Posted on 04/25/2007 12:52:41 PM PDT by TBP
Attorneys for the highest-ranking man charged with wrongdoing arising out of the slaying of 24 Iraqi civilians in 2005 are asking Navy Secretary Donald Winter to conduct an investigation of how his agents treated Marine witnesses and suspects.
"There are disturbing reports that American servicemen were treated like POWs by their own government," said Richard Thompson, president of the Thomas More Law Center, a Michigan group defending Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani. "This entire investigation has been nothing but a political witch hunt instigated by insurgent propaganda operatives, anti-war media and anti-war politicians."
Chessani is charged with dereliction of duty and violation of a lawful order for how he handled the initial investigation and reporting of the deaths that occurred in the city of Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005.
Three other officers face similar allegations and three enlisted men face murder charges in connection with the deaths. All the accused are from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment.
The complaint contends that Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents engaged in what Chessani's attorneys say were improper and unconstitutional interrogation methods.
Some of the interview and interrogation sessions that took place in Iraq in early 2006 lasted as long as 18 hours, during which the men being questioned were not allowed anything to eat, drink or use the bathroom, according to the complaint.
A spokesman for the criminal investigative service in Washington was reviewing the complaint and had no immediate response.
Brian Rooney, an attorney for Chessani, said a letter was sent to Winter today asking for the investigation.
The way the civilian law enforcement agents conducted the probe was like "having the verdict first and the trial second," Rooney said during a telephone interview Tuesday morning.
Leaks and investigative documents throughout the Haditha probe combined with the tactics of investigators pose significant hurdles for attorneys, he added.
"The defense of any of the clients is very difficult and it doesn't help when the interrogation techniques used by NCIS are not proper," Rooney said during a telephone interview. "I was always told by NCIS that they didn't take sides but that's not what happened in this case."
Chessani's attorneys, they say that many of the witnesses said the questioning was accusatorial, confrontational and insulting.
"One officer stated that agents yelled and threw things at him during his questioning," a release from the Thomas More Law Center states. "Witnesses believed that the agents had already concluded that there was wrongdoing and were not interested in information that would tend to exonerate the Marines."
Last week, the Marine Corps dropped murder charges against a sergeant who also had been charged, saying the value of his testimony outweighed his involvement in the incident.
A 1st lieutenant who responded to reports that a roadside bomb had destroyed a Humvee killing a lance corporal and triggering the events that led to the civilian deaths also has been granted immunity, as have as many as six other Marines, according to numerous sources.
A hearing for Chessani to determine if the charges against him move forward to court-martial will take place at Camp Pendleton next month. All the accused maintain they are innocent.
This Electronic Briefing Book includes a comprehensive listing of available records relating to U.S. interrogation policies, including records officially released by the White House and the Department of Defense on June 22, leaked documents that have not been officially released, and a description of 17 records that have not been made available to the public. In addition, this posting includes the text of a congressional subpoena proposed by Senators Leahy and Feinstein that was defeated on June 17, 2004 by the Senate Judiciary Committee and a copy of the "Taguba Report" detailing the findings of a Department of Defense investigation into the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq.
The website is George Washington University. My uneducated guess would be that the vast majority of poly-sci profs from that campus that would be into this thing would most likely be liberal, and have an axe to grind. IOW, I don't really give the source a lot of credit for being completely truthful. That's just me though - I am VERY hard to convince that our military is in the wrong. :-)
And hence my use of the word “alledgedly.”
We have a real problem with source. The accusers won’t believe anything from the government says and conservatives have correctly come to expect bias from the media.
that larger problem looks unresolvable.
I’ve got a lot of concern about Haditha (not the least of which is confusion by the public with other cases) - I just hope their lawyers are able to show they should be found not-guilty rather than trying to back the administration into a corner on interrogation.
I will agree with that. Better that their names are cleared than that they get off on a technicality.
Its ok to the left to treat our own like dogs, as long as we treat the terrorists like kings. You wont see any outrage on DNCBS for this. You wont see the Old York Times having 150 stories about this outrage.
Pray for W and Our Marines
Oh, I understand what you are saying about the Col. That wouldn't be considered as torture since he is a Marine and Marines go without food and water all the time protecting us while we make jokes about their sacrifices. Thanks for clearing that up. I dare you not to go pee pee for 18 hrs.
So are you claiming they wouldn't allow the Col to go pee, for 18 hrs?
War is hell, sometimes innocents get killed. If these marines were ambushed and were taking fire from this house or suspected the terrorists were in that house they had the right and duty to go dig them out. But there have been all kind of statements made about the little girl who said she knew the IED was going to go off. How did she know that? Was it one of her family members that planted it. I know from experience, having worked in Iraq, that these people will lie. They have even killed civilians and then tried blaming it on our soldiers. Even doctors have told the media of hundreds of people being killed by allied strikes and after fire fights. When it was checked out they found it was a lie.. And we are going to try and sentence our marines on the words of these people?
So are you claiming they wouldn't allow the Col to go pee, for 18 hrs?
I don't know, I wasn't there. I don't find it amusing at all. Next are you going to tell me he held it in and his eyes were yellow? You took the p out of resect.
I agree with you 110%. I was just trying to say that I believe that if our soldiers were treated in a manner inconsistent with the Geneva Conventions, I think they absolutely have a leg to stand on with this defense (in response to another post.) That this case has even gotten this far, to me, is an outrage.
Then why bring it up?
"I don't find it amusing at all."
That's good?
"Next are you going to tell me he held it in and his eyes were yellow? "
Nah.
"You took the p out of resect."
Ridiculous.
I for one would like to see the Commander-in-Chief & SecDef make the following change:
1) Effective immediately, ALL deployed combat units will have a JAG officer and a ACLU representative assign AT ALL TIMES.
2) During each mission, the assigned JAG office and ACLU rep will be responsible for “point” positions.
3) Replacement JAG and ACLU members will be made until all resources exhausted.
Post #18.
There's nothing about pee in there. The post replied to suggested the Col. was tortured. The defendants attys claim the Col was yelled at, and had things thrown at him.
Very rough....yes.
You 'LOL' asking if the Col was tortured....post #28 gave more info on the treatment and part of the treatment was not being allowed to go to the piss locker, head, whatever you want to call it...I kindly challenged you to try to go 18 hrs like the report stated and you pawn it off as if it didn't happen to the Marines. I said, I wasn't there to know which of the Marines were deprived of these things we take for granted.
"post #28 gave more info on the treatment and part of the treatment was not being allowed to go to the piss locker, head, whatever you want to call it.
Ridiculous.
"I kindly challenged you to try to go 18 hrs like the report stated and you pawn it off as if it didn't happen to the Marines."
There's no such report. If any MArine is refused access to the head, they should pee on the floor, and try to hit the enemy/lailer's leg if possible.
“You took the p out of resect.” - Good one. LOL!
Spunkets, whatever you want to call this, this is no way to treat our Marines. It would be one thing if they did this to try to discover some truth that hadn’t been uncovered yet. The longer this has gone on, I don’t believe the NCIS was trying to discover some “truth” about the events in Haditha that day. They appeared to just have been trying to force some “testimony” to fit their preconceived ideas. Our Marines do deserve more respect than insurgents/terrorists or whatever we’re calling the enemy this week. They are Americans.
Ridiculous.
When you’re a 19 year old boy facing life in prison, pop up the nose would be welcome.
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