Posted on 05/29/2006 8:36:31 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
PHOTOGRAPHS taken by US military intelligence have provided crucial evidence that up to 24 Iraqis were massacred by marines in the insurgent stronghold of Haditha.
One photograph shows an Iraqi mother and young child, kneeling on the floor as if in prayer. They have both been shot dead at close range.
The pictures also show other Iraqi victims, shot execution-style in the head and chest in their ownhomes.
A US government official said the marines involved had "suffered a total breakdown in morality and leadership".
The killings are emerging as the worst known US atrocity of the Iraq war.
At least seven women and three children were among those killed in the massacre.
Witness accounts obtained by The Sunday Times suggest the number of children killed may be as high as six.
"This one is ugly," a US military official said.
In Britain, the chief of the defence staff, Air Chief Marshal Jock Stirrup, said at the weekend the "appalling" reports of the massacre could undermine British support for the war.
"This sort of accusation does make that harder to achieve," Air Chief Marshal said.
The pictures of the dead, which are being closely guarded by the US military criminal investigation service, were taken by a military photographer who is believed to have arrived on the scene moments after the shootings.
Many US forces are accompanied by photographers to gather intelligence and to shield soldiers from accusations of torture, intimidation and violence.
But the evidence in this case points to a murder rampage by the US marines.
The stain on the US military could prove harder to erase than the photographs of sadistic abuse and torture by US guards at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
Comparisons are being made to the My Lai massacre in Vietnam in 1968, in which US troops slaughtered 500 villagers.
Up to a dozen marines may face criminal charges -- including murder, which carries the death penalty -- dereliction of duty and filing false reports.
Three marine commanders were suspended last month.
With a political storm brewing, the top US marine, General Michael Hagee, flew to Baghdad on Friday to tell his troops they must kill "only when justified".
The naval inquiry is focusing on the actions of a sergeant who may have been the leader of a four-man fire team.
Miguel Terrazas, 20, a lance-corporal from El Paso, Texas, was travelling in a convoy of four Humvees in Haditha just after 7am on November 19 last year when a roadside bomb struck his vehicle, killing him and wounding two others.
The events that followed are the subject of two military inquiries due to report soon: one into the facts of the case, the other into a cover-up.
One witness, Aws Fahmi, heard his neighbour, Yunis Salim Khafif, plead for his life in English, shouting: "I am a friend, I am good."
"But they killed him, his wife and daughters," Fahmi said.
Haditha, about 225km northwest of Baghdad, has long been considered a rebel stronghold. It is among a string of Euphrates Valley towns used by insurgents and foreign fighters to infiltrate from Syria to reach Baghdad and the Sunni heartland.
The Sunday Times, AP
Man, you lost me there. I can't stand the Dixie Chicks but to tie them into this unfortunate situation is over the top.
Or was your comment missing its "/sarc" tag?
BTW, the other three things you listed at least make -some- sense.
If it is true then our progress in the WOT could very well be FUBAR. If it is true it is SICKENING! Killing kids? KILLING KIDS???!!!!! If true this is very very very very very very very bad for us.
Watch for them to be leaked within a week.
It is a stressful environment over there for our troops, seeing their companions blown up by cowards every day. Even so, I'll wait on this one for more info. This sounds like a frame-up.
I'd agree to that. BUT -- forgive me if I
1) think the story is a steaming load
2) don't trust the media to be judge and jury
3) want Murtha to shut the heck up during an investigation
This smells about as bad as Kerry's purple heart heroism.
How come if one of our guys does something bad it's an "atrocity" - but if a bad guy does the same thing, he's called an insurgent?
If there are no American witnesses or video, there is no story, and hopefully no case.
If this turns out to be true, and is not handled properly, I think "the few" and "the proud" would lose the respect of many people. That would be a sad day in marine history.
I agree about the state of the MArines who may have done this and what might have led them to it...
BUT
That is no excuse for actions like this. Otherwise, why can't Jihadists use the same excuses to justify their decent into horror? (ie having lost relatives, land, houses, children, jobs, hope, etc)
If an action is wrong, it's wrong. We can pity the perpetrator because we know what pushed them that far, but the action stuill requires punishment.
Of course, we still need to wait for all the evidence to come in which is why my statements are based on proof being supplied.
I'm one sarcastic...and post that way.
It's an alleged massacre until it's established as fact.
Did our soldiers behead anyone? Were the corpses mutilated or burned or dragged through the streets?
Was the Koran really flushed down the toilet as an excuse for the riots?
Those barbarians are looking for any reason to kill or destroy us. If the troops did anything close to what is being reported, we have a system of civil justice.
Barbarians have no civility, so there will never be true justice regardless of how hard people try to appease them.
I don't believe it.
Americans...Marines do NOT do such things.
Period.
redrock
Okay, cool. I'll know to read your comments with an implied "sarc" when necessary.
I tend to be sarcastic too, though I try to stay calm on the FR threads because when I slip, I get flamed...
MEGA-OORAH-DITTOS!
BTTT
May God help those marines who are involved. The title is very misleading. Were they actually filming the incident as it happened?
The AP just happened to allegedly obtain top secret military intelligence photographs and insider info on the investigation.
From the same source as the NSA logging phone records no doubt?
Either these stories are being manufactured, or there are serious gaps in our national intelligence, or both.
I smell a DemoRAT. Or perhaps the sources just happen to be some of the good muslims employed by our government?
And no doubt the source is very close to Murtha since he cried wolf first.
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