Posted on 06/12/2007 4:12:45 PM PDT by radar101
CAMP PENDLETON ---- A lance corporal charged with murder in the death of three Iraqi brothers in 2005 passed a polygraph examination when asked whether he was being truthful when he said the first man he shot inside a home was holding an AK-47 assault rifle, according to testimony heard this morning.
The test administered last spring showed there was no apparent deception in the account provided by Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, said Naval Criminal Investigative Service Special Agent Nayda Mannle.
Sharratt is charged with three counts of unpremeditated murder for his role in the deaths of two dozen Iraqi civilians following a roadside bombing on the morning of Nov. 19, 2005. The 22-year-old rifleman from the base's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment could face life in prison if ordered to trial and convicted.
Mannle's testimony came on the second day of Sharratt's hearing. She eventually became the lead agent for the Haditha investigation, which resulted in Sharratt and two other enlisted men from the battalion facing homicide charges and three of its officers being charged with dereliction of duty for failing to investigate the incident.
While acknowledging that the polygraph did not indicate that Sharratt's account to investigators was deceptive, Mannle also testified that the account the Marines gave of what happened when four homes were stormed by the Marines did not match what some family members of the slain Iraqis said occurred.
Sharratt is accused of killing the three brothers inside the last of four homes that were assaulted by Marines after a roadside bombing that killed a lance corporal and injured two others.
His attorneys are trying to show inconsistencies in the investigation, focusing many of their questions on why government agents did not pursue full background reports on the men who died inside the fourth home, particularly one man who worked on the Jordanian border and may have had several Jordanian passports in his possession.
Mannle said that probably should have been done and agreed that agents can still try to piece that information together. But she also said that none of the 24 victims who died in Haditha had any known ties to the insurgency.
"We ran them through the database and all came up as negative for insurgents," she said during telephonic testimony from an office in the Pentagon.
The defense also is trying to show that forensic evidence taken from a bedroom where men died inside the fourth house is inconsistent with an account given by those men's surviving family members, who told investigators the men were herded into that room and executed in rapid succession.
For a full report on Tuesday's court proceedings, see Wednesday's North County Times.
tact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.
Stating the obvious: this is not an impeachment thread.
When these guy’s are found innocent we need to throw them a party and contribute to a fund.
“We ran them through the database and all came up as negative for insurgents,” she said during telephonic testimony from an office in the Pentagon.
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I am not familiar with military trials.
I always thought it was in the Constitution that all accused had the right to face their accuser.
How can this woman be allowed to testify over the telephone from the Pentagon?
I assume NCIS is funded directly by the Navy.
This investigation was all about pleasing the Iraqis, and SA Mannle confirms it.
The names, hometowns, and ages of the five were given--just so there'd be no mistake about who they were.
The five were Sgts Wuterich and Dela Cruz, LCpls Sharratt and Tatum, and Cpl Salinas.
That was a full month before charges were actually filed. The story is still up on NPR. Oh, and Cpl. Salinas was never charged.
Utter bastards.
How does NPR get this, and no one else????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Outstanding find, chickenhawk!
It’s past time to stop this travesty and let these soldiers get back to the business we asked them to peform.
Shows how little you actually know about the polygraph.
So the IG has another leak to never investigate.
Why wouldn’t NPR be interested in the Sharratt polygraph story???
The question, rather, is why isn’t every other enemdia outlet interested in the story, Red.
Still only ONE article on Google News Search!
I put in everything I could think of to bring up the NPR article...and it didn’t come up.
This is kinda like letting Jack the Ripper be a character witness for Jeffrey Dahmer.
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