Rush to Judgment Against Haditha Marines

NewsMax.com ^ | May 27, 2006 | Carl Limbacher

[Carl/NewsMax]

The press is already salivating over the prospect of the next Abu Ghraib-like public relations disaster for the U.S. in the war on terror - ballyhooing as yet unproven allegations that a group of U.S. Marines launched an "unprovoked" attack that killed 24 Iraqi civilians in town of Haditha on November 19, 2005.

But was the Marine response really "unprovoked" - as at least 40 press reports have claimed in recent days?

The Boston Globe reports that the confrontation was touched off when a roadside bomb struck a supply convoy of Kilo Company, Third Battalion, First Marine Regiment. The explosion killed Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas, 20, of El Paso, who was on his second tour in Iraq.

"Everybody agrees that this was the triggering event," Paul Hackett, an attorney for a Marine officer with a slight connection to the case, told the paper.

If the roadside bomb was the "triggering event" for the developments that followed, however, then how can it be said that there was "no provocation"?

And while that provocation may not have been enough to justify the wanton murder of innocent Iraqis, it's far from clear at this point that all of those killed were indeed innocent. Or that any innocents who did die were killed in cold blood.

In an April report that pre-dates the uproar over the Haditha allegations, a Marine press release describes the Iraqi town as "a hotbed of insurgent activity less than a year ago." That would be about the time of the so-called Marine massacre.

Plainly, not all the residents of this terrorist hotbed were as innocent as Marine media critics are now claiming.

The Los Angeles Times reports that after smoke from IED cleared, the Marines quickly determined that it was "a type that would have required someone to detonate it."

Following standard procedure, the troops searched nearby houses, the closest of which was 50 yards away.

That's close enough for its occupants to have tracked the Marine convoy and timed the explosion.

It's also worth remembering that the press has so far reported only one side of the story.

All the witness accounts seem to come from residents of Haditha [that hotbed of insurgent activity] - who paint the Marines as modern day incarnations of Nazi storm troopers.

Alleged witness Aws Fahmi, for instance, told the Boston Globe: "I heard Younis speaking to the Americans, saying: `I am a friend. I am good,' But they killed him, and his wife and daughters."

According to the Los Angeles Times, the video that first raised questions about the how the Iraqis died was shot by Haditha residents themselves. Could it have been staged? We still don't know.

Then there's this intriguing tidbit, again from the Times, which notes that after the IED was detonated: "Marines and Iraqi forces searched houses and other structures in the narrow, dusty streets [of Haditha] - jets dropped 500-pound bombs."

Whoever ordered those airstrikes must not have believed the houses of Haditha were filled with Iraqi innocents who knew nothing about planting roadside bombs.

Despite the swirling questions, the press seems eager to jump to conclusions, taking its cue from Rep. John Murtha - who went public last week with charges that the Marines killed innocent Iraqis "in cold blood."

ABC News, for instance, reported Saturday morning that the military investigators had already determined that the killings were unjustified, and that several Marines would likely face murder charges. But instead of quoting anyone in uniform, the report offered a soundbyte from a Human Rights Watch spokesman.

It's also worth noting that House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, who got the same insider briefing given to Murtha, says the "in cold blood" allegations are all wet.

"I totally reject that," Hunter told the L.A. Times.

The California Republican has pledged to conclude his own investigation in June. In the meantime he worries about the press using Haditha to further their campaign against the military.

"I don't want the actions of one squad in one city on one morning to be used to symbolize or characterize or tar the actions of our great troops," Hunter told a Washington news conference last week.

[shalom aleichem]

Attorney Paul Hackett in civilian life ran against Jean Schmidt in district near Cincinnati and then went for Senate until, Sherood Brown beat him to oppose Mike Dewine. Hackett claims his own party sabotaged him. Some Dem party activists agreed, saying he is a loose cannon and shoots from the hip. Looks like we are in for a polital mess with former Marine Murtha calling them cold blooded killers and former Marine officer Hackett "defending them" on the case.

[Txsleuth]

It baffles the mind that McCain, Hagel, Graham and Warner are all VETERANS...and yet are the quickest to jump the gun, and assume the worst of our troops.

[texasmountainman]

It boggles my mine that these jackasses in the MSM don't understand that if not for these brave and wonderful troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places fighting the Islamo-fascist hordes, that some day soon the fighting would be taking place in cities like L.A. and Washington, DC instead of cities like Haditha.

[MplsSteve]

You're right. Murtha may have slipped a gear.

But the MSM will quote him on almost anything because they view him as key to damagin and ending the war effort.

For lack of a better phrase, he is their Great White Hope. They will hang on everything he says and does.

[ScaniaBoy]

One thing I have not seen discussed in this context is that Haditha was one of the worst Islamo-fascist hellholes on earth. That does not mean that "anything goes" for our side, but it does mean that reasonable people should consider all the ways in which evidence and the entire situation may have been manipulated before accepting anything said about this matter.

