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To: archy

Your ability to cut-and-paste statutes is impressive. But if you think that Murtha is guilty of a crime under one of those statutes, you've got quite a bit more reading and studying to do.


82 posted on 05/31/2006 1:49:30 PM PDT by lugsoul (Livin' in fear is just another way of dying before your time. - Mike Cooley)
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To: lugsoul
Your ability to cut-and-paste statutes is impressive. But if you think that Murtha is guilty of a crime under one of those statutes, you've got quite a bit more reading and studying to do.

Not quite. I think a pretty reasonable case could be made for a UCMJ Manslaughter charge for the Marines involved, I'm less inclined to think that the requirements for sustaining a murder conviction under military law can be met. By ranting and raving against the poor snuffies involved, Murtha may well be unintendedly doing them a favor if it spurs the prosectution to seek convictions beyond what can be proven.

But the real question is going to be whether or not charges of conspiracy to obstruct the investigation will be met against those Marines, particularly that Lance Corporal who *may* have instructed his fellow Marines on how to tell the same story of what happened. And in that event, the prosecution could extend far beyond a handful of grunts.

Having firsthand experience at seeing the military prosecution at work in the case of Marine ex-POW Bobby Garwood, convicted for proving the lie of the official USMC/USG line that *all US POWs were returned or dead*, and for My Lai participant Paul Meadlo, whose coerced testimony against William Calley was given only after the military judge threatened Meadlow with immediate federal arrest by US marshals in the courtroom if he asserted his right to refuse to testify against Lt. William Calley. That testimony was then later used against him, of course.

So expect a larger dose of the same for the Marines involved in the Haditha killings. And oh, btw: the NIS is also investigating anotheer shooting death of an Iraqi citizen by Marines in April, in Hamandiyah....

83 posted on 06/01/2006 12:10:24 PM PDT by archy (I am General Tso. This is my Chief of Staff, Colonel Sanders....)
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