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Haditha: Where Are They (the Accusers) Now? Diana West January 18, 2012 Eight charged; seven cleared; one, please, let’s hope, to go.Finally, the last “Haditha” trial is in progress, and, thanks to Nat Helms at Defend Our Marines, everything you need or want to know about the proceedings, the witnesses, the facts about the case of SSGT Frank D. Wuterich, the last of the Marine Mohicans, is here. Tim McGirk, source of the Haditha myth-acre. Of course, I still have a few questions — the exact same questions I had when I first looked at the case back in late...

(Reuters) - Private equity mogul Stephen Feinberg is exploring a bid for Freedom Group, the Bushmaster rifle manufacturer that his firm, Cerberus Capital Management LP, put up for sale after one of its guns was used in a Connecticut school shooting late last year, three people familiar with the situation said on Tuesday. Feinberg, along with other senior Cerberus partners, is putting together a consortium to make a "stalking horse" offer, or the floor bid, for Freedom Group, the sources said. Feinberg has approached other wealthy individuals to join his group, the people said, who declined to be named because...

"The Freedom Group came in and consolidated production and just alienated everybody because they bought up these great brands and then destroyed them... it is fu***ng up some of the best brands in the gun world." Robert Farago, publisher of the popular gun blog The Truth About Guns, told me that about the Freedom Group a month before the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, involving its gun brand Bushmaster. It was a month and a few days before Cerberus Capital Management announced it would sell its 95 percent stake in Freedom Group, citing the school tragedy which had, in its words,...

Following pressure from a major investor, U.S. private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management is selling gunmaker Freedom Group, whose Bushmaster AR-15 rifle was used in the Connecticut school massacre last week. The California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) said on Monday it was reviewing its investment with Cerberus in the wake of Friday's shooting, in which a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School and then took his own life. Before going to the school, the gunman, Adam Lanza, 20, shot dead his mother in the home they shared, according to law enforcement officials. In...

An investment made by the California teachers pension fund is coming under scrutiny because of its link to the manufacturer of the assault rifle used in the Connecticut elementary school massacre. The fund pledged to invest $500 million in the private equity firm Cerberus, owner of the gun-making conglomerate known as the Freedom Group. One of the group's manufacturers is Bushmaster, which produced the rifle officials say was used to kill 20 schoolchildren and six adults in a Newtown, Conn., school Friday.

U.S. private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management said on Tuesday it will immediately begin selling its investment in gunmaker Freedom Group in light of last week's school shooting in Connecticut. Cerberus acquired Bushmaster in 2006 and later merged it with other gun companies to create Freedom Group, which reported net sales of $677.3 million for the nine months ending September 2012, up from $564.6 million in the same period a year ago. Bushmaster is the manufacturer of the AR 15 rifle used by the shooter in the Newtown killings that claimed 27 lives, including 20 school children. "We do not...

Reports that a mysterious company has been buying up U.S. gun manufacturers have been popping up on the internet for several months. When we first learned of the possibility that a single company was rapidly acquiring companies like Bushmaster, Remington, and Marlin Firearms we immediately suspected that something was amiss. Apparently, we were not alone, because others were thinking the same thing. One rumor that popped up was that global financier George Soros, historically an anti-gun advocate, was behind the moves, and that he was positioning the gun industry to reduce pro-gun lobbying efforts. This prompted the National Rifle Association...

Scarborough, Maine -- [...] In recent years, many top-selling brands - including the 195-year-old Remington Arms, as well as Bushmaster Firearms and DPMS, leading makers of military-style semiautomatics - have quietly passed into the hands of a single private company. It is called the Freedom Group - and it is the most powerful and mysterious force in the U.S. commercial gun industry today. Never heard of it? You're not alone. Even within gun circles, the Freedom Group is something of an enigma. Its rise has been so swift that it has become the subject of wild speculation and grassy-knoll conspiracy...

Cerberus plans to float the gun maker Freedom Group soon. It better hurry. President Obama’s election victory sent weapon sales — and the valuations of firearms producers — higher. Falling backlogs hint that sales could plunge. This gun bubble may backfire.