Posted on 12/05/2006 7:00:37 PM PST by pinkpanther111
SAN DIEGO — Military prosecutors are close to charging some of the Marines involved in the deaths of 24 civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha last year, the Marine Corps said Tuesday.
It is the first time the Corps has said it will file charges in the deaths, which included unarmed women and children and followed the killing of a Marine by a roadside bomb in the town...
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Why did you excerpt it? The Houston Chronicle isn't an excerpt-only site.
Let me or jazusamo know if you want to be on the Haditha Marine ping list.
I tried to post this story several times already (blocked source). I didn't also want to deal with another rule/block on excerpts. Just in case.
Is there a listing somewhere of what is blocked and is not & what sites we have to excerpt?
this is NOT a good idea.....
Are we at war? Or is this Tennis in The Sand?
another consequence of 11/7.
really, the majority of americans don't deserve the sacrifices of the US military.
If the Dems win the white house in 2008 - there should be a mass exodus from the volunteer military.
"Why did you excerpt it? The Houston Chronicle isn't an excerpt-only site."
The Houston Comical is an ANTI-MILITARY, ANTI-AMERICA joke!
If I had a bird, it would deserve something better than the Comical to crap on.
SAN DIEGO — Military prosecutors are close to charging some of the Marines involved in the deaths of 24 civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha last year, the Marine Corps said Tuesday.
It is the first time the Corps has said it will file charges in the deaths, which included unarmed women and children and followed the killing of a Marine by a roadside bomb in the town.
Defense lawyers for some members of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment have said their clients were following rules of engagement when they returned fire after the bomb went off Nov. 19, 2005.
Lt. Gen. James Mattis has examined the investigations into the killings and has made initial decisions about what action to take, Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Sean Gibson said Tuesday in a news release.
Gibson declined to say how many Marines would be charged or what crimes prosecutors would allege.
The Marines initially reported that 15 Iraqi civilians had been killed by a makeshift roadside bomb and in crossfire between Marines and insurgent attackers. After media reports surfaced in March that the killings were deliberate, the top Marine commander in Iraq ordered a crimnial investigation.
A parallel investigation examined whether officers in the Marines' chain of command tried to cover up details of the killings. Results of the probes have not been made public.
Gibson said the Marine Corps would brief members of both the Senate and House Armed Services Committees this week on the findings of the investigations.
Washington-based attorney Mark Zaid, who represents squad leader Sgt. Frank Wuterich, said he had not heard if his client was going to be charged.
"We'll be prepared," Zaid said in a telephone interview. "If they file anything we will refute them. Our position remains that the collateral deaths of civilians was a tragedy but all of them were legally justified actions in a time of war."
In a separate case involving Camp Pendleton Marines, an eight-man squad was accused of kidnapping and murdering an Iraqi man in the town of Hamdania. That case is working its way through the military courts.
Heres the whole story.
The list of sites is http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1111944/posts
Thanks..Bookmarked. Funny one of the sites I tried to post isn't on the list. AP.ORG.
Lt. Gen. James Mattis has examined the investigations into the killings and has made initial decisions about what action to take, Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Sean Gibson said Tuesday in a news release.
Gibson declined to say how many Marines would be charged or what crimes prosecutors would allege.
...snip...
Gibson said the Marine Corps would brief members of both the Senate and House Armed Services Committees this week on the findings of the investigations.
Washington-based attorney Mark Zaid, who represents squad leader Sgt. Frank Wuterich, said he had not heard if his client was going to be charged.
"We'll be prepared," Zaid said in a telephone interview. "If they file anything we will refute them. Our position remains that the collateral deaths of civilians was a tragedy but all of them were legally justified actions in a time of war."
Thankfully, at least three of the Marines have outstanding lawyers in Zaid, Jack Zimmerman, and Gary Myers.
I just feel sick that this is happening. If anyone has access to today's Corps press release, could you post it or send me a link? I want to see what it actually says.
Why would they torture the Marines and their families like this? Charges are coming but the brass has to talk to Congress first so the families can hear their sons are going to jail on the frigging TV! The Corps is screwing the grunts here big-frigging-time!
Yeah, I don't get that, either. AP itself is fine to post. Just that one site isn't.
Doesn't make sense to me.
Check my post #9 Red, it doesn't look like the Corps has released an official statement yet. That piece said the info was obtained due to an inquiry.
Marine Corps: Criminal charges being finalized in Haditha case
By: MARK WALKER - Staff Writer
CAMP PENDLETON-- Military prosecutors are putting the final touches on criminal charges against members of a Camp Pendleton platoon responsible for the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians, a Marine Corps spokesman said Tuesday.
