In the nearly two years since eight Camp Pendleton Marines were charged with killing 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha, six of the men have been exonerated, and widespread interest in the case has waned. Posted on 09/13/2008 6:24:40 PM PDT by RedRover
In the nearly two years since eight Camp Pendleton Marines were charged with killing 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha, six of the men have been exonerated, and widespread interest in the case has waned.
Still, the final chapters in the 2005 killings that reverberated around the world, affected the military's rules of engagement and played a large role in how the war was viewed have yet to be written.
Appellate court hearings for the two remaining defendants over the next month will establish the outline of how Haditha's story will end.
One of the defendants is the battalion commander at Haditha, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, who headed the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. Dereliction-of-duty charges against him were thrown out by a military judge earlier this year based on a finding that unlawful command influence stained his case beyond repair.
Prosecutors appealed the dismissal, leaving his case unresolved.
If the appeal is successful, charges that Chessani failed to meet his duty by not ordering a full-scale investigation will stand and he will face court-martial at Camp Pendleton.
If the appeal fails, the Marine Corps will have two choices ---- drop the case or start from scratch.
The other remaining defendant is squad leader Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who is accused of nine counts of voluntary manslaughter. His case is mired in legal wrangling over military prosecutors' requests for non-broadcast material from a CBS "60 Minutes" interview conducted months before he was charged in December 2006.
His court-martial proceedings are on hold until that issue is decided.
The decisions from the two appellate court hearings will set the remaining legal path for the two accused Marines.
First up
On Wednesday, five civilian judges who comprise the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington will hear arguments on whether the "60 Minutes" outtakes should be made available to a military judge, and possibly to prosecutors.
The issue pits network giant CBS against the Marine Corps. The Marine Corps argues the outtakes may contain statements implicating Wuterich in criminal conduct and help prove he ignored rules of engagement and is guilty of manslaughter and related offenses.
CBS, citing First Amendment issues, says a judge was right to deny prosecutors access to those outtakes, calling the effort a "fishing expedition."
A lower court ruled the military judge should view the outtakes and then decide if they contain relevant information that should be shared with prosecutors.
Attorneys representing CBS and the Marine Corps will each have 20 minutes to argue their cases. Once the court rules, the losing side can petition the U.S. Supreme Court to consider an appeal.
In the meantime, Wuterich remains at Camp Pendleton, working in logistics as decisions affecting his fate are played out in a courtroom 2,600 miles away.
October date for Chessani
Next month, three military judges who preside over the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals will hear arguments on the Marine Corps' appeal of the ruling dismissing the charges against Chessani.
In a filing in advance of the hearing, the Marine Corps argued that the finding that unlawful command influence tainted Chessani's case beyond repair was based on an "erroneous view of the law" and that the judge "abused his discretion in fashioning the remedy that he did."
The ruling dismissing the dereliction charges came after Chessani's judge at Camp Pendleton found that a senior legal adviser to then-Lt. Gen. James Mattis, who was overseeing the Haditha prosecutions, should not have had any role in shaping the case.
The adviser, Col. John Ewers, had been one of the military's initial investigators into the killings and is a potential prosecution witness.
The judge ruled Ewers mere presence at meetings between Mattis and prosecutors created an unacceptable perception of undue influence in the general's decisions.
The Marine Corps argues that Mattis, who has since been promoted to general ---- four stars ---- and is no longer overseeing the Haditha case, was never unduly influenced.
"There is no evidence that Gen. Mattis relied on Col. Ewers for any information, opinions or legal advice," the Marine Corps says in its appeal. "Instead, the record shows Gen. Mattis to be an independent commander highly unlikely to be prone to manipulation by his staff officers."
In their response to the Marine Corps' appeal, Chessani's attorneys contend Mattis' testimony was "self-serving" and that unlawful command influence has permeated the Haditha prosecutions "like a cancer affecting every aspect of this case from discovery to witnesses."
What happened
What is undisputed about what happened at Haditha is this: On the morning of Nov. 19, 2005, a roadside bomb exploded, destroying a Humvee, killing a lance corporal and injuring two other Marines.
Five men who emerged from a car that drove up immediately after the bombing were believed by Wuterich, he said, to be insurgents so he and another squad member shot all five.
The Marines then searched nearby homes for the bomber and those firing at them. They ended up killing 19 more people, including several women and children.
