[Sam Hill]

Just some things the media didn't think important to tell us.

[Sam Hill]

Odd coincidences ping.

[mystery-ak]

Pay back?

[angkor]

They don't like to have American reporters covering Iraq.

Look what happened to Kevin Sites.

[tobyhill]

"They said the Marines opened fire on houses. "I saw a soldier standing outside a house and he opened fire on the house," said one resident, who did not want to be identified..."

That's a substantial difference than going into houses firing at "point blank" range in a "cold blooded fashion".

[jazusamo]

I wonder how Murtha failed to miss this in his initial trashing of the Marines when he called them cold blooded killers? Maybe his source failed to mention it to him.

[RVN Airplane Driver]

Thanks for the post....of course anyone with half a brain knew it was not as the MSM reported....I make that observation having been one who has been there and done that....that's why I know that kerry is a liar in the first degree....

[saleman]

This is the guy that the MSM is relying on for their "fair and balanced" coverage of the alleged incident? You have got to be kidding.

I sure don't know exactly what happened but I'm feeling a hell of a lot better now than I did about 2 minutes ago.
OTOH no matter what comes of the investigation, folks that have already made up their minds about the Marines guilt are not going to change their minds. They'll just say the investigation was a whitewash or the same old "fake but true" BS.

[narby]

There have been innumerable cases in the last few months of dozens of people slaughtered mysteriously by bands of gunmen.

I'd put the chances of this being a huge hoax pretty high.

For a fact, the media desperatly *wants* this story to be true.

[Marine_Uncle]

So. What would SS Major Houchstder of Hogan's Heros have to say about this?

[Marine_Uncle]

Ping a ling.

[PeskyOne]

Well, well, I wonder why Time and Murtha didn't tell us this?!! If this story about the Marines killing innocent people is proved to be false, and I hope and pray it is, I hope they expel Murtha from Congress without any retirement or quirks.

[Jim_Curtis]

Marines are being prosecuted on evidence produced by Reuters and distributed by Time?

[eyespysomething]

I've asked this and not had an answer yet, so I'm asking on all the Haditha threads:

Was any type of autopsy done? Don't Muslims bury their dead within 24 hrs? Any ballistic tests done? Is all that in the investigation? Anyone heard anything about this?

[Fred Nerks]

Thanks for posting this, Sam Hill.

Very important background info - please read this and let your ping list know. Video evidence shows Marines were set up.

[GeronL]

Aha.... that is interesting... fodder for the show David?

[boxerblues]

yoohoo get a load of this

[veronica]

Great stuff, as always. Keep up the good work!

[Para-Ord.45]

ping

[usmcobra]

Maj. Tahseen Ali Al Mashhadani, resides in Al `Amiriya.

This is interesting, His name shows up in The Structure of the Mukhabarat (Iraqi Intelligence Service - IIS)

[marron]

Since we know that the reporter is an insurgent, and we know the bodies had been disturbed, there is little reliable physical evidence to back up the insurgents' story. People shot during a battle does not equal execution. People killed in a bomb blast can be shot again after death to create false evidence of an execution.

In an insurgent stronghold, in an event reported by insurgents, with insurgents and their kin as the only witnesses, I would tend to give every benefit of the doubt to the marines.

When insurgents hide among civilians and even family members, it is inevitable that non-combatants will be killed. It is so inevitable that, while any normal human will regret the tragic loss of their lives, it is not even worth an apology.