Posted on 06/02/2006 9:13:25 AM PDT by kellynla
U.S. Marine Corps headquarters in Washington did not learn of the killing of Iraqi civilians by Marines in Haditha until early March, a timeline that appears to exonerate the highest ranks of the Marine Corps from any cover-up or failure to act.
The U.S. military command in Baghdad learned of the civilian killings in February and began two investigations: one criminal and one administrative.
The administrative probe by Army Brig. Gen. Eldon Bargewell is focusing on whether any information was covered up along the Marine Corps chain of command. This is because the 2nd Marine Division issued a press release Nov. 20 saying Iraqi civilians had been killed in Haditha the previous day by an improvised explosive device (IED) and in a firefight with insurgents.
Officials now acknowledge that the statement was inaccurate. Evidence shows the civilians were killed deliberately by Marines' gunfire during sweeps after an IED killed one of their battlemates.
One key question is: Did senior Marine Corps officers hear of the accusations and fail to act between the time of the Nov. 19 incident and February, when a Time magazine reporter brought the charges to the attention of the Baghdad command?
A timeline that the Marines provided yesterday to The Washington Times would appear to exonerate Gen. Michael W. Hagee, the Marine Corps commandant, and his staff.
Col. David Lapan, a Marine Corps headquarters spokesman, said the commandant and his staff were apprised in early March by Marine commanders in Iraq. He said Gen. Hagee subsequently received briefings on the criminal probe and then dedicated a tour of Iraq to telling Marines the importance of ethical conduct and the rules of war.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
As I said in my post, this ugly beast was spawned in the streets of Haditha. The rats here are just feeding it and giving it life.
And if not for FR, I would never know that bit of information. My time is limited here so I'm really just getting caught up with pings and a bit of reading; thanks for that information, McGavin.
We have family visiting and had very bad thunderstorms last night so my time on FR is limited this week. I'm mostly checking pings and still can't get over the fact that no autopsies were ordered. Maybe the slugs weren't from the kind of guns that Marines use. As you said, a lot about this story doesn't make sense.
by ABC merely interjecting "anonymous tip" it implies cover-up and scandal without actually commiting criminal libel
yellow journalism at it's finest
One of the things that made me suspicious about this in the first place, was that there are so many pictures and videos of the bodies...
Because we know that over there, they bury their dead the same day...so it has always seemed odd that they supposedly waited until a film crew could come in...then they take them to the hospital?
Plus, the fact that there WAS someone ready to run in a film makes it just another indicator in my mind that this could have been a set up...from before the vehicle hit the IED.
Right just like OJ
"This was a small number of Marines who fired directly on civilians and killed them," "This is going to be an ugly story." "There's no doubt that the Marines allegedly involved in doing this--they lied about it," "They certainly tried to cover it up."
Time: "The Shame of Haditha"
Capt McConnell and Lt Col Jeffrey Chessani were both relieved for lack of confidence. The comments from Kline and the firing of the 2 officers, indicate something other than mistake as the source of the bad press release.
If the Marines came through the doors with guns blazing, it's not because they wanted to kill innocent Iraqi citizens, it's because they thought there were NOT innocent Iraqis there, only terrorists who had killed one of their own with an IED, and were waiting to kill the rest of them.
The soldiers involved in the shootings did not generate the false press release, and should not be charged or convicted because of it.
That's my understanding of the ROE. I think Gen Hagee flew out to tell them to be more cautous about the execution of those ROEs.
"It is criminal that the terrorists had left the people in those homes to fend for themselves as they ran away to save their own sorry hides."
The terrorists operate by threat and intimidation of the townfolk. The townfolk may be sympathetic, but most of them don't activly engage in the violent action, just sneaky stuff. In this case those in the first house were used to set off the bomb. See 9y/o Eman Walid's comment(CNN).
"
There's a strong indication Staff Sgt Frank Wuterich himself started it with a false after action report, that Capt McConnell let slide.
If the Staff Sgt. generated the report, he needs to accept whatever punishment might be applied for that. The company should NOT be charged with murder, because of the false report, when that is not what happened in Haditha.
He's the guy that assaulted the houses though. If he generated a bad after action and McConnell generated his to confirm it, that's not a good thing. If this didn't happen, the fairy tale generated by the Iraqis in Haditha wouldn't have the gas to go anywhere.
There was an article posted a few days ago saying that Haditha is totally controlled by insurgents. Nothing moves or goes in and out of the town without the insurgents permission. The only time the insurgents go into hiding is at the times when a US patrol comes through the town, and then it is sometimes attacked as was the Marine unit in question.
I could easily believe your husband's theory, in fact I can believe it much more easily than I can believe the unproved accusations against the Marines. This thing stinks to high heaven IMHO.
Marines don't go through doors with guns blazing these days. They're trained in CQB (close quarters battle), good at avoiding civilian casualties, and instructed not to fire at anyone who's not an armed threat.
If the Marine convoy leader filed a report saying that 15 Iraqi civilians died in a blast, when he knows that only one of his guys died, it looks very suspicious. It would be a hard sell to say that they killed 15 people on accident, given their level of training, but it'll be a lot harder now that it looks like he was covering something up.
A few civilian deaths is very understandable in any squad level fight; it's unfortunate, but it happens. 15 to 25 in a lightly populated residential area sounds, at best, like serious negligence. If that was the case, and that's why he tried to cover it up, the plan didn't work.
In this case they had recieved fire from the house, or the immediate area. It was a firefight. The house was quiet when their advance got close, but they still envisioned terrorists in the house. They shot around openings and used grenades. They also thought fire came from the second house. That may have come from the 4th house where they had an AK at hand, or the other terrorists that retreated.
Later the Marines ended up in a fighfight that ended with a Harrier's ordnance. That was about 2 blks away. It may have been with some of the same terrorists that started this fight.
Interesting. I didn't know that. Just shows that the entire area was still 'hot', and the Marines would have been remiss NOT to have been wary of every house.
Done, thanks
And your point is???
"The New York Times reported Saturday that commanders learned within two days that civilians in Haditha were killed by gunfire and not a roadside bomb, quoting a senior Marine officer it did not name."
This means that Kilo Co. discovered the bad press release the day after it was issued. Kilo Co. already knew what went down the 2 days before this. They may have corrected their reports and never issued a corrected press release. They're just nor reporting this. Like they didn't report that everyone knew. It feeds the coverup angle.
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