Posted on 01/07/2008 6:51:51 AM PST by RaceBannon
FREEPER Tim Harrington, Sgt HMM-165, has been personally involved with the families of the accused Marines of the Hamdania Case, (PENDLETON 8 ) and Haditha.
DUring this time, Tim has been in constant contact with his state rep, William Delahunt, D-MA 10th district. Mr Delahunt is the representative of Sgt Hutchins who was found guilty in his court martial for the charge of murdering a civilian in Iraq.
This issue is important because it has shown a level of corruption and perjury in the NCIS system and specifically 2 individuals that are common to the Hamadania and Haditha cases. It also shows a pattern of the goverhnment using evidence to prosecute but denying access to that evidence for the defense. ( Un-Manned aerial footage taken by drones over the combat area )
As we sit here, a documentary is being made to expose this. Also, some high ranking individuals involved with the JAG corp are aware of these incidents and are offering to testify before congress. These officers are above the O-5 grade.
Below is Tim's open letter to Rep Delahunt. Fell free to copy and paste this letter. Please include my notes so people can understand why it was written.
Congressman Delahunt:
I have been in contact with you through your staff for over fifteen months. I, with other Veterans and retired officers from around the country have asked for your intervention on behalf of Sgt. Laurence Hutchins III, now in a prison camp within the gates of Marine Corps base Camp Pendleton.
I have had several conversations with your staff attorney Mr. Kivlan, and also on two separate occasions with Mr. Mark Forrest, who we are led to believe is your chief of staff. In my conversations with Mr. Kivlan, he has acknowledged the facts of the case as I have expressed to him against this fine young Marine who is from our 10th district and your home in the Cape and Islands. He has also acknowledged the facts that surround this case and sat for two weeks in the courts-martial proceedings in Camp Pendleton with our understanding he directly represented your seat in the house.
Sir, knowing you are on the House committee for “Foreign Affairs” and Chairman on International Organizations, “Human Rights” and “Oversight” and also the House “Judiciary committee”, we are confused as to your lack of action with the knowledge of the criminal activity that now has one of your Marines in uniform imprisoned at Camp Pendleton.
Mr. Kivlan sat in the court room during the trial of Sgt Hutchins with full knowledge of the outcome of Trent Thomas’s trial and the ongoing trial of Marshal Maginicalda. Because of the fact that all material evidence that was said to be gathered by the government and the special agents involved with the investigations were thrown out as inadmissible, and with your representative knowing that these evidences were thrown out as inadmissible; to include the identification of the body, DNA evidence, photos and testimony of alleged family members and or Iraqi citizens who now have no evidence relating them to the deceased Iraqi and who also cannot be located for cross examination; it leaves us to believe that for someone in your position to show a complete lack of a diligent response to this situation, you therefore show that the Constitution of the United states and how you claim to directly represent the people of your district and also nationally in your several positions to include your seat in the house, in actuality stands for nothing.
We also have made you and your representative at the trial aware of the amount of exculpatory evidence that could have been used in the defense of this young Marine that was withheld; to include formal copies of orders that were delivered that night and available video footage taken by un-manned aircraft that were present at the scene. The result of withholding evidence from the court-martial of Sgt. Hutchins is inexcusable in that it denied him the ability to clear his name. To have a prosecution witness, an Intelligence Officer, state it would be a National Security issue to release video footage from the un-manned vehicle to assist in the defense of Sgt. Hutchins, but that the video footage from the same aircraft and mission was being used as evidence in the prosecution of the case is criminal, but you sat quiet in complicity.
Through out my interaction with your direct representatives over the last fifteen months, the only consistent course of action spoken by these direct representatives was to focus on the sentencing phase. Why? This was the case from the very beginning, and you, yourself, talked to the members of Kilo 3/5 ( Pendleton 8) on your trip to California and spoke the same words showing only a concern about sentencing and not their defense against the accusation? You told them there might be there only one choice in the matter? You were then told that Sgt. Larry Hutchins would not do this and would go to court-martial because he believes no crime was committed. We also know and understand that you were instrumental in raising money through your web site for this young Sgt. and how your staff attorneys helped with the defense fund that was created to help with legal defense bills. This is all great and honorable, but why not do what your job privileges and job description entitles you to do under the Constitution and expose the criminal actions of NCIS; to include criminal perjury under oath, withholding of evidence, coercion and false official statements in regards to the case and how it was conducted, and then demand the release of intelligence that could and should be used for the defense of these young warriors and not just in their prosecution?
