Newsmax  

"New evidence continues to emerge that U.S. Marines did not wantonly kill Iraqi civilians in Haditha last November - and the soldiers' accounts of what happened are backed up by videotape shot by an ultralight vehicle, NewsMax has learned."

Not all leaks are bad. If the leak were to exhonerate innocent Marines--already damned in the court of public opinion.....Now is the time to come forward. Anonymity ensured.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Rusty,

Rusty thanks for posting this! Think you could make the link work?

gunny, I could have sworn I posted something on this (I know I had printed it out and shared it with friends) but though I don't like to paste whole articles, this deserves an exception.

New Evidence Emerges in Haditha Case
Phil Brennan, NewsMax
Monday, June 26, 2006


Haditha Deaths from Firefight, Not Murder

New evidence continues to emerge that U.S. Marines did not wantonly kill Iraqi civilians in Haditha last November - and the soldiers' accounts of what happened are backed up by videotape shot by an ultralight vehicle, NewsMax has learned.

According to media reports, last Nov. 19 members of a Marine Corps company killed some 24 innocent civilian Iraqis in Haditha, a town140 miles northwest of Baghdad and near the Syrian border.

In the ensuing media firestorm that broke out after the story was revealed, many news reports here and abroad compared the Haditha deaths to the infamous My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War.

Michael Sallah, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his May Lai reporting, has said: "You would have difficulties finding a single newspaper in Germany or elsewhere in Europe which does not deal with My Lai."

But the facts and accounts from Marines and others on the ground tell another story.
What is not in dispute is that the Marine's engagement in Haditha began when an IED (improvised explosive device) detonated, killing a Marine from Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.


In the aftermath of the action two investigations were launched, one by Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell, who was charged with investigating how the incident was reported through the chain of command. A second investigation, headed by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), is looking into any possible criminal aspects of the incident.
The Bargewell report has not been released and is still being reviewed by Army Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, a top U.S. commander in Iraq. But military officials told the Los Angeles Times that although it concludes there was no deliberate cover-up by senior Marine officers, the Corps failed to follow up and ask questions that the known details should have provoked them to ask.

The NCIS investigation is still ongoing.
Last May, when Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., appeared on "Good Morning America," he accused the Marines of K Company of killing innocent civilians in "cold blood" and that the killings were covered up by higher officers.

The Bargewell report has disproved that allegation and with the NCIS investigation so far incomplete, and no soldier has been charged with a crime, how would Murtha know?

Intelligence sources tell NewsMax the facts of the Haditha incident paint an entirely different picture from the one Murtha and others are propagating.
Military sources familiar with the incident have told NewsMax:

Within minutes of the early morning IED explosion, a firefight erupted between insurgents and Marines. Civilians were caught in the middle of a firefight. Also, although civilians did die, their deaths were the result of door-to-door combat as the Marines sought to clear houses and stop the insurgent gunfire.

Ample evidence proves a firefight took place. For example, every second of the ensuing firefight was monitored by numerous people at company, battalion and regimental HQs via radio communications.

Video evidence supports the Marines' claims. Within a very few minutes, battalion, regimental and division headquarters were able to watch the action thanks to an overhead ultralight aircraft that remained aloft all day. Photos of some of the actions were downloaded and in the hands of Marines and the NCIS.

Some of the insurgents involved in planning the attack and firing at Marines during a daylong engagement have been apprehended and are in custody.

Much of the story claiming what really happened in the aftermath of the IED explosion was reported by the Washington Post on June 11. NewsMax can now reveal the rest of the story of what really happened at Haditha.

In order to fully understand what happened last Nov. 19, it is important to know what kind of city Haditha is.
"We require more manpower to cover this area the way we need to," one military official told the Los Angeles Times. One Knight Ridder reporter called Haditha, a town of about 100,000 people, "an insurgent bastion," reporting that "insurgents blend in with the residents, setting up cells in their homes next to those belonging to everyday citizens, some of them supportive."

Knight Ridder said that around the time of an August attack when a total of 20 U.S. Marines were killed in two days, "several storefronts were lined with posters and pictures supporting al-Qaida. ... "There is no functioning police station and the government offices are largely vacant. The last man to call himself mayor relinquished the title earlier this year after scores of death threats from insurgents."

According to an August 2005 story in Britain's Guardian newspaper, Haditha, under the nose of an American base, "is a miniature Taliban-like state. Insurgents decide who lives and dies, which salaries get paid, what people wear, what they watch and listen to."

When the Marines first went into the city they were aware of the tight control insurgents exercised over Haditha. They discovered that the insurgents had freshly paved-over dirt roads leading into town under the auspices of civic works projects.

