Posted on 07/11/2007 3:21:44 AM PDT by freema
SAN DIEGO, California (AP) -- An investigating officer has recommended dismissing murder charges against a Marine accused in the slayings of three Iraqi men in a squad action that killed 24 civilians in Haditha, according to a report released Tuesday.
The government's theory that Lance Cpl. Justin L. Sharratt had executed the three men was "incredible" and relied on contradictory statements by Iraqis, Lt. Col. Paul Ware said in the report, released by Sharratt's defense attorneys.
"To believe the government version of facts is to disregard clear and convincing evidence to the contrary, and sets a dangerous precedent that, in my opinion, may encourage others to bear false witness against Marines as a tactic to erode public support of the Marine Corps and mission in Iraq," Ware wrote.
Defense attorneys James Culp and Gary Myers in a statement welcomed the report and said it "reflected the value of the calm of a courtroom and the adversarial process."
Sharratt's mother Theresa said she was overjoyed.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Share the joy!
Sanity...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Thank God!
You can bet I’m thinking Nifong.
Woo Hoo!
I keep forgetting to breathe.
Don’t think Nifong. Think Fitzgerald. Nifong was a Corrupt DA who was pandering to the plantation folk so he can get reelected.
Fitzy’s only political ambition ws to be Hillary’s AG should she win.
Think damages!
Whatis the background of this story — by that I mean, wasn’t it one of the “news magazines” that brought this story to the front line? Time or Newsweak? Wouldn’t it be nice if the Marines caught up in this fiasco could sue such a magazine for false reporting, which led to false charges, etc., etc.?
That would be a good ending to this horrible story....today’s “media” reports stuff of water cooler gossip as “news” without a thought or care of the consequences of their actions.
It is high time someone took them to task for it.
Tim McGirk in Time (March 19, 2006):
The Marines raided a third house, which belongs to a man named Ahmed Ayed. One of Ahmed's five sons, Yousif, who lived in a house next door, told Time that after hearing a prolonged burst of gunfire from his father's house, he rushed over. Iraqi soldiers keeping watch in the garden prevented him from going in. "They told me, 'There's nothing you can do. Don't come closer, or the Americans will kill you too.' The Americans didn't let anybody into the house until 6:30 the next morning." Ayed says that by then the bodies were gone; all the dead had been zipped into U.S. body bags and taken by Marines to a local hospital morgue. "But we could tell from the blood tracks across the floor what happened," Ayed claims.
"The Americans gathered my four brothers and took them inside my father's bedroom, to a closet. They killed them inside the closet."
The military has a different account of what transpired. According to officials familiar with the investigation, the Marines broke into the third house and found a group of 10 to 15 women and children. The troops say they left one Marine to guard that house and pushed on to the house next door, where they found four men, one of whom was wielding an AK-47. A second seemed to be reaching into a wardrobe for another weapon, the officials say. The Marines shot both men dead; the military's initial report does not specify how the other two men died. The Marines deny that any of the men were killed in the closet, which they say is too small to fit one adult male, much less four....In all, two AK-47s were discovered.
_________________________________________
William Langewiesche in Vanity Fair (November 2006):
Wuterich's men pursued the search to the north side of Route Chestnut, where they put the women and children under guard and killed four men of another family. There on the north side they found the only AK-47 that was discovered that day —- apparently a household defensive weapon, of the type that is legal and common in Iraq. No one has claimed that the rifle had been fired....
A man cries, "This is an act denied by God. What did he do? To be executed in the closet? Those bastards!...."
_________________________________________
Josh White in the Washington Post (January 6, 2007):
A few hours later [after the first houses were cleared], Sharratt, Wuterich and Salinas approached a third and fourth house after noticing men they said were peering at them suspiciously. The investigative reports show that what happened there is unclear. Iraqi witnesses said the Marines angrily separated men and women into two lines before marching the men into the fourth house and shooting them. The three Marines told investigators they were searching for the men they had seen and separated the women into a safe area before Wuterich and Sharratt entered the house.
Sharratt told investigators that he saw a man raise an AK-47 rifle as if to shoot him. Sharratt said his gun jammed, but he grabbed his 9mm handgun and shot the attacker. He told investigators he saw another man with a rifle and shot him and two others because he "felt threatened." Wuterich also shot at the men, he said.
Think Johnny Sutton.
Praise the Lord for prayers answered!!!!!
Hallelujah indeed.
It won’t happen — but at the end of this long, painful road I would wish that General Mattis could say: “I am recommending Court Martial be instituted against those members of JAG and the NCIS who bought into this tragedy, with the aim of assisting in the civilian prosecution of the members of the Media that promulgated lies and innuendo as fact. The damage done to my Marines and my Corps deserves nothing less!”
BTTT!
One great inequity that's now apparent, imho, is the disparity in budgets. The prosecutors and NCIS apparently have limitless, gov't financed budgets. This seems unfair to me in that, as opposed to the civilian world, the congressionally mandated UCMJ REQUIRES defense of accused soldiers as well as prosecution. They REQUIRE a defense counsel be appointed as part of the UCMJ process. They should, therefore, also require EQUAL expenditures for both defense and prosecution, since both are under the auspices of the very same military.
It is clear that there was no dereliction of reporting from the Stone case.
It is clear that there was no murder from the Sharratt case.
It is clear from the classified info revealed in the Dinsmore testimony that there can be ZERO convictions from this propaganda attack waged by Insurgents + Media + Murtha.
Therefore, Mathis should drop all charges on all defendants based on the cases already declared above to be unfit for prosecution. The others are just rehashes of those two.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.