Marine sniper defends his actions [Hearing for Sgt John Winnick concludes]

North County Times ^ | July 2, 2008 | MARK WALKER

[RedRover]

Previous threads:
Manslaughter case against Marine sniper under way
Hearing in Marine sniper case set [Winnick family asks for prayers]

Please visit the Winnick family's website HERE.

[RedRover]

[pissant]

FREE Sgt Winnick!!!

[djsherin]

The administration is going to let him hang...

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

This is just BS! These guys put their lives on the line to defend their country and their comrades, and they in turn get this JAG BS! No wonder things got so screwed up in Iraq and in Afghanistan!

[Girlene]

HAHAHAHA. Another great ping!

But Dreger also testified under questioning from the prosecutor, Capt. Nicholas Gannon, that he was disappointed in Winnick's decision to shoot rather than call for help.

"I would have preferred he call the (quick reaction force) as it didn't appear to be an immediate threat," he said.

Hey, Capt. Dreger, Sgt Winnick's radio communication's guy testified yesterday that the radio wasn't working. Easy for you to say it wasn't an immediate threat since you weren't watching this little scenario play out.

[jrooney]

This proceeding has NOTHING TO DO with the administration. It has to do with military procedures and like the Haditha Marines, he will be cleared. Quick to bash the administration of GW again. Interesting pattern.

[Lancey Howard]

Unless Capt King has been told to do otherwise (by some scumbag up the chain, like Sec. Winter, for example) he should dispose of this pretty quickly. I predict with great confidence that there will be no charges.

[jazusamo]

testified Wednesday that the failure to secure the truck for a full-scale search left a hole in the investigation.

Sgt. Winnick has the presumption of innocence. If they don't know there wasn't a bomb in the truck they can't can't court-martial him, IMO. Charges should be dropped!

[djsherin]

The administration let those 2 border agents rot in jail. The Haditha marines were hung in public opinion. I remember when the story first came out a well respected teacher of mine told the class how a bunch of Marines had “murdered” civilians in Haditha. And he wasn’t the kind of teacher to make wild accusations like that. I never heard a word from the administration. I don’t hear anything now. My pattern follows theirs. If you can show me evidence that Bush has made comments supporting (or saying that the military will work it out) the Haditha Marines or the sniper, I will gladly rescind my statement.

[RedRover]

According to the defense lawyers, we should be 10 days away from Capt King's report. Then it'll be up to Gen Helland, but I wouldn't think he'd need much time to review and give a decision.

I stand with your prediction: no charges.

[Girlene]

Unless Capt King has been told to do otherwise...... he should dispose of this pretty quickly. I predict with great confidence that there will be no charges.

I couldn't agree more with you, Lancey. The prosecutors and convening authority REALLY jumped the shark on this one.

From the article,

......... "The Marine officer presiding over the hearing, Capt. Jeffrey King, asked Dreger of his overall view of Winnick's actions.

"I think he was acting honestly out there and trying to do the right thing," Dreger responded."..........

The prosecutions' only witness (reported so far) that wondered whether Sgt. Winnick made the right decision just told the judge that Winnick was acting honestly and trying to do the right thing. Hmmmmm. I think the judge has been given a lot of information to kick this one to the curb.

[Lancey Howard]

It was the Bush Administration which placed the prosecution of the war in the hands of a bunch of scumbag ACLU lawyers. It was the Bush Administration which appointed that moron Winter as Secretary of the Navy. And it has been the Bush Administration which has stood by twiddling its thumbs as it watches an excruciating, disgusting, and corrupt, two-year-plus railroad job perpetrated against eight Marines who responded, in accordance with their training, to a deadly ambush.

So yeah, when it comes to this kind of crap, I likewise tend to glance sideways at the Bush Administration.

FRegards,
LH

[bigheadfred]

This proceeding has NOTHING TO DO with the administration.

The administration has NOTHING TO DO with this proceeding. He is the F@#$@#@# COMMANDER IN CHIEF!!

What is occurring here is such complete bull$!@#.

ALL it would take is one little phone call from George baby and ALL this Horse$#@+ would END.

It would be really F@#$#$@ NICE if one GO!@#$M person in this ADMINISTRATION would man up, shoulder some responsibility, and put a complete stop to this F$#@$!@# CRAP!

[Lancey Howard]

Hey, Capt. Dreger, Sgt Winnick's radio communication's guy testified yesterday that the radio wasn't working. Easy for you to say it wasn't an immediate threat since you weren't watching this little scenario play out.

Well said.

[Eagles6]

From the little info that we've gotten it sure looks like Sgt. Winnick had every reason to act as he did. Have the syrians been identified? Now there is no way to prove whether the truck contained explosives or not.

Has it gotten to the point where every Service member must second guess himself in every life and death situation and then "preserve the crime scene"?

Shooting the man crawling towards the cell phone was perfectly justified as cellphones are often used as detonators and if the truck contained explosives that would have been it.

Remember all of those muslim-arab "students" that were buying up the prepaid cell phones a while back? They have 2 uses: use it to make one call only and it's virtually untraceable and then you can use it as a detonator.

[djsherin]

That’s the point I’m trying to get across. I don’t think they’ve done a very good job defending conservative values or standing up for the men in uniform that it told go fight a war. It’s not “bashing” it’s just criticism of an administration that hasn’t done what it set out to do.

[jrooney]

As a former Marine myself I know it is not the responsibility of the administration to involve itself in the micromanaging of military legal affairs. The military has its own legal system know as the UCMJ, Uniform Code of Military Justice, that differs greatly from the civilian legal system and its sets of laws. In the military, like in the civilian world, there are liberals that prosecute events they think they are crimes when they are not. GW and his administration are not responsible for this Marines hearing and they should not comment on every event that occurs.

[Guenevere]

bttt

[jrooney]

BTW, I think the Marine did his job and did it well and will be exonerated.