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The government’s case against a squad of Marines accused of murdering at least four Iraqi insurgents at Fallujah in November 2004 took another twist when the government decided Tuesday to withdraw its charge of unpremeditated murder against Sgt. Jermaine Nelson. The former assaultman in the beleaguered 3rd Squad, 3rd Platoon, Kilo Company was charged several weeks ago at Camp Pendleton. Marines from the squad are charged in two separate incidents a year apart with murder. The government’s inexplicable and unexplained action dismissing its case against Nelson after he admitted killing a prisoner promises to unleash another battering storm at Camp...

(Fallujah burning in the distance on D-Day) Nine days before former Marine Corps Sgt. Jose Luis Nazario Jr. was charged with voluntary manslaughter at Fallujah, Iraq almost three years ago he was publicly disgraced by two Naval Criminal Investigative Service special agents in the course of his arrest. The probationary patrolman on the Riverside Police Department was reportedly lured into his police station August 7 under false pretenses, stripped of his badge and gun, handcuffed by two Naval Criminal Investigative Service special agents, and forced to take a humiliating “perp walk” past his fellow officers for allegedly killing two...

CNN) -- A former Marine sergeant accused of killing two Iraqi captives in a 2004 battle in Iraq said his squad fabricated the entire story. Jose Luis Nazario has pleaded not guilty to voluntary manslaughter charges brought by federal prosecutors in southern California. He left the service in 2005. According to an affidavit from a Navy investigator, Nazario killed one prisoner and then asked his squad: "Who else wants to kill these guys? Because I don't want to do it all myself." The prisoners -- four men who had been captured in a house that was the source of hostile...

20 August 2007 -- When former Marine Corps Sergeant Jose Luis Nazario was charged with manslaughter in federal court last Thursday for allegedly killing suspected insurgent prisoners of war in Fallujah, Iraq almost three years ago, it ignited another battle over the ancient city. The former infantryman, husband and father is a veteran of the infamous “Hell House” in Fallujah on November 13, 2004. He was ignominiously fired from his new job as a Riverside, California police officer and arrested on suspicion of killing the unidentified Iraqi on or about November 9, 2004 at an unknown time and place, the...

CAMP PENDLETON ---- The Marine Corps announced Monday it has charged a sergeant with unpremeditated murder for the killing of an Iraqi detainee in Fallujah in 2004. Sgt. Jermaine A. Nelson is the second person charged in the case in which four detainees were killed. The incident was first reported in the North County Times in late June. A Marine Corps spokesman stressed that Nelson is considered innocent until findings show otherwise, adding that leadership at Camp Pendleton is committed to fully investigating alleged acts of wrongdoing in Iraq. "Our message is to tell the citizens of the United States...

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- The Navy is investigating claims that Camp Pendleton Marines killed between five and 10 unarmed captives in a fierce battle in Fallujah, Iraq, in November 2004, current and former Marines say. < snip > A defense lawyer and former Marine captain who fought in Fallujah in December 2004 said the government would have a near-impossible task if it decided to prosecute. "This is a huge rabbit hole, and I can't see it going anywhere," said the lawyer, Brian Rooney. "I was in Fallujah. It was nearly destroyed. The house is either gone or rebuilt completely, the...

NORTH COUNTY ---- An Ohio attorney representing a former Marine who has alleged that members of his platoon shot and killed eight Iraqi prisoners of war in 2004 declined to discuss specifics of the incident Friday, but did describe his client as a hero. The attorney, former Marine Paul Hackett of Cincinnati, said that former Cpl. Ryan Weemer from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment did nothing wrong during the fight for the insurgent-riddled city of Fallujah, where the prisoners were allegedly killed. "He's an American hero who demonstrated incredible valor at the request of his country in Iraq...

SAN DIEGO — The Navy is investigating claims that Camp Pendleton Marines killed between five and 10 unarmed suspected Iraqi insurgents who had been captured during a fierce battle in Fallujah in November 2004. The criminal probe centers on the actions of several members of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, current and former Marines told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation. Different members of the same unit were later accused of wrongdoing in the killings of 24 civilians in Haditha in 2005. The investigation was launched when Ryan Weemer,...

CAMP PENDLETON – It was the first time the four had all been together again since that day in Fallujah, Iraq, nearly 2½ years ago – the day they stepped into a “meat grinder” now known in Marine Corps lore as the “House of Hell.” For their actions and courage that day, Nov. 13, 2004, Sgt. Maj. Brad Kasal and former Sgt. Robert “R.J.” Mitchell would later receive the Navy Cross, the military's second-highest medal of valor. “My part was I went in the house, got shot first, came out of the house, told Kasal and everybody else what went...

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is probing allegation that eight unarmed Iraqi men were murdered at Fallujah, Iraq in November, 2004. They allegedly died at the hands of Marines once in the same platoon as two Marines already under investigation for murdering 24 civilians in Haditha 18 months ago. The alleged murders were revealed last year by former Corporal Ryan Weemer, once a Marine rifleman from 3rd Platoon, Kilo Company, Third Battalion, 1st Marines. Weemer fought valiantly at the Hell House during the Fallujah battle in November 2004 and sustained three gunshot wounds. He was a fire team leader in...

NORTH COUNTY ---- A federal agency is investigating whether Camp Pendleton Marines shot and killed a group of prisoners in the city of Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004, according to several military and legal sources. The sources told the North County Times that the Naval Criminal Investigative Service probe centers on whether five to 10 Marines violated the laws of war. "They have interviewed about 20 people so far and some have been read their rights," a source with direct knowledge of the probe said Friday. Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the killing of a captured enemy combatant who...

CAMP PENDLETON — Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents are examining allegations that Marines killed as many as eight unarmed Iraqi prisoners during a battle in Fallouja in November 2004, according to civilian and military sources. (snip) In the Haditha case, three enlisted Marines face murder charges, and four officers are accused of failing to investigate the killings. Preliminary hearings are underway. (snip) The two cases do not involve any of the same Marines. But some of those being interviewed in the Fallouja case were expected to serve as character witnesses for colleagues accused of murder in the Haditha case. (snip>...