Posted on 06/03/2006 8:26:22 AM PDT by Carl/NewsMax
A 12-year old survivor of the alleged massacre of innocent civilians by U.S. Marines patrolling Haditha has admitted she had prior knowledge of the plot to detonate an IED as their convoy was passing by her house on the morning of Nov. 19, 2005.
In a CNN interview broadcast Wednesday, Safa Younis - who says eight members of her family were killed by U.S. troops - recalled that she was getting ready for school as the Marine Humvee approached.
"I was planning to go to school. I was about to go out of bed. I knew the bomb would explode so I covered my ears," the youngster said, according to a CNN translator.
"The bomb [then] exploded," she explained. "The bomb struck an armored vehicle. I don't know if it was a Humvee or an armored vehicle. When the bomb exploded, they came straight to my house."
Younis complained that after the bombing killed Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, his fellow Marines broke down the front door of her house.
"The American forces entered the house and started shooting with their guns. They killed my mother and my sister Nour. They killed her when she shot her in the head. She was only 15 years old. My other sister was shot with seven bullets in the head and she was only 10 years old."
The Haditha co-conspirator continued:
"And my brother Muhammad was hiding under the bed when the U.S. military hit him with the butt of the gun and the started shooting him under the bed. The U.S. military then shot me and I was showered in blood. We couldn't leave the house because the U.S. military surrounded the area with a large number of soldiers."
Younis said she survived by pretending to be dead.
But the "innocent" Haditha 12-year-old failed to give any further details about which other family members knew about the bomb plot. Or whether one of her relatives had detonated the blast.
I think I said that the first time I posted on a thread about this...and I have read more to convince me I am RIGHT...than to convince me these Marines are guilty.
Ironically, I was just watching a discussion of this on Newswatch on Fox News...and Eric Burns, the moderator made this "final comment" ..
He said that these "type" of situations are more likely to be "shown" to have happened because of the this NEW one...and he mentioned the one that came up yesterday in the news where the American troops were found INNOCENT!!!
I know they film this show on Friday...but, I find it funny that Burns uses that incident as proof that the Americans were guilty of more than Haditha....LOL
That's true in a court of law. However, not true in the court of world opinion.
It sucks! I know, but beleive me, I'm on your side.
Reported US Military Deaths in Haditha, Iraq (notice that no US Military deaths have been reported since the cold blooded murder of US Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas on Nov 19, 2005)
Apr 3, 2003 Haditha
US Captain Russell Brian Rippetoe SW of Haditha Dam - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - suicide bomber US Specialist Ryan Patrick Long SW of Haditha Dam - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - suicide bomber US Staff Sergeant Nino Dugue Livaudais SW of Haditha Dam - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - suicide bomber
May 26, 2003 Haditha
US Major Matthew E. Schram Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire
Nov. 29, 2003 Haditha
US Staff Sergeant Stephen A. Bertolino Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - ambush US Specialist Aaron J. Sissel Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - ambush
US Sergeant Jesse W. Strong Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - RPG attack US Lance Corporal Karl R. Linn Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - RPG attack US Corporal Jonathan W. Bowling Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - RPG attack
May 7, 2005 Haditha
US Sergeant Michael A. Marzano Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - suicide car bomb US Sergeant Aaron N. Cepeda Sr. Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - suicide car bomb US Lance Corporal Lance Tanner Graham Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - suicide car bomb US Petty Officer 3rd Class Jeffery L. Wiener Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - suicide car bomb
May 25,2005 Haditha
US Sergeant David Neil Wimberg Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire
May 26,2005 Haditha
US Major Ricardo A. Crocker Hadithah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - RPG attack
Aug 1, 2005 Haditha
US Lance Corporal Roger D. Castleberry Jr. Haditha (near) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire US Sergeant David J. Coullard Haditha (near) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire US Lance Corporal Daniel Nathan Deyarmin Jr. Haditha (near) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire US Corporal Jeffrey A. Boskovitch Haditha (near) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire US Lance Corporal Brian P. Montgomery Haditha (near) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire US Sergeant Nathaniel S. Rock Haditha (near) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire
Aug 3, 2005 Haditha
US Lance Corporal Adam J. Strain Ramadi - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire US Specialist Mathew V. Gibbs Baghdad (southwest part) Hostile - hostile fire - car bomb US Sergeant 1st Class Charles Houghton Warren Baghdad (southwest part) Hostile - hostile fire - car bomb US Specialist Jerry Lewis Ganey Jr. Baghdad (southwest part) Hostile - hostile fire - car bomb US Lance Corporal Nicholas William B. Bloem Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Corporal David S. Stewart Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Sergeant Bradley J. Harper Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal Kevin G. Waruinge Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal Grant B. Fraser Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Sergeant Justin F. Hoffman Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal Eric J. Bernholtz Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal Aaron H. Reed Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Corporal David Kenneth J. Kreuter Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal William Brett Wightman Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal Christopher Jenkins Dyer Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal Michael J. Cifuentes Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal Timothy Michael Bell Jr. Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal Edward August Schroeder II Haditha (2 km S of) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
Nov. 16, 2005 Haditha
US Sergeant Jeremy E. Murray Haditha (near) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
Nov 19, 2006 Haditha
US Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas Haditha (near) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
This story stinks. Im watching local STL news, who usually is gleeful about reporting badly on Iraq. 13 minutes into the news cycle, no mention of anything related to Iraq. Except one-Sgt. Amanda Pinson, who was killed in Balad in March. The story was about a plaque that was placed in her honor at her former High School. When KSDK wont lead with the story, much less comment on it, it makes me wonder why the AP is all over it. I will no longer "wait for the outcome of the investigation". I dont believe it at all..
