First public disclosure! An illustrated highlight from the LCpl Sharratt hearing

Defend Our Marines ^ | August 12, 2007 | David Allender

[RedRover]

Day Two / Tuesday, June 12 / NCIS Special Agent Mark Platt

Bumbling NCIS agents have been on horrifyingly hilarious display in the Haditha hearings. It was clear to anyone watching LCpl Justin Sharratt's hearing that he should never have been charged in the first place.

Agents broke every rule of an unbiased investigation...

• Exculpatory evidence was ignored (such as a suitcase filled with Jordanian passports found in a house and the fact that among the dead was a man named Kahtan who fit the profile of an insurgent).

• Incriminating evidence was not tested (suspicion fell on LCpl Sharratt and his squad mates because AK-47s they claimed to have recovered at the scene could not be found an NCIS agent. But was there an explanation for the missing weapons?)

• Witnesses had reasons to fabricate statements (condolence, or "solatia", payments are only made to relatives of noncombatants), and they were not questioned about their claims.

A highlight (or lowlight, depending on your point-of-view) was the testimony of NCIS Special Agent Mark Platt. You can read his entire testimony here. Or just enjoy one of the best moments of testimony by a real-life Inspector Clouseau below (with my comments in italics).

________________________________________________________________________

Did government condolence payments actually encourage witnesses to lie?
SA Platt thinks it's irrelevant...

Whoopsie. SA Platt is about make a big slip...

Trapped!

Was there a reasonable explanation for the missing AK-47s
that the Marines had recovered?

"So I had not formed an opinion..."

[RedRover]

All the text with the photos above (minus my comments in italics) is verbatim from the hearing transcript.

This is the first time that any portion of the LCpl Sharratt hearing transcripts has been made available. I hope to have more soon.

To read the actual transcript of SA Platt's testimony, click at the link.

[muawiyah]

What’s Platt’s personal relationship with John Murtha?

[RedRover]

Excellent question! Throughout Platt’s testimony, he says he narrowly focused on his assignments—which did not include following exculpatory leads.

If Agent Platt was following a script, I’d like to see whose signature was on it!

[RedRover]

[xzins]

Excellent post, Red.

[freema]

Red INSERT MIDDLE NAME Rover!

If I die, it will be the fault of you, NCIS and Inspector Clouseau

: )

[AndyJackson]

Why does he look like inspector Clouseau?

[jazusamo]

Excellent post!

Nailed it, SA Platt is a real life Inspector Clouseau and to think the NCIS affect so many in our military.

[Girlene]

Excellent "slideshow", Red!

NCIS Special Agent Platt got busted! I think the pain and suffering of their husbands being murdered literally right in front of them was more severe than the $1,500 the United States government -

So Agent Platt was sent to Iraq to investigate and interview the wives of the suspected Iraqi insurgents who were killed that day in Haditha. Instead of having "no opinion" in an impartial investigation, he showed his true colors on the witness stand. He ASSUMED the Iraqis were innocent, the Marines were guilty of MURDER. That's not impartial.

[RedRover]

"Physiognomy is destiny" would be the best answer. But the real answer is that stills from Return of the Pink Panther just seemed to fit the text.

(The link above has the transcript without pictures, if you want to read it that way.)

[RedRover]

“Torturing Freema” is my middle name! ;)

[freema]

Where ARE my manners (I’ve been reading and forgot to ping) ping.

[LilAngel]

Excellent thread. Thanks for sharing this important info.

[RedRover]

Even the prosecution must be disgusted with NCIS.

[Marine_Uncle]

Sure looks like the boneheads on the prosecution side are going to slowly get put through the hamburger grinder. About damn time.

[Chickenhawk Warmonger]

Dang Red after reading that transcript, I think Barney Fife would have been a better choice than Clouseau. That was plum pitiful and an embarrassment to investigators every where. I sincerely hope this “investigator” is now investigating parking violations or the like.

BTW - his statement about “murder” was entirely too explicit to have just been a misspoken word. That phrase “right before their eyes” is telling indeed.

[freema]

So. Platt o pussy didn't mean to use the word 'murder'. Homicide would do just fine? OMG.

[freema]

Discovery 27 Jul 07 00159
Q. Do you have any knowledge of what is actually in the report?
A. No, I do not.
Q. So what are your personal observations when you entered that back bedroom in house four?
A. Prior to our arrival at house four, we had no photographs from that house. The previous team of NCIS agents that had deployed out into that area, for whatever reason, the photographs that they took at house four somehow were compromised. So they had nothing; nothing on the outside, nothing on the inside, nothing of the area adjacent to house four. So we made the determination that we were going to go to house four first, being that we had nothing from that house.

Discovery 27 Jul 07 00161
Q. Was any other evidence gathered in that room?
A. Samples of all the major groupings of what we believed to be bloodstains were taken for future DNA analysis.
Q. You had mentioned earlier today that you ended up interviewing some Iraqi witnesses. How did that happen?
A. Again, those interviews occurred after I was initially at the dam. I departed for Fallujah and returned to the dam about a week or ten days later, arranged for these interviews to be conducted. I was escorted from the forward operating base by the Marines to house four where I conducted the interviews in a living room.
Q. How many days after the deaths did these interviews take place, approximately?
A. It was approximately ten days.
Q. Do you recall who you interviewed?
A. Yes, I do.
Q. Who did you interview?
A. The first interview I conducted was a young Iraqi female by the name of Ehab.

[RedRover]

You’re welcome, LilAngel!

[RedRover]

Here's a document (pdf file) you might find interesting. It's the results of Justin Sharratt's polygraph test from April 2, 2006.