Haditha Article 32: Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani

Defend Our Marines ^ | May 29, 2007 | David Allender

[RedRover]

Hearing fact sheet

Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani was the commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment at the time of the Haditha incident and is the highest-ranking officer to have charges filed against him.

Chessani, who grew up in northwest Colorado, was relieved of his command in April 2006 along with the Kilo Company's commander, Capt. Lucas McConnell. At the time, a Marine Corps spokesman told reporters that the two men had been relieved of duty, "due to lack of confidence in their leadership abilities stemming from their performance during a recent deployment to Iraq."

Before being relieved of duty, Chessani appeared to be on a solid career path. He was reportedly involved in helping to plan the 2004 assault on Fallujah. He also served in the first Iraqi war in 1991.

He received his first command position at an Albany, New York, recruiting station and later attended the Command and Staff College in Quantico, Va., where he earned a master's degree in military studies.

He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 2004 and assigned to the post of operations officer for the 1st Marines in Iraq. His first combat command came in May 2005, when he took over the base's 3rd Battalion. The Denver Post has reported that during the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989, he captured several of former President Manuel Noriega's top officers.

Lt. Col. Chessani is facing three years in prison and a dismissal from the service if convicted on all three counts.

Preferred Charges and Specifications:

Charge: Violation of the UCMJ, Article 92

Specification 1 (Violation of a lawful order): wrongfully failed to accurately report and thoroughly investigate a possible, suspected, or alleged violation of the law of war by Marines under his command. (Maximum punishment: dismissal, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 2 years)

Specification 2 (Dereliction): willfully failed to ensure that this possible, suspected, or alleged violation of the law of war was accurately reported to higher headquarters. (Maximum punishment: Dismissal, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 6 months)

Specification 3 (Dereliction): willfully failed to direct a thorough investigation into this possible, suspected, or alleged violation of the law of war. (Maximum punishment: Dismissal, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 6 months)

Investigating officer: Col. Christopher Conlin

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

In Lt. Col. Chessani's defense: Civilian attorney, Richard Thompson of the Thomas More Law Center says, "The testimony we will elicit will show just how ridiculous and politically motivated these charges are."

For the official USMC advisory, click at the link.

Source: Various articles in the North County Times.

[freema]

One can obviously see why ‘the Corps’ wouldn’t want these on personal computers (OPSEC), while one can just as easily see why these men involved would want to keep the originals (documentation). War in the age of technology.

[freema]

8. Report the facts, and nothing but the facts.

Why the short notice, is this an ambush?

[freema]

I don’t believe this house is one of the houses referenced in what is known as the Haditha massacre. I believe this is in a separate area, one of the other firefights that day...part of the coordinated attack.

I could be wrong, but that rarely happens ; )

[freema]

I’m sitting here visualizing 330 ft, visualizing a blown up bro, a blown up humvee, and visualizing what to do.

[RedRover]

No, it’s been planned for the 11th for awhile. I haven’t been posting the dates because they have a habit of changinging. I just found out, for instance, that Frank’s Article 32 has been pushed back from July to the third week in August.

Scuttlebutt has it, BTW, that there may be a decision on Capt Stone sooner rather than later.

[freema]

I need a freaken graphic. Isn’t that pathetically disgusting.

[Eagles6]

"A key point in Chessani's hearing is why his Marines, despite being repeatedly told to use more restraint in Haditha than they did during the major assault on Fallouja in late 2004, reverted almost reflexively to more aggressive tactics."

Perhaps because many Marines and Soldiers were needlessly killed in falluja because the initially went in "soft". By the end, I am told, that if a house was suspected to contain enemy, it was rocketed or big guns were used before any of our guys went in, as it should be.

[Eagles6]

I've heard no indication that there was an exacting search of the three houses, inside and out, including roofs and adjacent areas. Just because no one saw any doesn't mean they don't exist. Far from it.

Most iraqi military and police are armed with ak-47s. Same round as the enemy uses. Some have been equipped with m-16s and m-16s that we/Israel gave to the palestinian authority have been found in iraq, surprise, surprise.

I mentioned this a few days ago. We don't know that terrorists weren't armed with m-16s, not far fetched at all.

