Posted on 01/02/2012 10:28:48 AM PST by smoothsailing
January 2, 2012
It certainly seems appropriate that the last defendant in the Haditha case is the squad leader, SSgt Frank Wuterich. Leaders take responsibility, and SSgt Wuterich has taken full responsibility for the actions of his squad in Haditha. His stance from the outset has remained clear:
As the last Marine originally charged in the deaths of Iraqis in Haditha, Iraq in 2005, SSgt Wuterich will be seated at the defense table in his general court-martial two days from now, Wednesday, January 4th. Barring last minute motions or outright dismissal of charges, jury selection will begin Wednesday or Thursday. SSgt. Wuterich will be tried by a jury of combat-experienced Marines, and the panel will include at least two Marines from the enlisted ranks.
Much has been written over the last six years about Haditha, and links to some of the most recent news articles and commentaries are included at the bottom of this post to help bring readers up to date. For older Free Republic postings, please use this link or enter the keyword Haditha in the Free Republic search engine.
The purpose of this Free Republic thread is to serve as a "Master Post" where trial news and updates can be brought together in one place for easy reference by those interested in following the proceedings as they unfold.
Freepers Smoothsailing, Red Rover, and Jazusamo will monitor the thread, post updates, and attempt to answer questions or direct readers to information sources. Jazusamo maintains the Haditha Marine Ping List. Please ask Jazusamo to be added to the ping list if you wish to be alerted to updates.
Recent News and Commentary:
MILITARY TIMES-Haditha Marine Faces Trial
Count Down to the Last Haditha Trial
MILITARY: Two high-profile cases set for Pendleton courtrooms
Remember SSgt Frank D. Wuterich: The last Haditha Marine goes on trial
Don’t rewrite Murtha’s legacy (Haditha Marines)
Lt. Ilario Pantano should not have had to go through what he did but fortunately he was finally cleared.
It is unconscionable what some of our troops have had to go through from our own government for voluntarily serving to protect our freedoms.
That’s right.
Pantano is a Congressman hopeful in NC if I’m not mistaken.
Thanks smooth for the final analysis. Now the Sarge can move on to perhaps a better life. I at least hope so.
I hope so too, Uncle.
The hack by Anonymous of Puckett & Faraj's website was a bust--except the collateral damage they've created for a law firm and its clients other than the Haditha defendents. The clients include rape victims (whose personal information is now public) and detainees at Gitmo (doesn't that make Puckett on the same side as the hackers?).
I don't want to minimize the damage to Puckett & Faraj. I hope they've both already changed their Social Security numbers and banking information because their tax returns and bank loan information is now on the Internet. And it will be a while before they are able to do business.
But related to Haditha? No one has turned up anything relevant yet. The best they can do is post silly e-mail blasts to Puckett from Don Greenlaw and his buddies that are similar to some Free Republic posts about ways to kill Muslims.
I got off Greenlaw's e-mail list years ago and I can't understand why Puckett didn't delete his e-mails. Bloggers are using those e-mails to suggest that people involved with the case were a milimeter away from going on a murderous rampage. But that's just more mud-slinging and shouldn't stick.
The only thing I've found related to Haditha that was news to me was this tidbit about DELA CRUZ. It's not much but a brief view into his character.
That is terrific. And I wish Puckett had spoken with that kind of clarity. Suggesting that others were guilty didn’t exactly endear him to the lunatic left anyway.
Excellent explanation. Thanks very much for the ping and here’s a BTTT.
Thanks, Red. What a mess they’ve caused, and with little understanding of this case or how the military justice system works. Puckett and Faraj were merely defending their client, SSgt Wuterich, just like another lawyer will be defending Manning. If they had any sense of this case, they would have hacked the prosecuting JAGs, the convening authority...... IOW, the govt’ end of this.
Interesting info in the PDF...thanks.
I don’t know about you, but I would FREAK out if my freepmail was hacked. It might reveal my shoe size or love of LOLCats.
Same here, lily.
