Posted on 05/29/2006 8:36:31 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
PHOTOGRAPHS taken by US military intelligence have provided crucial evidence that up to 24 Iraqis were massacred by marines in the insurgent stronghold of Haditha.
One photograph shows an Iraqi mother and young child, kneeling on the floor as if in prayer. They have both been shot dead at close range.
The pictures also show other Iraqi victims, shot execution-style in the head and chest in their ownhomes.
A US government official said the marines involved had "suffered a total breakdown in morality and leadership".
The killings are emerging as the worst known US atrocity of the Iraq war.
At least seven women and three children were among those killed in the massacre.
Witness accounts obtained by The Sunday Times suggest the number of children killed may be as high as six.
"This one is ugly," a US military official said.
In Britain, the chief of the defence staff, Air Chief Marshal Jock Stirrup, said at the weekend the "appalling" reports of the massacre could undermine British support for the war.
"This sort of accusation does make that harder to achieve," Air Chief Marshal said.
The pictures of the dead, which are being closely guarded by the US military criminal investigation service, were taken by a military photographer who is believed to have arrived on the scene moments after the shootings.
Many US forces are accompanied by photographers to gather intelligence and to shield soldiers from accusations of torture, intimidation and violence.
But the evidence in this case points to a murder rampage by the US marines.
The stain on the US military could prove harder to erase than the photographs of sadistic abuse and torture by US guards at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
Comparisons are being made to the My Lai massacre in Vietnam in 1968, in which US troops slaughtered 500 villagers.
Up to a dozen marines may face criminal charges -- including murder, which carries the death penalty -- dereliction of duty and filing false reports.
Three marine commanders were suspended last month.
With a political storm brewing, the top US marine, General Michael Hagee, flew to Baghdad on Friday to tell his troops they must kill "only when justified".
The naval inquiry is focusing on the actions of a sergeant who may have been the leader of a four-man fire team.
Miguel Terrazas, 20, a lance-corporal from El Paso, Texas, was travelling in a convoy of four Humvees in Haditha just after 7am on November 19 last year when a roadside bomb struck his vehicle, killing him and wounding two others.
The events that followed are the subject of two military inquiries due to report soon: one into the facts of the case, the other into a cover-up.
One witness, Aws Fahmi, heard his neighbour, Yunis Salim Khafif, plead for his life in English, shouting: "I am a friend, I am good."
"But they killed him, his wife and daughters," Fahmi said.
Haditha, about 225km northwest of Baghdad, has long been considered a rebel stronghold. It is among a string of Euphrates Valley towns used by insurgents and foreign fighters to infiltrate from Syria to reach Baghdad and the Sunni heartland.
The Sunday Times, AP
I don't believe it. Our young men simply are not murderers. I would expect this of Al Quida and possibly Iraqi army. I would not put it past Al Quida to watch our Marines leave and then run in and murder the civilians as punishment for "collaborating with the enemy". They got the added bonus of Murtha being so willing to blame our Marines with little or no evidence and no investigation or report.
Not for nothing, Brother.
Thank you for your service - and may God bless you and all who serve.
Per Ardua ad Astra! -- B A
or they could have been killed by other muslins prior to the marines arrival and just maybe our guys were taking pics. to document this incident
You don't shoot an unarmed child!
Do YOU know for sure WHO shot the unarmed child, and IF the people in the house were unarmed???
btw ... when are the American journalists and TV newspeople who were involved in reporting the so-called burning of the Koran, that was responsible for 20+ deaths, going on trial for murder?
I think we are at the edge of throwing in the towel. The attention span of America has atrophied to the point that the incessant assaults of the left is taking a toll.
What have we learned? I believe the next military excursion, if it is necessary should determine to resolve the hostilities within 6 months. Beyond that the Americans will turn on their own. It should be a campaign of massive bombing, perhaps even tactical nuclear devices to demonstrate overwhelming destruction. But that will not be tolerated by the left either. So, that leaves us completely vulnerable to attack by islamofacists. Our apathy places the US citizen at great risk. If 9-11 is not singularly enough to remind us constantly, will a greater infliction of pain on America stay with us longer? I don't think it will.
"I fear for the reaction in the muslim world; they've gone on the rampage for far less provocation."
I do not. Those that riot should be shot. That is how muslims learn. When enough die, those living say - enough.
But 1st, enough must die. That is how they think.
It says ap at the bottom. Pulled off the ap wire service by the local paper I guess. ap is no better than al-jazeera.
