Posted on 01/02/2012 10:28:48 AM PST by smoothsailing
January 2, 2012
It certainly seems appropriate that the last defendant in the Haditha case is the squad leader, SSgt Frank Wuterich. Leaders take responsibility, and SSgt Wuterich has taken full responsibility for the actions of his squad in Haditha. His stance from the outset has remained clear:
As the last Marine originally charged in the deaths of Iraqis in Haditha, Iraq in 2005, SSgt Wuterich will be seated at the defense table in his general court-martial two days from now, Wednesday, January 4th. Barring last minute motions or outright dismissal of charges, jury selection will begin Wednesday or Thursday. SSgt. Wuterich will be tried by a jury of combat-experienced Marines, and the panel will include at least two Marines from the enlisted ranks.
Much has been written over the last six years about Haditha, and links to some of the most recent news articles and commentaries are included at the bottom of this post to help bring readers up to date. For older Free Republic postings, please use this link or enter the keyword Haditha in the Free Republic search engine.
The purpose of this Free Republic thread is to serve as a "Master Post" where trial news and updates can be brought together in one place for easy reference by those interested in following the proceedings as they unfold.
Freepers Smoothsailing, Red Rover, and Jazusamo will monitor the thread, post updates, and attempt to answer questions or direct readers to information sources. Jazusamo maintains the Haditha Marine Ping List. Please ask Jazusamo to be added to the ping list if you wish to be alerted to updates.
Recent News and Commentary:
MILITARY TIMES-Haditha Marine Faces Trial
Count Down to the Last Haditha Trial
MILITARY: Two high-profile cases set for Pendleton courtrooms
Remember SSgt Frank D. Wuterich: The last Haditha Marine goes on trial
Don’t rewrite Murtha’s legacy (Haditha Marines)
Yep, he expects an honorable but isn’t sure, praying that it winds up that.
I can't believe Puckett thinks it's helpful to anyone to say things such as the other Marines’ charges were dismissed in exchange for their testimony against Wuterich.
How many took a deal and how many had their cases dismissed? Huge difference.
Puckett is destroying what should be the legacy of these trials.
Not sure if this meant to be "all monies received" or "during the trial" but there was a significant amount (reportedly something north of $250,000) raised by NewsMax in 2008. I never saw the check so I don't know for sure--just saying what was reported. So that would put the total donations north of $400,000.
I'm not clear how the discharge could be part of a plea agreement. Neither the defense nor the prosecution has the authority to make discharge decisions.
It's my understanding that discharges fall in to two categories, administrative and punitive.
A punitive discharge is adjudicated as punishment in a guilty court-martial verdict. There are two types, Bad Conduct and Dishonorable. A guilty verdict of negligent dereliction of duty carries no possibility of punitive discharge punishment, so was not available to Judge Jones and can not apply to Frank.
An administrative discharge covers everybody else, including Frank. It can be Honorable, General(under Honorable Conditions), or General(under Other than Honorable Conditions). Many factors come into play in deciding which of these three types is appropriate, and I believe the final decision rests with LtGen Waldhauser. If either of the General Discharges is the final recommendation, Frank has a right to appeal.
So this is all very much up in the air, and always has been. I don't see how it was ever subject to negotiation. I personally believe Frank has earned and is entitled to an Honorable Discharge and I certainly hope that happens.
Your explanation of discharges is what I’ve understood for some time but didn’t know for a fact, thanks.
I believe like you that it’s up to LtGen Waldhauser and believe he’ll grant the honorable but I only base that Mom’s posting, hopefully he’ll negate his reduction in rank to E-1 also.
There must be some reason the trial suddenly came to a halt so the defense could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and your theory is as good as any. Of course, that would mean the defense lawyers were complicit. But it would also mean that somebody, somewhere, is wiping his forehead and saying, “Whew...” because the government got a single conviction for... “negligent dereliction of duty”..? Really?
How small are these people?
As far as “a very black stain covering the Globe&Eagle”, it’s way too late to avoid that. That started the day the political whores, the cowardly perfumed princes of the panty-waist Pentagon ran like scared bunny rabbits from a brazen propaganda piece published in TIME Magazine. They never even bothered to check it out, but apparently they were afraid that the folks in barber shops and orthodontist waiting rooms across the nation would accidentally read the story and become outraged.
