Posted on 07/09/2008 5:55:44 PM PDT by RedRover
One bump only. :)
The fact that the truck was only quickly looked in and later disappeared sort of puts No bomb or weapons were found in a different light. I would put my trust in him rather than the second guessers today.
Prayers for Sgt. Winnick and his loved ones.
Thank you for the ping.
Not looking forward to the quisling pukes of the legal eagles trying to spin cycle this into the same rule set for cops in a domestic neighborhood, here in comments.
And folk wonder why respect for the rule of law is decaying across the board.
Bump to that. The IO's report should out any day now (though it may not be made public for a while).
All: Please visit the Winnick family website HERE.
Also, there's a website for Sgt Ryan Weemer HERE.
Why is it that the North County Times always sounds like it was written by the prosecutor? They don’t even bother to use the word “alledgedly.”
Prayers for the 3 W’s....Wuterich, Winnick, and Weemer...
Hell of a thing. I voted for a President who said that the War on Terror shouldn’t be handled as a law enforcement problem. Now we’re treating Marines who did their bit (and more) as if they were law enforcement officers. I don’t know much about Nelson, but Weemer and Nazario are great kids who got out of the Corps and were trying to start families and civilian lives. Christ, they earned it.
Code Ping beats Code Pink everytime.
Weemer gave a confession, but that confession (when read in full) is plenty hinky. There should be a story about this soon.
Amen to that, Lily. You get three bumps. :)
If you don't talk to the authorities, they can't misconstrue or outright lie about anything you said.
Efforts to reach Weemer's attorney Paul Hackett were unsuccessful. But on a Web site established to help pay for Weemer's defense, Hackett wrote his client initially cooperated with investigators but is now "forced to rely on his constitutional privilege to remain silent."
Should have done that from the very beginning, even if innocent.
The whole thing snowballed. Weemer wanted to join the Secret Service and was given a polygraph test as part of the application process. During the test, Weemer was asked if he ever took part in an unlawful killing in Iraq. He responded, “Well, there was this one time in Fallujah...”
The Secret Service later called NCIS and agents showed up at the coffee shop where Weemer was working. The agents started out as if they were just shooting the breeze, and then things got more serious. Weemer was up to his eyeballs before he ever knew what hit him.
I have to wonder at what point Weemer decides there may have been something wrong with whatever happened in Iraq. Is it much later, say, after he comes home and gets to hear about all the others allegedly involved in similar situations?
The thing that bothers me the most is the POINTED question specifically asking about if he ever took part in an “illegal” killing in Iraq. What is the mindset and the agenda to specifically ask this question?
And from Weemer’s POV he doesn’t think he’s really done anything wrong because he IS one of the good guys trying to join up with another group of ‘good’ guys. So invoking his rights doesn’t (probably) occur to him cause hey, we’re all on the same side, right?
Law enforcement officers never stop by just to "shoot the breeze".
Very well stated, bighead. I’ve interviewed a lot of veterans and have always had to be careful that someone wasn’t just telling me what he heard had happened. Events in combat are so chaotic that most people only remember it as a blur of sensations—not as a clear narrative that is easy to articulate.
And in Weemer’s case, he never imagined that talking about Fallujah would land him in court for murder.
This’ll come up in the A32, but the agents did not immediately identify themselves as NCIS. Whenever they did, though, Weemer should have stopped.
NCIS agents did play the “recall” card though throughout the investigation. If an inactive Marine refused to talk, agents would say they could get him recalled for active duty. A nasty trick that isn’t true. NCIS agents don’t have that power. But it was an effective means of coercion.
I remember the 1st case I had heard of, one of the Hamandia cases, where 3 Marines swore NCIS changed their signed affidavits. I came in when prosecutor Piggot suddenly decided that he was a witness as well as a prosecutor - I don't remember who he had supposedly witnessed making a statement to NCIS or wtf business of his it would have been to be present for an interrogation, I just remember my jaw dropping at the absurdity of the situation.
That sort of crap has just gotten expotentially deeper since.
I think refusing to cooperate is going to be a growing trend unless the Marine Corps changes direction and stop offering up Marines to placate Iraqi and Democrat politicians.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.