Posted on 03/26/2010 1:47:30 PM PDT by jazusamo
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — A military judge in California has denied a motion to dismiss charges against a Marine sergeant whose squad killed 24 Iraqi men, women and children after a bomb killed a Marine.
Lt. Col. David Jones ruled Friday at Camp Pendleton on a defense motion claiming there was unlawful command influence while a general considered a court-martial for Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich.
The judge ruled there was no record of any "meaningful comment" between the general and an aide who had investigated the case as a military lawyer.
Wuterich is facing trial on reduced charges of voluntary manslaughter and other crimes in the November 2005 attack in the town of Haditha.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Amen to that. It seems the powers that be are determined to get a pound of flesh from someone. We can only hope that the Marines on his panel are more concerned with the truth and not swayed by the civilian leadership, enemedia and the brass by finding him not guilty.
There's nothing in the regs about a "meaningful comment" to prove beyond a reasonable doubt Unlawful Command Influence.
It is however specified very clearly in the regs that there only has to be the appearance of Unlawful Command Influence to dismiss the charges or start the process over with a command not exposed to that UCI.
It looks to me like Lt. Col. Jones has been gotten to, if not directly by those above him by his ambition. If that's the case it's a sad day for the Marine Corps and all our military.
This guy Ewers is a foul piece of dog sh%%, and Jones is a flat out coward.
The disgraceful fiasco plods on and I am sick to my stomach.
a Marine sergeant whose squad killed 24 Iraqi men, women and children
“This is the same bogus garbage the leftist nosepickers always run in the first paragraph of Haditha stories.”
?? Sure, we can’t have the news starting off with a sentance saying exactly what the story is about now can we ?
Are you serious or just being sarcastic?
Why ?
Is there some dispute that the case IS about a Marine sergeant whose squad killed 24 Iraqi men, women and children ?
“This is the same bogus biased and incendiary garbage the leftist nosepickers always run in the first paragraph of Haditha stories.”
To answer your question, this case and everything surrounding it since the "Haditha Massacre" meme was hatched, is about far more than 25 deaths.
Here's a link to a good place to start...
http://warchronicle.com/TheyAreNotKillers/DefendOurMarines/TopicIndex/EvidenceRoom.htm
This gives the simple facts one needs to decide if you want to read the rest of the story.
Perhaps you could create a “ unbiased and non-incendiary “ sentence that would covey the same information ?
BTW - you may wish to review this page -
http://warchronicle.com/TheyAreNotKillers/Maps/DefendOurMarines-Maps.htm
( the map on the homepage has the positions wrong )
Don’t waste your time, can you say nitpicker who likes to argue?
You're right, it's that two-by-four thing all over again. :-)
Hey Fred, long time since I’ve been around ... actually only lurked here once or twice in the last few years, but I like the picture.
It fits - make a wrong move and you never know when I’ll pop my head up and bite your legs out from under you ! :-)
( can I get the theme from Jaws to go with it ? )
Sure thing.
I don’t know why, but when you show up Disney’s Peter Pan runs thru my head. The whole damn movie. :-))
Hey Fred - I don’t know if “Never smile at a crocodile” conveys the same ominous tone, and I certainly would not give a warning by swallowing a clock, but I’ll chomp off a hand of some careless fool. :)
If I recall, we pretty much had the timeline figured out on the maps with all the movements and locations. Anything change since then ?
Still the same. The big holdup has been that the prosecution wanted the outtakes from Wuterich’s 60 minute interview. They were convinced they contained some form of an admission of guilt or confession and it may have even been in a nonverbal form. CBS told them to kick rocks. Been dragging this deballcle out far too long. In the meantime, the judge in the Chessani case ruled an appearance of UCI. Pretty much ended that case. Probably and yea verily the same exists for this case.
I think they should drop it.
A little Pandorum now and then is a good thing. ;-)
I was having my weekly thought today, and I'm having a difficult time coming up with a reason that the members of Frank's squad can't or shouldn't sue every person who libels them.
I can't think of a reason not to. The truth is published and archived in plain sight - no news outlet could claim otherwise - and the story they tell is deliberately false, inciteful, and harmful to the families.
I'm not the one to be giving legal advice, but it seems that before he started giving rats indigestion, the only reason Murtha couldn't be sued was that destroy lives/pass jail/collect millions in graft clause.
What it comes down to is whether they were following the orders given. “Civilian” casualties don’t bother me at all. From talking to soldiers who were there, there weren’t any civilians. Don’t trust them. Don’t tun your back on them. Things have changed, but at that place and time I think they did what they had to do. Initial reports seem to indicate this. Just another day at the races. And what happened wasn’t an overwhelming concern. To paraphrase a soldier who served with my nephew “If you look at every single incident, there would be a lot more prosecutions”. It was a nasty business. And the “truth” can be very subjective, IMO.
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