Posted on 11/15/2004 3:56:58 PM PST by Kaslin
LONDON (Reuters) - A television pool report by U.S. network NBC said on Monday that a U.S. Marine had shot dead an unarmed and wounded Iraqi prisoner in a mosque in Falluja.
The Iraqi was one of five wounded prisoners left in the mosque after Marines had fought their way in on Friday and Saturday. There was no immediate comment from the Pentagon (news - web sites) on the report.
U.S. forces launched an offensive one week ago on Falluja, and have gained overall control of the formerly rebel-held city, although scattered resistance remains.
The pool report by NBC correspondent Kevin Sites said the mosque had been used by insurgents to attack U.S. forces, who stormed it and an adjacent building, killing 10 militants and wounding the five.
Sites said the wounded had been left in the mosque for others to pick up and move to the rear for treatment. No reason was given why that had not happened.
A second group of Marines entered the mosque on Saturday after reports it had been reoccupied. Footage from the embedded television crew showed the five still in the mosque, although several appeared to be already close to death, Sites said.
He said one Marine noticed one of the prisoners was still breathing.
A Marine can be heard saying on the pool footage provided to Reuters Television: "He's fucking faking he's dead. He faking he's fucking dead."
"The Marine then raises his rifle and fires into the man's head. The pictures are too graphic for us to broadcast," Sites said. No images of the shooting were shown in the footage provided to Reuters.
The report said the Marine, who had returned to duty after being shot in the face a day earlier, had been removed from the field and was being questioned by the U.S. military.
Sites said the shot prisoner "did not appear to be armed or threatening in any way."
Did not appear... Booby-trapped corpses did not appear to be threatening. Why are we bothering to take prisoners? They don't seem to take any prisoners, and when they do, it shows up a few weeks later on the news when they're beheaded. Why give them another chance to take more of our own?
I'm not surprised that all the talking heads are calling this dead POS an "Iraqi", though I really doubt he was Iraqi. Has anyone been able to verify he was even alive before he was shot? Not that I really care, but I don't think it's a crime to shoot a dead body.
It just generates more sympathy for the Iraqi terrorists who are aligned with the foreign terrorist scum.
You'll get no argument from me.
Well, someone on the video says he was breathing. I guess that's a crime.
I agree that the insurgent shouldn't be referred to as "Iraqi" or "terrorist" unless those things can be confirmed. There are definitely different groups fighting us, and not all are local (or terrorists).
I think it's time for the imbedded swine....OOPS! I meant reporters to be removed from the front lines! The only mistake the Marine made was not shooting the reported. ( accidentally of course )
Contrariwise: Shameful is he who does not remember the Commander in Chief is a civilian. This is the US Constitution. We are not Turkey where the military is a ruling power in its own right. This may be inconvenient but it beats the alternative all hollow.
If we treat our people like this they wont defend us.
Like how? There has scarcely been a week since it happened and a threat of a court martial has not even been mentioned. Even al-Jazeera's take on it is pretty lame. Rumsfeld would certainly not stand for it. I would suggest waiting to get into a high dudgeon until events play out.
? An investigation is a threat of court martial. We are in the indictment phase.
They were clearing houses. The man was NOT secured. He was NOT responding to commands. He had not surrendered and had been cuaght in an act of deception-which had been associated with booby traps.
Had the marine not responded, several marines and the lame @ss reporter could have been killed by a grenade.
Until you have been through a few of those yourself, its tough to lecture this marine.
"Had been caught in an act of deception" is in fact being verified at this point. Investigation is just that, investigation. No court martial can occur without an indictment.
It is also in the AL-qaida manual to feign death and then blow yourself up just like a suicide bombers did during this battle.
We are crazy to not take alqaida doctrine into account when determining our tactics.
All these things are no secret and the investigators know about them.
I watched it with my own eyes. The guy was playing playing dead but breathing. There were lots of fold in his clothing to hide grenades.
Its pretty clear and I cant imagine you defending a terrorist engaging in deception.
IT would be different if these guys were lined up and mowed down. This did not happen. The self loathing freeper types are just flat silly.
One final thought for tonight.
I have designed systems to help keep navy guys and marines in particular alive. It jsut drives me nuts to see ours get killed.
If I could change just ONE thing about this scenario (other than just bombing these houses so our guys dont get killed by machine gun nests- which has happened in this battle)- I would teach our marines to yell "surrender, hands up!" in arabic as they barge into these homes.
Now this terrorist was not responsive, but there may have been a language barrier. Unfortunate in war.
Unconscious people breathe.
It would not be difficult to design a bullhorn with a recording in it, to do just that.
From today's post:
"This latest incident is just a further reminder that one cannot take it for granted that troops . . . will strive to abide by the . . . law if they are not given leadership on that matter," a spokesman for Amnesty International, Alistair Hodgett, said. Blah, blah, blah.
But the "rights" fussbudgets have not a thing to say about the brutal murder of Margaret Hassan — even as they attack those brave soldiers and Marines who are risking their lives to cleanse Iraq of Hassan's murderers?
The left-wing and anti-U.S. media has provided America's critics (and the terrorists) with wonderfully extensive coverage of the Abu Ghraib abuses.
And, sure enough, yesterday Al-Jazeera TV was happily airing the footage of the Marine's action in Fallujah.
At the same time, the network self-righteously declared it would not air the slaughter of Margaret Hassan — no doubt, to avoid generating bad publicity for the terrorists.
No one should be fooled by what's going on here.
Those who equate the head-choppings and cold-blooded executions by terrorists with battlefield shootings by Americans acting in self-defense only bolster the terrorists' cause.
Some do so deliberately.
The others are useful idiots.
Both, in the end, are complicit — morally, if not legally.
Wrong. The bullhorn would let them line you up in their sights.
Theere are many ways to make dead Marines...
Who says it has to be human carried?
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