Sorry Red...I'm allergic to shrooms! Would you like to order something else?
Posted on 01/18/2007 3:45:16 AM PST by RedRover
Edited on 01/18/2007 8:27:44 AM PST by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
The report on the investigation of the Haditha slayings by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), leaked to the Washington Post by anonymous Pentagon sources, is based on incomplete information and is badly flawed, a source tells NewsMax.
In an careful, point-by-point examination, a veteran Marine intelligence officer, who was present and monitored the day-long action from its onset, revealed to NewsMax unknown facts either ignored by the NCIS or of which the agency seemed totally unaware.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Was involved with one and it was sad from the start to the end.
Hey we having lunch??????
NewsMax is fine. Don't let the naysayers devalue the importance of this story.
Well, we WERE going to have lunch. But a certain someone never came back from the diner.
Sorry Red...I'm allergic to shrooms! Would you like to order something else?
That's definitely making me hungry, it's just past lunch time here. Looks gooood.
Enjoy my FRiend, you work hard here.
Please add me to the Haditha Marine Ping List.
Thank You
How about the pressed duck with mango sauce?
You're in, petro! Welcome aboard.
Welcome to the Haditha Marine ping list, petro.
Yes, thats good. This story is moving slowly; but its moving!
Last spring, military officials took on a painful duty that had nothing to do with the prosecution of the war in Iraq.
Focusing on what may prove to be the darkest chapter in this conflict, the officials investigated allegations that a small group of Marines killed 24 Iraqi men, women and children — slayings allegedly triggered by the killing of a Marine in a bomb attack.
It has become clear that the investigators carried out this grave responsibility with honor and integrity, erasing whatever fears may have existed that the probe would represent a whitewash.
Military prosecutors recently charged four Marines with the slayings in the village of Haditha, according to news reports. The prosecutors also charged four officers with failing to investigate and report the slayings, which occurred Nov. 19, 2005.
The cover-up charges are particularly significant, because if a crime did occur, it would have been exacerbated by an effort to protect the soldiers involved, thus damaging U.S. credibility and moral authority.
It is important to note that while the military should be commended for its aggressive investigation, the soldiers are innocent until proven guilty.
"I think this illustrates the deep seriousness the Marine Corps takes with these events," Gary Solis, who teaches the law of war at West Point and Georgetown University, told the New York Times. "I definitely think the Marine Corps is sending a message to commanders, to those in authority of combat troops, that they better pay close attention to the activities of their subordinates to ensure that there was no wrongdoing."
The military had to send that message regardless of what happened in Haditha — and regardless of how the case is resolved. This war is unlike any the United States has ever waged. In the chaos of Iraq, where the enemy blends into the environment, it is easy to view every civilian with suspicion.
Soldiers, facing an enemy that shatters the Geneva Conventions with every IED assault, shoulder a horrible burden. Yet while war is brutal, the brutality multiplies when soldiers stray from the rules of warfare — regardless of the tactics the enemy uses.
The men charged with these crimes may be innocent, but the search for justice must continue with the same diligence shown thus far. The integrity of the military — and the nation — depends on it.
Don't know if you've seen this yet.
Washington, Jan 17 (Prensa Latina) High-ranking US officers manipulated public opinion with their report on the massacre of civilians in Haditha, Iraq, the defense team for Marines, charged with the carnage, denounced on Wednesday.
Calling the report by Col. Gregory Watt a DOD manipulation of the truth, attorney Mark Zaid said the Marines were victims of Pentagon efforts to improve the US image after de torture scandal of Abu Grahib and the killing of Iraqi civilians by US soldiers, among other crimes.
Zaid called his client, Sgt. Frank Wuterich, and the other Marines scapegoats of a policy they did not design.
Sgt. Wuterich, along with other Marines, was indicted last December on 13 murder charges for his involvement in the slaying of 24 unarmed civilians on Nov. 19, 2006 in Haditha.
Initially the Pentagon claimed that rebel explosives killed the civilians, but Hammurabi Iraqi Human Rights Association, confirmed by two child witnesses, revealed the truth that the unarmed victims were shot by US Marines armed with M-16 assault rifles.
CAMP PENDLETON ---- A 25-year-old Marine corporal pleaded guilty to murder this morning in the shooting death of a retired Iraqi police officer last year, becoming the first of eight men charged in the case to plead guilty to the homicide charge.
Cpl. Trent Thomas' plea was entered through his civilian attorney, Victor Kelly.
Thomas also pleaded guilty to conspiracy, larceny, housebreaking, kidnapping, assault and making a false official statement. In addition, the St. Louis native pleaded guilty to assault in an April 10 incident in the same Iraqi village of Hamdania where the homicide took place.
