Posted on 06/12/2007 4:12:45 PM PDT by radar101
Here you go (actually the article could be worse)...
Marine Officers Strategized Their Haditha Responses
A document entered into evidence in hearings related to the killing of Iraqi civilians in Haditha in November of 2005 reveals that Marine officers in charge of the squad in question met to discuss how they would handle a reporter's questions about the episode.
After a Marine was killed in Haditha by a roadside bomb, 24 Iraqi civilians were slain in three houses being cleared by a Marine squad. Staff Sgt. Frank Wutterich, who led the squad that day, has been charged with unpremeditated murder.
Hearings on the case against Wutterich and others are under way at California's Camp Pendleton.
Neither Wutterich's battalion commander nor anyone else in the Marine chain of command saw any reason to investigate the civilian deaths, even though several women and children were killed in their homes.
In January of 2006, Time magazine reporter Tim McGirk sent a series of questions to the military asking what had happened in Haditha on the day of the killings, Nov. 19, 2005.
Officers of the battalion in charge of the platoon and squad involved met to discuss their response to McGirk's questions. The notes that emerged from their meeting show how the Marines hoped to shape the story and to prepare the officers to answer McGirk's questions.
It is unclear which one of the officers wrote a synopsis of their meeting, which was provided to NPR.
McGirk never went out to Haditha to interview those directly involved. He has said that his editors thought it to be too dangerous. Some of the Marines involved in the incident feel that it was unfair for him to file his story without talking to them.
Sgt. Wutterich told CBS's 60 Minutes that he made a logical guess that fire was coming from the houses they cleared. No one in the Marines' chain of command has testified that they saw any reason to suspect that a law-of-war violation had occurred.
Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, the battalion commander, was charged with dereliction of duty for failing to properly report and investigate the incident.
Camp Pendleton is also now hearing pretrial motions on a case prompted by the alleged execution of a 52-year-old Iraqi man by a Marine squad in Hamdania.
I mean, it does not come up when searching for news on google.
Same here.
(snicker)
I’m getting tired. It took me a minute before it hit me.
Yes, but can you come up with a song, "She thinks my AK-47 looks sexy?"
LOL! No true-blood country boy would come up with that title!
Don’t tell me you don’t know, “She thinks my tractor looks sexy” song. Maybe it’s the, “She thinks my humvee looks sexy”...don’t know.
AND... why is it you take the word of Iraqi’s over a Marine??????
Crazy is all I can say!
Yep I was shocked when I read this too... Amazing isn’t it?
LOL, again. ‘Course I know that song, and it’s “She thinks my tractor’s sexy”. I meant no true-blood country boy would write about a sexy AK-47. “She thinks my humvee’s sexy”, has possibilities, though.
Of course he passed!
We never doubted that he wouldn’t.
Exactly, Panther!! And not just Iraqi's but insurgent Iraqi collaborators.
Here’s the Slimes take on today’s hearing. Interesting info about how the NCIS conducted the interviews (no tape recorder- she forgot to buy one at the base). But -surprise, surprise - not one mention of Justin’s lie detector test results or the failure of NCIS to do even the most basic of investigations regarding the “civilians’.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/13/us/13haditha.html
Chickenhawk, I posted this to Red and Girlene. I figure I would make it public..So here goes.
Mannle was conducting a group interview of the Iraqi’s in House 3, while another agent, Maloney was doing a forensic reconstruction in House 4. Mannle went to Maloney in House 4 and told Agent maloney that the story the women and boy gave her in House 3 did not coincide with what the Marines stated. Mannle told Maloney that the women and boy told her the Iraqi men in house 4 were killed execution style.(Maloney had a tape recorder and was taping the conversation and his forensic reconstruction) Maloney then told her his forensic reconstruction didn’t suggest an execution style killing. Maloney told her THE MARINES WERE NOT IN CONTROL OF HOUSE 4. He said there was a struggle in house 4 and the blood patterns did not suggest execution-style killing. This recording was played for the IO. Our defense team had it. Mannle knew that Maloney had the recording device. Jim Culp then proceeded to sketch out the blood patterns for the agent Platt. This evidence will be presented in detail when Agent Maloney testifies sometime this week. Yes, Mannle wants to believe the story of the Iraqi’s over our Marines. She fell on her face today.
Darryl Sharratt
Darryl - thank you for the update. I look forward to more of the prosecution’s witnesses falling flat on their face. My best to you and your wife with a big hug of support for Justin.
Thanks for posting this, Darryl. Hopefully the IO is seeing this Mannle for what she is, a biased investigator.
The best to you all.
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