They were, according to a NewsMax source, "beautiful asphalt surfaced roads" adorned that even included painted lines. The only problem, the source recalled, was that insurgents had laid more than 100 mega-IEDs under that asphalt. And, in order to avoid having to change batteries in the triggering devices, they wired them into the city power lines lining the road.

It is important to remember that the so-called details of the alleged massacre came from Iraqis and residents of Haditha, a city run by insurgents who have those residents not allied with them under their bloody thumbs.

In the Post story, an attorney for Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, 26, said that his client told him that several civilians were killed Nov. 19 when his squad went after insurgents who were firing at them from inside a house. He insisted there was no vengeful massacre, but he described a house-to-house hunt that went tragically awry in the middle of a chaotic battlefield.

"It will forever be his position that everything they did that day was following their rules of engagement and to protect the lives of Marines," Neal A. Puckett, who represents Wuterich in the ongoing investigations into the incident, told the Post. "He's really upset that people believe that he and his Marines are even capable of intentionally killing innocent civilians."
According to the Post, Wuterich told his attorney in initial interviews over nearly 12 hours that the shootings were the unfortunate result of a methodical sweep for enemies in a firefight. Two attorneys for other Marines involved in the incident said Wuterich's account is consistent with those they had heard from their clients.

Wrote the Post: "On Nov. 19, Wuterich's squad left its headquarters at Firm Base Sparta in Haditha at 7 a.m. on a daily mission to drop off Iraqi army troops at a nearby checkpoint. "It was like any other day, we just had to watch out for and any other activity that looked suspicious," said Marine Cpl. James Crossan, 21, in an interview from his home in North Bend, Wash. He was riding in the four-Humvee convoy as it turned left onto Chestnut Road, heading west at 7:15 a.m.
"Shortly after the turn, a bomb buried in the road ripped through the last Humvee. The blast instantly killed the driver, Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, 20. Wuterich, who was driving the third Humvee in the line, immediately stopped the convoy and got out, Puckett told the Post, adding that while Wuterich was evaluating the scene, Marines noticed a white, unmarked car full of "military-aged men" lingering near the bomb site. When Marines ordered the men to stop, they ran; Puckett said it was standard procedure at the time for the Marines to shoot suspicious people fleeing a bombing, and the Marines opened fire, killing four or five men.
"The first thing he thought was it could be a vehicle-borne bomb or these guys could be ready to do a drive-by shooting," Puckett said, explaining that the Marines were on alert for such coordinated, multistage attacks.

According to Puckett, as Wuterich began briefing the platoon leader, AK-47 shots rang out from residences on the south side of the road, and the Marines ducked.
A corporal with the unit leaned over to Wuterich and said he saw the shots coming from a specific house. After a discussion with the platoon leader, they decided to clear the house, according to Wuterich's account.
"There's a threat, and they went to eliminate the threat," Puckett said.
A four-man team of Marines, including Wuterich, kicked in the door and found a series of empty rooms, noticing quickly that there was one room with a closed door and people rustling behind it, Puckett said. They then kicked in that door, tossed a fragmentation grenade into the room, and one Marine fired a series of "clearing rounds" through the dust and smoke, killing several people, Puckett said.
The Marine who fired the rounds - Puckett said it was not Wuterich - had experience clearing numerous houses on a deployment in Fallujah, where Marines had aggressive rules of engagement.

Although it was almost immediately apparent to the Marines that the people dead in the room were men, women and children - most likely civilians -- they also noticed a back door ajar and believed that insurgents had slipped through to a house nearby, Puckett said. The Marines stealthily moved to the second house, kicking in the door, killing one man inside and then using a fragmentation grenade and more gunfire to clear another room full of people, he said.
Wuterich, not having found the insurgents, told the team to stop and headed back to the platoon leader to reassess the situation, Puckett said, adding that his client knew a number of civilians had just been killed.

As already stated, the Haditha massacre story reported by Time magazine was based entirely on accounts from Iraqis with an axe to grind. The facts of what happened tell a different story. The real story, it will eventually be revealed, is backed up by evidence Time didn't know existed. It gives the lie to the idea that there was anything like a massacre in Haditha on Nov. 19. Here, for the first time is the truth about what happened.

NewsMax can verify Wuterich's account. The site of the IED explosion was in an area well-known as an insurgent stronghold where as many as 50 IEDs were found previously, and from where, on two previous occasions, insurgents launched small-arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar attacks on K Company.

Within five minutes of the blast, Marines on the scene reported they were receiving small-arms fire. Within 30 minutes of the blast, and while the house-clearing was still underway, an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team en route to the site, came under small-arms fire in a known insurgent tactic to ambush first responders.

