Posted on 07/12/2007 6:30:18 PM PDT by RedRover
Hearing fact sheet
The hearing is scheduled to commence July 16, 2007.
The accused, LCpl. Stephen Tatum, was 25-years-old at the time of the incident, and was on his second combat tour. In 2004, Tatum fought (along with LCpl. Justin Sharratt) 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])
Specification 1: did murder Noor Salim Rasif.
Specification 2: did murder Zainab Unes Salim.
Charge II: Violation of the UCMJ, Article 134 (Negligent Homicide)
(Maximum punishment: Dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, confinement for 3 years)
Specification 1: did unlawfully kill Abdul Hameed Husin Ali.
Specification 2: did unlawfully kill Guhid Abdalhamid Hasan.
Specification 3: did unlawfully kill Asmaa Salman Rasif, also known as Asamaa Salman Rasif.
Specification 4: did unlawfully kill Abdullah Waleed Abdul Hameed, also known as Abdullah Waleed Abdul.
Charge III: Violation of the UCMJ, Article 128 (Assault)
(Maximum punishment: Dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 8 years)
Specification: did commit an assault upon Eman Waleed Al Hameed and Abid Al Rahman Waleed Al Hameed.
Convening authority: Lt. Gen. James Mattis, commanding general for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Forces Central Commander for Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa.
Investigating officer: Lt. Col. Paul J. Ware.
Defense counsel: Jack B. Zimmermann (civilian attorney); Lt Col. Matthew Cord and Maj. Jeffrey Muñoz (military attorneys)
How the incident in this house occurred according to the media:
Josh White in the Washington Post (January 6, 2007):
[After the IED was detonated] Wuterich, Salinas, Tatum and Lance Cpl. Humberto M. Mendoza formed a team to attack the house, launching grenades first and then busting through the door.
"I told them to treat it as a hostile environment," Wuterich told investigators. "I told them to shoot first, ask questions later."
Defense attorneys have argued that the men were following their "rules of engagement" when they shot into the homes, using effective techniques in a difficult environment....
After entering the first house through a kitchen, Tatum told investigators, he heard what he believed was an AK-47 rifle being "racked," or readied to fire, around a corner. He and Salinas tossed grenades into the room, according to the documents. Waleed Hasan, 37, was killed. Khamisa Ali, 66, was shot dead in the hallway before four others were killed in a bedroom by grenades and rifle fire.
Nine-year-old Eman Hamed told investigators that a grenade landed near her grandfather's bed and exploded, sending shrapnel through the room. Her mother and 4-year-old brother were killed as she huddled, injured, with another brother, Abid, 6, who survived. "All rooms," Abid told investigators. "They were shooting in all rooms."
Several Marines said they quickly cleared the home by fire, shooting through the dust, debris and darkness to eliminate what they believed was a threat.
From there, Wuterich, Mendoza and Tatum said, they moved to a second house after suspecting that insurgents might have escaped. Mendoza told investigators that the Marines approached the second house the same way they did the first, treating it as hostile, according to his sworn statement. Mendoza said he shot a man, 43- year-old Yunis Rasif, through the house's glass kitchen door.
"I fired because I had been told the house was hostile and I was following my training that all individuals in a hostile house are to be shot," Mendoza told investigators. The Marines then entered the house and tossed grenades before firing into a back bedroom, which they later found was filled with women and children.
"Knowing what I know now, I feel badly about killing Iraqi civilians who may have been innocent, but I stand fast in my decisions that day, as I reacted to the threats that I perceived at the time," Tatum said. "I did not shoot randomly with the intent to harm innocent Iraqi civilians."
What to expect at the hearing: The prosecution will hit hardest on the action in house number two. They will argue that the Marines should have stopped to reconsider their tactics after seeing that civilians were killed in house number one.
The greatest weakness of the prosecution's case is that it is largely built on witness testimony, tape recorded in Iraq. Nearly all such testimony was discounted in the LCpl. Sharratt hearing and will undoubtedly be so again.
