Posted on 07/08/2007 7:46:13 PM PDT by RedRover
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- The Navy is investigating claims that Camp Pendleton Marines killed between five and 10 unarmed captives in a fierce battle in Fallujah, Iraq, in November 2004, current and former Marines say.
< snip >
A defense lawyer and former Marine captain who fought in Fallujah in December 2004 said the government would have a near-impossible task if it decided to prosecute.
"This is a huge rabbit hole, and I can't see it going anywhere," said the lawyer, Brian Rooney. "I was in Fallujah. It was nearly destroyed. The house is either gone or rebuilt completely, the bodies of the alleged victims are gone. Forensically you have no evidence."
Rooney represents Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, one of four officers accused of failing to investigate the deaths of the 24 civilians in Haditha.
In any Fallujah proceeding, he said, prosecutors would have to rely on eyewitness testimony to corroborate Weemer's account. With many of the Marines present at the time already out of the Marine Corps, that could prove difficult.
Weemer's sister said her brother had told Helms about the killings because he had wanted people at home to understand the difficult conditions that Marines faced in Iraq.
"His goal was to let people know what it was like over there, not for it to lead to this," she said.
Fallujah was the scene of two Marine battles in 2004, the first of which was launched in April after insurgents killed four U.S. contractors there. That battle was quickly aborted. In November that year, Marines led a second offensive against insurgent holdouts in the city, a fight that produced heavy casualties on both sides.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
Elsewhere on this investigation, there was a very good piece in the Marine Corps Times (which, unfortunately, does not allow posting on Free Republic): Author: Fallujah investigation is flawed by Gidget Fuentes.
In other news...
For the moment at least, DefendOurMarines is a popular keyword at FR! You can use it to find threads on all four major pending cases and investigations. There are also individual keywords for Haditha, Hamdania, MARSOC (also under AfghanHighway), and the Fallujah investigation (keyword: Fallujah04).
Over the past few days, my site, DefendOurMarines.com got some publicity for being first to break details about the Fallujah investigation which has led to more traffic there. (Also, more e-mails including one that just said, "you are a marine moron.")
Hopefully, the publicity for the site will lead to more action for the defense funds. I'm happy to say that Theresa Sharratt reports that donations are up at JustinSharratt.com though it's not clear if they were driven by the publicity. Most of the donations are coming from Washington state so they may be connected to Don Dinsmore's ride & rally.
Hopefully, people can find what they are interested in through keyword searches and the different ping lists that will develop. We'll keep the Haditha Marine Ping List for Haditha-related threads only except in the case of special announcements (like this one).
And just because I never get tired of this picture...
No warrior has acted with as much discipline, courage and honor as the American in this war.
If it’s in the Post-Disgrace, dollars to donuts it’s a hit piece. That rag is not with the paper it’s printed on. IMHO.
Captives have to be guarded,fed their health has to be looked out for ,they cost money when their trials come up and 99% of them will kill you if they get the oppportunity. The insurgents captured in Iraq will be a danger for the rest of their natural lives.
The less people captured alive the less problems there are with them.
Well said, Eagles! And they’ve acted with discipline, courage and honor against the most savage foe our warriors have ever faced.
I feel those captured should be treated in the same way captured American prisoners are treated.
This is just another reason that Fallujah should have been MOAB’ed out of existence when the photographs of dead burnt bodies of US contractors started showing up on the wire services.
The fact that Jorge hasn't put a stop to these investigations and persecutions is itself a national disgrace. How the heck can our troops be expected to achieve victory if they cannot even pick up a weapon without being accused of "war crimes?"
B T T T
I am so sick of this P C crap! Our young military heroes are fighting MONSTERS!! Let them fight, and do their job!
That’s all they ask, and it ain’t much! Our enemies chop
off heads, and then laugh about it! And they don’t face
a JAG, or congressional inquiry for it, they are rewarded!!
I may be dense on this particular story or I am reading too much into the exact wording of Cpl. Weemer’s account. Even in the previous articles he never says “I was ordered to kill POW’s” it’s always refered to as “The Marines” killed the POW’s. Was he actually one of the Marines? Is he feeling guilty because he perceived it as murder because HQ’s asked the question about them still being alive and there were no prisoners after the fact? I’m getting the feeling that because he had knowledge of what happened that he feels he was complicent in it. I may be totally wrong. What am I missing?
Nothing left for Me Lie 2 except the dismissal.
Pray for W and Our Marines
He was medevacced out of Fallujah after the fight in Hell House. I think the whole ordeal was so traumatic (and the fighting so confusing) that he was trying to come to terms with what he had seen and done, and whether he had done well and done right. And, unfortunately, he spoke to NCIS.
I've invited Nat Helms to come over here and shed some light, if he can. So we'll see if Nat shows up!
Sad but true. Young Marines need to be educated about NCIS. The corporal believed them when agents said there wouldn’t be an investigation.
Man, I gotta get caught up.Damn.
If you want to call the President of the United States “Jorge” do it on another thread. This is not a place to disrespect the CIC of the Marines.
BTW if you would use some common sense you would understand that the President cannot interfere in an investigation. If you want to be pissed off at someone be pissed off at the Marine commanders who have let things get to this point and the media for the continuous quest for an excuse to beat up on the soldiers.
Justin Sharratt - Support Our Marine
Links to the background facts from the soldier's eyes would be helpful.
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