Instead, the only people who are outraged are members of every military family, past and present, in the nation along with all those good, decent people who support them. Congratulations, perfumed princes, you sick bastards. Semper Fidelis my ass.
Pray for America.
Wouldn't that only serve to negate the apparent charade that led to the single conviction? I mean, if Waldhauser stopped the trial because things were turning so poorly for the floundering defense that he hoped the teams could orchestrate at least something in the way of a conviction, then why basically dismiss the whole scheme by throwing out the "punishment"?
I could very well be wrong on this but I believe the prosecution are the ones that wanted to stop the trial.
A plea as I understand it has to go to the CA for approval and the judge is not included in that meeting. That’s why the judge recommended 90 days confinement unaware that the CA had agreed to none.
I don’t think we know how LtGen Waldhauser really feels about this prosecution (he’s, I believe the third CA) and that’s why I think Frank will probably get an Honorable Discharge and hope the CA will negate the reduction in rank.
Maybe it’s wishful thinking on my part but I tend to be an optimist.
It would be eye-opening to know just what occurred in the court-room in the ten minutes or so prior to LCol. Jones stopping the prosecution's interrogation of Mendosa, as reported by both Helms and Woolfolk. Did a runner bring in a message to anyone leading to Jones sending all off to bargain? I doubt Jones would do that on his own without giving the defense opportunity for cross - that creates a reversible error to appeal.
Thanks for your reply above, Lancey - you summed up my view too. Indeed - God bless the USA, and especially the Haditha Eight and the Iraqi Families that they all acquire peace.
As Nat Helms mentioned, those “Iraqi families” watched as terrorist insurgents planted a massive IED in the road in front of their houses and then disguised it with a layer of paving. Remember the little girl who claims she was getting ready for school and covered her ears when she heard the Marine convoy coming, because she knew they were about to get blown up?
Yeah, maybe those “Iraqi families” found themselves between a rock and a hard place, but that’s not the Marines’ fault. Maybe some members of those families were complicit, and maybe not. In the end, those “Iraqi families” allowed themselves to be used by the enemy as human shields, and the deaths of those people following the deadly ambush must be laid solely at the feet of the terrorist insurgents.
I recall Mendoza on the stand was being questioned by Sullivan and Mendoza wasn't answering as Sullivan expected him to.
An article I read stated Sullivan wanted to impeach his own witness (Mendoza) and that's when the judge stopped proceedings to meet with attorneys and resume the trial after lunch. I can't find that article.
Of course that recess extended to the next day due to discussing a deal.
After the trial was recessed for that length of time a lot could have happened.
Thanks, jaz - I didn't see that. From what I remember, the only witless that met Sullivan's testimonial expectations was the JAGOff confusing the ROE's pre and post Haditha.
Lancey - I don't forgive the Iraqi's, but if the Marines had acted as portrayed by McGirk and his propagandists claim no one would have been left alive in the houses. I can still ask God to calm their anger and grant their acceptance of their own involvement with Satan (allah) and his prophet mullahs. Pity they didn't carpet bomb the place!
To read the Puckett files, you will need to download a program to open the file. Use this one: www.utorrent.com It has been a LONG time since I messed with torrent files
After you install the uTorrent software, go to this link to download the torrent file: http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7007197/Fuck_FBI_Friday_VI__PUCKETT__amp_amp__FARAJ_3GB_Data_LeakSave it, then open it in uTorrent. The transfer could take a while.
This will be quite an undertaking. From an article on Atlanticwire.....
............................
“On Friday, hackers under the banner Anonymous released three years’ worth of emails from the law firm representing a marine convicted in the 2005 Haditha massacre in Iraq, which presents a fresh question of how anybody will ever find anything worthwhile in all that. It’s a huge amount of data — about three gigabytes consisting of 100,000 or so emails — and having already seen it we can tell you: It’s very hard to penetrate...”
The article goes on to say how “Anonymous” is counting on others to do the digging through all this raw data and then report what they find.
My guess is we’ll know alot about these e-mails in short order.
Got it downloaded. Seeding now.
That's for sure.
Seriously? Six years into this disgraceful fiasco and this guy needs to “review the case”?
/facepalm
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