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One Haditha Hero Cleared
American Thinker ^ | July 11, 2007 | David Allender

Posted on 07/11/2007 12:44:18 PM PDT by smoothsailing

July 11, 2007

One Haditha hero cleared

David Allender

The Investigative Officer in in the LCpl. Sharratt Article 32 hearing has recommended that murder charges be dropped. This clears one of the defendants in the so-called "Haditha massacre." One innocent man and brave soldier has been spared further agony in this disgraceful prosecution.

I posted a copy of the IO's report here.

LCpl. Sharratt was charged with three murders in house number four (Sgt. Wuterich was charged with a fourth murder in that house).

The four dead Iraqis, the Ayed brothers, were described by Iraqi "witnesses" as having been herded into a closet and executed.

Here is how the Iraqi "witnesses" (enabled by the MSM) told the story of what happened in house number four. Their version is what prosecutors failed to prove:

Tim McGirk in Time (March 19, 2006):

The Marines raided a third house [later known as house number four], 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. It's a good day so far! But there are more men suffering for defending our nation with their lives.

Page Printed from:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/07/one_haditha_hero_cleared.html at July 11, 2007 - 03:29:47 PM EDT


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: aidandcomfort; defendourmarines; haditha; iraq; nifongism; partisanwitchhunt; propaganda; thecrucible; timemagazine; treason; waronerror; wot
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To: smoothsailing; RedRover; Girlene

So Girlene has the stache and I am drinking. Yes, it’s trash can punch. Ever had any?


101 posted on 07/12/2007 8:20:59 PM PDT by lilycicero (Friends of Haditha Marines found here.)
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To: RedRover; smoothsailing

That must be my oil well in the background. We ride them like mechanical bulls where I come from.


102 posted on 07/12/2007 8:25:23 PM PDT by lilycicero (Friends of Haditha Marines found here.)
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To: lilycicero

I wrote three replies and deleted them all.


103 posted on 07/12/2007 8:36:05 PM PDT by RedRover (DefendOurMarines.com)
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To: RedRover

Thank you for saying that. I do it all the time. That’s what the private reply button is for poochie. Fire away.


104 posted on 07/12/2007 8:38:00 PM PDT by lilycicero (Friends of Haditha Marines found here.)
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To: lilycicero

Love you, Lil! See you tomorrow!


105 posted on 07/12/2007 8:59:09 PM PDT by RedRover (DefendOurMarines.com)
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To: smoothsailing

FANtastic!


106 posted on 07/12/2007 9:04:56 PM PDT by NordP (HUNTER: "The real question for Mexico--Why are your people crossing burning deserts to get away?")
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To: RedRover

*sigh*


107 posted on 07/12/2007 9:04:59 PM PDT by lilycicero (It is tomorrow. I dare you to sleep in.)
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To: lilycicero; RedRover; jazusamo
That Red, always leaving, why's he so busy?

Must be that silly costume he wears in public,can you imagine riding the New York subway dressed like that?

What a challenge, that's enough to make anyone head for the highground.HAH!

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

108 posted on 07/12/2007 9:43:06 PM PDT by smoothsailing ("Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction"--President Ronald Reagan)
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To: smoothsailing; lilycicero; RedRover

LOL! I’ll bet he gets mobbed by the girls every time he gets on the subway with his outfit on. I’m sure that’s why he wears it.


109 posted on 07/12/2007 10:00:14 PM PDT by jazusamo (DefendOurMarines.com)
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To: jazusamo; smoothsailing

Chicks dig me. What can I say? You might want to reconsider your own wardrobe, fellas!


110 posted on 07/13/2007 7:35:13 AM PDT by RedRover (DefendOurMarines.com)
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To: RedRover
Chicks dig me.

It goes without saying.

111 posted on 07/13/2007 9:54:32 PM PDT by lilycicero (You have a youthful voice.)
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To: smoothsailing

Excellent! More good news please...and why isn’t this all over the airways? God help our country!


112 posted on 07/13/2007 10:03:09 PM PDT by Bobbisox (ALL AMERICAN OLD FEMALE FREEPER!)
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To: lilycicero; RedRover
It goes without saying

Good grief, Lily, have I been jilted, for a guy in a fuzzy red dog suit?

Oh, woe is me, I'm feeling low. :-(


113 posted on 07/13/2007 10:23:30 PM PDT by smoothsailing ("Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction"--President Ronald Reagan)
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To: smoothsailing

Ah, but I have seen your real picture. You can take over the “Chicks dig me” title.


114 posted on 07/13/2007 10:59:41 PM PDT by lilycicero (They don't call you smoothsailing for nothin'.)
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To: lilycicero
LOL! OH GOOD, Wow, you had me sweatin' bullets there for a while, darlin'!

:-)

115 posted on 07/13/2007 11:02:26 PM PDT by smoothsailing ("Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction"--President Ronald Reagan)
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To: Bobbisox
...and why isn’t this all over the airways?

I tell you, I have much less respect for the Sean Hannitys and Bill O'Reillys than I used to. The coverage picked up a little around the "censure Murtha" story yesterday. But it wasn't much. And no one aside from the local San Diego press is covering the hearings. Hard to understand.

116 posted on 07/14/2007 5:02:24 AM PDT by RedRover (DefendOurMarines.com)
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