Posted on 05/19/2007 5:49:37 AM PDT by RedRover
Thought I’d give a “lay of the land” report.
This coming week should be quiet. The Chessani hearing is still tentatively scheduled for the 30th, but there’s wrangling over classified material so it could get delayed again.
Camp Pen only confirmed the Capt Stone hearing a couple days in advance. So we may not know for sure about the Chessani hearing until it’s upon us.
Brian Rooney, Chessani’s lawyer, is a brawler, so I expect he’ll be in the media before the hearing.
I haven’t heard about witnesses yet except that photographer Lucian Read is supposed to testify.
My hunch is that the prosecution intends to portray Lt. Col.Chessani as a weak battalion commander. Some Leftist journalist visited the Marines before the incident and said the atmosphere at the Kil Co. base was like “Lord of the Flies”. Lucian Read (among others) will refute that.
It’s likely that some of the same witnesses from the Capt. Stone hearing will reappear, but I haven’t gotten any scuttlebutt yet.
Thanks for keeping us up-to-date, Red. Looking forward to hearing more from Brian Rooney, fo’ sure.
It’s curious about Lucian Read testifying. He was not in Haditha on the day of the incident, but did take picutres of the bodies, I think the following day. I guess he did spend a fair amount of time with the 3/1 Marines, so would have something to say about their general attitude in Haditha, maybe?
Thanks for keeping us posted with the scuttlebutt:)
I bet you would look daring in uniform.
Thanks for the update, Red, appreciate it.
Are you sure that Lucian Read took pictures of bodies? I hadn’t heard that (or, if I did, I forgot it).
Lucian Read was with Kilo Co. before and after and I believe he’ll be asked about morale, discipline, and what he observed of the accused’s behavior.
He’s said he doesn’t believe the charges. (A CNN embed said the same thing.)
I’m not sure how much weight his testimony will carry as prosecutors will say he “went native” to be part of the squad.
Yes, Lucian Read did take pictures of the bodies. Here’s an article he wrote, with some of his pictures, after Haditha incident was termed a massacre. It’s actually a very good read. “In Haditha, by Lucian Read, July, 2006.
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0607/in-haditha.html
No one was acting like murderous berserkers, because they weren't. Just Marines doing their job in as level headed manner as could possibly be expected.
Yes, it was. And after reading the article, I would say he has a lot to say about the character and mindset of these Marines from being embedded with them for so long.
Thanks, Girl! I printed out the article and will read over lunch.
I actually wasn’t paying so much attention to the Haditha story in the summer of 06. So many other people were that I figured I could do something else.
It was only when attention started to wan, after the plea deals in Hamdania were announced, that I got onboard.
So Lucian Read and “Ryan” Briones took pics the same day?
Briones took pictures that day of the bodies in the houses, I think. Lucian Read went back on Nov. 21 and took pictures of the bodies in their burial “shrouds” (white sheets) after they were brought back from the morgue. A couple of Iraqis asked for him to take the pictures when a patrol stopped in the neighborhood. The way he writes the article, the interaction was not confrontational (at that point) from either the Marines or Iraqi’s viewpoint.
Sorry I missed that big detail of the days of photos being taken. I dug up an old story about Briones and it said he was “ordered” to take the photos. I didn’t see it, but do you happen to know who “ordered” him to take the pics? He just happened to have a camera on him, so does that mean it is not a normal thing for pics to be taken after every attack?
I don’t know who ordered Briones to take the pictures. I remember reading somewhere where the Iraqi govt began requiring photos of Iraqis killed and any weapons involved, but don’t know when this requirement started. Maybe it was simply that someone who had a camera handy became an on-scene photographer because of how hectic the day was with various skirmishes? Not sure.
Guess these weren't required if he erased them.
You know, lily, I’m starting to wonder if either of the two Marines who claimed to have taken photos were ever ordered to do so. These two Marines claim they were ordered, it’s never been confirmed by the Marines. Briones had quite a few legal problems to deal with the day he came back stateside. How convenient to latch on to the Haditha PTSD defense. We don’t know if he even took any photos, since he said they were erased.
But someone did. Someone e-mailed one of these photos back stateside.
The other guy also claims he was ordered, thought it was really bad, and turned over whatever he had to investigators later. I’m wondering if this “being ordered to take photos” business is just CYA for the fact that they got caught with personal photos of the dead and were emailing them back home and sharing them.
