Posted on 06/10/2007 12:25:50 PM PDT by RedRover
Hearing fact sheet
The hearing is scheduled to commence June 11, 2007.
The accused, LCpl. Justin Sharratt was 21-years-old at the time of the incident, and was on his second combat tour. In 2004, Sharratt fought in the "House from Hell" in Fallujah.
Preferred Charges and Specifications:
Charge I: Violation of the UCMJ, Article 118 (Unpremeditated murder) (Maximum punishment: such punishment other than death as a court-martial may direct. [Dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, confinement for life])
Investigating officer: Lt. Col. Paul J. Ware.
Convening authority: Lt. Gen. James Mattis, commanding general for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Forces Central Commander for Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa.
Defense counsel: Gary Myers (civilian attorney), Major Brian Cosgrove (USMCR, detailed defense council).
How the incident in this house occurred according to the media:
Tim McGirk in Time (March 19, 2006):
The Marines raided a third house, which belongs to a man named Ahmed Ayed. One of Ahmed's five sons, Yousif, who lived in a house next door, told Time that after hearing a prolonged burst of gunfire from his father's house, he rushed over. Iraqi soldiers keeping watch in the garden prevented him from going in. "They told me, 'There's nothing you can do. Don't come closer, or the Americans will kill you too.' The Americans didn't let anybody into the house until 6:30 the next morning." Ayed says that by then the bodies were gone; all the dead had been zipped into U.S. body bags and taken by Marines to a local hospital morgue. "But we could tell from the blood tracks across the floor what happened," Ayed claims. "The Americans gathered my four brothers and took them inside my father's bedroom, to a closet. They killed them inside the closet."
The military has a different account of what transpired. According to officials familiar with the investigation, the Marines broke into the third house and found a group of 10 to 15 women and children. The troops say they left one Marine to guard that house and pushed on to the house next door, where they found four men, one of whom was wielding an AK-47. A second seemed to be reaching into a wardrobe for another weapon, the officials say. The Marines shot both men dead; the military's initial report does not specify how the other two men died. The Marines deny that any of the men were killed in the closet, which they say is too small to fit one adult male, much less four....In all, two AK-47s were discovered.
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William Langewiesche in Vanity Fair (November 2006):
Wuterich's men pursued the search to the north side of Route Chestnut, where they put the women and children under guard and killed four men of another family. There on the north side they found the only AK-47 that was discovered that day—apparently a household defensive weapon, of the type that is legal and common in Iraq. No one has claimed that the rifle had been fired....
A man cries, "This is an act denied by God. What did he do? To be executed in the closet? Those bastards!...."
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Josh White in the Washington Post (January 6, 2007):
A few hours later [after the first houses were cleared], Sharratt, Wuterich and Salinas approached a third and fourth house after noticing men they said were peering at them suspiciously.
The investigative reports show that what happened there is unclear. Iraqi witnesses said the Marines angrily separated men and women into two lines before marching the men into the fourth house and shooting them. The three Marines told investigators they were searching for the men they had seen and separated the women into a safe area before Wuterich and Sharratt entered the house.
Sharratt told investigators that he saw a man raise an AK-47 rifle as if to shoot him. Sharratt said his gun jammed, but he grabbed his 9mm handgun and shot the attacker. He told investigators he saw another man with a rifle and shot him and two others because he "felt threatened." Wuterich also shot at the men, he said.
What to expect at the hearing: There are no eyewitnesses other than LCpl. Sharratt and Sgt. Frank Wuterich to the events in the Ahmed house. Expect the prosecution to portray them as deranged killers based on hearsay evidence and testimony (it's unclear if prosecutors will push the "killed in a closet" story). And expect the media to have a field day.
Although two hearings have been completed, NCIS investigators will be center stage for the first time in the Sharratt hearing. Expect major challenges to that agency's coercive methods in gaining testimony against the accused.
In earlier hearings, the prosecution tipped its hand to its case against LCpl. Sharratt. Prosecutors will argue that the three Iraqis killed by LCpl. Sharratt (and a fourth by Sgt. Frank Wuterich) were slain "execution-style". They will also argue (according to various media leaks from "senior defense officials"), if any weapons were recovered from the house, they had not been fired recently. Finally, prosecutors will argue that the Haditha Marines applied "Fallujah rules" to Haditha and this was against the ROE.
