Pilotless plane took video of town where Iraqis died (Important)

Mercury News/WaPost ^ | 5/29/06 | Tom Ricks

[Stashiu]

Given Murtha's statements, it needs to be said that he does not exhibit the reticence of a combat vet to judge his brothers. You can take my statement any where you wish.

[firewalk]

.

[BlueStateDepression]

I would agree with only a slight change in wording.

Rather than "wrong" I would exchange "less than perfect"

[Steve_Seattle]

Killing innocent civilians is SOP for the insurgents - they do it, deliberately, every day. But this incident - true or not - will inspire 1,000 times the outrage of these daily atrocities by the insurgents.

[jazusamo]

will provide a different view of the incident than has been presented by Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) and other members of Congress. For example, he said, contrary to Murtha's account, it will show that the Marines came under small-arms fire after the roadside explosion.

Thanks for posting this pissant, good article.

Why am I not surprised info like this is starting to come out now, this info did not fit the agenda of Murtha or the MSM in the outing of the supposed guilt of these Marines.

Following is a link to a letter to WaPo from Marine Lt. Pantano regarding his court marshal in which all charges were dropped. He has some choice words for the despicable Murtha.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/27/AR2006052700846.html

[jazusamo]

Reposting of Lt. Pantanos link.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/27/AR2006052700846.html

[pissant]

I'll take the Longest Day over Private Ryan anytime. ;o)

[halfright]

Didnt think anyone could take my loathing away from Jane Fonda but Murtha has edged his way to the fore front to be the first grave I relieve myself on.

This guy is a disgrace to every Marine who ever served.

[pissant]

LOL. I'll see what I can do.

[pissant]

And the damage will have been done for months already. Fortuanately, most Iraqis know better than the MSM.

[CharlieOK1]

brilliant, Brilliant

[rwfromkansas]

Probably for space; Murtha doesn't really matter much when he is from Pennsylvania and the story is for California.

But, it could have been bias as well since by removing that piece, it sanitized the criticism by the lawyer.

[jazusamo]

To support Diana Irey and defeat Murtha in November anyone wishing help her effort can contact her headquarters through her Web site.

http://www.irey.com/

[Steve_Seattle]

"I'll take the Longest Day over Private Ryan anytime. ;o)"

I might agree, strictly as entertainment, but those older war movies never honestly portrayed the full horror of combat.

[Blzbba]

"I'm having a hard time thinking of a situation in which a 3-year-old girl would be considered a "prisoner."


Or a terrorist or an insurgent.

[Gothmog]

Actually, just saw this posted on CNN 1/2 hour ago. Seems like actual past experience with the Marines in question was different from these new allegations.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/05/30/damon.iraq.btsc/index.html

A reporter's shock at the Haditha allegations
By Arwa Damon, CNN

Tuesday, May 30, 2006; Posted: 1:31 p.m. EDT (17:31 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- It actually took me a while to put all the pieces together -- that I know these guys, the U.S. Marines at the heart of the alleged massacre of Iraqi civilians in Haditha.

I don't know why it didn't register with me until now. It was only after scrolling through the tapes that we shot in Haditha last fall, and I found footage of some of the officers that had been relieved of their command, that it hit me.

I know the Marines that were operating in western al Anbar, from Husayba all the way to Haditha. I went on countless operations in 2005 up and down the Euphrates River Valley. I was pinned on rooftops with them in Ubeydi for hours taking incoming fire, and I've seen them not fire a shot back because they did not have positive identification on a target.

I saw their horror when they thought that they finally had identified their target, fired a tank round that went through a wall and into a house filled with civilians. They then rushed to help the wounded -- remarkably no one was killed.

I was with them in Husayba as they went house to house in an area where insurgents would booby-trap doors, or lie in wait behind closed doors with an AK-47, basically on suicide missions, just waiting for the Marines to come through and open fire. There were civilians in the city as well, and the Marines were always keenly aware of that fact. How they didn't fire at shadows, not knowing what was waiting in each house, I don't know. But they didn't.

And I was with them in Haditha, a month before the alleged killings last November of some 24 Iraqi civilians.

I'm told that investigators now strongly suspect a rampage by a small number of Marines who snapped after one of their own was killed by a roadside bomb.

Haditha was full of IEDs. It seemed they were everywhere, like a minefield. In fact, the number of times that we were told that we were standing right on top of an IED minutes before it was found turned into a dark joke between my CNN team and me.

In fact, when we initially left to link up with the company that we were meant to be embedded with, the Humvee that I was in was hit by an IED. Another 2 inches and we would have been killed. Thankfully, no one was injured.

We missed the beginning of the operation, and ended up entering Haditha that evening. The city was empty of insurgents, or they had gone into hiding as they so often do, blending with the civilian population, waiting for U.S. and Iraqi forces to sweep through and then popping up again.

But this time, after this operation, the Marines and the Iraqi Army were not going to pull out, they were going to set up fixed bases.

Now, all these months later, while watching the tapes, I found a walk and talk with one of the company commanders that was relieved of his duty as a result of the Haditha probe.

After being hit by an IED, his men were searching the area and found a massive weapons cache in a mosque. Although it wasn't his company that we were embedded with, the Marines had taken me to the mosque so we could get footage of the cache.

And so began the e-mails and phone calls between myself and my two other CNN crew members, Jennifer Eccleston and Gabe Ramirez: Do you remember when we were talking with the battalion commander and his intel guy right outside the school and then half an hour later they found an IED in that spot? Do you remember when we were sitting chatting with them at the school? And all the other "do you remember whens."

There was also -- can you believe it? -- the allegations of the Haditha probe.

[Blzbba]

"and another I rank right there with it is Band of Brothers."


I rank "Band" higher, just because it doesn't focus on the sapppy "make it count" forced Hollywood emotional ending of "SPR", which was a fantastic movie to that point.

I watched most of "Band" this past weekend and agree that it's outstanding.

[pissant]

That works. I'm sure they have a few perfect ones sprinkled in. The ones where the terrorists are sent to the virgins post haste.

[kellynla]

Thank you for the ping.

I remain optimistic that the Marines will be exonerated.

I have personally met many of the Marines serving in Iraq and I must tell you all that they are some of the finest Marines the Corps has ever produced.

And since I personally "walked point" for the Fifth Marines in 1969 and 1970, I have had plenty of experience in these matters. I continue to feel that anything could have happened to these people including being killed by crossfire, by the "bad guys" whose M.O. is killing innocents and/or by the Iraqi soldiers who were with the Marines.

So before anyone makes any unsubstantiated accusations, I hope everyone will remember the Marine that the media tried to convict of murdering a "bad guy" who was "playing dead" but after an investigation was exonerated.

Semper Fi,
Kelly

[nmh]

Whatever happened to the presumption of innocence on behalf of our military?