Marine heads to trial on obstruction charges in Haditha case [Lt Grayson court martial]

Associated Press via Mercury News ^ | May 28, 2008 | Chelsea J. Carter

[RedRover]

SAN DIEGO—A Marine intelligence officer heads to court Wednesday to answer charges of obstruction of justice and making false statements during an investigation into the killings of 24 Iraqis.

The court-martial of 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson is the first case to come to trial in the biggest U.S. criminal case involving civilian deaths to come out of the Iraq war.

Authorities maintain eight Marines killed the Iraqis shortly after a roadside bomb hit a convoy, killing the driver of a Humvee and wounding two Marines.

Grayson of Springboro, Ohio, was not present at the scene of the killings on Nov. 19, 2005, in Haditha, but is accused of telling a sergeant to delete photographs of the dead from his digital camera.

Investigators allege after the bombing, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich and a squad member allegedly shot five men by a car at the scene. Wuterich then allegedly ordered his men into several houses, where they cleared rooms with grenades and gunfire, killing unarmed civilians in the process.

Charges against all but three Marines, including Grayson, have been dropped.

[2111USMC]

Thanks for the ping freema. Thanks for the good work RedRover.

I'm somewhat optimistic about the sounds of this. Hope the defense comes out with both barrels blasting.

[Girlene]

Red, are you referring to an "advice of rights" form? Wuterich's lawyers sought to get his statements to Army investigators suppressed during a motion hearing because the form had been modifed. This was discussed in this FR thread, Haditha defendant Ordered

During Wuterich's motion hearing before Lt. Col. Jeffrey Meeks, his attorneys sought to suppress a statement he made to Army investigators in Iraq in March 2006 following a Time magazine report that questioned what happened at Haditha.

Those Army investigators had presented Wuterich with an advice-of-rights form that had been altered to remove language suggesting he was suspected of wrongdoing.

I would bet this is the statement that 1st Lt. Grayson refused to sign.

[4woodenboats]

Who sends 8,000 text messages in three months?

If my math if right (there's a 1st time for everything!), that's be 3.6 times an hour, or once every 16.6 minutes, 24 hours a day, uninterrupted, for 90 days.

Assuming Watt sleeps, showers, s!!ts, stalks, spanks, sulks and stammers for 12 of each 24, that'd make one call intiated every 8.4 minutes.

To give the Colonel the benefit of the doubt, they could be prank calls, leaving him oh, 6-7 minutes to do his business and let the tiny solar panel in his brain recharge...

[Lancey Howard]

Same rules as used for Grand Juries.

I thought GJ witnesses were free to say anything they want? I'll never forget seeing that smarmy weasel Sid Blumenthal standing on the courthouse steps and, as was later revealed, brazenly lying through his teeth about his GJ testimony (this was during the Starr investigation).

[RedRover]

I’ll try to get specifics this weekend!

[4woodenboats]

8.3 minutes...doh

[brityank]

Well, Sid Vicious is a liar lawyer.

I'm pretty sure that both jurors and the witnesses called are not to discuss until after GJ action, Bill or No Bill. The paparazzi MSM is bad enough now, can you imagine the damage they could do if there was no restriction for the witnesses to use as a shield?

[Girlene]

LOL. Good anaylsis, 4wb. That’s a whole lot of texting!

[Girlene]

The judge did allow questions about the misconduct case because the witness brought it up first and because the defense argued that it went to the issue of credibility.

Are you saying that Col. Watt brought up his own misconduct case?

[Lancey Howard]

Are you saying that Col. Watt brought up his own misconduct case?

It could have been a preemptive strike to prevent the defense from bringing it up in a more dramatic (and damaging) fashion.

[RedRover]

I don’t have anything like a transcript so I’m not sure of the exact sequence, but it came up in some way before the defense began its questioning.

[RedRover]

Either you have very qualified 'flies-on-the-wall' or you're out there. If you're there, the Poway Doubletree has a great golf course; enjoy!

Now I'm even more sorry that I'm not there! I'm relying on the good graces of reporters and stringers who are. Most of them are just trying to stay awake, waiting for a headline. (Funny that the only headline so far has been the allegations in the prosecution's opening statement).

[bigheadfred]

Sounds like Watt is stupid enough to put a loaded question to his face and shoot his mouth off. Probably should have let his fingers do the talking, seems he’s good at that.

[Girlene]

It could have been a preemptive strike to prevent the defense from bringing it up in a more dramatic (and damaging) fashion.

Could be. It doesn't sound like it worked.

[Girlene]

Sounds like Watt is stupid enough to put a loaded question to his face and shoot his mouth off. Probably should have let his fingers do the talking, seems he’s good at that.

Oh, my. LOL, you do have a way with words. Yes, he seemed to be quite experienced in that department.

[freema]

Here’s to both barrels blasting.

[freema]

Tony Perry is hedging his bets.

Babylon and Beyond

“This case is dripping with double standards and political intrigue as the Pentagon attempts to appease Washington’s political establishment and the press,” said Richard Thompson, chief counsel for the Thomas More Law Center, which is representing Chessani.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2008/05/his-lawyers-and.html

[Girlene]

Should be an interesting day on Monday!

Something has been bugging me about SSgt Laughner's contention that he destroyed the photos 3 months later, or in February. He claimed he thought it amounted to obstruction of justice. Col. Watt began his interviews on February 19, 2006. McGirk was supposed to visit Haditha and interview the Marines sometime in February but cancelled his trip after Bob Woodward, the reporter, was hit by an IED in late January, 2006.

I found this bit from Jeffrey Dinsmore's statement to NCIS about when the order to delete the photos was allegedly given. Dinsmore Statement.

I became aware photos had been taken by SGT LAUGHNER on 19Nov05. It was not unusual for LT GRAYSON to forward photographs taken during a BDA to me with his report. In this case he did not do so and in late Dec 05, when the Battalion was asking for pictures of the 19 Nov 05 incident. I asked him if any existed. LT GRAYSON informed me he had ordered SGT LAUGHNER to delete the photographs because they did not meet our criteria for having intelligence value. I only received photographs from LT GRAYSON attached to a written report to support the intelligence mission. The fact that he had ordered them deleted did not alarm me, as it was prohibited to maintain pictures of enemy dead or other graphic war images. This was SOP and I routinely enforced this SOP.

So if 1st Lt. Grayson originally ordered the photos deleted before late December, it puts a different spin on Laughner's account. Grayson wasn't trying to cover for the Watt investigation or McGirk's visit. I don't know if it's ever been confirmed when Laughner's photos were actually deleted. Who knows, maybe he did delete them in February out of hiw own fears about the Watt investigation, then used Grayson's orders from a month or two before as his reasoning.

[Marine_Uncle]

Thanks for the update. Looks like Lt Grayson shall soon be a free man once again.

[Marine_Uncle]

The Lt. should in a few days be free at last. This charade has gone on long enough.