The only witness to the events in house number two is 13-year-old Safa Younis. She gave wildly different accounts to the media about what happened that morning. If inconsistencies don't disqualify her as a witness, her desire for revenge should. Regarding the Haditha Marines, she told CNN, "I want them to be tortured and killed. And I want them to leave our country."
We resume today...
Marine’s hearing continues, The Edmond [OK] Sun, July 22
EDMOND — The first week of the pretrial hearing for an Edmond Marine accused of being involved in the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians concluded Friday.
Prosecutors contend Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum and two other Marines allegedly killed the civilians as an act of revenge after a fellow Marine was killed by a roadside bomb. Tatum’s lawyer Jack Zimmerman said Tatum acted properly under the Rules of Engagement and was acting in self defense.
Lance Cpl. Humberto Manuel Mendoza testified Tatum knew there were women and children in one of the houses in Haditha, Iraq, being searched by Marines in Nov. 2005.
He said squad members threw a grenade into one of the homes and later found a woman in her 20s cowering in a bedroom with four or five children.
“I told (Tatum) there’s just women and kids in the room,” Mendoza said. “He replied, ‘Well, shoot them.’”
Sgt. Sanick P. Dela Cruz testified that Tatum poked fun at a squad member who asked permission before shooting and said war should be fought as it was in biblical times, “you just go in the city and kill every living thing.”
Tatum’s attorneys said the Marine and his co-defendants were the target of gunfire after the explosion and they ran into the homes to chase their attackers. The attorneys also pointed out that Tatum passed a polygraph test when asked if he knew women and children were in the room.
Marine wanted interview to continue, court is told, San Diego Union Tribune, July 24, 2007
CAMP PENDLETON: Marine Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum insisted on resuming a May 9, 2006, interview with investigators even after asking for a lawyer, a Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent testified yesterday at Camp Pendleton.
Tatum then admitted to killing unarmed Iraqis on Nov. 19, 2005, in the city of Haditha, investigator Anthony Flores said during a pretrial hearing for Tatum.
Tatum is accused of working with squad mates to raid homes in Haditha. Those raids and other related activity left 24 men, women and children dead.
Tatum demanded a lawyer after Flores, a former Marine, said the squad's actions in Haditha made him ashamed of his military service, Flores recalled yesterday. Flores said he apologized and told Tatum he wanted to hear more so he would no longer feel shame.
Tatum then agreed in writing to continue the interview, Flores testified.
Attorneys for Tatum want to suppress his alleged admission and other information he gave to the investigators.
Mendoza's wife is in this country illegally. His testimony changed 180 degrees when he was told that he would cooperate or his wife would be deported immediately. He was sent home to be with his wife in Chicago and has been there for the last six months. He has not operated as a Marine nor has he been required to fulfill his military obligations. He has just been put out of the way and now that he is back, his story has changed.
I wonder if anyone knows whether there is any way to verify the current resident status of Mendoza and his wife? Or about the special treatment being given Mendoza as a prosecution witness?
Having something more concrete would make this all more explicable. (And I suspect we'll be hearing from Mendoza at the Wuterich hearing as well.)
Are you saying he is still active duty? Or they gave him an early out?
Don’t know yet but aim to find out. As a very smart person just said elsewhere, if Mendoza is getting a gov’t check and not doing anything to earn it, that’s huge.
This is a perfect example of why Secretary Winter must initiate an investigation into the outlandish and unconventional techniques used by NCIS.
What part of the statement recently made by a NCIS "investigator" that he declined to question an Iraqi about a suspect statement because "he didn't think it would be right, seeing as her whole family had just been murdered", failed to set off lack of objectivity alarms in his head?
He's either an idiot, a traitor, or simply isn't following any of the proceedings, other than whatever's above the fold in USA Today.
I'm betting on number three. Time to set him out to pasture so he can join the "Tossed out on his ear Book Club"
I sure would like to find a way to send a bit of noise his way.
If this is true, Red, it’ll blow his testimony out of the water at any hearing or courts-martial. I’m reasonably sure a defense investigator wouldn’t have much trouble verifying it if it’s true.
Testimony centers on rules of engagement in Haditha case, North County Times, July 23, 2007
CAMP PENDLETON -- Marines accused of killing 24 Iraqis in the city of Haditha might not have been taught that they could get into trouble if they helped a fellow Marine break the rules about who to shoot, a platoon sergeant testified Monday.