The defense will argue that there was a firefight. Based on details in media reports, the incident involving LCpl. Sharratt and Sgt. Wuterich in this house would look something like this:
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For the official USMC advisory, click at the link.
Good question. I hope Mark Walker is back on the job tomorrow to give a detailed account of the first day.
Actually, though, tomorrow will be busy at Camp Pen. Justin’s hearing is starting, the Chessani hearing is ending, and there will be a motion hearing for Sgt Hutchins in the Hamdania case.
On Monday, another case begins when a hearing gets under way for Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, one of the men accused of murder for his role in the death of 24 Iraqis in Haditha in 2005....
Sharratt, who attended high school in Indiana and whose family now lives in the Pennsylvania congressional district of U.S. Rep. John Murtha, is charged with three counts of unpremeditated murder and could face life imprisonment if ordered to trial and convicted.
It was Murtha who last year sparked controversy when he said the Marines in the Haditha incident had killed in "cold blood" as a result of frequent deployments and combat stress. Murtha has been a leading voice among congressional Democrats who want U.S. troops withdrawn from Iraq.
Sharratt's lead attorney, Gary Myers, said Friday that his client is a seasoned Marine whose Iraq service includes participating in one of the major battles of the war, the 2004 fight for the city of Fallujah.
Myers said that in Haditha, Sharratt did nothing to warrant the charges he faces.
"We have always said that what was done with respect to our client was appropriate," the attorney said during a telephone interview from his offices in Washington, D.C. "He is an experienced Marine who knew how to conduct house-to-house operations."
Sharratt's hearing is expected to last most if not all of the week.
(Hat tip to ma!)
Girl- I think that was poor sentence structure- and it meant to convey they were confined to base.
Think SA Aaron “The Falsifier” Bode is making any progress, looking for pictures in Australia?
The idea there was a cover-up is pretty absurd given how well everything was documented. With all the photographers, the Iraqis must have thought Paris Hilton was in town.
I wonder if Mark Walker means “confined to base”? I haven’t heard that any of the Haditha Marines are in the brig. Seems the Hamdania Marines already served that purpose as an example.
We’re thinking alike.
McSquirt is writing a sequel to How to Make Friends and Influence Enemedia
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=6&x_article=1282
http://time-blog.com/middle_east/2007/06/why_do_israelis_hate_the_un.html
Is it a blog? Ooooooo! I love posting comments on McGirk’s blog!
It is a blog.
: )
Haditha Case Continues to Crumble
The Associated Press reports that according to the attorney for Captain Randy Stone, legal officer for the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, charged with failing to report or investigate the deaths at Haditha, the investigating officer, Major Thomas McCann, for the Article 32 hearings (military-type grand jury) is recommending to 1st Marine Division commander Lt. Gen. James Mattis that the charges be dismissed.
At Stone's preliminary hearing last month at Camp Pendleton, he argued that he never ordered an investigation into the killings because he believed the deaths resulted from lawful combat.
''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,'' Stone, from Dunkirk, Md., said at his hearing.
My first post on Haditha, last June 1, 2006, when the charges first surfaced to worldwide opprobrium heaped upon the Marines and the United States, was titled “Haditha: Who, What, When, Where, Why.” I said,
Who. What. When. Where. Why. These are the fundamental questions of good reporting. Apply them to what is being presented by the major media about Haditha, and see how very thin factually is the reporting. Speculation, instead, leads, with comments by those with no special information, surrounding small snippets of leaks from those on the periphery of actual involvement or investigation, any cautions quickly passed over or relegated to the end of the “story.”
Regardless of where the truth ultimately is, at this point the major media’s treatment of Haditha is little more than a literate lynch mob in a rush to judgment.
There’s still more cases to be heard, but so far the best the prosecution has shown is 20-20 hindsight and hind-covering by some and lots of speculation by some who weren't there about the kindler-gentler way to take on insurgents hiding among civilians, the civilians actually knowing in advance about the attack on the Marines.