We know some one died that fateful day. We know that this UN-Identified Man was part of an insurgent circle that the Marines were trying to neutralize. We know that orders were given, either written or verbal, we know that the use of a dead check is and remains standard operating procedure, we know through sworn testimony that Sgt. Hutchins did not give orders or orchestrate the taking of this fictitious person, and these facts are your staff attorney’s own words. If this was in a State or Federal court, it would never make it to trial and would be thrown out and/or reinvestigated. This sad tragedy of events can only happen in Military courts, and that is exactly why they are kept there.
The military courts-martial as it is known today is broken. Historical events surrounding its very existence and function have proven this and so have the fights about it since 1918-2001, you can’t re-write history Sir.
No Matter what your view, Sir, on the war, (which is documented), these views have nothing or little to do with the constitutional protections that Sgt Hutchins deserved; you took an oath to uphold your office, and these men and women in uniform have done the same! The difference, as you should remember from your short time in the military is they have sworn to die to declare their oath, what are you willing to do for them?
We have asked for hearings with the evidence of years of criminal actions that have taken place under the UCMJ, command influence, and unlawful prosecutions. When will we get an answer and when will you act on this young Marine’s behalf as his congressional representative?
Please remind Mr. Kennedy we have a copy of his letter to the Hutchins; basically it states he cannot help do to conflict of interest because he sits on the U.S. Judiciary. How is the U. S. Judiciary a conflict of interest to the actions of Military Courts and the UCMJ? The U. S. Judiciary has no oversight of the military, so how can there be any conflict?
Both houses need to do what we as citizens expect, you have a chance to take action with some of the folks we have reached over a period of time to include: Con. Dix (w) Kennedy (m), J. Inslee, Pat Murry, Maria Kantwell, Shadegg, Adam Smith, John Duncan, Slade Gordon, and Sen. McCain just to name a few. We have Sr. JAG’s in uniform who wish to attend and testify at these hearings and about the documentation that you and your staff have had access to. Please respond with your thoughts and answers so the others involved can look forward to help expose and put an end to these problems.
Dwight D. Eisenhower said there is a time when the military turns a blind eye to the constitution and inflicts its self on the citizens of this Great United States. This is under way through the LINX program. If NCIS, CID and the rest of the military investigating organizations are allowed to run over the constitution and inflict itself on the citizenry with no oversight and nothing in place as is now to hold them accountable, we as citizens and those in uniform are in trouble.
In closing, I would like to ask one more question for all concerned. When was there ever a constitutional convention where precedence was set that men and women in uniform lose their basic rights under these important writings, especially concerning a capital murder case or war crimes case?? If you or any one in Washington has the answer, please share that with us.
What is left out in Tim’s letter is much of the background facts here.
These guys were ordered on a mission by their Lt, found an insurgent, engaged him, and within a day had a ‘family’ member claim their parent was missing. At the scene, when the Marines were processing the body for travel to the body dump, NO ONE in the adjacent house at the scene identified the body or had any clue who it was.
After someone claiming to be family came forward, the claims of the man being dragged from the house kicking and screaming came out from the same people who claimed on the scene they didn’t know who it was.
After the allegations became known, the 7 Marines and Corpsman were immediately interrogated for 18 hours at a time in CONEX boxes with food and water deprivation. Also at this time, the body was allowed to be buried by the family.
When the Marines were sent home, they were on their own recognizance, and even had liberty on the East Coast while waiting for a flight to Camp Pendleton. Upon arrival to Camp Pendleton, they were told they would be assigned to a work detail to await further orders when PMO showed up, placed them in shackles and took them to the brig.
They were each placed in solitary and questioned one at a time for the next 30 days with absolutely no contact with any civilian lawyers or their families. In fact, the Marine Corps never notified any families of their being held; it was at the end of the first 30 days that they were allowed to make a phone call.
