Posted on 05/04/2005 8:53:51 PM PDT by MisterRepublican
SAN DIEGO - A Marine corporal who was videotaped shooting an apparently injured and unarmed Iraqi in a Fallujah mosque last year will not face a court-martial, the Marine Corps announced Wednesday.
A review of the evidence showed the Marine's actions were "consistent with the established rules of engagement and the law of armed conflict," Maj. Gen. Richard F. Natonski, commanding general of the 1st Marine Division, said in a statement.
The corporal was not identified in the two-page statement issued by Camp Pendleton, the headquarters of the expeditionary force north of San Diego.
In sworn statements, the corporal said he shot three insurgents in self-defense in the mosque Nov. 13, believing they posed a threat to him and his fellow Marines, the statement said. Autopsy results showed that all three died of multiple wounds from gunshots fired from the corporal's M-16.
One of the shootings was recorded by Kevin Sites, an NBC cameraman embedded with the Marines, and the dramatic footage prompted outrage among Iraqis and an immediate investigation by the Marine Corps.
In the video, as the cameraman moved into the mosque, a Marine in the background could be heard shouting obscenities and yelling that one of the men was only pretending to be dead. The Marine then raised his rifle toward an Iraqi lying on the floor of the mosque and shot him.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
ALLAHU FUBAR!
I'm sure the scoundrel Sites is bummed that he was unable to ruin the life and career of this young Marine.
Good news!
Hip hip hooray!
This is absolutely the correct outcome in this case.
bump for a later read.
About time. This'll get big air play. I'm sure it'll be Katy Colon's lead story in the morning.
I'm so sick of the liberal media.
Justice was served. A young Marine's service is exonerated!
Great! If it turned out differently I am sure there would be one hell of an outcry. How can people, not going through what they have to, be so foolish to think they are just shooting poor Iraqis up. Those men where the day before trying to kill Marines, they where the enemy. And they could have have had concealed explosives on them or laying on a bomb ready to be detonated. How can anyone viewing that tape think the Marine was in the wrong is beyond me. If he did not shot them, and one set of a IED, and some of his buddies where injured or killed he would never have lived it down. They got a tough job.
Any other outcome and you would have a real serious problem asking soilders to go fight.
This is a war and these guys have to be able to use their judgement to ensure their safety.
A enemy who is playing dead and who are know to not play by any rules themselves gets shot real fast.
"A Marine corporal who was videotaped shooting an apparently injured and unarmed Iraqi in a Fallujah mosque last year will not face a court-martial, the Marine Corps announced Wednesday."
GOOD.
Outstanding!! The Corp got it right on this one.
You know we probably would not have heard of the story if the Marine got shot by the "dead" terrorist.
Outstanding!
Here's Kevin Sites' email. His blog doesn't look like it's been active lately:
kevin@kevinsites.net
Excellent news! Thank you for posting it.
No probably to it. The MSM would have passed the footage around amongst themselves and shown it at parties though.
Thank God.
This Marine did his duty. Period.
Thanks for the ping!
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