Jihadies do. In Israel, in Iraq, and in other places as well. It's apparently a Muslim thing, or at least an Arab Muslim thing. (Arabs being the prototype Muslims).
I say no one should draw conclusions from this until all the facts are in. It's innocent until proven guilty - not the reverse. If you've ever been a juror, you'd know how important that is.
the entire town of 70,000 is guilty , Murtha should be flown in to oversee negotiations, then the troops withdrawn then entire town should be carpet bombed including Murtha and announced as a big "oops!!" like Clinton did after the Kosovo oopsies
I can't believe this is even happening
Who cares if civilians were casualties???? I mean really, who cares???? If we'd been leveling neighborhoods where these terrorists operate out of from the beginning, our troops would be home and taking care of the borders.
Collateral damage....it's just part of getting the job done.
With their American advisers, Iraqi Special Forces searched a three-house compound behind the mosque and detained three individuals -- two elderly men who work at the mosque and a younger man, a relative. All pleaded their innocence.
"All we do here is turn on the call to prayer. If I had seen this here, I would have reported it," one man said. "We hate death, we are pained by it. I wouldn't even hurt an ant." He suggested men had come at night and buried the explosives.
After more questioning, the man said they were told "not to come to the shrine anymore." Pressed on who "they" were, he claimed not to know, saying they were people who frequented the mosque. Marines detained the three for questioning.
By Arwa Damon CNN
Wednesday, May 31, 2006; Posted: 9:02 p.m. EDT (01:02 GMT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- It actually took me a while to put all the pieces together -- that I know these guys, the U.S. Marines at the heart of the alleged massacre of Iraqi civilians in Haditha.
I don't know why it didn't register with me until now. It was only after scrolling through the tapes that we shot in Haditha last fall, and I found footage of some of the officers that had been relieved of their command, that it hit me.
I know the Marines that were operating in western al Anbar, from Husayba all the way to Haditha. I went on countless operations in 2005 up and down the Euphrates River Valley. I was pinned on rooftops with them in Ubeydi for hours taking incoming fire, and I've seen them not fire a shot back because they did not have positive identification on a target. (Watch a Marine's anguish over deaths -- 2:12)
I saw their horror when they thought that they finally had identified their target, fired a tank round that went through a wall and into a house filled with civilians. They then rushed to help the wounded -- remarkably no one was killed.
I was with them in Husayba as they went house to house in an area where insurgents would booby-trap doors, or lie in wait behind closed doors with an AK-47, basically on suicide missions, just waiting for the Marines to come through and open fire. There were civilians in the city as well, and the Marines were always keenly aware of that fact. How they didn't fire at shadows, not knowing what was waiting in each house, I don't know. But they didn't.
And I was with them in Haditha, a month before the alleged killings last November of some 24 Iraqi civilians.
I'm told that investigators now strongly suspect a rampage by a small number of Marines who snapped after one of their own was killed by a roadside bomb.
Haditha was full of IEDs. It seemed they were everywhere, like a minefield. In fact, the number of times that we were told that we were standing right on top of an IED minutes before it was found turned into a dark joke between my CNN team and me.
In fact, when we initially left to link up with the company that we were meant to be embedded with, the Humvee that I was in was hit by an IED. Another 2 inches and we would have been killed. Thankfully, no one was injured.
We missed the beginning of the operation, and ended up entering Haditha that evening. The city was empty of insurgents, or they had gone into hiding as they so often do, blending with the civilian population, waiting for U.S. and Iraqi forces to sweep through and then popping up again.
But this time, after this operation, the Marines and the Iraqi Army were not going to pull out, they were going to set up fixed bases.
Now, all these months later, while watching the tapes, I found a walk and talk with one of the company commanders that was relieved of his duty as a result of the Haditha probe.
After being hit by an IED, his men were searching the area and found a massive weapons cache in a mosque. Although it wasn't his company that we were embedded with, the Marines had taken me to the mosque so we could get footage of the cache.
And so began the e-mails and phone calls between myself and my two other CNN crew members, Jennifer Eccleston and Gabe Ramirez: Do you remember when we were talking with the battalion commander and his intel guy right outside the school and then half an hour later they found an IED in that spot? Do you remember when we were sitting chatting with them at the school? And all the other "do you remember whens."
There was also -- can you believe it? -- the allegations of the Haditha probe.
Thanks for re-posting this piece.
It's refreshing to read a journalist with an open mind who reports what she saw and heard.
From CNN, no less.
The one thing which I have not noticed in any of the threads is that this is happening during Primary Election time. Are they not trying to affect our elections again as Bin Looney tried to do during the 2004 elections?
Hi Tex...thanks for the ping...I read that yesterday, I think.......Isn't this something else?.....what does your son have to say about this?.....it's getting closer for my son to leave and now I'm more upset than ever...
I read an article within the last six months that was about an interview that a Western journalist got with a higher up in Hamas..
The article said that the young child of the Hamas leader was in the room next to him the whole time...and that it was normal for the children of these terrorist groups to keep their children close..in case of a set up by the reporter..
The KNOW the people in the west are very against killing children.
Also, remember a few years ago...the Jenin "massacre"? The massacre that never happened??
I have no problem believing this was a set up...but, I just cannot believe that these Marines killed little kids while they were in a prayer position by blowing their heads off...nope, you can't convince me of that.
Concur, not even Oliver Stone would touch that..
INTERESTING.....hmmmm.
Neighbors/other household families in the area probably knew what was being plotted...hence the Marines going to other houses.
I'm not sure I would TRUST anything out of these Muslims mouths.......they LIE...it's a big part of their culture.
M-A, you, your son and your family are all in my prayers. There is no need for anyone to tell you not to be upset, because it is the natural, human thing to do.
May God be with them and all of us.
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