Are Members of Congress Accountable for Anything?(Murtha & Haditha)

American Thinker ^ | October 04, 2007 | Clarice Feldman

[vietvet67]

Are Congressmen above the law? The case of Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich against Congressman John Murtha (D-PA) tests this basic question.

Of course there are other reasons to ask the same question. In a year when Congressional committees see no limits to what they will subpoena from the executive branch or about what they will interrogate its officers and employees, they rushed to court to keep the Department of Justice from subpoenaing the records of a Congressman caught with tens of thousands of dollars in his freezer.

Bad as shielding suspicious Congressional cold cash from view may be, insulating Congressmen when attacking ordinary citizens, or worse yet active duty Soldiers, is an invitation to tyranny. We are all potential targets if this holds true. Are they totally unaccountable for their conduct against ordinary citizens? I certainly hope not, but if that ultimately proves to be the case in court, I hope we have the strength to demand a change in the law.

The news that Staff Sgt Wuterich was going to be permitted to proceed to discovery in his defamation suit against Congressman Murtha was a cheering note to people like me who have consistently considered the Congressman's conduct unacceptable. As you will recall on November 19, 2005 there was an incident in the then-insurgent infested town of Haditha in which a number of people were killed. Beginning in May of 2006, long before a full official inquiry, and prompted by a very suspect bit of anti-US propaganda in Time, Congressman Murtha hit the media circuit repeatedly. He publicly and falsely accused SSgt Wuterich and the men of the Marines' Kilo Company of being involved in cold-blooded (premeditated) murder and of covering up the events of that day.

[RedRover]

Well, she was once alive and vague.

I just don’t see a real connection between Hamdania and Haditha and evil contractors.

If Murtha is profiting from Iraq, why does he want us out?

[MarineMom613]

Bookmark for later reading.

[freema]

Yeah, that was a strange bunch of stuff. I just went browsing thru intern heaven....

[freema]

One of the original theories is that he cries pullout to cover his arse on the profits. dems are famous for screaming in one direction, and while everybody looks they grab the broom and lift the rug.

[Girlene]

e. Wuterich will explore who provided Murtha the information he said he relied on. His pleadings refer, in fact, to leakers from among people inside the Department of Defense.

And this info, if it ever comes out, will be quite interesting. Do you think Murtha would have made the jump from reading investigatory documents to claiming the Marines were cold-blooded murderers? Maybe, maybe not.

When did Murtha first come out with these comments - early May, 2006? Charges against the Marines weren't disclosed until right before Christmas, 2006. NCIS reports and pictures were leaked in January, 2007 to the Washington Post. Someone(s) leaked, briefed, talked to Murtha before May. Somehow he came away from that discussion(s) with the impression of murder, not combat deaths. He easily could have added the cold-blooded aspect all by himself.

One question I have, is why Murtha was given this information. Was it relevant to a committee position of his at the time? Wasn't he a ranking member of the House Defense Appropriations Sub-Committee? Would this be relevant?

[xzins]

Essentially, command influence is anyone in any soldier’s chain of command attempting to prejudice his case. One could argue that Murtha is not in these Marines’ chain of command. That is true, but Murtha is in a unique position as the head of the money for all the services, so that he can influence the chain of command.

If it is true that the Commandant of the Marines conversed with Murtha and told him this was cold-blooded murder or ANYTHING at all, then that Commandant IS in the chain.

Investigating a crime is not command influence. Command influence, however, could prejudice the investigation so that the investigators only looked for signs of guilt and hardly looked for signs of innocence.

A Senator could ask for an investigation in a neutral way and that would not be command influence. First, because the Senator would not technically be in the chain of command, but also because it would simply be a search for more information.

For a congessman to say, “These guys are cold-blooded murderers and their commandant says so, too” would constitute influence.

Personally, I think that a congressman can exert influence detrimental to the cause of justice in any soldier’s legal case. Since the nature of the military places that soldier at the mercy of his branch of service, then that congressman would be affecting the command climate in that service to the detriment of that soldier’s receiving justice.

[RedRover]

The Watt Investigation report was submitted to the Pentagon on March 3, 2006. If memory serves, the first Time magazine article was published on March 11. Murtha made his first cold-blooded killer claim on May 17.

If Murtha was properly briefed, he would have been given the Watt report. He'll be questioned about that in the deposition.

The report, along with a statement by Lt William Kallop, is posted at DefendOurMarines.com under "Documents".

There's nothing in the report to support his Murtha's claim. Lt Kallop's statement directly contradicts Murtha's claim that there was no enemy fire.

These documents go to prove that Murtha was lying from the beginning.

[Girlene]

Well, I still wonder WHY Murtha was given this information. His committee assignment for the 109th congress (2005-2006) was House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Defense- Ranking Minority Member. here.

John Kline (R) was another Representatives who was making some fairly strong statements about what happened in Haditha. But he backed away from his remarks after Wuterich's lawyer threatened a law suit. His committee assignments here included:
House Committee on Armed Services
House Defense Review Threat Panel
Subcommittee on Personnel
Subcommittee on Terrorism Unconventional Threats and Capabilities
House Committee on Education and the Workforce
Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations
Subcommittee on Workforce Protections

It would make more sense that John Kline had more access to any information on the investigation by being on the Armed Service Committe vs. John Murtha who was on Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Wouldn't it?

