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 ...
He sure did. I hope now he can live with the honor he earned and his ghosts are quelled.
Semper Fi to that Marine
This is excellent news!
Sites should be tried for siding with the enemy.
Last I heard of the jerk Kevin Sites he was chasing the Tsunami victims for photos. May he get washed out to sea!
Imagine this scenario - the Marine calls attention to all that one of them is playing dead but he does not shoot. A bomb is detonated and kills Sites. The msm would be screaming for the whole platoon to be court-martialed. I hope this young Marine somehow knows the majority of the country was behind him. We "get it".
Hope they return this Marine to his unit ASAP.
God bless this brave young man.
Yahoo! News indeed! BTW, I about spit red wine through my nose when I read "Allahu Fubar." I'll make sure to borrow that one.
....and an immediate investigation by the Marine Corps. (yawn)
Hope you didn't ruin your keyboard!
"What is best in life?" To crush the jihadists, to drive their collaborators before you, and to hear the lamentations of their mullahs!
Outstanding News!!!
Put the media hacks on the first thing smokin' out of Bagdhad and let those who are trained to prosecute the war and take it to the enemy DO JUST THAT!
Wishing that young Marine and his family a long and prosperous life.
Jack.
between this outcome and the declared mistrial of lyndie...
gotta say I have a small grin forming on my face...
some days, things DO go our way.
Wonderful news!!
As the grunts like to say, "war is hell, actual combat is a MFer.
"Imagine this scenario - the Marine calls attention to all that one of them is playing dead but he does not shoot. A bomb is detonated and kills Sites. The msm would be screaming for the whole platoon to be court-martialed. I hope this young Marine somehow knows the majority of the country was behind him. We "get it".
My sentiments exactly. And Sites sold his stuff to anti-war groups. It must be very difficult for our military in combat zones, to trust any embedded reporter or otherwise. Sites screwed himself. The tape should not have gone anywhere but into a trash barrel burning stuff. At least Sites will never get another assingment to cover any of our military in action. However I can see him getting assignments with Al Jazzera news, filming brave warriors running around in safe areas pretending to fire mortars and their AK47's at the oppresors of Islam. Damn slime ball.
For filming events as they happened? Doubtful. He was doing his job as a reporter.
I remember the fevered outcry on FR over this case. Seems kind of silly, in retrospect.
As predicted.
This is wonderful news!
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