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Speaking of blogs, one of the good guys is Bruce Kesler at the Democracy Project. His latest is...

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.