Here’s the latest on Briones from the Hanford Sentinel, April 11, 2007. He was sentenced to two years, and ordered to pay $110,000 restitution for the damages he caused in April, 2006. http://www.hanfordsentinel.com/articles/2007/04/11/news/daily01.txt And now he’s got even more troubles.
From the article, ...” Hours later, Camp Pendleton officials formally released a slew of charges against Briones, which include rape, stealing government property, and three other violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, said Marine spokesman Cpl. Alec Kleinsmith.
The sexual assault charges originate from the purported rape of a young woman near Camp Pendleton in July 2006. Briones, 21, is also accused of mailing firearms during a tour of duty in Iraq, and deceiving the U.S. Postal Service in the process.
During that same tour of duty, Briones allegedly stole government-issued optical equipment worth approximately $3,800, Kleinsmith said. “
And finally, from the article, ...”Camp Pendleton representative Lt. Esteban Zickers said Briones is not on the witness list in the trials of the Marines accused of carrying out the killings.”
Wonder why, if he was allegedly part of the reporting process and could describe what he saw and supposedly took photos?
Let me take a moment to admire your work....WOW!
Wonder if any of this ties in to Lt. Grayson’s charges? He was an intelligence officer. I don’t know about the intelligence structure, but assume (maybe wrongly) that he reported to Capt Dinsmore.
If memory serves, NCIS accused him of failing to turn over photographic evidence.
It makes more sense for civilian affairs (Maj. Hyatt) or the S-2 (Capt Dinsmore) to be involved with picture taking than random low level Marines.
There was a detail in the reporting of Hyatt’s testimony that they ran out of body bags and had to use trash bags instead. No mention of who was doing the bagging.
If there was photographic evidence “missing” that Briones took, and it’s related to Grayson’s charges, then why wouldn’t Briones be called to testify? Brione’s testimony isn’t looking to trustworthy at this point. But they still have the other guy. Weren’t there pictures also taken by intelligence officers? I’m still wondering if either guy was an “official” photographer at the scene. Could be some CYA at this point. I read somewhere where Briones (I think) was questioned in Iraq by NCIS on whether he had “staged” or “modified”, or something to that effect, his photos. Huh?
Hiya, ticked! Happy to see you made it!!!
Getting back to looking into the photos taken by two Marines, the day of Haditha. This article has some interesting info on the two from their families. “Families Discuss Haditha Deaths”, dated May 30, 2006.
http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,98981,00.html?ESRC=eb.nl
Summarizing, the families say the 2 Marines, Lance Cpl. Andrew Wright, 20, and Lance Cpl. Roel Ryan Briones, 21, were ordered to photograph the corpses, they’ve been traumatized ever since, and the events remain seared in their memories. Brione’s mom, Susie, said NCIS had confiscated his camera; Wright’s parents wouldn’t say what happened to Andrew’s photos (wonder why?), but that he turned over all info to the Navy. Wright’s parents go on to say Andrew is “the Forrest Gump of the military” and that he “ended up in the spotlight through no fault of his own”.
“Ryan Briones told the Los Angeles Times that Navy investigators had interrogated him twice in Iraq and they wanted to know whether bodies had been tampered with. He turned over his digital camera but did not know what happened to it after that.” Tampered with?
In this second link from WaPo, “Marines’ Photos Provide Graphic Evidence in Haditha Probe”, dated Jan. 7, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/06/AR2007010601359.html
...”The images — which investigators tracked down on several laptop computers and digital media drives, some in the United States — provide visual evidence of a series of shootings outside a taxi and inside three homes”...
...”the Haditha images were discovered months after the shootings as more than 60 Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents scoured the globe for them.”.....
Investigators allegedly found images on laptops shipped back to the US, deleted from a memory drive, and e-mailed back to a civilian in the US. It doesn’s say how many Marines were involved in having these photos. But now Andrew White says he “decided to hold onto the photographs to make it certain that officials would have a clearer view of what happened that day..... Wright, who arrived on the scene after the violence to care for the bodies, took photographs of the dead and kept a full set.”
“”I decided that it was in my best interest to obtain the photos I had taken that night,” Wright told investigators. “Even though there was no investigation at the time, I felt that the photographs would be evidence if anything came up in the future. In my opinion, the people that I photographed had been murdered.”
Hmmmmm. So was White ordered to take photos or not? Who e-mailed the photos to a civilian in the US? Did Wright ever turn these photos over to the intelligence officers at the time, or did he just take and keep them for his own personal reasons? The prosecution isn’t calling Briones to testify; wonder if they’ll call White to testify?
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