Justice may be catching up for the Marines, but their careers and pockets are already ruined, and the United States mission in Iraq and support for it undermined.
Keep tuned for the media apologies. Suuuure to come, right?
For those who want to refresh their memories, or to be sickened by the course of the Haditha charges:
I recently wrote about the weakness of the Haditha prosecution’s case here and here.
Last year, when the charges first broke, I continued to write about and document their weakness here, and here.
Since, I added posts about the unfair treatment of the Marines here, here, here, and here.
Done!
He may be too busy Jew-bashing to testify, Red.
NATONSKI
NOV 11 2004
Natonski said troops have found weapons caches and fortifications in nearly every mosque they’ve entered. They’ve found bomb-making factories and weapons- repair facilities in mosques and been shot at from minarets. They have also found weapons staged in schools, he said.
“This is the enemy that we fight,” he said. “He does not respect the religious mosques or the children’s schools.”
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=24854
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NOV 12 2004
‘Mosques’ Again Exploited as Forts
Militants have been using mosques as military strongpoints, he said.
“In almost ever single mosque in Fallujah, we have found an arms cache,” Natonski said. “We have found IED-making [bomb-making] factories. We have found fortifications. We’ve been shot at by snipers from minarets.”
Natonski said he visited a “slaughterhouse” in the northern Jolan neighborhood where hostages were held and possibly killed by militants. He described a small room with no windows, two thin mattresses, blood-soaked straw mats and a wheelchair apparently used to transport captives.
U.S. officials believe the al-Qaida-linked terror movement of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who claimed responsibility for many of the kidnappings and beheadings of foreign hostages, used Fallujah as a base. They said they believe al-Zarqawi might have slipped away before the offensive.
Also, a Fox News reporter embedded with India Company of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment said the unit found five bodies in a locked house in northwest Fallujah on Wednesday. All were shot in the back of the head. Their identities were not known, although there were indications they were civilians, the report said.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/11/12/154729.shtml
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DEC 6 2006
The congressmen spoke after Lt. Gen. Richard Natonski gave a one-hour, closed-door briefing to the House Armed Services Committee on the military’s investigations and the next steps.
“I think all of us in there were struck by the incident, the number of civilians involved, and the extent of the tragedy,” said Udall. “There are some questions that still have to be answered, but it appeared the rules of engagement hadn’t been followed.”
The congressmen were asked not to speak publicly about the military’s findings, and Natonski declined to give details. The Marine Corps confirmed Tuesday that prosecutors are finalizing charges.
“I’m just updating Congress,” Natonski said. Asked about any criminal charges, he said, “We’re looking at it soon.”
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MAR 19 2007
Once the Marines realized that American soldiers were trapped behind enemy lines, Brigadier General Richard Natonski ordered Colonel Grabowski to accelerate his attack and he concluded with, “We have to do what we can to save those soldiers. They would do it for us.”
http://hnn.us/articles/35869.html
By the way, I wonder if McGirk is bitter because he's ugly, or ugly because he's bitter?
Yet another innocent Marine to endure hearings he should not have to attend.
There is no excuse for the twisted version that's been projectile pooped on the citizens of this country.
Those men were cleared 14 months ago...un f'n believable.
Thanks for posting that, and your comprehensive (as always!) fact sheet. I'm going to really miss the next 3 days here. I am going camping & dirtbike riding. It looks like I have a whole campground all to myself and my dog, and the boat I've been working on 7 days/week for a little too long is home with it's owner, ready for a few more years of mistreatment and neglect, LOL.
This'll drive me nuts not knowing what's going on with the hearings, so I'll just pray a little extra and take comfort things here are in good hands.
That, and we now know that they know that we know....
Dear God, watch over these Marines!
Thanks for the PINGs!
Great work, Red! Lifting our guys up in prayer. Please, Lord, let this nightmare be over soon!
Grrrr McGirrrrrrrrrrk. Grrrrrrrrr. Even saying his name makes my lip curl in disgust and this low growl emanate from my throat. It’s reflexive.
Have a great time, boats! Wish I were there!
Have a great time, boats! We’ll keep the home fires burning and see you soon.
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