Murtha has attempted to vietnamize the war in Iraq. I just can't imagine him to be that privy to classified information. Just the fact he is railing the media to echo his "concerns" leads me to believe there is nothing that indicates criminal intent on the Marines other than a lot of fanfare and some uncollaberated "witnesses" who also happen to be islamic activists. This could just be another attempt to incite radical islam and rally the radicals. I hope for the sake of our efforts in Iraq that this whole issue is untrue and the charges unfounded.
Or the Marines just as well should have beheaded the "victims" because islamic outrage is barbaric in nature.
After reviewing many of your posts from this and other threads I have to come to the conclusion that you are nothing but a pseudo-intellectual troll. In this thread you jump on somebody because they CORRECTLY point out that the ACLU and the AP (not to mention Reuters, Al-Jazerra, ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, Time, Newsweek, NYT, DNC, DNC, DNC yada yada) will exploit, with very little balance, this issue in an attempt to inflame Iraqis and Muslims everywhere thus undermining the war. Ugly events should unquestionably be reported but you imply that it is somehow outrageous to imply that an organization such as the ACLU, with their long track record and current opposition to this war, would not exploit this situation. Do flushed Korans and Mohammed cartoons ring a bell?
I don't have the time to counter your death penalty, WWII and military funeral positions. And as far as constitutional rights being whittled away - it is the left that has both successfully and unsuccessfully whittled away individual rights in favor of group rights (affirmative action, hate crime legislation, income redistribution, "living document" vs. "amendable Constitution", leaking national secrets, eliminate right to bear arms, etc.) so please spare me.
Can you imagine the strategy sessions that the Hatefilled Braindead Libs are having to maximize the damage to our Troops right now??
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
Well Haditha, isn't considered a rebel stronghold anymore. Now is it.
I don't believe it either.
Sounds like the stuff the terrorists take great
pleasure in. Also, aren't muslims taught that it is Ok
to lie if it will hurt the infidel? Where are the good people in Irag? Are they helping us at all???
Well, I certainly look forward to when a true intellectual such as yourself can take the time out of his busy schedule to weigh in on these issues and provide definitive arguments. (If you can, however, I would appreciate you responding on the appropriate thread, lest someone accuse us of hijacking.)
And as far as constitutional rights being whittled away - it is the left that has both successfully and unsuccessfully whittled away individual rights in favor of group rights (affirmative action, hate crime legislation, income redistribution, "living document" vs. "amendable Constitution", leaking national secrets, eliminate right to bear arms, etc.) so please spare me.
Could you please point out any instances in which I implied that I was amenable to anything on your little list?*
Frankly, I don't give a damn whether Constitutional rights are eroded using a liberal argument or a conservative argument. If the government uses popular sentiment to erode Constitutional provisions, I see nothing "conservative" about shutting up and accepting it. Evidently, you feel differently.
*I'm not entirely sure how "leaking national secrets" is an issue involving individual rights, but I'm sure you'll explain when you have the time.
I also never claimed that you supported any of the transgressions the left has performed in regards to Constitutional Rights so your defense is aimed at an accusation that never was made.
In regard to, I'm not entirely sure how "leaking national secrets" is an issue involving individual rights, but I'm sure you'll explain when you have the time.
The leaking of national secrets is being used to profess a concern for individual rights when the goal is really to further a collectivist agenda by weakening the opposition by any means necessary. Circular logic? Yes. The truth? Most assuredly. Other wise we would have multiple movies, tv series, university symposiums on the evil of the police states of the former USSR or current governments of Vietnam, China, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea etc. and their perpetual violation (through elimination) of individual rights through secret police and violent enforcement.
Of course that cannot be comfortably allowed because the view is that the collectivist vision has never been properly practiced when the truth is that it never can be because such adherants have to reshape human nature. This, as before and forever more, can never be achieved without eliminating individual rights for the sake of collectivist utopia. The ACLU is at the forefront of this continuous push.
The ACLU supports boutique individual rights - race, sexual orientation, gender - that create a two-track vision that Orwell's "all animals are equal but some are more equal than others" sums up very nicely. The ACLU has a constant outlook that supports "individual group rights" so to wonder why some(one) on this board would immediately make an assumption that the ACLU would exploit this still-evolving incident is because the assumption, like so many other times, has been proven by an ACLU action. Time after time after time after time after...
In the end it has been you that has failed to highlight the conservative trangressors utilizing "popular sentiment to erode Constitutional provisions" while jumping to the defense of one of the leading liberal organizations that have perverted the true definition of individual rights so as to "erode Constitutional provisions."
Wet them down, roll them in beer batter, put them in office and they all look the same!
I hate to disappoint you, I do not come bearing a squadron sized bucket of whitewash, but simply question what was alleged to have happened to THAT victim.
Interesting story about Haditha here:http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1553969,00.html
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