It will be difficult for them to recover, IMO. It goes to the importance of trust, and it doesn't matter what caused the breach.
The Anonymous "hactivists" are criminals, and should be seen as such. If they can be caught, they must be punished.
They've done nothing to change the true Haditha story, the Marines remain exonerated.
Anonymous succeeded in making themselves look immature and foolish, but that doesn't excuse their crime.
Anonymous could be anyone. The DOJ, NSA, CIA, FBI.
And why worry about Freepmail? Lily wears shoes???? Who knew????
I fear with this 'Justice' Department very little will be done to any of these miscreants, even if successfully caught. The Courts should treat this as treason, since as you know discussions between lawyers and clients are sacrosanct and under a full seal of secrecy.
Here's part of a dump pointed to by that paragon of virtue (/s) Barrett Brown in his Twitter Stream earlier:
I cut the following from the end of that patebin:
Other info in the stream seems to indicate that access was made through Google, or could be through another site co-located on their venders server farm. I would hope they can save the firm, and recover as soon as possible.
Stay safe, FRiends.
Agree with all your points, Girl—which is partly why I’ve started to look at this differently.
I don’t think the original hack is the work of hactivist masterminds. I see it as the work of some geek on an ego trip who dumped it to Anonymous as more than it was and then started bragging.
I think they got Faraj’s 2010 mailbox archives, Puckett’s inline email box and maybe one year of his archives. I haven’t seen any e-mails from the period during the court martial. So the original brag is all crap. And the hack itself was not even all that sophisticated.
So, as they’d put it, Anonymous got owned. The goods didn’t deliver.
That’s how I see it.
In the name of “justice”, they screwed up the lives of people who had no direct connection to Haditha. And if we’re going to start blaming lawyers for the crimes (real or otherwise) of their clients, there’s no possible justice.
Something else along those lines from our "buddy's" twits:
Found a letter (pdf: http://www.mediafire.com/?so53tata3a6fdkh) from Haythan to BGen. Steven Salazar, 7th Army Joint Multinational Training Command detailing witness intimidation and UCI for a PFC Shane Colyer for an upcoming Admin Separation hearing. Damning if true, and I see no embellishment by Haytham there - just facts.
Hope they catch the SOB responsible. They have no idea of the damage other communiques could do; damn them to hell!
Agreed, though I also feel major relief that there were no e-mails to or from Frank or his family or information that could have lead to their harassment.
That’s an interesting take, bhfred. I have a feeeling it is likely a Manning fan (not of the Giants or Colts variety), disgruntled about his being tried while SSGt Wuterich is essentially exonerated of any murder/manslaughter. They have no knowledge of the actual case, just an axe to grind about their “man”.
From a batch linked on twitter by
http://twitter.com/#!/AnonymousIRC
-—— Original Message -——
From: Neal A. Puckett
To: dgreenlaw@cox.net
Cc: Haytham Faraj ; MARCY Atwood
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2012 5:45 PM
Subject: Thank you!
Capt Greenlaw,
Thank you, Sir. I wrote it, I said it and I MEANT it.
Frank Wuterich represents the best this country has to offer and deserved nothing less.
I was inspired by his insistence that he take responsibility for all that his Marines did or failed to do that day. He refused to have it any other way.
Thank you for never wavering in your support for Frank.
Semper fi,
Neal Puckett
From a batch linked on twitter by
http://twitter.com/#!/AnonymousIRC
-—— Original Message -——
From: Neal A. Puckett
To: dgreenlaw@cox.net
Cc: Haytham Faraj ; MARCY Atwood
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2012 5:45 PM
Subject: Thank you!
Capt Greenlaw,
Thank you, Sir. I wrote it, I said it and I MEANT it.
Frank Wuterich represents the best this country has to offer and deserved nothing less.
I was inspired by his insistence that he take responsibility for all that his Marines did or failed to do that day. He refused to have it any other way.
Thank you for never wavering in your support for Frank.
Semper fi,
Neal Puckett
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