I think your advice is a very wise one. Here is an article from the (London) Times:

The Marines and a 'massacre' in Iraq

snip:

WITH remarkable self-assurance for a ten-year-old girl, Iman Hassan recounted how her family was killed by American troops as she cowered in terror in a corner of her living room.

It happened soon after 7am on November 19 last year, she claimed in an interview with The Times. She was still in her pyjamas and preparing for school when a US military convoy rumbled down the road near her home in al-Haditha, a town on the Euphrates surrounded by date farms that has become a hotbed of insurgents. Three months earlier 20 American soldiers had been killed there.

Two things to note - the media has found their "spokesperson". Iman Hassan will be the face of this atrocity. Before it is too late I would suggest that the US authorities check that this is not a new Mohammed al-Dura

Note also the insidious (or careless) use of the present tense in the penultimate sentence. It would have been correct to write "a town on the Euphrates surrounded by date farms that was [or had become] a hotbed of insurgents". As the sentence now stands it indicates that the insurgency started after November 19 last year (despite the fact that they relate the fact that 20 Marines had been killed there previously).

It may seem pedantic in the extreme to complain about the tempi in the article, but knowingly or unknowingly this is one way the MSM slants their stories.

[Wolfstar]

Yes, the rush to judgment from many quarters has been appalling. Everyone who is taking the Murtha line needs to slow down and get a grip.

A rush to judgement? On FR? Noooooo...whodathunkit!

Over the past year or so, this place has been about nothing other than hyper-critical rushes to judgement.

[Valin]

Does anyone know when the trial wil be held?

[Valin]

"How do we know they weren't getting shot at from the place the bodies were found....OR, the insurgents killed them..and called in their personal videographer..."


That's why we have trials.

[bnelson44]

Statements from Gen. David M. Brahms this week:

"Recent reporting on the events in Haditha, Iraq have included significant factual errors and/or misleading statements. This includes a quote attributed to me in the Washington Post this morning that was taken completely out of context and its meaning distorted. Many facts that are favorable to the Marines involved have not yet been disclosed."

"The worst thing that can happen in a case of this kind is to have it politicized...that's exactly what has happened here. They're leaking a story which is yet unwritten."
"It's not normal to have a Member of Congress to decide to have hearings, at least while this whole business is in flux."

"I think there has been (a rush to judgement)...This has got to impact the fairness of the procedure."

"We'll get more precise information. Let's kind of step back, let's try to realize that there's another side of this story...People accused may be guys like my son and your brothers."

"The problem is, of course, that everybody's got a political agenda...in the middle are a group of American Marines."

Brahms confirmed what press reports have said, that charges in two investigations-- an NCIS investigation of the incident itself and an Army investigation of whether there was a cover-up of the incident-- are likely to come in mid- to late-June or July, with military justice proceedings in August.

http://hughhewitt.com/archives/2006/05/21-week/index.php#a002287

[Enchante]

You are so right, this could well be another Mohammed al-Dura incident..... the Islamo-fascists love to try that sort of thing. I am extremely suspicious about stuff like the video referred to in the Times article -- anything like that from a "trainee Iraqi journalist" is almost certainly from a terrorist propagandist. When you consider that the terrorists run Haditha with a savage fist, no one but their own propagandist would have been allowed to practice "journalism" there on this matter.

Also, the article refers to visits of US investigators long after the fact -- as I've said before, any evidence that was not gathered and preserved before the terrorists resumed control of the area is worthless unless there is reason to be sure it has not been tampered with. If there is supposed to be no evidence of a firefight, I would want to know with certainty that no walls and windows have been repaired or replaced, etc. How can we come in months later and determine what really happened when the area is in control of the scumbags??

"But a video made by a trainee Iraqi journalist was passed to Time magazine. It showed bloodstained bodies, bullet and shrapnel marks inside the Hassan family home, and walls spattered with blood. There was no evidence of a skirmish on the outside of the buildings. Doctors said that most of the victims had been shot from close range in the head or chest."

[Gritty]

It appears the Left's idea of fighting a war is bringing an army of $500/hour lawyers to a knife fight.

[SierraWasp]

You've been around this website since about the time I first started lurking. I didn't sign up till much later. One thing I'm sure you've noticed in all that time on FR is the tendency of far too many FReepers to "jump to conclusions!"

You may feel it's safe to jump to the conclusion that some speculative commentary that you caught a glimpse of on one of the MSM broadcast TV channels constitutes some kind of reliable sorce of truth. However, it could be about as reliable as Dan Blather was on the Bush/TX Air National Guard deal, Dave!!!

Why would you lurch in the direction of believing this unsubstantiated scenario that could have all been a huge frame-up by the insurgency, for instance? They could have executed those innocents just prior to triggering the device. It's possible.

You gotta ask yourself: Why would you lurch in that direction, Dave??? Why??? Do you WANT it to be true, or something?

I wish you'd stop it cause you're really gittin me pist off behind it!!!

[Txsleuth]

I wondered if the Paul Hackett in the article was THAT Paul Hackett..

Uh-oh...yeah, this guy has an agenda..that agenda is getting himself famous, any way he can.