The last thing the Marines should worry about "is if you are going to be charged later on," said Staff Sgt. Travis Fields. "Not knowing when to shoot could become a problem."
Fields was the platoon sergeant for Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum and two other Marines accused of violating the laws of war in the civilian shootings, which came after a roadside bomb explosion killed a fellow Marine. In the chaos, Tatum and other Marines headed into nearby homes in search of insurgents.
Tatum has spent the last week in a Camp Pendleton courtroom at a hearing to determine whether he should face trial on charges of negligent homicide and unpremeditated murder in the deaths of six of the Iraqis, including three children who appear to be under the age of six.
Prosecutors say Tatum knew he was shooting women and children when he entered the back room of a Haditha home on Nov. 19, 2005.
Attorneys for the accused Marines from Kilo Company, with the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment say the troops were the target of enemy gunfire right after the explosion.
On the stand, Fields testified that the rules about when Marines may open fire became less restrictive during the time of the company's seven-month stay in Haditha. Military brass told Marines in Haditha -- a hot bed of insurgency at the time, according to testimony -- that they no longer had to fire warning shots, but rather were allowed to shoot to kill in hostile situations, Fields said.
Also taking the stand Monday was the NCIS case agent in charge of the Haditha investigation. Special Agent Nayda Mannle testified that officials at NCIS headquarters in Washington D.C. rejected a request by her and others -- including a military prosecutor -- that they be allowed to tape their interviews with the accused Marines.
Mannle said her bosses denied the request because earlier questioning had not been taped and "they did not want any inconsistencies."
Mannle also said the families of the victims refused to allow investigators to exhume the bodies for autopsies.
"To them, it would be too emotionally difficult to do that," Mannle said. She also said family members feared "their lives would be in danger" from insurgents if they helped the Americans in the investigation.
This is astonishing, what about the inconsistencies of the written statements and the testimony of the NCIS agents? An audio tape is not inconsistent. I know what they're getting at but just because they started out screwing up doesn't mean they should continue to do so.
Mannle also said the families of the victims refused to allow investigators to exhume the bodies for autopsies.
Fine! No bodies or physical evidence, no charges. That's how it should be.
I think you added that in for the joke of the day!
Its easy to get lost there are so many details to follow
What are you doing back on post 13? Catch up already, Red needs you.
The word is that Mendoza went from active duty to the reserves. He’s been in Chicago for the past six months, officially training reservists for duty in Iraq.
Yep, that’s what they say. Training reservists in Chicago.
The only contact info I've found is:
The Honorable Donald C. Winters
Secretary of the Navy
1000 Navy Pentagon
Washington, D.C. 20350-1000
The only online Comment Form I've found is for the DOD HERE ^, but SecNav is not listed there. Also, a quick search for 'Haditha' or 'Hamdania' ('Hamdaniya') or 'NCIS' gives no info on any of their 12 pages of potential answers. Either they don't know or ...
A classic case of the inept covering for the inept. They were trying to hang these Marines out to dry but they got caught, hopefully they'll be held accountable for denying a fair hearing for these Marines.
One of the points raised that I didn't know until it was made in the Hamdaniya cases is that if they are retained by the military, but their enlistment ends, they lose all pay and allowances. Keep in mind -- they are only accused, not convicted.
The UCMJ has no provision for Bail, it only allows for holding in confinement, restriction to housing or base, or freedom to carry on with duties. No wonder the NCIS can get "cooperation" from these guys!
Thanks, brit! He ought to be hearing from all of us.
If they document that, this case should be over. (It should be over anyway.)
This is not the first time I've read this. Early on in this affair, I read that the ROEs were "tightened" AFTER the event. Now I hear that they were "loosened" before Haditha.
Document that.
Ask whoever loosened them why they were loosened.
I’ve never been sure about how ROE fits into the chain of command. They originate at the Pentagon, but I don’t know who has discretion about changing from one set of ROE to another based on ground conditions.
Division level? Regiment? Battalion?
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