[stylin19a]

that...or he just read McGirk’s Time mag article of 03/2006 and repeated it.

[EDINVA]

they can have a sexual relatinship with a Page of the same sex, turn their fanny to the Speaker when being chastised, receive applause for doing so from their peers, become re-elected, and then obtain hi-profile, hi-power chairmanships .. is that good enough ?

note that the Republican Congressman whose affair with a Page of the opposite sex was exposed at the same time, not only took his House punishment like a man who accepted responsibility, he was not reelected.

Unfortunately, I fear this reflects the voters in the gerrymandered districts than with the reprehensible behavior of the Members.

[zerosix]

Of course your additional notes are more than correct.

What is most upsetting is that our own "conservative" candidates that we elected in '94 and thereafter, are complicit in much of this as they are willing to look the other way.

[Girlene]

that...or he just read McGirk’s Time mag article of 03/2006 and repeated it.

You could be right. Then he'll have to admit that he had no more knowledge than anybody else who read the article. He just claimed to "know".

Later, May 28, when he talked to George Stephanopoulus, he indicated he had reports "from the highest level" - no firing at all. By that time he may have been briefed on something by the Marines. Where the no firing at all came from, I don't know.

[Shelayne]

It looks to me as though it’s Ware’s translation that IF anyone had half a brain, IF there were any charges that MIGHT stick, this is the only charge a perverse mind could bother to explore, and if a perverse mind actually did bother to explore it, it would end up looking like a jack off. Or, to sum it all up tidily, WTF.

I like your interpretation. I'm going with it. ;^)

[freema]

: )

[xzins]

The issue is whether anyone from the Pentagon spoke in such a way to Murtha.

[bigheadfred]

It could be he spoke to the genie (just another way of saying we’ll probably never know), and thank you for the insightful post on command influence.

[RedRover]

The exact content of any briefings (and who gave them) will be a central issue in the deposition. And Murtha will perjure himself if he tries to answer questions as he did on TV.

Murtha has already admitted that the commandant of the Marine Corps did not say it was cold blooded murder. So unless Murtha pulls a rabbit out of his hat, he can’t use a military briefing as his defense.

[freema]

That other thread was pulled as it was not excerpted. But I wanted to follow up on Col. Watt. He and Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli (both Army) accused the Corps of lying. 15 families qualified for and received solatia payments based on the Corps’ findings, but Chiarelli came around, and made sure everybody got some.

[brityank]

Hi Ma =

I just used your reply to hit ther Abuse button, and blast the Admins for pulling the threrad again; I did excerpt the article, and just added everyone's comments behind it. Someone upstairs is a couple of cards short of a full deck!

Here's my take from that thread:

So Pentagon insiders knew Murtha was lying all along.

Maybe my anger is making me slow, or else there's one whale of a lot of information coming out lately that should have been issued at the start of this debacle.

Start with the report by General Watt: Reading through the whole thing brings out no real new info, but I do note and take issue with his recommendations at the end:

5. Recommendations:

a. MNC-I: Recommend further investigation by CID/NCIS, however given time lapsed, Solatia payments, RIP/TOAs, renovations of HOUSE #1 and HOUSE #2, obtaining more prosecutable evidence will be extremely difficult.



b. MNC-I: Prepare PAO response to TIME, independent and video allegations
Acknowledge event occurred; the Marine reaction to the ambush/coordinated attack was IAW published doctrine and TTP; Non-Combatants were killed while Marines cleared houses they had been fired on from; and Solatia payments were made for damages.

c. / d. / e. -- All for MNF-W: K/3/1 MAR Reviews.

I take issue with his point 5a -- There is nothing detailed in his report that should require any type of a CID/NCIS investigation. I believe that point to be the "White Flag" seized upon by McGirk, TIME, and the rest of the Media, along with the REMFs in the Puzzle Palace trying to ingratiate themselves and create a "Mei Lai" scenario for our embedded insurgents in Congress and Populous.

Would anything be missed had he left that point out, and the NCIS investigation not taken place?

His second point was the key to shutting down the rampant firestorm McGirk et al concocted. If I recall, the initial statement from the PAO was that the NKIAs had all been killed by the IED, along with killing LCpl Terazzas and wounding LCpls Guzman and Crossan. The PAO should have stepped up and admitted that their initial report was false, and corrected the record as soon as it was determined. That was not done until months later, after the firestorm had reached incendiary proportions with Murtha fanning the flames.

I hope and pray Gen. Mattis sees this the same way, and releases SSgt. Wunterich from any further action. I also hope that once all of the decisions are concluded, Gen. Mattis will go on record to expose those responsible inside the DoD for their shameful conduct in this matter.

So I'll ping the gang here!

[freema]

I don’t know why it would be pulled if it was posted the correct way. Not my area of expertise. Apparently it’s not permitted at all, now. I’m not even going to try to post a link to the article! I’d be waitin’ for lightening to strike.