of the four charged with dereliction of duty. “He didn’t seem to feel that it was a very big deal,” he said.

Mathes said at the time many soldiers believed Iraqi insurgents would place civilians at risk to further their aims, and thus many U.S. troops saw the Haditha killings in that perspective.

“It was a demonstration of how cheap (the insurgents) consider their own lives that they would use their own people for this attack. These are the lengths they are willing to go to conduct an attack on us,” he said of such sentiment at the time.

Mathes also said he believed squad leader Sgt. Frank Wuterich’s account of events. Wuterich is one of three charged with murder in the incident.

“My impression of Sergeant Wuterich is that he is a very decent, quiet, mature guy. I didn’t have any reason to question their integrity,” Mathes said.”

Taking a break myself. You’re doing great work!

[RedRover]

It’s frustrating to only have such spotty press accounts to work with. On the other hand, that’s what makes this summary worth compiling.

[RedRover]

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. The general testified via video hookup from the Pentagon. There was no early indication that the deaths were not combat-related or warranted an investigation.

• Visited the unit's headquarters in Haditha on Nov. 22, 2005 and received no report that the issue merited review. According to court documents, Huck told investigators, "no bells and whistles went off." "It was just here is something that happened, and it was onto the next thing."
• Reports of the deaths were sent up the chain of command and up to Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq at the time of the incident.
• None of those superiors told Huck there should be further investigation into the deaths.
• On Feb. 12, 2006, learned in an e-mail from his boss, Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, that a Time magazine reporter asked about allegations including one that "four young men were herded into a closet and sprayed with bullets."
• According to court documents, Huck replied, "I support our account and do not see a necessity for further investigation." (On Feb. 13, Chiarelli called for an investigation.)
• The allegations surprised him because local Iraqi leaders never questioned him about the attack in his frequent meetings with them.

  Quote: Huck commanded 19,000 U.S. military personnel at the time and 12,000 Iraqi soldiers and said he relied on staff reports of battle incidents such as in Haditha. "If someone felt there was a need to investigate, it could have come up from a myriad of places," he said.

[RedRover]

Sgt. Maj. Edward Sax

• Testified that he only learned that civilians had died in Haditha when he saw the Sgt. Wuterich interview on 60 Minutes.

1st Lt. Adam Mathes

Kilo Co. executive officer.

• Said the Haditha town council lodged a complaint on November 27 that 15 civilians had been killed.
• Testified that he told his superior officer, Capt. Lucas McConnell, one of the four charged with dereliction of duty. “He didn’t seem to feel that it was a very big deal,” the lieutenant said.
• Didn't believe the allegations presented by the Time magazine reporter, Tim McGirk. The questions reflected an agenda to discredit the Marine Corps and President Bush. “It sounded like very negative spin,” Mathes testified from Kuwait by video link. “This guy’s looking for blood and blood leads headlines.” Regarding his sentiment at the time, Mathes said, “It was a demonstration of how cheap (the insurgents) consider their own lives that they would use their own people for this attack. These are the lengths they are willing to go to conduct an attack on us.”

  Quote: “My impression of Sergeant Wuterich is that he is a very decent, quiet, mature guy. I didn’t have any reason to question their integrity.”

[RedRover]

Capt. Jeffery Dinsmore

Intelligence officer, 3rd Battalion.

• Testified that his report did not mentioned where or how civilians died on Nov. 19, 2005. "I said women and children were killed in that particular engagement. It isn't a requirement of combat reporting" to report exactly where they died. The detail that many of the killings occurred in homes rather than out in the open was not included for the sake of brevity in a briefing provided to higher commanders.
• Testified that “it's fairly well established through the (unmanned aerial vehicle) coverage that there were insurgents in those homes,” referring to the homes where civilians were killed.

[RedRover]

Take two...

Capt. Jeffery Dinsmore

Intelligence officer, 3rd Battalion.

• His report did not mentioned where or how civilians died on Nov. 19, 2005. "I said women and children were killed in that particular engagement. It isn't a requirement of combat reporting" to report exactly where they died. The detail that many of the killings occurred in homes rather than out in the open was not included for the sake of brevity in a briefing provided to higher commanders.
• Top battalion officers strongly believed that insurgents used the civilians as human shields and fled during the counterattack.
• Testified that “it's fairly well established through the (unmanned aerial vehicle) coverage that there were insurgents in those homes,” referring to the homes where civilians were killed.

[RedRover]

Maj. Dana Hyatt

Civilian affairs officer, 3rd Battalion. He was given immunity to testify.

