Posted on 05/31/2006 6:20:21 AM PDT by Coop
... Snow said that he has been assured by the Pentagon that "all the details" will be made available...
Rep. John Murtha... has said Marines shot and killed unarmed civilians in a taxi at the scene and went into two homes and shot others.
On Tuesday, [Snow] said President Bush learned of the killings only after a reporter from Time magazine asked questions...
Asked when Bush was first briefed about the events in Haditha, an insurgent stronghold in western Iraq, Snow replied Tuesday: "When a Time reporter first made the call."
According to the attorney for one of three Marine Corps officers relieved of command from a Marine battalion are not targets of investigations into whether their troops killed the civilians or tried to cover it up.
Meanwhile, Lance Cpl. James Crossan of North Bend, Wash., who was injured in the roadside bomb attack in Haditha, told a Seattle television station that some of the Marines might have snapped after seeing one of their own killed in action.
"So, I think they were just blinded by hate ... and they just lost control," Crossan told KING-TV, which aired the interview Tuesday.
The targets... are about a dozen enlisted Marines, according to Hackett, a Marine reservist and Iraqi war veteran who represents Kimber... [Hackett] said the highest ranking among those under investigation is a staff sergeant who led the four-vehicle convoy that was hit by the bomb.
Kimber... was relieved of command last month because his subordinates... used profanity and criticized the performance of Iraqi security services during an interview with Britain's Sky News TV...
...Hackett told The Associated Press by telephone. "He's not under investigation for anything related to what has played out in the press." [snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Hackett's client must be trouble, or he wouldn't go to such an anti-war hack.
That's a possibility. However, there wouldn't be the long faces on Bush and Peter Pace if the results of the report (which they already know) indicated that this was a staged event.
Why do those in charge seem to be preparing everybody for the worst?
Hackett's probably a lousy attorney, too.
Smart attorneys do NOT say that their client's not a target; it's kind of saying "I double-dog dare you" to the prosecutor.
FWIW, I agree with you. Everyone seems to be preparing us for something very bad. Maybe that's part of the plan, then when the report is released they it will be that much more relieving. Hell, I don't know. I'll keep an open mind.
Say Sink, I think you are a Communist, Moveon.org mouthpiece spreading lies and innuendo on "Conservative" websites for various Anti American groups. Prove me wrong.
See NOW why the Accuser, not the accused must present the proof? You can make up an accusation about anyone. Proving it is much more difficult.
You better pray Sink that this report comes in a bad as you are claiming. IF it doesn't this is going to follow you around the rest of the time you hand out at FR. No one is ever going to let you live down trying to slime the US Military.
No there very well may have been several Marines that went through the roof over this IED and took too heavy a hand approach (that is what is being investigated).
But the notion you keep insisting and the MSM keep spinning that all these 24 were completely innocent is simply false - There own 10 year old daughter openly admits on video that they knew of this IED and waited for it to go off (covering their ears in anticipation).
This was a LOS IED (which means the person who detonated it was close to this location and in a safe zone...which very likely could have been one of these homes?).
Using too much force again is something that is under investigation....but suggesting these people were all innocent is total BS!
There is a race by the MSM and anti-WOT crowd to call this a massacre and convict these Marines way before all the evidence is out (and you seem to continually side with those asserting such BS).
You have not once (that I have seen) sided with the notion that all the evidence simply isn't in and these Marines deserve the benefit of the doubt.
Furthermore we are in a war. This is a war zone. In war people die. Both those who need to be put in the ground and at times unfortunately (to a degree) those but for the grace of God might otherwise have been completely innocent (younger children for example)...but it is their parents fault for placing them in such situations. Not our soldiers.
Go to post #223 and see for yourself - This girl clearly revels that they were aware of this IED prior to it going off -
Johnnie, I've survived a lot worse than your ridiculous threats. Now stop posting your ranting and raving to me.
If you have something intelligent you want to discuss, we'll discuss it.
I'm not sliming anybody. You're a friggin' lunatic, putting words in people's mouths and trying to shut down anybody who doesn't march in lockstep with you.
You are not going to do that Johnnie. Get that through your thick skull.
Well, we won't get away with that for very long. Shooting children, then blaming it on their parents for being in the vicinity is contrary to what Marines should be doing, and I have a feeling you are going to be seeing that in a couple of weeks.
I am really at a loss, wondering why this hasn't come up yet. I've mentioned it a couple times in these threads. Doesn't ANYONE remember the attacks in Haditha in the months leading up to this? I haven't forgotten.
This article tells some of it. Please pay particular attention to the fifth paragraph, and please make a mental note that weapons were seized in that attack.
14 Marines Die in Huge Explosion in Western Iraq
Week's Toll Rises to 21 For Ohio-Based Regiment
By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, August 4, 2005; Page A01
BAGHDAD, Aug. 3 -- A Marine Reserve company that was known as "Lucky Lima" before suffering heavy casualties in May was hit Wednesday by the deadliest roadside bombing of the Iraq war, a massive explosion that killed 14 Marines and the unit's Iraqi interpreter, according to witnesses and military spokesmen.
~~~~
Rolling in armored vehicle after armored vehicle, the patrol was nearing the entrance to the town when a brilliant flash erupted in the middle of the convoy.
