Author knew of Fallujah POW allegations for more than a year

NORTH COUNTY ---- The author of a book about the battle of Fallujah in 2004 said Thursday that he has known for more than a year about allegations that members of a Camp Pendleton platoon shot and killed eight Iraqi prisoners of war during the fighting.

Longtime military affairs writer and Vietnam War veteran Nat Helms said during a telephone interview that he first learned of the incident while conducting interviews for a book he helped write, "My Men Are Heroes: The Brad Kasal Story."

Helms said he chose not to report the allegations publicly until after the North County Times disclosed last week that they were the subject of an ongoing Naval Criminal Investigative Service probe.

Helms, a St. Louis-area resident who once served as editor of a magazine called DefenseWatch, posted his account of the alleged incident earlier this week on the Web site, www.defendourmarines.com.

The alleged incident took place during a concentrated battle in Fallujah, where Marines fought one of the largest battles of the Iraq war. Kilo Company Platoon members from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment had captured a group of suspected insurgents on Nov. 10, 2004, and asked commanders by radio what they should do with the men, according to Helms' account.

"They're still alive?" was the response, causing an unnamed platoon leader to interpret it to mean they were to kill the Iraqis and move on to their next assignment, according to Helms.

Helms said he first learned about the allegations in early 2006 while interviewing former Marine Cpl. Ryan Weemer for the book. The story got out a few months later when Weemer told the Secret Service he was aware of a "wrongful death."

Weemer was there the day of the alleged killings, Helms wrote in a posting to his Web site. "It was ugly, Weemer said, and never left his mind," Helms wrote.

The first disclosure came as Weemer answered questions during a routine polygraph examination being conducted as part of his application to join that agency.

A short time later, Weemer was approached by Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents who wanted to question him, according to Helms.

Efforts to reach Weemer were unsuccessful, but a report in Thursday's Los Angeles Times quoted him as telling the newspaper in an e-mail that he wanted the matter to "go away."

"Nothing is going to come of it," Weemer was quoted as writing. "The headlines will get it twisted anyway."

Helms said Weemer was a rifleman with Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment's Kilo Company at the time of the incident. According to sources with intimate knowledge of the case, about 20 current and former Marines have been interviewed, several have been read their rights and some have hired attorneys.

Two attorneys who specialize in military law said Thursday that even if the allegations are true, proving the case in court could be difficult.

"You would have to establish that there is enough probable cause and, even if you got to court-martial, prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt," said Thad Coakley, a former Marine Corps attorney who was in Iraq when the killings occurred. "And if you're lacking forensic evidence, pictures or eyewitnesses, you don't have much of a case."

The time that has passed is another significant challenge, said Coakley, who is now in private practice in Texas. Witnesses' memories will be fuzzy, and the case could boil down to one man's word against another's, with little or no tangible evidence.

Brian Rooney, another former Marine attorney who also served in Iraq, also said he thinks that the alleged incident would present significant challenges for prosecutors if it got that far.

"The bodies are gone and there will never be any forensic evidence," he said. "From a prosecutor's standpoint, I think it would be impossible to prove."

Rooney is part of a defense team defending an officer in the unrelated case of seven men from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment charged with wrongdoing arising out of the deaths of 24 Iraqis in Haditha in November 2005.

In addition to the newly disclosed Fallujah investigation and the ongoing prosecution of the Haditha incident that took place a year later, a third group of Camp Pendleton Marines from the 3rd Battalion is also involved in an Iraqi death case arising from an April 2006 incident.

In that case, eight men were charged with abducting and killing a retired Iraqi policeman in the village of Hamdania. Five men reached plea deals and were sentenced to jail terms ranging from 12 months to eight years.

Three remaining defendants face trial this summer. The first to reach court is Cpl. Trent Thomas, whose court-martial on charges of premeditated murder and related offenses is scheduled to start Monday morning.

An accusation is not proof. WAY past time the usual group of ass clowns in the Pentagon learn that just because some latrine rumor is floating around is not cause for either an investigation or a newspaper headline.

I don't care if Mark Walker or Nat Helms used the term Prisoners of War in reference to the Islamists killed. Those who were killed regardless of the circumstances, were not,... I repeat NOT POWs.

For POW status to be conferred there are very specific requirements that must be met and they are clearly delineated in the Geneva Hague Protocols. Among them are are clear and defined command structure, the wearing of identifiable markings of allegiance and rank at a distance to name just two. Under the GH they were at best Enemy Combatants granted only the most minimal of protections under the GH but they were NOT POWs.

I suppose it's too much to ask a PRESSTITUTE to actually read the GH but, Nat Helms, the claimed Vietnam Vet, if he called them POWs did get GH training and should know better.

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