In response to an inquiry from the North County Times, the spokesman said Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis has reviewed two exhaustive investigative reports and reached initial decisions.
"These decisions will be publicly announced at a later date as prosecutors are finalizing charges and other actions against those found to have responsibility in this incident," Lt. Col. Sean Gibson said in a written statement to the newspaper.
Mattis, commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Central Command and Camp Pendleton's I Marine Expeditionary Force, is the convening authority over the case, which raised a worldwide outcry when first reported in March of this year.
Members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees will be briefed in Washington Wednesday and Thursday on the results of the investigation, Gibson said.
The closed-door, members-only briefings are being delivered by Lt. Gen. Richard Natonski, former commanding general of Camp Pendleton's 1st Marine Division and the man who relieved some of the men of their command duties shortly after the Haditha killings.
Natonski's briefings will address the Naval Criminal Investigative Service conclusions of its investigation and a companion report that looked into how Marine commanders in Iraq responded to initial news of the civilian deaths.
The Marines under investigation are from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment.
The two dozen Iraqis gunned down in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005, included several women and children.
Iraqi witnesses have contended that up to 13 Marines went on a rampage after one of their own was killed when a roadside bomb destroyed one of their Humvee as they passed through the city at about 7:30 that morning. Killed in the explosion was 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas of El Paso, Texas.
The Marines there that day have told investigators that immediately after the bombing, they also came under attack from insurgents armed with AK-47 assault rifles, shots they said were coming from one or more nearby homes.
The first Iraqis to die when the squad began returning fire were four men who emerged from a car and began running. None of those men have been determined by investigators to be insurgents, according to published reports.
The squad radioed word of the attack to commanders, and eventually stormed through four homes in search of the insurgents.
The shooting that took place in two of the homes appeared justified, sources close the case have said, but the assault on the two other homes may have violated the Marine Corps rules of engagement, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
The rules of engagement allow a combat operation against any source of fire or suspected insurgent stronghold, but are clear in directing that lethal force not be used against children or apparent civilians unless absolutely necessary. Five women and six children were among those killed.
Last month, National Public Radio named five Marines it said would face charges, including Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich.
Wuterich, who has filed a libel suit against U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Penn., for the lawmaker's comments that the squad killed "in cold blood," contends the unit was abiding by the rules of engagement, did not intentionally target civilians and made no effort to conceal what had occurred.
The Haditha case is the second involving Camp Pendleton troops accused of killing civilians in Iraq.
Seven Marines and a Navy corpsman from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment were charged in June with murder in the slaying of a 52-year-old retired Iraqi policeman in the village of Hamdania.
The corpsman and three Marines have pleaded guilty in that case to lesser offenses and been sentenced to terms ranging from 12 to 21 months in the brig. Four more Marines face trial next year for their alleged roles in the kidnapping and killing of Hashim Ibrahim Awad.
Below is the complete text of the statement issued by the Marine Corps Tuesday regarding the Haditha case:
"Because of their role in defense oversight, appropriate members of both the Senate and House Armed Services Committees will be briefed on the 6th and 7th of December by Marine Corps leadership about the findings of the AR 15-6 and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigations into the November 19, 2005 incident in Haditha, Iraq, where 24 Iraqi civilians were killed.
"Lieutenant General Mattis, Commander, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Central Command has reviewed the investigations and made initial decisions with regard to actions to be taken regarding possible violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. These decisions will be publicly announced at a later date as prosecutors are finalizing charges and other actions against those found to have responsibility in this incident."
"Because of their role in defense oversight, appropriate members of both the Senate and House Armed Services Committees will be briefed on the 6th and 7th of December by Marine Corps leadership about the findings of the AR 15-6 and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigations into the November 19, 2005 incident in Haditha, Iraq, where 24 Iraqi civilians were killed.
***
So it looks like TWO days of briefings before we find out.
What do you want to bet that Murtha will be on "The Today Show" tomorrow morning and/or he'll write in his blog at the Huffington Post that our boys are killers?
On two occasions I've tried to post AP articles from newspapers that have no restrictions and it wouldn't post here. I went back and noticed AP had their copywrite notice at the end of the article and I surmised that was why it wouldn't post, don't know that for a fact though.
I'm sure he'll be blowing his horn again somewhere, and soon. What a despicable a$$ he is.
Words fail me right now. That noise you hear is American patriots in Arlington Cemetery turning in their graves in total disgust at what is happening in our country. Liberals are on the march to destroy our country and our freedoms. Meanwhile, the American people are clueless.
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