Unless every round in a body and every 5.56 casing is matched to a Marine rifle you can't even prove that these people were killed by Marines or even alive when the Marines entered the houses. Guess what? We know there was no ballistic comparisons done. No autopsies, no chain of evidence.

[ticked]

bumpin’ it

[Girlene]

Good catch on the writeup on Kallop's testimony by the LA Times (post 257). The only thing I've read before this is that Kallop arrived within minutes (15-30?) after the blast. I remember from testimony from Capt. Stone's hearing he recalled hearing the blast from the FOB and they were dispatched. I think the two hours is an error.

There seem to be a lot of differences from what I think Kallop testified to earlier:

testified Monday that none of his troops had positively identified the houses as containing insurgents before he ordered them "cleared."

they later told him of hearing the distinctive "metal on metal" sound of AK-47s being prepared to fire in the first house and then took fire from the second house. Kallop said that two Marines told him that they began throwing fragmentation grenades after hearing AK-47s.

And then he said this, which didn't make much sense... ...testified that Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, ... did not tell him that the Marines fired their M-16s and threw grenades while inside the houses.

He testified that Wuterich told him after assaulting the houses that the occupants?! in the first house had said insurgents had fled into the second house.

And then he supposedly testifed to this... Kallop conceded that he asked few questions at the scene. He did not ask, for example, .....or how civilians were killed in the second house,

This is very confusing from the article. If Kallop's testimony went down as written up by the LA Times, he would have a lot of explaining to do with re. to what statements are true.

[ticked]

What I don’t get is this... isn’t Kallop’s testimony on videotape, as are many others? So, his testimony is not in “real time” and to me it seems that the prosecution can pick and choose bits of his testimony here and there and that there is the possibility that his testimony is going to look inconsistent. Maybe I am just not understanding how this all works, but it seems to me that a witness in person would be better than a witness on videotape.

[Girlene]

I’ve been wondering the same thing about the videotaped testimony. But then there are questions posed that make it sound like it’s in real time. Wouldn’t it be normal for a reporter to indicate what’s what in an article?

[ticked]

You would think they would, wouldn’t you?

[Girlene]

Here's another article on Laughner's testimony from Thursday, June 7, from 10News.com Marine Says He Was Ordered To Destroy Haditha Photos

Snippets from the article, ...Testifying under immunity, Laughner said Lt. Andrew Grayson told him to delete the photos so that they would not be part of a statement being prepared for top-ranking officers and a Time magazine reporter. Laughner said he felt the order amounted to obstruction of justice but that he complied and later lied when asked whether any pictures had been taken......

Laughner arrived several hours after the roadside bomb. He said Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who led the troops involved in the shootings, told him the men in the car had "engaged" the Marines with weapons, which Marines encountered an insurgent firing at them in one house and that weapons were found in the houses.

Laughner testified that when he went to the houses to look for evidence of insurgents, he instead found a wounded girl screaming hysterically. Through an interpreter, "she said the Marines came into her house and killed her family," Laughner said.

Grayson's attorney said he did not attend Thursday's hearing and could not comment on Laughner's testimony.

"I understand he made some negative comments," attorney Joseph Casas said in a telephone interview. "But consider the source. He's a guy with immunity and has nothing to lose for what he says on the stand. They're all accusations at this point."

[RedRover]

I’ll update the summary later. But since the North County Times lost interest in this story, I feel like we’re flying blind.

[RedRover]

Looks like the Chessani hearing is winding up today.

Officer in Haditha Case to Speak

Associated Press, June 9, 2007

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- After being advised to open an inquiry into the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians by Marines in the town of Haditha, witnesses say, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani responded with outrage, shouting "My men are not murderers!"

On Saturday, it was Chessani's turn to testify with an appearance before a military court conducting a preliminary hearing, called an Article 32 hearing under military law.

An investigating officer will determine at the conclusion of the hearings whether Chessani will stand trial on charges of dereliction of duty and violating a lawful order for failing to investigate the deaths of the men, women and children.

Chessani, 43, is the most senior of seven Marines of seven charged in the case, and the highest-ranking Marine officer charged since the start of the Iraq war. He faces up to three years in prison if convicted.

After his outraged outburst about his men, he apologized and agreed to review the slayings, testified Maj. Samuel Carrasco, operations officer at the time for the Camp Pendleton-based 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, to which all of the Marines belonged.