He was almost worst than 1971 Kerry, when he first was on Hairball..and when running for Rep.

Now, he is playing a different tune???

This guy is a traitor in lawyer's clothing.

[Txsleuth]

I saw a press conference with Duncan Hunter about a week ago...he said that the report was supposed to be filed with the head honcho by this weekend...

It will be read, and also sent to Gen. Chiarelli(sp), who is in Iraq...

Only THEN will they even talk to the people in Congress about this...

He also said they would have hearings...about the "process", but not the possible crime...he said that would be strictly up to the military.

One of the reporters asked him if he wasn't just "setting them up for bad news", (his press conference was the day after Murtha's when Murtha proclaimed that the Marines had killed these civilians "in cold blood")...

Hunter said NO, that he had no reason to know anything at that point, one way or another...but, that the reason he came out to speak about it that day was because in the accusations of Murtha...

Murtha said he KNEW what had happened...that he had been TOLD what was in the final report...Hunter said that as of last week, the report wasn't even completed.

Now...I have told you what I saw...I hope that Hunter was truthful...and nothing was known...rather than just coming out to try to cool things down.

But, I DO know that Murtha has been making very harmful comments about the troops and the war for a long time...so I have NO reason to believe him.

And NO, I don't know anything more than what is on this thread...and what I posted earlier here on this thread from when I originally read about this, back when if first happened.

[shalom aleichem]

I'm not 100% sure it is the same person, BUT the Ohio Dem candidate is an attorney and is a former Marine officer who served in Iraq and who is anti-war and highly ambitious and will say anything he has to to get ahead. Ergo a Ramsey Clark defense counsel for one of ours (Ramsey is otherwise engaged defending Saddam). Could be a real cluster. I hope our Marine defendant(s) know with whom they are dealing and in whose hands they have placed their fate. I suspect the whole defense will be our masters turned us into automoton killers and it is not our fault. Of course that won't work.

Also this story line was already used in one of the last episodes of "Bones". A guy like Pat Tillman (albeit an NBA star rather than NFL) went to Iraq, charged into an innocent family's dining room with gun blazing, killed them all. His crew then sets it up like they were all terrorists and the "massacre" was justified. The cover up overwhelmed the participants with guilt. The idea was none of the troops should have been there, they were just reserves and national guard. Not enough training. War is hell. (yada yada).

[Txsleuth]

"Thats why we have trials".

Well, not so much anymore...you have the OJ trial on one hand...

You have the Duke situation on another....where the whole teams was pronounced guilty enough to ruin the season, and the coach quits...and the DNA tests hadn't even come back..

Murtha is going on all of these shows pronouncing these Marines guilty of killing these civilians "in cold blood"...

and, other than Ollie North, when talking to Alan Colmes the other night...I haven't heard any hue and cry for everyone to wait for a trial.

[Txsleuth]

Thanks...good article.

[Marine_Uncle]

Thanks for the ping. I can't add nothing new that a number of thinking people have introduced and discussed.
It is always nice to read honest discourse with often variances in opinion. Surely this case provides one an option for variance. The ROE, are fine. But the ROE will probably be modified in the future by the Pentagon. Like those early days in the bannana republics with our Army and Marines (small war manuals) one sees parallels that simply went out of vogue later on, e.g. WWI,WWII, Korea.
What ROE allows for a Marine that must bust down a door to follow some known terrorist and take them out quickly and effeciently, do when they encounter some poor women holding a baby screaming.
The calls are truly tough or our guys. And those filthy scum bags know all to well, our guys cannot act in a brutal way and just mow the bastards down. The ROE must be modified to accomodate these new Security and Stablilization Operations (SASO).
As all at FR. I prayerfully hope the board of enquiry will find these brave Marines not guilty of any charges once things settle out.

[Txsleuth]

Yes, from your description...it does sound like the Paul Hackett....he sure is a crybaby, for a Marine.

I saw him twice, once crying about Bush and the war, when he was running for the House...

After he was thrown over by the DNC for the Senate race, he was crying about how he was treated by the politcians...

WHAAAAA....

You are right...I cannot imagine any of these Marines wanting that kind of representation...


Murtha is blaming Bush...saying these Marines are "too stressed out" to have kept themselves from doing this "in cold blood" (that kinds of sounds oxymoronic to me)...

[photodawg]

We are doomed to fail in Iraq as long as our troops have to fight the enemy, a seditious press, contemptuous politicians, self serving career officers and an apathetic public. I can guarantee you WWII was much more vicious than the war in Iraq
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Those of us on the right that shout support our troops and then condemn actions at Abu Grahib, and Hidiatha, are contemptible, sunshine patriots. Support our troops means exactly that. Support all our troops. When fired on in battle, any response deemed appropriate should be accepted and condoned, even if subsequent analysis finds it to be improper. Our troops must have the latitude to fight this war! Just as our police and border patrols must be allowed to do their jobs with all weapons at their disposal. The military can handle and discipline its own on the battlefield. We don't need investigations designed to look good for the liberal press and the rest of the world.