In the aftermath, Marine commanders concluded that the deaths, while tragic, came during a legitimate response to the convoy being attacked.
That changed in the face of public and media pressure, resulting in four enlisted men being charged initially with murder and four officers charged with offenses tied to not conducting an exhaustive investigation.
The killings also led commanders to reinforce adherence to the rules of engagement governing when troops can use lethal force, with an emphasis on positive identification of a hostile threat. Among the changes is that a review is conducted whenever civilians die in the crossfire of conflict in Iraq.
In investigating the case, the Marine Corps granted immunity to as many as 17 Marines, including some who took part in the shootings and one who later acknowledged urinating on the head of one of the victims.
In the months since the eight were charged, the service withdrew charges against five following hearings at Camp Pendleton and one trial resulted in an acquittal.
Former Marine attorney and military law expert Gary Solis said that while the legal system has worked in the Haditha affair, he believes it remains an example of "prosecutorial overreaching."
A sticking point
Haditha has faded from public attention in the U.S., but it remains part of the political landscape in Iraq.
Last week, the Reuters news agency reported that Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih said discussions with the U.S. on a new security pact were stymied in part over legal protection for U.S. troops.
Haditha and other incidents such as the Abu Ghraib prison scandal have colored the talks aimed at establishing the policy for continued U.S. troop presence when a United Nations mandate expires at the end of the year, the agency reported.
"(It) is probably the most contentious issue," Salih was quoted as saying. "There is a history to it. It is very sensitive."
The U.S. and the Iraqis have agreed that private contractors in Iraq would lose the legal immunity they now have under the new pact, but have yet to reach consensus on how to treat troops accused of crimes.
I know.....DefendOurContractors.org DOM/DOT/DOC
Watch out Fred, the Obamabots at DU think you're talking about their messiah, and are upset by your racist comment.
Like we should care. LOL!
Great graphic, Red. That covers the Obambi supporters to a tea! :-)
The North County Times has done a fair assessment of what's at stake and I applaud them for that.
I also would add that I have a low opinion of any Iraqi government official (like this Barham, for example) who would hold up a conclusive agreement to our force level there.
We saved their bacon, they are free because of the sacrifice of OUR brave warriors.
Additionally, as for the delays in the remainining trials of the two remaining Haditha Marines, I believe these guys got it right....
Who’s Behind the Government’s Delay in Bringing the Haditha Case to a Close?
They nailed it ! The prosecution in both cases should be harshly admonished, IMO.
Sorry, but I don’t buy it. I am not going to defend Murtha for a minute, but Murtha cannot order a Courts Martial. That is entirely within the control of the President, and his senior DoD officials and the Convening Authorities.
True, but what in that article suggested to you that he did?
It's his insidious influence that is at issue, not his power to dictate by direct order matters of military justice.
But the government already has that admission by SSgt Wuterich in a sworn statement to a high-level investigator, Col. Gregory Watt. Anyone doing research for the story would find those words by SSgt Wuterich in his statement: “I told them to treat [the house] as a hostile environment. I told them to shoot first and ask questions later”.
So the government already has the evidence they say they are looking for. And it’s in the form of a sworn statement to an investigator, not on video tape for a television interview.
Meanwhile, SSgt Wuterich is left mercilessly twisting in the wind, saddled with mounting legal bills he can’t afford to pay, hoping for a day in court to clear his name.
Nor do I.
Gen Helland is due to leave Pendleton in November so there will be a new convening authority soon. Is the brass trying to spread out responsibility for the exonerations? Could be, if the case is that radioactive that anyone who comes near it is flirting with career-suicide.
Defeating an insurgency is damned difficult. The very last thing anyone needs is to have troops running around killing civilians. There's a reason armies would once take every tenth men in a company and shoot them on the spot. Occupiers need to show that they are there to protect the local population and will mete out impartial justice.
Murtha threw gasoline on the fire. He turned Haditha into a political, anti-war, story. Haditha wasn't front page news around the globe until Murtha confirmed the Time story and said the truth was even worse than Time reported.
Then Murtha boxed in the Bush Administration by asserting that no one could believe anything that the military or Bush officials said. After that, it was pointless for Administration officials or the military to refute any of the allegations in the media. Even Gen Pace went on CNN and was basically accused of being in on a cover-up.
As far as anyone knows, that's the extent of Murtha's involvement with the Haditha case. In public, at least, Murtha walked away from Haditha when it no longer had any political value.
