Posted on 03/21/2006 3:01:12 AM PST by SkyPilot
WASHINGTON (March 20) -- A bloody videotape shot by a local Iraqi journalism student has prompted the Pentagon to launch a criminal investigation into an incident that left at least 15 Iraqi civilians dead in the city of Haditha.
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The details of what happened four months ago in Haditha are just now coming to light with the release of the videotape by an Iraqi organization called Hammurabi Human Rights.
The tape shows the bloodied and bullet-marked homes that had been allegedly stormed by the Marines, and includes comments by local residents.
"This is my father," a boy says on the tape. "He didn't do anything wrong. Why did they kill him?"
'These Are Children'
The video shows the bodies of some of the dead, including one of three children killed.
"These are children," one man on the tape says. "Are you telling me these are terrorists?"
It all started Nov. 19 when a roadside bomb hit a convoy of 12 Marines in Haditha, killing 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas.
The official press release said simply: "A U.S. Marine and 15 Iraqi civilians were killed yesterday from the blast of a roadside bomb."
''First, [U.S. Marines] went into my father's room, where he was reading the Koran, and we heard shots. ...I watched them shoot my grandfather, first in the chest and then in the head. Then they killed my granny.''
-- Eman Waleed, 9, who says she saw U.S. troops kill seven members of her family Nov. 19 in Haditha, Iraq
Military officials now acknowledge the Iraqis were not killed by the bomb -- but, they now say, by crossfire as U.S. Marines stormed the surrounding homes.
The military did not launch an investigation until two months after the incident, when Time magazine showed officials the video and eyewitness testimony.
"We launched an investigation of our own with the help of a human rights group," said Aparisim Ghosh, a writer for Time. "We spoke to some eyewitnesses. And it turns out all the people killed were killed by the Marines in small arms fire and, in a few instances, by an explosive that was tossed into the home by the Marines themselves."
Senior Pentagon officials would not comment on the details of the case but said they take the allegations very seriously, which is why they've launched the criminal investigation.
It still is not clear the Marines used excessive force, but the locals seem to have made up their minds.
"They came and started shooting all of a sudden," one local said. "They didn't even knock on the door. They killed them wholesale."
According to a military spokesman, the Marines involved still are deployed in Iraq.
The headlines on AOL news, ABC, and other venues state clearly that this video implicates US Marines in the "killing of civilians." The warn of its graphic nature with smirks of relish.
I watched it, and was shocked to learn it isn't that graphic, and ABC clearly says it is the "aftermath of an incident", which shows some cloth draped bodies. That is it.
Then the camera cuts to children who were "eye witnesses" and they are shouting and crying.
This is hardly the "damning video" evidence touted in the headlines, and the MSM should be ashamed of that.
There are other serious flaws in this story, including the source of the video. Any self-proclaimed "human rights" group in Iraq is suspicious because they may just be a propaganda arm of the islam facscists.
Moreover, the information presented in the story is so ham fisted and orchestrated (i.e. Marines just opened up on innocent children, and old man is sitting in his room peacefully reading the Koran, etc).
Silly statements like that are geared towards the gullible every day in the Middle East (and obviously the west).
Still, the incident should be investigated, but it appears that is what the MSM is salivating over. Even if the Marines acted properly, any "cloud" cast is music to the ears of our enemies, both foreign and domestic.
Further, there are always civilian casualties in war, and mistakes are made in the heat of battle. Everyone knows this, but the MSM wants to undermine our effort in a way that would be blatant treason during WW II.
At the very least, ABC is guilty of hyping a "video" out of proportion as "evidence" of military malfesance when it is nothing more than footage showing dead bodies. That is Irresponsible Journalism 101.
Pure unadulterated propaganda. Not a critical though in the bunch to say "hmm, maybe these are insurgent sympathisers and we might want to edit out their comments as rumor and hearsay". It's war. Especially in a fight against people like this Civilians are going to be used as a sheild. Collateral Damage, (i.e. the killing of innocents) is going to happen. This is just more of the American Junk Journalists shameful propagandizing for Al Qeda.
Has this so-called Iraqi journalist taken any other footage? You would think he'd have so much to work with considering all the killing done by the Jihadists, but somehow he only finds his way to an area where Marines were.
"Are you telling me these are terrorists?"
This is what you get when you don't make the terrorists among them THEIR problem.
No, we fight a kinder, gentler war.
First, I think it is all a bunch of B.S. They tried to set Americans up before, in a mosque where they had killed a bunch of civilians. We sent Iraqi troops into the mosque first and the little plan backfired on them.
If it was true, which I don't believe, so what? WE are at WAR! They need to get over it. War can be ugly.
Here's an idea....quit killing our troops and they won't have to worry one way or the other.
"We launched an investigation of our own with the help of a human rights group," said Aparisim Ghosh, a writer for Time. "We spoke to some eyewitnesses. And it turns out all the people killed were killed by the Marines in small arms fire and, in a few instances, by an explosive that was tossed into the home by the Marines themselves."
This guy was on "The Big Story" yesterday evening. John had him on asking about "Is civil war going on etc" Of course, he said it was but maybe not as serious as some think. He looks to be of ME descent. He did not mention the above story - maybe he had already sold it to ABC.
A lot of times, John appears to go for "splash" rather than hard news. Fox had one of their anchors in Iraq checking things out and Brit had him on his program. Seems to me John would have gone for his own guys viewpoint rather than Time.
OB
This is the one where the military approached a home thought to have terrorists inside and they were fired upon.
Not wanting to offer their lives to the moon god, our military want in and took no chances since women and children have bee blowing up or shooting soldiers throughout Iraq.
So what is the issue, that the American soldiers should take more unneeded risks?
PS: They did nab a terrorists inside.
Why was the terrorist there?
ping.
A bomb goes off at this guys door killing an American and he is quietly sitting in his room reading the Koran?/ Of course he didnt see anyone planting the bomb.He was too busy reading his Koran.
First of all, not very many American mind-numbed dufuses who suck down the Lame-Stream Media's daily dose of propaganda designed SOLELY to ruin the President and the Republican Party will know what the Code of Hammurabi really is and what it says. If you know, you know exactly whee this is coming from.
I don't know what the Code is and don't care. I would like to know what your point is? BTW, this story was first posted as a Defense News article. According to David Martin of CBS, the story has come to light partly based on emails between Marines involved in the operation.
Now we just have to determine when these dead bodies actually arrived. More propaganda to wade through.
Interesting. I thought Iraqis gave Time a video of the incident. Thanks for the info.
Let's see if the MSM snaps on the rubber glove and performs the digital exam of "Hammurabi Human Rights"...
Iraqis Accuse U.S. Marines of 'Massacre' 03/20/2006
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1599767/posts
Commander Directs Investigation Into Possible Abuse by Marines 03/17/2006
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1598444/posts?page=13#13
I was listening to a talk show the eother day...and someone was talking about interviewing some big shot for Hamas...and he said it was bizarre...that during this interview..
he had his "peeps" with the guns and hoods sitting around him...but his kids were sitting even closer to him.
THAT is why I don't doubt that IF the marines did this (which I am not convinced of)...they must have been pretty darn sure they were terrorists.
And, I still don't like the idea that that human rights group just happened to be there to take videos.
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