Why Did "Rights Group" Delay Revealing Haditha "Massacre"?

Sweetness & Light ^ | June 7, 2006 | N/A

[Sam Hill]

The man Time Magazine first described as a "budding journalism student" Thaer Thabit al-Hadithi is now portrayed as an "Iraq Investigator" by the DNC's Associated Press.

But excerpts from the AP's article raises some questions about him and his group's only other member, Abdul-Rahman al-Mashhadani:

Secretary-General of the Hammurabi Organization for Human Rights and Democracy Monitoring, and also a Haditha resident who witnessed parts of the incident, Thaer al-Hadithi, gives a detailed account of the alleged massacre of 24 Iraqis by U.S. Marines last year, to an Associated Press reporter at the offices of the group in Baghdad, Iraq Tuesday, June 6, 2006.

Iraq Investigator Tells AP About Haditha

June 7, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A small group of U.S. Marines alleged to have killed up to two dozen Iraqi civilians conducted a house-to-house hunt that stretched over three hours, while other Marines in Haditha did not intervene, according to an Iraqi human rights investigator.

The Associated Press interview of the activist is the most detailed account yet of Iraqi accusations that Marines went on a rampage after a comrade was killed by a bomb. Two separate U.S. military investigations of the incident are under way.

Thaer al-Hadithi, a member and spokesman for the Hammurabi human rights association, a Sunni Muslim group, recounted with the help of a satellite map when and where Iraqi civilians cowered and sometimes died.

The case, which came to public attention two months ago because of a video released by the Hammurabi group, is threatening to further weaken popular support for the Iraq war in the United States and has tarnished the military’s image in Iraq and around the world...

Hammurabi chairman Abdul-Rahman al-Mashhadani told the AP on Tuesday that his group was investigating other violations of Iraqi civil rights by Western forces in the mainly Sunni Arab provinces of Anbar and Salaheddin to the west and north of Baghdad. He said the group also was looking into violations by Iraqi security forces, militias and tribal clans.

"We are also against terrorism," he said...

Al-Hadithi did not attend any of the meetings between victims’ families and the U.S. military, but he based his account of what the Marines officer said on briefings from Hammurabi’s Haditha representative and conversations with the families.

Al-Mashhadani, Hammurabi’s chairman, who lectures on economics at Baghdad’s al-Mustansiriyah University, said the organization was publicizing the Haditha incident to make sure it’s not repeated...

But back in March when this story first was reported by Time Magazine we were told by Time reporter Ghosh that Thaer Thabit (aka Thabet) al-Hadithi did not want his name known out of concern for his personal safety.

Why start a human rights group if you want to remain anonymous?

But that is just the start of the many questionable aspects of Thabit’s accounts.

Bear in mind that this "budding journalism student" waited until the next day to videotape this alleged atrocity, which supposedly happened on his very doorstep.

Not that this same "budding journalism student" and self-proclaimed human rights watcher did not bother to turn over his video to a media outlet or a real human rights group from November 2005 until March 2006. A four month delay.

That’s how eager they were to make sure such a crime is never again repeated.

And look at the Thabit's partner at Hammurabi, Abdul-Rahman al-Mashhadani .

Al-Mashhadani is described in a December 15, 2005 article from the Institute For War And Peace as an election monitor. In fact, he expressed great satisfaction with the turnout in the Iraqi elections:

Abdul-Rahman al-Mashhadani, an election monitor in Baghdad with the non-governmental organisation Hamurabi, said no major violations occurred in Baghdad. He expected 90 per cent turnout in Sunni Arab areas.

(Which is quite ironic, given that only 150 people out of 90,000 dare to risk their lives to vote in the earlier October referendum in Haditha.)

But if Abdul-Rahman al-Mashhadani was talking to the media in December about the election turnout, why didn't he tell them then about this alleged atrocity at Haditha that had just occurred three weeks before?

Wasn't that the purpose in starting the Hammurabi group?

It just doesn't make sense.

[kindred]

The man has the look of the weasel, that is, the pathological liar.
Listening to Mike Savage interviewing the wife of a marine who is in jail and shackled even when talking to his own wife. The marines who fight the war are treated worse than any terrorist who murders innocent people and they did nothing but volunteer for the service.
An evil day when American soldiers are put in jail for doing their job.
Politicians are such scum.

[pissant]

Yes. Lt. Kimber met with locals for weeks after and did not hear boo about a "massacre".