• Visited the morgue the night after the incident and inspected the houses 10 days after the incident (at the request of the town council). Based on what he say, he was authorized to distribute more than $40,000 to the relatives of the dead.
• Did not believe the deaths warranted further investigation.
• Testified that four of the Iraqis killed inside the houses were insurgents.

[4woodenboats]

Wow, you’ve been busy! Outstanding work!

[RedRover]

Thanks, boats. But it hasn’t gotten the Girlene Seal of Approval yet!

[RedRover]

Col. John Ewers

Legal affairs officer.

• Assigned by the Marine Corps to assist Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell in a review of how commanders responded to Haditha.
• Testified that Capt. Stone's failure to investigate the incident does not constitute criminal dereliction of duty, though he "bore some responsibility".
• Believes that the incident in Haditha was a "reckless application of the rules of engagement".

Quote: "[Capt. Stone] didn't cover himself with glory ... but without being asked by his commander to do an investigation, I didn't think it rose to the level of criminal dereliction."

[RedRover]

Maj. Samuel Carrasco

Operations officer, 3rd Battalion.

• Took the allegations from the Time magazine reporter to Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani who angrily responded, "My Marines are not murderers. Lt. Col. Chessani apologized for the outburst and said an investigation would be undertaken.
• Testified that no one in the battalion had asked questions that would suggest the killings were anything other than combat related.

[RedRover]

Maj. Kevin Gonzales

Executive officer, 3rd Battalion.

• Testified that Stone was an able and competent officer who had been instructed to rely on higher-level legal affairs officers to determine when investigations were necessary. "He was not expected to take affirmative action," Gonzalez said.

[Girlene]

Here’s some stuff on Dismore from this thread - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1832135/posts

A military intelligence officer testified Friday that he dismissed complaints from the mayor of Haditha and its city council about the slaying of 24 of its townspeople in 2005 because he believed insurgents heavily influenced the local government.

Capt. Jeffrey Dinsmore said he also questioned the veracity of complaints in a pamphlet published by the council a week after the slayings, which took place at the hands of Marines from Camp Pendleton’s 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment Kilo Company.

The flier asserted that the Nov. 19 killings were a massacre by troops enraged by a roadside bombing that killed one of their own. The pamphlet called for an official investigation.

“My assessment was the city council was being used as a tool of insurgent propaganda,” Dinsmore said. “They would take grains of truth and add details that were false and it would end up looking like a wild allegation.”

Also this info from NY Times article, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/world/middleeast/17haditha.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
.....At another point in the proceeding last week, he (meaning Maj. McCann) questioned a Marine battalion intelligence officer, Capt. Jeffrey S. Dinsmore, who had inspected the scene at Haditha. Captain Dinsmore, a 21-year veteran testifying by telephone from Iraq, offered a relatively impassioned response. He said the Iraq war rarely provided clear lines between combatants and civilians. The marines in Haditha that day, under small-arms fire in a profoundly hostile Sunni Arab region, could either abide by the laws of war and risk being killed, or could take aggressive steps to protect themselves and their squad members, and risk committing a war crime.

“The reality is then and the reality is now, you let loose marines in a T.I.C. against a hostile situation, taking small-arms fire,” Captain Dinsmore said, referring to “troops in contact,” “they don’t have the training nor do they have the presence of mind to differentiate between civilians and insurgents. It stinks.”

[RedRover]

Capt. Randy W. Stone

The accused spoke at the end of the hearing in unsworn testimony.

Quote: "I have never lied and have worked at all times to assist as best I could to shed light on what I knew and when I knew it. The most frustrating thing is the reality that even looking at this whole matter through 20/20 hindsight, I know I was trying to help.
"My firm belief that there was no law of armed conflict violation was the foundation for what actions I did take as well as action I did not take."

[RedRover]

Thanks, Girl! I will add.

So these are the witnesses (including Stone) and testimony that seems most important. It’s still probably more than most people will want to wade through. (I’ll leave it to others to make a summary of the summary!)

The only new entries I need to add are quotes from the prosecution and defense. Then it can be posted as a thread and we can bat it around.

[Girlene]

Maj. Dana Hyatt, A liason? officer - Looks good. I give up, you’re too quick for me! Will get back to later, if you’re still working on it.

[RedRover]

I think CA is the same thing as a liason officer.

It shouldn’t take me too much longer to get the prosecution and defense quotes. If I git ‘er done before you finish your beauty nap (or whatever the heck a Girlene gets up to), I’ll post as a thread.

[freema]

http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19&id=4757
Report on Haditha after the fact.

[freema]