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 ...
Or pull me down at parade rest! :-)
So? I also know what the lamestream media will do if Snow & company lie.
I suspect whatever killings occurred were perpetrated by terrorists wearing counterfeit US uniforms. This theory is supported by the fact, reported by the media in the run-up to the liberation of Iraq, that Saddam had accumulated a number of counterfeit US uniforms to be used by his people in a number of ways. Committing atrocities and then framing US troops for them in terrorist controlled areas would be a perfect way to use such uniforms. This would be particularly effective if the alleged witnesses were already terrorists themselves or terrorist sympathizers and the people who were killed were suspected supporters of the liberation and their families. Such tactics are certainly not beneath Saddam and the terrorists; indeed they are the very things they would love to do. They are also the very kind of things traitors like Murtha and the MSM would love to use to discredit the entire war effort. Before anyone even suspects those Marines of this group of killings, this hypothesis must be fully checked out and disproved.
Great question! There has been ONLY ONE!!!
"Mr. Murtha's comments, I believe, were irresponsible and they put our men and women serving overseas in greater danger," Irey said.
"Being a former Marine himself, he should know they have a process in place to take care of situation that may have happened that should not have happened," Irey said.
"By coming out and calling them 'cold-blooded killers,' he's already tainted the minds and possible jury of those who will be hearing these allegations."
Retire Mu'tha - Vote Irey for Congress
Thank you for this post!
I don't argue with your suspicion at all. It may well be under investigation. We just don't know.
Even the CNN reporter embedded with them couldn't really believe the stories being trumpeted from the Home Office when she figured out who the allegations related to...
Civilians are killed every day in Iraq.
Have you ever heard of the term "delegation?"
Do you have any idea how screwed up an organization gets when its leaders do not trust their subordinates to do their jobs?
Is the President supposed to jerk his knees every time the press or a renegade politician trump some story up?
Great photo!
This was my very first thought. How often is the White House going to throw out this "the President didn't know" crap before they get a clue?
By the way, I have a post on my blog about Haditha. My post, I must caution, is based entirely on the story reported by Time magazine. There was nothing in that Time mag story about a taxicab.
I did some analysis of the Time story and came up with what I consider to be some points to note when all hell breaks loose and the left finally gets their beloved My Lai story.
I got some thoughts on how the President should handle this story (now that he knows about it, heh) IF the horrible allegations now swirling around (aided by a former-marine very unethical congress critter, John Murtha) turn out to be bad. Give me some time to think about it.
Freepers need to be up to snuff on the background of all this because it's gonna be one ricky ride.
I respectfully disagree...
This incident was being handled as all incidents are, by the Pentagon. It happened late last year, and does not rise to the level of Presidential actions or decision.
If he were to be informed of every little thing that occurs in a 2.5 million person military establishment that doubles and triples in size when support is added in, the man would be a basket case.
Murtha used the fact that although the incident had been reported to the public, the results of the investigation was not yet complete and there was a vacuum to fill with hyperbole which he filled with glee and the MSM jumped in. It has happened dozens of times, and each time, the president was not, nor should have been informed.
Abu Grab was in the same category.
I never even thought of this.
I suspect some Iraqi army guys did the killings and maybe the military is (or was )trying to keep it quiet. This might be why there was (evidently) a false report of the incident.
Residents of Haditha were repeatedly warned to get out, that a convoy of forces were coming through. Repeatedly warned...since October 2005 in fact.
And those Marines were taking fire after the explosion, at least according to the Time mag story. Even the anti-American Haditha citizens admit this.
Even with all the warnings, and that morning when this all occurred, were warned yet again. Yet one fine grandpapa keeps his family there, including his two young children. They all huddled in their parlor reading the Koran once the explosion and shooting began.
Which is what we all do of course when horrific explosions and shooting erupts around us. We gather our grandchildren and go into the living room, with a handy window, and read the Koran.
The grandmother and grandfather were killed during this incident, but the two children and a baby were not. Those Marines didn't go nuts and start shooting everybody in sight. Somebody was shooting at them and perhaps in the effort to stop it some innocents got killed. Innocents that the terrorists love to gather round them just so they can shoot and kill American Marines with no reprisals.
Hey, I don't know. A beloved Marine buddy was split in half by the explosion and bullets were being fired.
It was war damn it, in an urban environment.
Anyway, if the MSM and the leftoids go nuts enough, the above is something along the lines of how I think the President should handle this.
I have a foreboding in my gut that Haditha could be the incident, however manufactured and hyped by our own congress critters, that makes us lose the Iraq war.
I desperately want to be wrong.
The irony here is quite amusing.
Thank you for the clarifying information.
Has Hackett dissed the War and the Military??? I don't remember.
Can't anybody in the MSM write English?
Good take on the situation.
I don't think this will be the defining moment, though. The November elections will be (IMHO).
I sure hope he doesn't watch TV! What a complete waste of time! I've never owned a TV myself, and I don't miss it one bit. And I heard of this Haditha at least a couple of weeks ago, if not longer.
WHICH CAN'T POSSIBLY BE TRUE UNLESS BUSH DOESN'T WATCH TEEVEE.
&&&&
If you check the President's schedule he rarely sits down to watch news on TV. He makes news, or tries to, by attending 3 or 4 events every day, but our "news" media do not share with us what he is doing all day long every day -- leaving the impression with many people that he is not doing anything.
Is Murtha the "military official?"
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