As his wife, Erica, looked on, Thomas in a calm voice described the events that led up to the killing, which took place in the early-morning hours of April 26.
Thomas said he and six other Marines and their Navy medical corpsman each agreed to target a suspected insurgent named Saleh Gowad and also agreed that if that man could not be found, they would target someone else.
"If we couldn't find him (Gowad), we were going to get someone else to make a statement that we the Marines were sick and tired of being bombed," Thomas told the military judge, Lt. Col. Tracy A. Daly.
When Gowad was not at home, Thomas said he and three others from a Kilo Company platoon from the Pendleton-based 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment went next door and pulled a sleeping Hashim Ibrahim Awad from his bed, the corporal told the court.
Thomas said he helped bind Awad as the man was led to a previously existing hole from an earlier roadside bombing. They placed Awad in the hole, along with a stolen shovel and AK-47 assault rifle.
The squad then took up positions and began firing at Awad.
Four other men have entered guilty pleas to lesser offenses in the case and been sentenced to jail terms ranging from 12 to 21 months.
Thomas is expected to continue to detail his role in the killing this afternoon. His sentencing will take place over a three-day period at a later date, the judge said.
On the eve of the hearing to enter his guilty plea, Thomas talked exclusively with a North County Times reporter in the Camp Pendleton office of one of his attorneys.
He spoke of his life in, and feelings toward, the Marine Corps as well as his faith and his childhood in and around St. Louis.
"Through a bad situation, so much good could come out of it," Thomas said. "A father is going to discipline his son, but he still loves him. I love the Marine Corps, even if someone else in my shoes would be down."
During the interview, the corporal said he harbors no ill feelings toward the service.
"Being a Marine, you are on top of the world. Nothing compares to it. I will be a Marine until the day I die. I won't hold my head down because of my situation."
See Friday's North County Times for a full report on the Thomas case, or continue to visit nctimes.com for updates throughout the day.
Meant to ping you to the news out of Pendleton above.
CAMP PENDLETON ---- A gaunt young Marine accused of helping kidnap and murder an Iraqi civilian last year wants his case decided by a jury trial with enlisted men making up at least one-third of the panel.
Lance Cpl. Marshall Magincalda made the jury request Wednesday during a pretrial hearing in his court-martial for his role in the April death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, a retired Iraqi police officer; prosecutors say he was taken from his home in the middle of night, bound and gagged and shot to death.
Magincalda, 23, told the judge presiding over his case, Marine Col. Steven Folsom, that he wanted to exercise his right to have the jury of service members who will hear his case include some of his peers.
Defense attorneys representing Magincalda also made it clear during the hearing that they will introduce evidence during the trial that Magincalda has battled post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of three deployments to Iraq.
Magincalda is charged with murder, kidnapping, assault and related offenses in the case and faces the possibility of life in prison without parole if convicted of the murder charge and given the maximum sentence.
This morning, one of Magincalda's co-defendants, Cpl. Trent Thomas, is expected to plead guilty during his court-martial for offenses related to his role in the slaying. Thomas' plea would be the fifth among the seven Kilo Company platoon Marines and their U.S. Naval corpsman attached to Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment who have struck plea agreements with military prosecutors.
There does not appear to be any plea agreement in the works for Magincalda, whose attorneys have consistently said that their client will go to trial.
Wednesday's brief court hearing also featured some sparring between the defense and prosecution over a questionnaire that prospective jurors will fill out.
Magincalda's defense team wants to delve deeply into the backgrounds of prospective panel members and include questions about such topics as their favorite books, TV shows, political persuasion and club affiliations.
After prosecutors argued that more than 20 of the questions the defense wants to ask are irrelevant to the case, Folsom said he would design a questionnaire based on what each side wants to ask.
Magincalda also entered a formal plea of not guilty during the hearing, a step taken because he had previously reserved his right to enter a formal plea until a later date.
When he and his squad mates were charged in connection with the Awad killing in June, prosecutors alleged that Magincalda's role in the incident included seizing the victim from his home and helping stage the killing scene that took place next to a road in Hamdania, Iraq.
Magincalda's trial had been set to begin Feb. 1, but has been moved to April 18, nearly one year from the date Awad was killed.
Besides Magincalda and Thomas, the other men still facing trial are Lance Cpl. Robert Pennington and Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III. Hutchins was the squad leader whom the four who have pleaded guilty said directed the plan that led to Awad's killing.
I don't know if happy is the proper way to express how I feel about Magincalda going to trial, but it will bring out those that were banking on secrecy kept in a plea.
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