Attorneys for Chessani, from Rangely, Colo., have said he reported the facts as he understood them at the time, and saw no violation of the laws of war.

The two dozen people were killed as a Marine squad went house to house looking for people responsible for a roadside bombing that killed one Marine and injured two others.

The Marines have said they believed they were coming under fire from the houses, and they used fragmentation grenades and machine guns to clear the homes.

Character witnesses called Friday and early Saturday described Chessani as a leader who stayed calm under pressure and was admired by his troops.

Three other officers are also charged with dereliction of duty, and three enlisted Marines are charged with murder. All belonged to the Camp Pendleton-based 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment.

[freema]

Very good points, all.

[Chickenhawk Warmonger]

What is interesting about the “two hour” time frame is if that is true then how can this be called a “rampage” or “Marines storming houses in revenge”? That would mean the characterizations of the Marines offered by McGirk and the “witnesses” were extreme exagerations. Not attacking immediately but waiting two hours seems to jive with ROE.

But you’re probably right that it was an error in the reporting - Imagine that...

And the testimony from the photographer regarding the screaming child, wasn’t there testimony about the child being removed from the house much earlier than when the photographer was there? Of course this little girl also said, in one of her interviews, that an Iraqi soldier rescued her from the house and told her that the Americans shot her on purpose.

[RedRover]

Senior officer at Haditha gives formal statement

Los Angeles Times, June 9, 2007.

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani told the investigating officer at his preliminary hearing Saturday that he does not believe he did anything criminally wrong in the aftermath of a Marine shooting in the town of Haditha that left 24 Iraqi civilians dead.

"I would say to you, I do not believe my decisions and actions were criminal, sir," Chessani told Col. Christopher Conlin.

Chessani faces a possible court-martial for not calling for a war-crimes investigation in the killings of the Iraqis by Marines in his battalion in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005.

Five months after the Haditha shootings, Chessani, 43, was relieved of command of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment amid an investigation that later led to charges against him, three other officers and four enlisted Marines. The investigation was launched after Time magazine disputed the Marines' version that the deaths were combat-related.

After closing arguments by attorneys Monday, Conlin will review the evidence and forward a recommendation to Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis on whether Chessani should go to a court-martial on charges of dereliction of duty and disobeying an order. If convicted, Chessani could be dismissed from the Marine Corps and put in prison for two years.

On Saturday, Chessani opted not to testify under oath, which would have allowed him to be questioned by prosecutors.

In a six-minute statement, Chessani said that even if he faces a court-martial, his feelings for the Marines will not be affected.

"I still respect the Marine Corps and I have no hard feelings and I won't regardless of how this comes out," Chessani said in a clear, almost emotionless voice.

In his statement, Chessani addressed an issue that has become key during the court hearing: Why didn't he visit the three houses where his Marines killed 19 of the civilians, including three women and seven children? Conlin, a former infantry battalion commander, has quizzed several witnesses on the issue.

Chessani said that the day of the shootings was one of "nonstop action," with roadside bombs and firefights throughout Haditha and nearby communities.

He said that when he left his command center, he visited the site of the most significant battle of the day, a firefight that had left nine to 11 Marines injured and ended only when he called in an airstrike to demolish a building where insurgents were hiding.

Testimony by other witnesses indicated that Chessani never visited the three houses where the civilians were killed. The lieutenant who gave the order to "clear" the houses testified that Marines thought insurgent gunfire had been coming from that direction.

In his statement, Chessani did not discuss why he didn't question his Marines about the killings. Nor did he mention why he allowed a report to be filed that day with his superiors indicating erroneously that he had visited the site of the civilian killings.

Chessani, a Marine for 19 years, is the highest-ranking Marine officer to face charges from Iraq or Afghanistan. He was in his third tour in Iraq.

Several character witnesses praised Chessani for coolness under fire and truthfulness.

"He's a Christian, an upright man," Col. Brennan Byrne testified Saturday in a telephone call from Saudi Arabia. "As a Marine officer, he has shown impeccable integrity. I would trust him with my life."

[freema]

Do ‘we’ (translate you: ) know anything about the proximity of this battle in relation to this one:

“He said that when he left his command center, he visited the site of the most significant battle of the day, a firefight that had left nine to 11 Marines injured and ended only when he called in an airstrike to demolish a building where insurgents were hiding.”