According to military officials, the inquiry acknowledged that, contrary to the military's initial report, the 15 civilians killed on Nov. 19 died at the hands of the Marines, not the insurgents."
Who were those "military officials" of whom he conveniently leaves off the adjective anonymous?
But wait, in the same paragraph we DO find a military spokesman willing to go ON the record:
Lieut. Colonel Michelle Martin-Hing, spokeswoman for the Multi-National Force-Iraq, told Time the involvement of the NCIS (ed--naval investigators) does not mean that a crime occurred. And she says the fault for the civilian deaths lies squarely with the insurgents, who "placed noncombatants in the line of fire as the Marines responded to defend themselves."
Then our Time reporter starts an official sounding paragraph to cut to the known facts:
Here's what all participants agree on: at around 7:15 a.m. on Nov. 19, a U.S. humvee was struck by a powerful improvised explosive device (ied) attached to a large propane canister, triggered by remote control. The bomb killed Terrazas, who was driving, and injured two other Marines. For U.S. troops, Haditha, set among date-palm groves along the Euphrates River, was inhospitable territory; every day the Marines found scores of bombs buried in the dirt roads near their base. Eman Waleed, 9, lived in a house 150 yards from the site of the blast, which was strong enough to shatter all the windows in her home. "We heard a big noise that woke us all up," she recalls two months later. "Then we did what we always do when there's an explosion: my father goes into his room with the Koran and prays that the family will be spared any harm." Eman says the rest of the family—her mother, grandfather, grandmother, two brothers, two aunts and two uncles—gathered in the living room. According to military officials familiar with the investigation, the Marines say they came under fire from the direction of the Waleed house immediately after being hit by the ied. A group of Marines headed toward the house. Eman says she "heard a lot of shooting, so none of us went outside. Besides, it was very early, and we were all wearing our nightclothes." When the Marines entered the house, they were shouting in English. "First, they went into my father's room, where he was reading the Koran," she claims, "and we heard shots." According to Eman, the Marines then entered the living room. "I couldn't see their faces very well—only their guns sticking into the doorway. I watched them shoot my grandfather, first in the chest and then in the head. Then they killed my granny." She claims the troops started firing toward the corner of the room where she and her younger brother Abdul Rahman, 8, were hiding; the other adults shielded the children from the bullets but died in the process. Eman says her leg was hit by a piece of metal and Abdul Rahman was shot near his shoulder. "We were lying there, bleeding, and it hurt so much. Afterward, some Iraqi soldiers came. They carried us in their arms. I was crying, shouting 'Why did you do this to our family?' And one Iraqi soldier tells me, 'We didn't do it. The Americans did.'" Time was unable to speak with the only other survivor of the raid, Eman's younger brother, who relatives say is traumatized by the experience. U.S. military officials familiar with the investigation say that after entering the house, the Marines walked into a corridor with closed doors on either side. They thought they heard the clack-clack sound of an AK-47 being racked and readied for fire. (Eman and relatives who were not in the house insist that no guns were there.) Believing they were about to be ambushed, the Marines broke down the two doors simultaneously and fired their weapons. The officials say the military has confirmed that seven people were killed inside the house--including two women and a child. The Marines also reported seeing a man and a woman run out of the house; they gave chase and shot and killed the man. Relatives say the woman, Hiba Abdullah, escaped with her baby.
I put in BOLD what the known facts are. The rest of the paragraph was a history of the town and Iraqi "witnesses" that are most definitely not "what all participants agree on". The author is being either careless or deceptive. I'll let you decide.
Here's a doozy of a paragraph. I'm sure the iraqi Mr. Ayed wouldn't be lying, would he?:
The Marines raided a third house, which belongs to a man named Ahmed Ayed. One of Ahmed's five sons, Yousif, who lived in a house next door, told Time that after hearing a prolonged burst of gunfire from his father's house, he rushed over. Iraqi soldiers keeping watch in the garden prevented him from going in. "They told me, 'There's nothing you can do. Don't come closer, or the Americans will kill you too.' The Americans didn't let anybody into the house until 6:30 the next morning." Ayed says that by then the bodies were gone; all the dead had been zipped into U.S. body bags and taken by Marines to a local hospital morgue. "But we could tell from the blood tracks across the floor what happened," Ayed claims. "The Americans gathered my four brothers and took them inside my father's bedroom, to a closet. They killed them inside the closet."
If this does not raise questions in your mind, nothing will:
A day after the incident, a Haditha journalism student videotaped the scene at the local morgue and at the homes where the killings had occurred. The video was obtained by the Hammurabi Human Rights Group, which cooperates with the internationally respected Human Rights Watch, and has been shared with Time.
It is this article, leaked anonymous sources and Murtha's rant that have triggered the firestorm of coverage. We know Murtha's agenda, we know Time's history, but we don't know the leakers. We also know that the Marines are NOT investigating the officers in charge, that they have the radio transmissions and drone video to comb over, and that we have not heard one word of defense from the alleged perps. All in all, I'm happy to presume innocence at this point.
"Then we did what we always do when there's an explosion: my father goes into his room with the Koran and prays that the family will be spared any harm."
Eman is in the other room. She obviously doesn't know what her father is doing.
Reminds me of when my children were young and my hubby would say he's going to "clean the garage". He was in fact, sneaking a smoke away from the kids.
Ayed says that by then the bodies were gone; all the dead had been zipped into U.S. body bags and taken by Marines to a local hospital morgue.
So who put the bodies into the carpets?
This is interesting....the first Time article that you've fisked here, quotes Eman yet doesn't mention a grenade tossed under her grandfather's bed. Her subsequent interview does state that a grenade was thrown. Eman has "shrapnel" wounds from "metal" according to the video interview.
I wish I had more time to parse the quotes of the kids.
Kids are not good liars - as I often remind my own....the truth will always come out.
First, the qualifier anonymous is not appropriate. The adjective refers to those sources whose names are kept secret deliberately. The prelim. was ordered by Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli. That was his investigation and he's the one that would have authorized the payments. I have no idea who they actually talked to, it doesn't matter.
"And she says the fault for the civilian deaths lies squarely with the insurgents, who "placed noncombatants in the line of fire as the Marines responded to defend themselves.""
She must have had the results of the investigation long before it was completed to make this statement. The prelim. found the families weren't armed. I'm anxious to here how they threatened the Sgt.
"Here's what all participants agree on: at around 7:15 a.m. on Nov. 19, a U.S. humvee was struck by a powerful improvised explosive device (ied) attached to a large propane canister, triggered by remote control. The bomb killed Terrazas, who was driving, and injured two other Marines."
Someone posted a pic claiming to be the crater left by the blast on FR. It was in the street. The curb remained intact. I really have a hard time grasping how anyone would not see a propane canister in the street and not think it was a bomb and treat it accordingly. Maybe it was buried, after some construction work on the road. Nevertheless, it would be newly patched. Just a side track...
"We also know that the Marines are NOT investigating the officers in charge,
3 were relieved for lack of confidence. That's not a simple transfer to maintain integrity of the investigation. They were relieved, because of job performance reasons. The timing suggests the relief is related to this incident.
" All in all, I'm happy to presume innocence at this point."
The presumption of innocence always applies legally. It's irrelevant as far as collecting the facts about what happened. That's all I'm interested in. This incident involves a considerable number of innocent folks killed with no reason given for the killing. I do expect this matter to be cleared up. It should have been cleared up shortly after it happened. It wasn't.