Posted on 11/17/2004 9:02:43 AM PST by areafiftyone
WASHINGTON -- The Marine who shot and apparently killed a wounded Iraqi prisoner in a mosque in Fallujah on Saturday has been removed from the battlefield for questioning, and U.S. commanders in Iraq said they were bracing for a wave of outrage in the Middle East after the airing of the videotaped shooting.
Senior military officials and human rights advocates, including those often critical of the armed services, cautioned that the graphic videotape of the shooting, taken by pool correspondent Kevin Sites of NBC News, left many questions unanswered and underscored the confusion of urban warfare.
Agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service have taken over the inquiry, a senior Pentagon official said, and will determine whether the Marine believed he was acting in self-defense when he yelled that the Iraqi was only pretending to be dead and fired at the body.
It is unclear from watching an unedited version of the video tape whether the prisoner was moving before the shot. A senior Pentagon official said Tuesday that an autopsy might be required to help determine whether the man was dead or alive when the Marine shot him.
The inquiry will also have to determine what happened to the other Iraqis in the room. Some of them, according to the initial NBC report, appeared to be dead or dying when Sites entered with a group of Marines, joining other Marines who were already there. He has suggested that the other Iraqis may have been shot just before he entered, according to The Associated Press.
On Tuesday, Sites declined to elaborate on what he had seen.
After the on-camera shooting, Marines pointed their guns at another prone Iraqi who was reaching out weakly with one hand, but they backed off without shooting at him, the videotape showed.
The initial NBC report said that the Iraqis, all of whom had been wounded in fighting on Friday and then had been disarmed and left in the mosque, did not appear to be threatening, and that there were no weapons visible in the room.
The incident captured in the NBC report unfolded as members of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment of the 1st Marine Division entered the unidentified mosque in Fallujah on Saturday. Sites reported that Marines from a different unit had attacked the building Friday after coming under fire, killing 10 insurgents and wounding five others.
The Marines treated the wounded Friday, took their weapons and then left, Sites reported. On Saturday, another group of Marines, accompanied by Sites, entered the mosque, but it is unclear how many of the Iraqis were still alive then.
"Obviously, the shooting of an incapacitated detainee is a fundamental violation of the Law of Armed Conflict," said James D. Ross, senior legal adviser to Human Rights Watch. "But if someone feigns being incapacitated or killed, and then uses that to trick someone and shoot them, that's a war crime, and might justify the shooting."
Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, the top Marine officer in Iraq, promised a thorough investigation.
saying in a statement, "We follow the Law of Armed Conflict and hold ourselves to a high standard of accountability."
Other senior officers, while not defending the Marine's actions, said that there had been instances in Fallujah in which insurgent corpses had been booby-trapped and that some fighters wore vests with explosives for possible suicide attacks if they came into contact with Americans.
"It is hard for anyone to imagine the stress of urban combat -- the fatigue, the threat, the noise, the filth, the death," a senior Marine officer said Tuesday. "But if the incident turns out to have occurred as it appeared in the video, then it is inexcusable. Understandable perhaps, but not excusable."
Florian Westphal, a spokesman for the International Committee for the Red Cross, said it was not clear what had happened in the mosque, based solely on the videotape.
"We cannot, on the basis of TV images, no matter how disturbing and disconcerting they are, arrive at a judgment about an incident," Westphal told AP "We were not on the spot, so we cannot be aware of all the circumstances."
As Marine commanders in Iraq rushed to learn details of the shooting incident, Al-Jazeera broadcast the unedited version of the footage, complete with a name visible on one Marine's backpack and the faces of the Marines, which were not shown on American networks.
Several commanders voiced concern that no matter what the inquiry determines, the incident had handed the Iraqi insurgency a huge propaganda victory, and this after commanders said they had gone to extraordinary lengths in the battle of Fallujah to avoid civilian casualties.
The situation in the videotape appears to resemble two earlier incidents in Iraq. One, in Kufa last May, resulted in charges of murder and dereliction of duty against an officer in the Army's 1st Armored Division.
In that incident, Capt. Rogelio M. Maynulet shot the wounded driver of the militant Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr. Maynulet then told a fellow officer that the man was so badly wounded, with part of his skull blown away, that he had shot him out of compassion.
On Monday, the Army's 1st Cavalry Division announced that 2nd Lt. Erick J. Anderson of the 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, had been charged with murder in the death of a 16-year-old Iraqi, who had been badly wounded in Baghdad on Aug. 18.
Any questions?
Excuse me, didn't JfinKerry get a medal for this same type thing?
I think I'm glad for his removal. But for his own safety. I think it's absolutely outrageous that he has been charged with murder. He should get a medal for protecting his unit. And Sites. I assume he might think twice about placing his safety into the hands of some of our finest patriots? What a traitor!
Oh apparently what the leftist are saying that Kerry did it cause the kid was carrying a rocket launcher. Who knows if the kid was really carrying a rocket launcher - for some reason I don't believe that.
And they wonder why they lost the elections all over the country.
The Middle East can be as outraged as they want - I am OUTRAGED at their lack of outrage over the beheadings of innocent civilians trying to help the Iraqi people. Until they step up and condemn these terrorist they can all go to h*ll and shove their outrage!!!!
I enjoyed this today.
http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/
This makes me hate the main stream media more than ever.
Should only be one question:
Q1: Did you do your job marine?
A1: Yes Sir.
"Dismissed"
Yeah. When do we put him in charge of training?
"But if someone feigns being incapacitated or killed, and then uses that to trick someone and shoot them, that's a war crime, and might justify the shooting."
A war crime? Since when must an enemy commit a war crime to warrant being shot?? And since when are civilian terrorists protected by the Geneva Convention? Did OBL sign it? Is beheading and shooting bound women civilians a war crime? The wounded man was a combatant and absent an overt and credible gesture of surrender, shooting was justified. Period.
Why is the terrorist constantly referrred to as a "prisoner"? Had he surrendered? Was he subdued?
I thought Kerry himself adsmitted he shot the kid in th back
They have to do this. You cannot give blanket amnesty/approval for actions like this. At a minimum, you put the kid under the wringer to make it absolutely clear that shooting wounded people is not policy. That being said, there may be extenuating circumstances that let the kid off. But the Corps must make a statement that actions like this are not acceptible, at least on their face.
I'm sorry, I guess I misse dthe tag or sign taped to his forehead stating that he was a prisoner. When did this occur? There was no mention of him being a prisoner on the audio portion of the tape I saw. They were left alone for how long? Couldn't they have booby trapped this 'prisoner'?
This situation is getting ridiculous.
When does the Marine get an apology, thanks, and a medal ?
In 2000 4 NYPD officers were acquitted of homicide and reckless endangerment for shooting Amadou Diallo 41 times in the Bronx during peace time when he reached for a wallet on the stoop of his apartment building.
This Marine fired one shot at a man in a war zone where terrorists booby trap bodies, use Mosques as bases of war, play dead, and falsely surrender.
In WWII, and especially in the South Pacific, we didn’t have a wimp with a camcorder and a kangaroo court following our troops from island to island making sure every enemy death was a righteous kill. It was a war zone, and we fought savagery with savagery. It wasn’t bean bag, people. The Japanese fought dirty and we returned the favor. These vermin are worse, they aren’t in uniform, they hide in mosques, they torture and cut the heads off of innocent civilians. NBC better get their goody two-shoes cameraman out of Iraq, he’s living on
borrowed time.
God bless our troops! Now if mainstream will leave our troops alone and let them finish the job, peace in Iraq just might be restored. Leave this trooper alone. He's fighting the enemy. Let not the enemy come from within.
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