"Huge fire and dust rose from the place of the explosion," said Saad Mijbil, a motorist who said he witnessed the bombing and was later hospitalized with bullet wounds sustained in the chaotic aftermath.
~~~
The bomb blew apart the personnel carrier, known as an Amtrac, and ignited its load of fuel and explosives. Though he was 80 yards away, Mijbil said, the blast was strong enough to have broken the rear window of his pickup truck.
~~~ Gunmen killed at least five members of the regiment on a foot patrol Monday outside Haditha, the U.S. military said, and the body of a sixth Marine was found a mile or two from the firefight. The same day, a suicide bomber killed a Marine in the town of Hit, about 45 miles from Haditha, the military said.
~~~
"These terrorists and insurgents will use brutal tactics because they're trying to shake the will of the United States of America," Bush said. "They want us to retreat."
~~~
Haditha has been the scene of repeated attacks on the 3/25. Four Marines were killed in a firefight this spring at the town's hospital, where insurgents fired from behind patients, Marines said.
~~~
Residents of the towns along the Euphrates typically tell Marines that the only insurgents in their area are foreign fighters. Contacted by telephone in Haditha on Wednesday, however, some residents celebrated the bombing -- which apparently inflicted no civilian casualties -- even as they braced for retaliation.
"Me, I'm very happy with this operation, and it's the same for the people here," said Nour Ahmed, 35, an employee of a government-run industry. "But at the same time, we're afraid of the Marine reaction in the coming hours."
~~~~
Mijbil, the motorist who spoke by cell phone from his hospital bed, said he was injured when survivors in the U.S. convoy searched the neighborhood. Mijbil said he ducked under the steering wheel of his pickup, fearing that the Americans would mistake him for a bomber. A Marine sprinting past his truck apparently did just that, Mijbil said, and shot him six times through the door.
It was impossible to independently confirm his account Wednesday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/03/AR2005080300377_2.html
Sinkspur is a serious, well-spoken member of this community of long-standing. Please, continue with your unhinged unfounded rants as much as possible. You demonstrate better than anyone else possibly could that your comments are not to be taken seriously.
If one or two of these Marines point blank executed one or more of these children they will be brought up on chargers! Plain and simple (that is what makes this country great).
However if these children were killed by indirect fire because they were placed in an area that could cause them to be in harms way...that is their parents fault completely and not our soldiers. And it is not blaming anyone....that is simply reality.
The notion that terrorists can simply use their children as shields and we can't act from that point forward is utterly silly (and it is exactly what these terrorists are doing at times. Hiding behind women and children and expecting us not to act).
Darn! I missed it! What did he say?
Personally, I think something is very fishy about this "massacre" story.
The utter arrogance in your tone hear blows my mind! Killing children is NOT what our U.S. Marines and Soldiers are doing in Iraq on the whole and you very well know that! - They are in fact dying for these children and or putting their lives at risk hundreds of times each week! (and this is never reported about!!).
If it were to the same extent this situation has been the American public would have a much clearer understanding that either something simply went terribly wrong here (in the force used) in this very rare instance or these soldiers acted because they truly felt threaten.
The majority of the citizens left in Haditha by the time this took place were supporting the insurgents (especially those who were aware of IEDs and eagerly waiting for them to go off).
She ADMITTED THAT on the tape??????????????????
But the notion you keep insisting and the MSM keep spinning that all these 24 were completely innocent is simply false - There own 10 year old daughter openly admits on video that they knew of this IED and waited for it to go off (covering their ears in anticipation).
Civilians knowing about insurgent activity and not telling anyone is pretty common. However, that doesn't mean that Marines can execute her for it. Sad fact of the matter is, we have strict rules of engagement, the enemy does not. We can only fire on active threats, whereas the enemy kills entire families who rat them out.
For the average Iraqi family, 'revenge killing by insurgent' is a far, far greater threat than 'revenge killing by Marine'. In this case, it's possible that they gambled wrong, but you can't really blame them for keeping quiet. Warning that patrol would have been an automatic death sentance for them, whereas what happened here, if it in fact did happen, is an anomaly.
Using too much force again is something that is under investigation....but suggesting these people were all innocent is total BS!
Unless the persons killed were active threats or accidents, then it doesn't matter how innocent they are, as far as the Rules of Engagement go. We're not permitted to shoot unarmed personnel, regardless of what they did or didn't tell us. That's the only issue here.
What is your excuse going to be if your "Facts" turn out to be just as fraudulent as "Flush the Koran" "Thousands drowned in New Orleans" "Gangs running rampant in Superdom"? "Army bogged down and cut of in Iraq." and any other of dozens of other "News" stories that turned out to be lies? All anyone is saying is wait and FIND OUT THE FACT instead of mindlessly regurgitating the rumor, innuendo and hearsay as "Fact". They are not fact, merely gossip
Yes - She admits that they didn't leave for school because of the IED...and that in anticipation of it going off she covered her ears -
At which point (I sh*t you not) the CNN reporter wonders aloud...could it have been a "premonition"...or maybe "perhaps she had other knowledge"....Which do you think?
And when one understands the Iraqi culture and family structure one knows if this young girl knew of this IED...her entire family of elders most certainly did as well.
I saw the tape of these kids on CNN..and it looks like they were coached
The only person screaming on this thread is you.
What in hell is wrong with you, Johnnie? You rant like a mental patient.
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