During the subsequent investigation, the body of the alleged Iraqi man was exhumed and it was discovered that the head of the individual was missing. This is the greatest case of the unbroken chain of evidence, there is no way they knew who they had at that point from body descriptions, no forensic evidence that was saved, no ballistic evidence taken, and viola; the family members who once came forward to ‘identify’ the body had disappeared, also.
Another point that the media has failed to report on, is of 4 ‘witnesses’ who testified to NCIS originally, 3 of the 4 were known watch list terrorists who later ended up dead. (I need clarification from Tim as to their exact status. Tim has been working with the family of Sgt Hutchins directly and I have intentionally been kept out of some knowledge to ensure I don’t do anything to harm the family by accident)
While all this is going on, the orders issued by Lt Phan were on a thumb drive. This thumb drive was handed over to NCIS. It since disappeared. These orders were the proof that they were on a snatch and grab mission with permission to kill or capture a known terrorist. This evidence disappeared, evidence that would exonerate these Marines, yet NO ONE was written up for this loss of key evidence.
Due to the classified nature of the orders, the command would NOT re-release a copy of the orders given to Lt Phan! ( This all was part of testimony given in the court martials) At the trial of Sgt Hutchins, the former JAG lawyer for Hutchins refused to press questions of Lt Phan and let him off the stand with no detailed questions on the thumb drive.
UAV footage was denied the defense, but was allowed in for the prosecution in written form, claiming they saw efforts of the accused to try to hide the body of the alleged Iraqi until they ‘knew’ when the UAV was out of sight of them. The release of the UAV footage would have shown their actions during the entire time, yet the prosecution claimed that the footage was classified and could not be used!
As for many of the rights violations, these 19 and 20 year old Pfc’s and LCpl’s were in solitary and interrogated for months on end and told they were all up on murder charges. The Corpsman broke first, signed statements implicating the others and was released from the brig before the last 4 had even completed their art 32 hearings.
The isolation of these Marines, the coerced statements made under duress violated their rights to avoid self incrimination.
In addition, each of them had a former JAG atty working for them after the 1st month of confinement in Pendleton. EACH atty suggested they PLEA bargain, not one said they would fight to the end for their innocence. One family was strung along for almost a full year, holding charities to raise money for their legal defense of their son, to be told one day or two before the Art 32 hearing that if the lawyer didn’t get a 6 figure sum, he would be unable to continue the case and that the Marine must plea out.
In short, my story is not complete, these Marines were denied the presumption of innocence by their own country, denied access to evidence that would exonerate them, the testimony of people who disappeared when trial time came was given more weight than the testimony of the Marines, their statements were coerced and that has been confirmed by each Marine who has been released from the Brig in public statements, actual evidence submitted had to be thrown out yet the charges were re-applied as the murder of an unknown man; that in itself is criminal and against the rules of court martial as I posted, and it also makes all statements of the alleged family members inadmissible, the prosecutions timeline and claim that the alleged Iraqi was taken from his house was now inadmissible due to the lack of knowledge of just who was killed and BY who due to the broken chain of evidence of a body that came to the US missing it’s head.
All this information was witnessed by the legal advisor to Rep Delahunt (D) Mass-buddy of Hugo Chavez, and he was given the straight scoop from the families and from the information gathered by Tim and others.
Want to hear something else? The investigating chief of all this, JAMES CONNELLY, has previously been involved in the direct and intentional forging of documents to railroad a Naval officer, Walt Fitzpatrick, and Walt found a paper trail that nails Connelly and several others.
Connelly was the lead in this.
When I get the video I will send you a copy. I am hoping for raw footage, HOURS of it, interviews with the family of Sgt Hutchins, Trent Thomas, Jodka, and a few others.
what I have below is a cut and paste of some rants of mine to people online who thought these guys got what they deserved:
The statements they held against Hutchins were coerced under duress
2 of his fellow Marines testified to just that
Evidence that they were following orders was destroyed and Lt Phan testified to that.
