Posted on 07/25/2007 6:09:15 PM PDT by RedRover
The prosecution’s criminal case against LCpl Stephen Tatum and six other Marines in various stages of judicial process took another nose dive today. Charges that Chessani and his officers failed to adequately investigate or report the circumstances of the ambush at Haditha to higher headquarters were blasted apart by confirmation that a U.S. Air Force RQ-1 Predator was on station above Haditha for more than five hours on November 19, 2005.
Both Chessani and higher headquarters at least at both regiment and division level were watching it do its thing on big screens, an officer revealed. The Predator’s amazing capabilities provide opportunity for anyone in the National Command Authority to watch the fight in real time if they wanted to.
“We had Scan Eagle from about 0830 until 1700. Predator joined in from about 1030-1400 or so. Scan Eagle was used to maintain continuous PID [Positive Identification] on human targets as they fled from neighborhood to neighborhood. We used Predator's IR [Infra Red] camera to identify them within the palm grove (hotspots) where they were attempting to hide and to get the bombs on target. Both were used to guide helos and fixed wing air support on to the targets,” the officer explained.
At least one type of sophisticated UAV was over the battlefield all morning. In addition to 3/1’s organic Dragon Eye and ScanEagle following bands of insurgents move from hiding place to hiding place, theater commanders in Baghdad diverted an orbiting RQ-1 Predator medium altitude, high endurance UAV to watch as well. The super-secret aircraft is launched from Balad Air Base in Iraq and controlled by remote operators at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, the Air Force says. The Predator is operated by the Air Force for the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, and other highly classified intelligence authorities. It allows senior commanders at the Pentagon to see what is happening in real time as well as field commanders in Iraq.
An officer who was there said so many people were watching the fight go down that a faraway Public Affairs Officer wrote 3/1 to suggest it was time to “maximize the coalition coverage of this, pointing out to the locals that insurgents don't care about their children."
Chessani is charged with violating his orders for failing to inform higher headquarters of the situation at Haditha. On November 19 every Marine Corps senior headquarters in Iraq and the United States could watch events in Haditha go down in real time and living color thanks to Predator.
In the words of one expert, “They can run but they can’t hide [from Predator].”
Another blow fell when a spokesman for United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that if Naval Criminal Investigative Service special agents threatened Venezuelan native LCpl Humberto Mendoza with deportation if he didn’t cooperate they were at odds with current US law. Jack Zimmermann, the Texas attorney representing Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum suggested NCIS used the ploy to gain Mendoza’s testimony during his examination of the 23-year-old Marine.
A spokesman for ICE in Washington, D.C. said that NCIS could only make such a threat if Mendoza was already convicted of a serious crime. Current immigration law mandates violators must be convicted of a crime providing for “at least one year in jail or more” before it will initiate deportation proceedings, according to Pat Reilly, the Public Affairs Officer for ICE. She noted two exceptions to the law;
1.) If Mendoza lied about his citizenship status and fraudulently enlisted in the Marine Corps;
2.) If Mendoza had already been convicted of two or more crimes.
A spokesman for the Camp Pendleton Media Center said Mendoza’s citizenship status was a question for the Public Affairs Officer for the 1st Marine Division. As of this report the 1st MarDiv PAO has not returned phone calls. Presumably, however, given Mendoza’s unfettered testimony earlier this week he remains in good standing in the Marine Corps. Otherwise the prosecution would have to reveal his tarnished status to the defense.
On December 18, 2005, three days before three Marines from his squad were charged with murder Mendoza was granted immunity from prosecution in return for his cooperation. Despite previous testimony to the contrary Mendoza went from being part of a combat stack of Marines attacking a hostile objective to a lone Marine apparently wandering around in a smoke-filled house grenades had just been thrown into, he testified.
In his post-immunity version of events, Mendoza didn’t shoot anyone except a couple of fellows who must have deserved it. When he discovered innocent civilians huddled in a room behind a closed door he backed away, shutting the door behind him. Despite the early morning gloom stipulated by both sides, he could see the darkened, smoke-filled chamber was full of terrified women and children. Tatum did all the killing, he said.
Zimmermann subsequently suggested during his examination of Mendoza that the NCIS told Mendoza his citizenship was at stake if he didn’t cooperate. If they did it was a hollow threat. It would particularly be true if the NCIS special agents knew Mendoza was neither convicted of a crime or in violation of any citizenship statutes, one Missouri county prosecutor said. In most jurisdictions the court would call that type of behavior coercion, she said.
At Haditha, Mendoza was fighting alongside Tatum, Sharratt, Sgt. Francis Wolf, the late Miguel “T.J.” Terrazas, and Joe Haman, all who paid so dearly at Fallujah the year before. Marines who know the fighting caliber of these fighting Marines find it simply incredulous that a rookie Marine rifleman who had just shot two men in a firefight would even be capable to shutting down the way Mendoza claims he was able to.
Someday the truth will be available for everybody to see for themselves. The continuous video should be 8-10 hours, and includes the entire fight, one Marine said.
“[It]… finishes with the insurgent holding a child in order to avoid getting bombed again,” he added, “before we swarmed in to capture him.”
As I said in #49, Conlin didn’t know, and didn’t care.
Sheesh! #40 !!
The LIES about the Haditha Defendants ARE COMING OUT
would be a more accurate headline I think.
Yeah. And the bill for ALL of their lawyers fees should be picked up by Murtha and the media, who had them tried and convicted before it even came to court. My choice words can’t be posted.
I can’t raise that link via my Verizon link and Firefox: Firefox can’t find the server at www.tiny.cc. Can you verify it please?
Ditto brityank.
See post 39.
Suppressing evidence, falsifying testimony, unlawfully coercing witnesses...Nothing to see here, move along!
I agree that the prosecution likely used unethical and possibly criminal tactics to put Mendoza in a tough position, but he’s definitely not any Marine I would want in my foxhole. No sympathy here.
Yeah, I just hate to think what it’s like to spend the rest of your life knowing that you betrayed your own brothers. On the other hand, a guy who could do can probably live with it just fine.
He may have and Mendoza denied it. I hope to talk with Zimmermann tomorrow. If I get an answer to that question, I will let you know.
I don’t understand the process entirely, especially when it comes to evidence that is classified. I do know that NCIS edited the video (only presenting an hour or so of it in chopped up segments that supported their investigation). I can definitely say that the Chessani defense team has a fuller picture now then at the Article 32.
>> In most jurisdictions the court would call that type of behavior coercion, she said.
And politically expedient.
Thanks for the ongoing pings Red!
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