Posted on 05/30/2006 10:13:00 AM PDT by pissant
WASHINGTON - Military investigators piecing together what happened in the Iraqi town of Al-Hadithah on Nov. 19, 2005 -- when Marines allegedly killed two dozen civilians -- have access to video shot by a pilotless aircraft that was circling overhead for at least part of that day, military defense attorneys familiar with the case said in interviews.
It is unclear whether the video obtained from that day's flight captured the violence, said the attorneys, who have consulted with Marines who were there. One attorney said investigators have reviewed surveillance footage taken hours after the shootings, which showed the Marines returning to the town to remove the bodies of the Iraqis.
Monday, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said charges will be issued if the evidence merits it. For now, ``it would be premature for me to judge'' the outcome of the two U.S. military investigations, Pace said on CBS's ``The Early Show.''
(snip...Please Read Carefully below)
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
We have threads regarding the men coming under fire, with description of the circumstances... I'm assuming one of our librarians has dredged up those threads from January.
I have a friend whos father was in the marines (or army) during WWII. He was one of the guys cleaning out the japanese as we island hopped our way to Japan. He actually has a detailed diary of day-to-day action.
One thing was rather interesting and I paraphrase many paragraphs and days into a simple statement - they took no prisoners.
And all that that implies...
I'm having a hard time thinking of a situation in which a 3-year-old girl would be considered a "prisoner."
Good thing I have thick skin 'round here. ;o)
I just pray that the Military does not give in to the MSM and "world opinion" and charge these guys just to get the heat off. But the Murtha-ization of the world's press is doing a full court press, and will not be satisfied with anything other than murder convictions.
In the end, I bet that fire DID come from those houses and brought the Marines wrath. Returning fire back into homes not knowing who was in there I think will explain some of the civilians deaths.
Who says we shot the three year old? The terrorists kill their own on occasion to try to blame us. The truth will be out on this one and I hope it's sooner rather than later.
in america i certain can imagine some scenarios, but not in a combat zone.
and that is war...
"When these investigations come out, there's going to be a firestorm," said retired Brig. Gen. David M. Brahms, formerly a top lawyer for the Marine Corps. "It will be worse than Abu Ghraib -- nobody was killed at Abu Ghraib." I have a feeling someone was lying in wait for an Abu Ghraib reference. I read the quote and was taken aback because I spoke to the same Brig. Gen. David M. Brahms about the case this week, and his sentiments were very different from those presented in the Post. Which explains why he sent me this statement yesterday:
"Recent reporting on the events in Haditha, Iraq have included significant factual errors and/or misleading statements. This includes a quote attributed to me in the Washington Post this morning that was taken completely out of context and its meaning distorted. Many facts that are favorable to the Marines involved have not yet been disclosed."
http://www.hughhewitt.com/
They took no prisoners because too many Japanese booby-traped themselves with explosives or handgrenades or had knives, pistols, and other weapons hidden on their persons. The Marines found it was expedient to just off all prisoners, at least until the island was secure.
Interesting. That is pretty much what I said to him when I heard about it. To quote Captain Kirk, "And now you will know why war is a thing to be avoided." People just don't really think about what actually happens in war. It's really bad stuff - and sometimes quite necessary.
I'm with you. In one of his entries he said they would have the newest guy in the group "off" the wounded Japanese. If he refused, they got rid of him.
I am going to go out on a limb and say that I think these soldiers took an IED explosion and then took small arms fire. They reacted as they should have in defending themselves from the attack they were under.
I will further say that the ones attacking them were using Human shields and those folks were either shot dead by the attackers themselves or they were killed in crossfire during the battle that terrorists started.
No matter how you cut it up the people 'innocent' people that died were a direct result of terrorist attacks.
I thinik murtha hung himself on this one.
UAV footage may well show that the attackers fled into a house(s) where these folks end up dead.
I sure hope more information will indeed come out to the public and we will see that our soldiers just defended themselve agaisnt a blatant terrorist attack that caused civilan casualties ( as they all do).
Murtha and company sure might have some 'splainin to do.
I do not rule out that our boys did something wrong but it looks less and less likely every minute that goes by.
;o)
Pelosi's the enemy. But someone ought to buy Murtha a clue.
Oh, most likely she was a prisoner alright just not of the US Marines.
And all the non-news that does as well.
I'll see if I can snoop around for those later today.
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