Free Republic

The aunt of slain Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, whose death in a roadside bombing in Haditha, Iraq last November prompted his fellow Marines to launch what military critics are calling a massacre of innocent civilians, is blasting Rep. John Murtha for prejudging their actions. "Putting Michael's battalion in a bad light, it's like putting Michael in a bad light," Rosario Terrazas told radio host Steve Malzberg, filling in on Bill Bennett's "Morning in America" show. "It's especially hurtful when certain people make statements that may be opinions but come across as facts," she added. "It's a little difficult to hear...

Contrary to claims from Rep. John Murtha, Marines accused of executing 24 innocent Iraqis in the village of Haditha last November were indeed fired upon after their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb - according to a lawyer involved in the case. "There's a ton of information that isn't out there yet," the lawyer said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity to the Washington Post. He said contemporaneous radio messages reviewed by military investigators will show that Marines accused of unprovoked retaliation after the blast had, in fact, come under small-arms fire. Rep. Murtha has insisted that initial reports...

US lawmaker John Murtha today renewed his explosive charge that US soldiers killed unarmed civilians in Haditha, Iraq and the US military tried to cover it up. "This is what worries me. We're fighting a war about America's ideals and democracy's ideas and something like this happens, they try to cover it up," Pennsylvania Representative Murtha told CNN television. "It is as bad as Abu Ghraib, if not worse," Mr Murtha said. Two separate US military investigations are under way into the killings in November of some 24 unarmed civilians in Haditha. "They knew the day after this happened that...