Aerial UAV footage was denied to the defense
They started saying they were guilty when they were told to, as 19 year old LCpl’s , that they would be facing life in prison despite the fact that the Govt didn’t know who was actually killed and had zero forensic evidence to support them, including a body that didn’t match the description given by alleged family members
Nor did the body have the rod in its leg as the family insisted
Nor did the body style match, or the hair pattern on the body
Nor could they match a head because when they shipped the body back home, it had no head
nor was the defense allowed to use video from the UAV’s overhead in their defense although the prosecution was allowed to claim the UAV’s showed then hiding the man before killing him... the body did not match the description given by the family which was paid $25,000, $2,500.00 per family member
Why did all the Marines in their initial statements tell about the order to apprehend the known terrorist suspect?
Why did Lt Phan testify an order existed?
Where is due process when their Lt testifies that he issued the orders?
When the Corps releases the copy of the order that Lt Phan had and that several members of that squad testified to under oath after they were released from the brig, then I will believe the Corps.
Where is due process when you cannot confront your accuser?
Where is due process when you are considered guilty before you are considered innocent?
Where is due process when you realize you don’t have the body you thought you did but still insist that your men killed him?
Where is due process when there is ZERO ballistic evidence of him being shot? There is ZERO evidence of whose weapon shot him, how many times or where. There is nothing to tie the body to the men forensically except oral testimony of men who were being threatened with life in prison.
Where is due process when you hold Marines in CONEX boxes for 18 hours a day with no water or head calls or food until they sign confessions?
Where is due process when NCIS is forced to admit they falsified statements about Marines distributing leaflets concerning apprehending insurgents to only later realize that LCpl’s cannot have access to KINKOS in Iraq...but Battalion does, and then STILL uses it against the Marines?
The identity of the dead guy is PARAMOUNT to their innocence or guilt.
The NCIS case is that they failed to find Gowad, broke into a house and pulled out Awad and killed him and faked the killing zone.
The identity of who Awad is and his physical description is the story here.
Awad was supposed to have severe injuries from several different sources, none which agree: Iran/Iraq war, falling out of a tree, 25 years as an Iraqi Policeman in the Baath party
The autopsy showed NONE of those injuries. That means right from the get go the story about whom he was is phony, the so-called “family” lied, the NCIS lied or made a major error.
The entire origin of the murder charge was based on the family claiming that Awad was found in a hole, dead after being taken out in the middle of the night and killed.
People who lived in that house and adjacent homes DID NOT know who the person was. It was only 2 days later that a so-called ‘family’ member identified the body as Awad, and the story of who he was and his family relations began.
These same people who claimed to be family and agreed to testify against the Marines in trial all DISAPPEARED when the time came to testify.
If he is NOT family, and the autopsy proved family lied their ass off about injuries of who Awad is supposed to have, and he WASNT family, then the first part of the accusation is false.
Next, the Marines story is the body was returned to the Iraqi Police, yet the body reappeared in the hole for NCIS to see and make claims, next, the Iraqi was supposed to be tied up FIRST, then frog marched 1000 feet in one direction, then back to the hole ALL WHILE TIED, then killed, and even among the Marines; that story has major discrepancies.
Next, the NCIS claimed that UAV’s overhead showed the Marines hiding the man in the hole with their own bodies, lying on top of him so the UAV would not see him:
Question? How in the world did those Marines hear a UAV circling at 10,000 or even 5000 feet or even 1000 feet and how did they know where the camera was pointed to know when to hide the man when it was near?
Question? Why did the NCIS present this as evidence in only statement form, NOT show any video, and NOT release the UAV video to the defense so they could use any video in their own defense? If the video was so damning to the Marines, why not show it to prove all accounts of their story are false and refuse plea bargains and go for convictions?
You do NOT go from MURDER charges and plea bargain down to assault if you have evidence of MURDER!
Each Marine and Sailor was charged with MURDER at first and all except Hutchins were allowed to plea bargain, leading any intelligent person to believe that they were looking for a political scapegoat.
Tell me, what next do you want to hear about? Using sleep deprivation, water deprivation, and food deprivation to get signed statements from these Marines?
The plea offerings to the Marines and the circumstances?
The failure of any single officer to ask the men to plead innocent if they were?
NOT ONE JAG lawyer ever went for an innocent plea because they all went for pleas, yet they tell their families they are innocent?