So while the DoD and the Marine Corps brass are responsible for the prosecutions, suspicions still linger that Murtha is exerting influence behind the scenes. He brought the appearance of doing evil on himself.
As the article linked above says, Murtha could easily dispel suspicions by a full, public apology for his actions (not one of those "I'm sorry if I offended anyone" numbers). Such an apology would also go some distance toward restoring the reputation of the Marines involved and the US around the world.
Oh I think folks are picking up the hints and whiffs of what is going on. It is one massive public tail covering exercise between the administration, the political leadership in the Pentagon and the Joint Chiefs and relevant field commands.
Remember we have Bush and the JCS doing end runs around each other over who controls Petraeus. What is that about? It is the same thing Murtha is about. It has nothing to do with Iraq. It is all about keeping the military procurement pork barrel rolling which is what the JCS does, and with Bush's popularity numbers in the tank he needs the support of those guys to have any influence with Congress at all. It is what SECNAV Winters is about, who never served a day in uniform and is an empty suit from the contracting community. These guys just want to keep money going for big procurements for systems under increasing levels of attack everywhere. That is where Murtha gets his influence. A bunch of hogs feeding from the same trough.
Right now, it is pretty clear that the only heroes in the war on terror are Petraeus and some folks he brought in, plus the real heroes fighting on the ground.
You have no idea what a self-absorbed place DC is. And Bush's guys and gals are even worse good ol boys than Clinton's were. Roberts and Alito are the exception. The norm is Miers.
First, I don't care what happens; when you break faith with your troops by sacrificing a couple of guys in a publicly embarrassing display of injustice, you have destroyed the moral fiber of your fighting force. No competent commander does that or allows it to happen, and you can take that implication right from the very bottom all the way up to the very tippy top.
Second, it just shows what a bunch of self-absorbed amateurs we have running the palace in DC. This is not exactly the first time in our history that the press has reported a scandal that just wasn't so. Professionals know how to deal with this. It takes time, patience, information, etc. What it doesn't need is a 4-star on the Sunday talk show circuit as fodder for the Dan Rather wannbe Charlie Gibson look alike contest and only an idiot neophyte in the DC public relations battle would do that, not that Bush hasn't found a lot of those guys.
I hope people are beginning to get a sense that this is just another painfully clear example of how thoroughly incompetent this administration is. The two guys who are not a total joke are Gates, who is a Bush 1 not a Bush 2 man, and Petraeus, who they ended up with after everyone else botched the war.
PS, I think that we have also witnessed the politicization of Navy Criminal Investigative Service, which, BTW, reports to Winters.
Which exactly proves the type of "person" Murtha really is. I can't bring myself to call him a man, cause he's not. Too bad you can't cut a snake off at the knees, cause if there was any one more deserving... And our Military are not agent provocateurs. Unfortunately, civilians are killed. But there is a statement in this showing the "civilian" population is complicit in the insurgency. When you have people who are joe blow by day, and joe blow-up by night, precisely pinpointing "civilians" may be impossible. To prosecute these Marines in this situation is going way too far, IMO. They did nothing wrong.
Murtha has stated publicly that he has friends in high places in DOD, though he hasn't named names it's plain that is true.
SECNAV Winter has headed companies that Murtha has had connections to for years with defense contracts and companies which have donated heavily to his campaigns.
Murtha undoubtedly knows many flag rank officers just from being involved with defense spending for so many years.
Though he is not in the direct chain of command as fas as unlawful command influence goes for the charges of all the Haditha Marines he holds the purse strings for our military and it's not much of a stretch to believe he could influence the people involved in these charges.
After the despicable statements he's made publicly about these Marines there's no doubt in my mind that his actions constitute the appearance of UCI>
I, myself, am divided because I believe these men are being railroaded but I also want to win in Iraq.
I'm a practical man. Why should I care if a few lousy lance corporals and staff sergeants spend a few years in Leavenworth if it's a means toward defeating the insurgency?
And wouldn't the accused serve their country by falling on their own spears?
There's every evidence that Gen Petraeus would agree with the above. He supports these prosecutions and seems to want punishment for every man accused.
So I don't think it's as same simple as blaming Bush, except for making the decision to fight a war in the first place. I tend to see these prosecutions as the natural outcome of waging a counterinsurgency. And I think any president's administration would make the same decision as the Bush Administration.
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