At the same time, just 30 minutes after the house clearing, an intelligence unit arrived to question the Marines involved in the house clearing operation. NewsMax sources say the behavior of the Marines involved gave them no reason to believe anything but what they had been told.

At about the same time a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) arrived over the blast area and from that moment on, for the entire day , the UAV transmitted views of the engagement to the company command site, battalion headquarters, the regimental HQ, and the division HQ. What the UAV captured was a view of Marines in their perimeter, as they went about doing house-clearing. It was then vectored to the surrounding area to catch any fleeing insurgents. It showed four insurgents fleeing the neighborhood, loading weapons into their car, and linking up with their partners (the ones that had conducted the ambush on the EOD team).

Knowing what we now know about Wuterich's account, these fleeing insurgents were most likely the same ones that left through the back door of the house he was clearing.

There are photos of this, and they show the insurgents getting back in their car after loading the weapons The UAV then followed them south to their safe house. From that point forward, until about 6 p.m., the safe house was hit by bombs, and an assault by a K Company squad. The UAV followed the insurgents who had been inside through town.

The final tally for these engagements was two insurgents killed by direct fire, one killed by GBU bombs and one detained. The entire action was followed by the UAV overhead.

Keep in mind, the entire action was followed by keeping the UAV overhead all day.

The Haditha "massacre" being referred to is the 30 minutes to one hour that took place first thing in the morning. The rest of the day's activities, in fact, confirmed the nature of the morning's attack.

It is clear that the entire incident was planned and carried out by insurgents who detonated the IED, and then, in a familiar tactic, attacked the Marines responding to the blast - deliberately putting civilians at risk.

This is what happened in Haditha that day. It was a daylong engagement with armed insurgents that involved civilian casualties who died as a result of being caught in the middle of a firefight. It had been reported as a blast followed by a TIC - Marine Corps terminology for "Troops in Contact." In other words, gunfire directed at the Marines.

As the battalion went about compiling information on the insurgent's identities and determining who had been involved in the attack, its actions in the ensuing weeks resulted in the detention of several insurgents who masterminded the attack, and who remain incarcerated in Abu Ghraib prison today.

quote:

I don't like to paste whole articles, this deserves an exception.

You're right, thanks for posting!

It is a shame some media these days such as Times are very biased in their reporting. They are not listening to both sides so as to report a more accurate balance news.

Rep. John Murtha's actions is even more shameful even to the point of treason. He easily believes the propaganda of these leftist media & the insurgents than giving the marines a chance to explain themeselves.

"the propaganda of these leftist media"

Get real. Using these types of arguments is a rather shallow attempt at reasoning. As someone who dislikes the media because they do such a bad job of reporting the actual news, I think that both those leaning left and right do an equally bad job.

The latest on Haditha:

By Alastair Macdonald

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A U.S. military report passed to the commander in Iraq on Friday found Marine officers failed to respond properly to conflicting reports of the killings of up to 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha last year, an official said.

"The Marines will go through their day of pain," the military official said, on condition of anonymity, when asked about possible disciplinary action against the unit involved.


http://tinyurl.com/fvsuh

quote:

Get real. Using these types of arguments is a rather shallow attempt at reasoning. As someone who dislikes the media because they do such a bad job of reporting the actual news, I think that both those leaning left and right do an equally bad job.

You can't see it, but I'm doing that "eye-to-eye" movement with my hand in a "V" Agree with you Harry. Who do we believe? FoxNews slogan, "Fair and Balanced" is almost laughable, and every other news organization blew my trust with the last election coverage; with the barely contained cheering section optimistically predicting John Kerry with a slim victory.

More:

The New York Times

August 3, 2006
Probe Backs Allegations Against Marines
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 6:27 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An initial U.S. military probe supports allegations that American Marines deliberately shot 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha last November, a Pentagon official said Wednesday.

The Marine Corps and Navy prosecutors are now reviewing the evidence to determine whether to recommend criminal charges. That decision may be weeks away, and the lawyers may ask investigators to probe further, two officials said.

They discussed the matter on condition they not be identified because the case -- among the most sensational of several involving Iraqi civilian deaths -- has not yet produced charges.

''It's fair to say that the majority of the work has been done,'' said a third official, Ed Buice, spokesman for the Naval Criminal Investigation Service that is leading the probe. ''But it's impossible to predict how much longer the investigation will take. It is very much open and ongoing.''

The case is open because prosecutors and officers in the chain of command of the Marines being investigated may consult with the naval investigation service even after any charges are brought.

A decision on whether to press charges ultimately will be made by the commander of the Marines' parent unit, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif. That currently is Lt. Gen. John Sattler, but he is to move to a Pentagon assignment soon. His successor will be Lt. Gen. James Mattis.