Magincalda’s plea agreement he almost took was going to have him in shackles touring Marine bases telling people how evil he was while wearing shackles to the ‘audience’, but he refused, and thankfully he is out of the brig now.
There is most certainly a legal order to kill an insurgent who shot at you
There is most certainly an order that releases you when your orders were to apprehend a known terrorist who was previously held on several occasions and who was suspected of exploding an IED the day before killing Marines and if he resisted the use of deadly force was authorized. This is a WAR, not a drug bust
There is most certainly legal protection when ordered to shoot back when someone tried to kill you
NO ONE planted a weapon on the dead terrorist, he had it all along.
You have never heard that from the media because the NCIS destroyed the orders to do just that, to apprehend a known terrorist who was suspected in the previous days IED explosion and when they went to the address, someone was digging a hole and held up a weapon and shot at them
You never heard the media report that families of civilians who are accidentally killed get approx $2.5K, but someone came forward and claimed to be family, gave descriptions of the man who was supposed to be murdered that never matched the body, and you only heard a short blurb on the Thomas Trial that they could no longer call the dead Iraqi AWAD because NCIS was forced to admit they NEVER had ANY forensic evidence on this person: no ballistics, no identification, no matching prints, no proven family ties, all so-called family member disappeared and refused to testify in the US...
Just wait, now that all have been processed, we are going to be releasing things to the public that will curl your hair concerning the cover-up by NCIS, the falsification of evidence, James Connelly possibly committing perjury on the stand in the Hutchin’s trial, the Govt deliberately destroying Lt Phan’s thumb drive which he testified to having an original copy of the orders to do a snatch and grab with permission to kill directive order in it...
You need to remember that our military would do such things and have done so in the past. Our military has been doing such things for centuries, just ask Rear Admiral Kimmel, Capt McViegh, the sailor who was called gay on the Iowa gun turret, and Lt Pantano.
People haven’t got a clue about this case if all you do is read the papers, and we HAVE posted all these facts before, but I guess since the NCIS falsified testimony, refused to admit evidence that would clear people, and Marines who are now released from jail testify that they were coerced to give false statements they knew were false, you still want to believe it when they hang these Marines?
They, myself, and others have pleaded with all the talk radio stations to cover the story, but as soon as we started to present the corruption to Congressmen and NCIS agents, all the radio stations shut us down.
I have tried to get on Michael Savage many times and his call screener refused to take my call
I have some access to local talk shows here in Ct, but that only goes so far.
ALL the major media outlets ignored us, including FOX news.
The families could not comment publicly during the trials, and also, much information could not be revealed during the trial because it would possibly be illegal to reveal things during the case.
So, what information that was cleared through the lawyers was released and made public when we could.
Over numerous threads, I told Sgt Hutchin’s story that was NEVER printed in any media, regardless of how many letters we sent.
For the record here, too: I SPENT OVER AN HOUR WITH FOX NEWS DAVE ASMAN 3 MONTHS AGO IN HIS OFFICE IN NYC. HE WAS VERY INTERESTED, BUT EVERYONE OVER HIS HEAD NIXED ANY IDEA ON A STORY. Even FOX news refused to help air this.
Bump
please and disseminate through your e-mails
media ping
Haditha ping
I read the opening article and it definitely applies...a Congressional Investigation of NCIS is in order.
Thanks to you and to Tim Harrington. BUMP-TO-THE-TRUTH!
thanks, please send this around
Done
>BUT EVERYONE OVER HIS HEAD NIXED ANY IDEA ON A STORY. Even FOX news refused to help air this.<
#1 Fox news is no different than CNN or any other mass media organization.
Sgt. Laurence Hutchins is evidently being used a political pawn by our politicians and/or bureaucrats in Iraq. It will probably be years before the truth comes out and even then it will be called a conspiracy theory.
BUMP
Thanks for posting!
Sounds familar. You sure that NCIS isn't using same prosecutor tactics that was used against the Border Patrol agents?
Chicken/Egg... :)
Le Bump, M’Lady...but not in a French way :)
please copy and paste this and e-mail it to everyone you know.
please copy and paste this and e-mail it to everyone you know.
What are they doing. Ripping exhaust systems out of autos for scrap resell.
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