Yup:
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
Yeah -- a tortured paragraph describing an unlikely scenario.
You're biting into the whole "Abu Ghraib was a horrible place" storyline hook, line, and sinker. Those extremely violent and murderous terrorists got three hots and a cot and occasionally had to endure barking dogs and panties on their heads. I knew teenaged girls trying to gain acceptance into sororities who could handle more teasing.
Muslims who are caught and become prisoners are complete sissies.
~ Blue Jays ~
These Marines deserve the presumption of innocence. Here is a letter to WaPo from Marine Lt. Pantano who was courts marshalled for murder about 1 year ago. The caharges were dropped.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/27/AR2006052700846.html
Furthermore the MSM never find time to tell of the thousands of instances were U.S. soldiers are dying or being wounded in efforts to save Iraqi's!
Showing this much more accurate reality of what U.S. soldiers are doing day in and day out in Iraq would go a long way in showing Iraqi's (and the World) the full & true picture.
Yet the MSM won't do this - They will tell the same negative spun stories seven different ways in seven days. They are pathetic.
Yup:
Why is it so hard to conceive that jihadis would kill a
Marine, take his rifle, and then massacre civilians in order to blame it on the Marines?
They have been trying to pull-off this move since day one.
And, according to plan, the media sucks it up like honey to a bee.
These Marines are innocent.
The jihadis cannot win on the battlefield. Breaking our will is all they have.
How do you know what "Reactionary's" first response is? My first response is to hope it's not true. My second response is to pity the victims. Those responses "go without saying", but what truly concerns me is that AP is already spreading the "pretrial publicity" that my force the Marine Corps to take a big fat dump on a lot of folks, including individuals who had no direct responsibility for this incident, and even those with only the most indirect responsibility. I question your conservatism.
First, comes the complaining from fatherless members of a unit clique (fatherless, left/liberal dope smokers and the like) about "micromanagement." Then all it takes is for one spoiled and essentially untrained individual to be left running an element without oversight or supervision. For example, I once saw a social worker platoon sergeant in a National Guard combat unit. The outcome (the platoon's best soldiers refusing to re-up) was expected.
I would think that, worst case, a plea bargain arrangement could be made. Say, 30 day deferred adjudication...
The allegation
The "unnamed sources" usually "highly placed officials" but never identified, or , in this case the guilt stricken concientious and heroic Marine that wasn't there and only saw his interpretation of events.
The media hysteria
The condemnation
The facts
The truth
No retraction
Public memory of the allegation but not the outcome.
My memory of Abu Ghraib is a bit fuzzy, but as I recall, the supposed 'torture' that went on there wasn't even comparable to every-day Saddam stuff.
Do you remember exactly what happened there (or, if that's too much trouble, a URL to a non-Leftist webstie about AG will suffice) in terms of the torture methods used?
Yeah, the article smells alright. No byline, anonymous sources, no real evidence, over-the-top adjectives.... This reads like the same sensational BS newspapers I saw while I lived in England.
Instead of just a link, here's the letter by Lt. Pantano.
Mr. Murtha's Rush to Judgment
Sunday, May 28, 2006; B06
A year ago I was charged with two counts of premeditated murder and with other war crimes related to my service in Iraq. My wife and mother sat in a Camp Lejeune courtroom for five days while prosecutors painted me as a monster; then autopsy evidence blew their case out of the water, and the Marine Corps dropped all charges against me ["Marine Officer Cleared in Killing of Two Iraqis," news story, May 27, 2005].
So I know something about rushing to judgment, which is why I am so disturbed by the remarks of Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) regarding the Haditha incident ["Death Toll Rises in Haditha Attack, GOP Leader Says," news story, May 20]. Mr. Murtha said, "Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood."
In the United States, we have a civil and military court system that relies on an investigatory and judicial process to make determinations based on evidence. The system is not served by such grand pronouncements of horror and guilt without the accuser even having read the investigative report.
Mr. Murtha's position is particularly suspect when he is quoted by news services as saying that the strain of deployment "has caused them [the Marines] to crack in situations like this." Not only is he certain of the Marines' guilt but he claims to know the cause, which he conveniently attributes to a policy he opposes.
Members of the U.S. military serving in Iraq need more than Mr. Murtha's pseudo-sympathy. They need leaders to stand with them even in the hardest of times. Let the courts decide if these Marines are guilty. They haven't even been charged with a crime yet, so it is premature to presume their guilt -- unless that presumption is tied to a political motive.
ILARIO PANTANO
Jacksonville, N.C.
The writer served as a Marine enlisted man in the Persian Gulf War and most recently as a platoon commander in Iraq.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
Almost sounds like a Dan Rather lead in for the 6:30 news. I'll wait for more evidence before drawing any conclusions. Oh - and somebody should tell the AP the "marines" should be capitalized.
Have the Marines admitted to shooting the civilians? How did the photgrapher know that those people hadn't been shot BEFORE the Marines arrived?
If the Marines killed these people in cold blood, they should be punished to the FULLEST extent of the law. However, no one should be jumping to conclusions here until all the FACTS are in.
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