Little by little the truth emerges:
Revelations of a ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicle flying over the site of the alleged “massacre” at Haditha, Iraq shows conclusively that combat commanders up the chain of command from Kilo Company to the 2nd Marine Division were able in “real time” to witness what was unfolding on the battlefield, several career Marines said.
Their comments fly in the face of prosecution charges that the battlefield commanders from company to regimental level failed to adequately investigate or inform 2nd Marine Division Commander Richard A. Huck what transpired at Haditha. At a minimum his intelligence chief (G-2) and operations officer (G-3) were receiving real time reports and live digital image downloads of the battle as it progressed, the Marines agreed.
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In fact there were at least two and possibly three kinds of UAV’s over Haditha that morning. One type, the Dragon Eye, is a low endurance, relatively simple UAV belonging to the intelligence section of 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines. It is hand launched and carries a low-definition camera. At least one was over the battlefield all morning. In addition to Dragon Eye and ScanEagle UAVs there are now unconfirmed reports that theater commanders in Baghdad diverted an orbiting RQ-1 Predator medium altitude, high endurance UAV as well. The Predator is operated by the Air Force for the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, and other highly classified intelligence authorities. It allows senior commander at the Pentagon to see what is happening in real time as well. The source said it was unlikely confirmation will ever be forthcoming.
And it seems we have the following two gentlemen to thank for this debacle:
Donald C. Winter
James C. Walker
Secretary of the Navy
74th Secretary of the Navy, sworn into office on Jan. 3, 2006. As Secretary of the Navy, Dr. Winter leads America's Navy and Marine Corps Team and is responsible for an annual budget in excess of $125 billion and almost 900,000 people.
MARINE CORPS
Staff Judge Advocate to the Commandant of the United States Marine Corps
Brigadier General
Sorry if I step on anybodies sensitivities, but the information dribbling out of the Haditha cases, and the Hamdaniya investigational conduct, leads me to believe we should demand both of these men be removed from office.
Secretary Winters, USN, was notified early on that there were problems with the actions taken, and continuing, with the NCIS investigations. He disavowed any knowledge thereof, and further declared he would not allow for an independent investigation into the misrepresentation and coercion by NCIS against these accused Marines.
BGen. Walker, USMC JAG, has allowed his team to ride rough-shod over the rights of both teams cases, and condoned the actions of the NCIS investigations.