Posted on 12/06/2006 5:41:01 AM PST by RedRover
Washington — At least five Marines are expected to be charged, possibly as early as today with the killing of 24 Iraqis, many of them unarmed women and children, in the village of Haditha in November 2005, according to a Marine official and a lawyer involved in the case.
The charges are expected to range from negligent homicide to murder, said a senior Pentagon official familiar with the military's nearly nine-month investigation into the episode. Several Marines from the 3rd Platoon of Company K, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, are accused of killing the villagers after a roadside explosion killed one of their comrades.
Charges could also be brought against an additional one or two Marines, the Marine official said, including one officer who was in the vicinity of the killings but did not participate in them.
Though it was nearly certain that Marines would be charged with crimes for the killings, exactly when the charges would be made official was unclear. But charges could closely follow a closed-door briefing by Lt. Gen. Richard F. Natonski, the Marine Corps deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations, to the House Armed Services Committee this morning.
That briefing will relate the findings of a military inquiry into how the Marine Corps managed its investigation of the slayings which began with an inquiry in March, four months after the killings occurred, the Pentagon official said. Aides to committee members said that Marine officials promised a confidential briefing before any charges were announced.
According to the Marine official and the defense lawyer representing one of the Marines under investigation, criminal charges will be filed against Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, 26, of Meriden, Conn., the squad's leader; Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum, 25, of Edmund, Okla.; Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, 21, of Carbondale, Penn.; Cpl. Sanick Dela Cruz, 24, of Chicago; and Cpl. Hector Salinas, 22, of Houston.
The five Marines are said to have been the ones who killed the 24 Iraqis, including five men in a taxi that approached the Marines' convoy after the explosion that killed a 20-year-old lance corporal, and 19 other civilians in several houses nearby. About 10 of the dead were women and children who appeared to have been killed by rifle fire at close range, military officials said.
The Marines have said they believed that they were coming under small-arms fire from a house on the south side of the road.
Jack Zimmermann, a lawyer for Tatum, said his client had responded appropriately to a lethal attack in a dangerous region of Iraq. “There was no crime committed,” Zimmermann said.
Mark Zaid, a lawyer representing Wuterich, said his client acted in accordance with military rules of engagement.
“We emphatically deny that Staff Sergeant Wuterich participated in any unlawful killings that day in Haditha,” Zaid said. “The collateral civilian deaths were absolutely tragic, but occurred as a result of legally justified actions that routinely occur during time of war.”
Lawyers for the other three enlisted Marines declined to comment.
The senior Pentagon official said that no other Marines would face charges in the case. “The only people who will be charged with an offense will be those individuals who did the shootings,” the official said last week.
But the Marine officer, interviewed on Tuesday, said that he expected charges to be brought against one or two additional Marines, including one officer.
“I don't see just five of them being charged,” the official said. “I see six or seven. One of them, I see, is an officer.”
That officer, the Marine official said, was First Lt. William T. Kallop, 25, the only officer at the scene, who arrived sometime after the initial explosion that led to the Marines' sweep of the nearby homes.
A lawyer for Kallop declined to comment Tuesday.
The Congressional briefing starts this morning. Let me or jazusamo know if you want to be on the Haditha Marines Ping List.
Breaker Morant
Lt. Kallop is a New Yorker and I will contact his lawyer to see if anything can be done to show support.
If any Freepers can do likewise for the Marines in their neck of the woods, please let us all know. I'm hoping we can take some constructive action against the multitude of forces arrayed against these boys.
Good analogy. Let's hope there's a happier ending for the Marines.
Please add me to the ping list. I have been tracking this, but I am sure I've missed some.
Thank you!!
Becki
We need to drum these m'fn a**hole JAGS and there ball-less enablers right out of the military. These filthy, dirty bastards don't deserve to polish the shoes of men like Sgt.Wuterich and Lt. Kallop, much less bring charges. This horsesh*t must end.
The unintended consequences will be decades in the making...
And all bad.
I'm sure glad I don't have grandchildren!
I suggest that in lieu of no longer having a military (a reasonable expectation), that we immediately instigate college courses in urban guerilla warfare.
Not surprisingly, this is precisely the position of the Muslim Mass Murderers, arguing in between beheadings with rusty knives...
You're in, Becki. Welcome aboard.
add me to your haditha ping list please...
i am outraged and appalled at this development. after all the research and reading i've done i will never believe this was a criminal act.
And since every muzzie numbnut with a rocket launcher or AK47 is a civilian, say goodbye to the WOT. The terrorists couldn't beat us. But we're in the process of defeating ourselves.
Ok, tinfoil hat time. With hat firmly affixed, it occurs to me that they have to manufacture some war crimes in order to charge (and prosecute with a kangaroo court) the President with war crimes. I'm sure that instead of sugar plums, visions of a televised execution is dancing through more than a few of these liberal heads (note--I did not say "minds"--they are obviously OUT of those) this Christmas. Yes, I do think they hate him THAT bad...whether they actually try something this grotesque, I can't say.
The Clintons started all this b^!!$#!& when they turned the United States military into their little social experiment. Anything that is going to make a member of our military hesitate before pulling the trigger is their own death certificate, imo of course.
Day off from work. Now I gotta get pills for mom, food shop, wash cloths, etc.. But will stay tuned as time permits.
Welcome to the Haditha Marine ping list, Becki and Chickenhawk Warmonger.
The media coverage of this incident with their info coming from unnamed sources is beyond pathetic.
If these Marines are prosecuted for killing people in residences they were taking fire from, it's beyond belief.
I can't believe this crap has gotten this far! This thing has been a hoax from the beginning! Praying for our brave men... this is how the libs plan to subvert the military.
I wonder who the 'Lord Kitchener' of this is?
George Soros? The Human Rights Watch was behind this whole hoax. I can't get over this!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.