[kindred]

[I smell Michael Moore and his terrorist cameramen again]

I smell scum pond left wing propaganda pushing liars along with the stench of cowardly right wing politicians. The best thing that could happen to America is the disappearance of the whole political establishment of America. Perhaps some other world aliens could abduct and torture the left wing fools(perhaps talking to them incessantly without meaning or content as they do to unsuspecting citizens)as a repayment for what they do all good willed citizens and soldiers.

[spunkets]

"Yes. Lt. Kimber met with locals for weeks after and did not hear boo about a "massacre"."

Kimber is a Capt with India Co. Capt McConnell spoke with the locals and they were not happy about these families being killed. McConnell told them it was a mistake.

[pissant]

I did not say he was there for the firefight. From The AP and FrontPage:

Notably, Kimber says he heard nothing about a civilian massacre during weekly meetings with the Haditha City Council and talks with local leaders. "It would have been huge, there would have been no question it would have filtered down to us," he said. "We reported no significant atmospheric change as a result of that day."

[sean327]

Something else that stinks about this accusation, is the fact that the mayor of Haditha thanked the US and the Marine Corps for liberating his city from terrorists when this operation was concluded. Nothing came out from anyone until four months later.

[pissant]

BTW, do you have a reference/link where Capt McConnell says it was a mistake?

[spunkets]

This was Kilo Co. Kimber was not involved and his talks with the city council are not related. McConnell's the one that talked to the mayor's group about the incident. If Kimber is involved at all, nothing about that's been mentioned.

""It would have been huge, there would have been no question it would have filtered down to us," he said."

I suppose Capt Kimber never knew about the bad press release.

[delacoert]

Have you looked at this article?

Haditha: Reason for Doubt

I don't think there's a thread on it.

[pissant]

If he had not heard of it while working next to Kilo, and having weekly meetings with the Haditha city council AND local leaders, that tells me this whole massacre business is MUCH MUCH less than meets the MSM's eye.

Go see this. The MSM's source.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1645216/posts

[pissant]

There are already two threads on that one.

[spunkets]

"BTW, do you have a reference/link where Capt McConnell says it was a mistake?"

Yes, the fact that he agrees that everyone in the 2 houses were all collateral damage means just that. See the original Time article for the account of his telling the mayor it was a mistake.

[pissant]

I thought we realized that the Time article was mostly bunk. But yes, I'll go back again and look.

And paying $$ to dead civilians families does not implicate crime, only that they were collateral damage. And I'm growing alot more confident that the Marines did not kill them.

[pissant]

LOL, when I sent you to a thread link it was this one. I thought we were on another thread. I'm having a hard time keeping them all straight.

[SE Mom]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1645267/posts

[okie01]

Why did they wait four months to tell anyone about this?

PR scam!!!

And the MSM swallowed the bait whole!

[spunkets]

" I'm growing alot more confident that the Marines did not kill them."

Sgt Wuterich, Capt McConnell, Lt Col Chessani and the Marine Corps agree that they did kill them. The folks from Kilo Co say that it was a mistake.

"paying $$ to dead civilians families does not implicate crime"

In this case it means the action taken was a mistake.

[spunkets]

"If he had not heard of it while working next to Kilo, and having weekly meetings with the Haditha city council AND local leaders, that tells me this whole massacre business is MUCH MUCH less than meets the MSM's eye."

Capt Kimber claims he was away from town during all of it. He went public claiming just that. He's claiming he never heard anything about it, he was out of town and that the Marine Corps is unjustly punishing him for it. Last I heard he was promising to go on SoCal radio claiming he's the same. link If Kimber is now saying he knows all about this, then he was probably relieved for lack of confidence, because he can't get anything straight.

[pissant]

From the Time article, the only reference I could find to a mistake is this:

Emad Jawad Hamza, led an angry delegation of elders up to the Marine camp beside a dam on the Euphrates River. Hamza says, "The captain admitted that his men had made a mistake. He said that his men thought there were terrorists near the houses, and he didn't give any other reason."

That's some guy named Hamza talking, not the Captain.

[pissant]

Read his quote. He does not KNOW about the "massacre" because he was fighting elsewhere that day. But he DOES know that following the "massacre" he heard nothing about it. From his fellow Marines, from Haditha City leaders and councilmen WHO HE WORKED WITH after that day. He heard about it from the press, which heard about if from the Hammurabi sources mentioned in this article.