8,000 texts is all talk and no action
Lt Grayson Court Martial | Day Three | May 30, Friday
Friday’s testimony offered a stark contrast.
Special Agent Matthew Marshall of the NCIS testified that Lieutenant Grayson had been friendly and cordial, that the lieutenant had no problem making statements. Marshall said they spoke for three hours, that it was an interview and not an interrogation.
Most importantly, SA Marshall testified that Lt Grayson told him that he had seen photos taken by his subordinate, SSgt Laughner, and told him to delete them. Lt Grayson said he did so because photos because it was policy. The photos had no intelligence value. Marshall testified that he did not suspect criminal behavior on the part of Lt Grayson.
SA Marshall’s statements were in stark contrast to testimony from an Army investigator, Colonel Gregory Watt. It is Lt Grayson's alleged prevarications with Col Watt that brought the lieutenant to this court martial.
Colonel Watt arrived in Iraq in February 17, 2006—roughly a month before NCIS and a month before the publication of the first Haditha story in Time magazine. Col Watt had been prepped for his assignment with a copy of a letter from Tim McGirk that outlined allegations of murder in Haditha and the propaganda video that was shot of the ambush’s aftermath.
Lt Grayson’s problems began when he refused to sign a privacy statement before being interrogated by Col Watt. As an intelligence officer, Lt Grayson explained that he could not do so without authorization. This got the colonel and lieutenant off to a bad start. Lt Grayson was the only one of the Marines who refused to sign the form.
During the interview, Lt Grayson told Col Watt there were no intelligence photos of the incident in Haditha without specifying that the photos, ruled as having no intelligence value, had been deleted. Later during the one-hour interview, however, Lt Grayson did tell Col Watt that some photographs taken at the scene had been deleted. Based on this, Col Watt reported back to prosecutors that he believed Lt Grayson had not been cooperative or truthful. That led to the lieutenant being charged on December 21, 2006.
The prosecution faces a difficult task in proving that Lt Grayson deliberately withheld information. At one point during the day on Friday, Col Watt was asked, "Did you ever specifically ask Lt Grayson to provide photographs?" Col Watt's answer was no.
Strangely enough, there has never been shortage of photographs taken in Haditha. Col Watt also testified that none of the Marines who took photographs that day (and there were at least five photographers: Laughner, Briones, Wright, Sanchez, and even Dela Cruz) volunteered photographs to him during their questioning.
Col Watt is the prosecution’s star witness in case that, to this observer at least, is becoming more bizarre by the day.
During questioning, Col Watt admitted that he is currently under investigation for misconduct over an improper relationship with a subordinate. Allegedly, Col Watt’s executive office, a Major Schmidt, discovered some eight thousand text messages that had been sent over a three-month period. When Major Schmidt pursued an investigation, Col Watt allegedly threatened his life.
Col Watt denies everything.
Prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Paul Atterbury probably wondered why this kind of thing keeps happening with his star witnesses. During the Article 32 hearings, Dela Cruz and Mendoza ran into major credibility issues as well though for different reasons.
Also on Friday, the prosecution presented its case against Lt Grayson for fraudulent separation from the Marine Corps.
Lt Grayson’s former commander, Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Gillan of the 2nd Intel Battalion, was asked why he signed Lt Grayson’s discharge. LtCol Gillan responded that Lt Grayson was not on legal hold.
A senior member of the panel submitted a question: Senior “Did anyone direct Lt Grayson not to check out until all legal matters were settled?”
LtCol Gillan said no.
Court is now in recess until Monday when the prosecution is expected to wrap up its case. The defense is expected to start on Tuesday—the day the trial was initially projected to conclude. At the end of the day on Friday, eight witnesses out of 34 had appeared.
As a side note, it was striking to some how different an Article 32 hearing is from a court martial. One likened an Article 32 to the Wild West and a court martial to civilization. The judge is a no-nonsense major. At one point, he admonished Col Watt for making a show of shaking his head during legal objections to his testimony.