Sources: Lawmakers told to brace for Haditha fallout

CNN ^ | May 30, 2006 | Jamie McIntyre

[Rumple4]

Have to wonder about the timing of this story. Memorial day would have nothing to do with it whatsoever.

[kinoxi]

Bad news all around here, congressman are attacking them, media has convicted them. If they are guilty they should be punished. I wonder if the "drones" evidence is admissible...

[cardinal4]

Pace said the investigations may not be complete for "a couple of weeks," adding, "We should not prejudge the outcome."

Too late..

[AmeriBrit]

"The formal findings of investigations into the matter are several weeks away, said Gen. Peter Pace"

---

Do you hear and understand that Murtha - in case you don't it means for you to shut the xxxx up!

No way are the left and MSM going to leave this alone and let the military finish the investigation. They'll use it to the hilt to cover up the Jefferson crimes and scandal just as they do any other time one of them is caught in a trap.

We shouldn't have tried to be the nice guys in the beginning. We should have just gone in and flattened the place as in previous wars and helped rebuild from there. This nice guy business is too much strain on our troops when they don't know who's a civilian and who's a terrorist and to have half the country against them and the MSM, makes it harder than ever for them. In my book, they're all hero's. God Bless everyone of them.

[jazusamo]

Here's a letter written to WaPo by Marine Lt. Pantano who went through a courts marshall a year ago. The media and a lot of others were calling him guilty also, the same as the disgusting Rep. Murtha has these Marines.


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

[Jezebelle]

Agree 100%.

[Jezebelle]

Lt. Pantano should be on the lecture and talk show circuit. Americans need to hear more from people like him and less from Murtha and Sheehan.

[M1911A1]

Murtha is scum.

The Haditha killings may warrant prosecution. We will see.

However it turns out, Murtha is scum, the lowest sort of scum that sucks what little life it has from the misfortunes of others.

[demlosers]

Murtha's comments...

Rep. John Murtha, appearing Sunday on ABC's "This Week," alleged a cover-up and said the fallout could be "worse than Abu Ghraib."

"We don't know how far it goes," said Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat and a retired Marine colonel. "Who ordered the cover-up?"

"Who said we're not going to publicize this thing?" Murtha continued. "We're not even going to investigate it? Until March, there was no serious investigation."

This POS is better than Tokyo Rose or Axis Sally.

[The Duke]

Hmmmm...it seems I remember someone saying "War is Hell".

[singfreedom]

I wonder about the name of the "TIME" correspondent. Is he, by any chance, Arab?

[singfreedom]

A GREAT letter: concise and to the point.

Murtha has made himself a joke. I think he only supports the troops when a Democrat is in the Oval Office.

[Alberta's Child]

There's no way in hell these guys should be prosecuted, no matter what they did or didn't do. In cases like this, I'll stand by the famous movie quote from the bottom of my profile page.

[sgtbono2002]

Calling Lt. Calley. Step forward please, Its scapegoat time.

[Peach]

"They were incredibly hostile," said Time's Aparisim Ghosh. "They accused us of buying into enemy propaganda, and they stuck to their original story, which is that these people were all killed by the IED [improvised explosive device]."

Maybe they were hostile because the enemy has murdered civilians before and tried to make it look like the military did it. And maybe the military is hostile to the press because they have an almost malignant desire for stories like this to be true.

[Stashiu]

Why aren't the press calling for trials of those who beheaded the Americans?

[Valin]

Cover-up?

[Valin]

There's no way in hell these guys should be prosecuted, no matter what they did or didn't do

Disagree! If they did it they need to spend many many years turning big rocks into little ones.