Investigators conducted a wide range of interviews with Marines in Iraq and with Iraqis in Haditha, but they failed to obtain permission to exhume the bodies of the 24 who were killed, two officials said. Nonetheless the probe did collect evidence from the Marines and from the scene of the killings.

The case is one of several involving allegations of unjustified killings of Iraqi civilians that have emerged this year, damaging the U.S. image abroad and triggering calls by some Iraqi leaders to end the arrangement under which U.S. troops are immune from prosecution by Iraqi authorities.

The Marines initially reported after the Nov. 19, 2005, killings at Haditha that 15 Iraqi civilians had been killed by a makeshift roadside bomb and in crossfire between Marines and insurgent attackers. Based on accounts from survivors and human rights groups, Time magazine reported in March that the killings were deliberate acts by the Marines.

A criminal investigation was then ordered by the top Marine commander in Iraq, Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer.

A parallel investigation is examining whether officers in the Marines' chain of command tried to cover up the events. That probe, which has not been made public, faults some officers for failing to pursue discrepancies in the initial reports about what happened in Haditha and for not launching an early investigation.

When asked about the matter at a news conference Wednesday, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the cover-up probe's report was 3,000-4,000 pages long and being reviewed by Army Gen. George Casey, the top commander in Iraq.

Regarding the criminal investigation, Pace described it as ''ongoing'' and said it would remain so until military authorities have reviewed its results as well as the findings and recommendations of the cover-up probe, ''to make sure that every single possible cross-thread has been looked at.''

Public attention on the Haditha case grew after Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a former Marine, asserted on May 17 that he had learned from Marine Corps officials that innocent Iraqis had been killed ''in cold blood.''

Lawyers for Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, one of the Marines under investigation, argued in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court that Murtha falsely accused Wuterich of murder and war crimes. The lawsuit maintains that Pentagon officials ''who have briefed or leaked information to Mr. Murtha deliberately provided him with inaccurate and false information'' and that the congressman subsequently ''has made repeated statements ... that are defamatory.''

Murtha said Wednesday he does not blame Wuterich for ''lashing out.''

''When I spoke up about Haditha, my intention was to draw attention to the horrendous pressure put on our troops in Iraq and to the cover-up of the incident,'' Murtha said.

Among the other recent cases of alleged deliberate killings of Iraqi civilians, seven Marines and one Navy corpsman have been charged with premeditated murder and other criminal acts in connection with the killing of an Iraqi man in Hamdania on April 26. Also, five soldiers and a former soldier have been charged in the alleged March 12 rape-slaying of an Iraqi teenager and the killings of her relatives in Mahmoudiya.

More on this:

Marine Says Rules Were Followed

Sergeant Describes Hunt for Insurgents in Haditha, Denies Coverup

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 11, 2006; A01

A sergeant who led a squad of Marines during the incident in Haditha, Iraq, that left as many as 24 civilians dead said his unit did not intentionally target any civilians, followed military rules of engagement and never tried to cover up the shootings, his attorney said.

Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, 26, told his attorney that several civilians were killed Nov. 19 when his squad went after insurgents who were firing at them from inside a house. The Marine said there was no vengeful massacre, but he described a house-to-house hunt that went tragically awry in the middle of a chaotic battlefield.

http://www.sweetness-light.com/archive/washington-post-...arines-side-of-story

also intersting, the link at the bottom of this article (above) on Times retractions regarding this story (long read though).

Marine Called Haditha Shootings Appropriate

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 24, 2006; Page A17

A sergeant who examined the scene hours after Marines killed two dozen Iraqis in Haditha last year said the shootings appeared to be an appropriate response to a coordinated insurgent attack, according to a sworn statement obtained by The Washington Post.

Sgt. J.M. Laughner, part of a Marine human-intelligence exploitation team that was hunting down insurgent bombmakers, went from house to house in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005, and acknowledged finding two dozen bodies, including some of women and small children.

But Laughner said the scenes of the slayings appeared to match the version of events the Marine squad provided that day and did not seem especially out of the ordinary, according to a transcript of Laughner's interview with military investigators in March.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...AR2006082301829.html

Public reprimand is rare, often finishes careers
By Rick Rogers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

September 6, 2007

Three senior Marine officers have been censured for failing to investigate an alleged massacre of 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq, by a Camp Pendleton squad.
......................................................
“It is extraordinary for these veteran officers to be called out publicly,” he said.

“Call it the Abu Ghraib effect,” said Brahms, referring to the Army's prison-abuse scandal in Iraq in 2003. “There was a great deal of criticism that we piled on the enlisted folks and let seniors walk away. There was no looking up the chain of command. Now, I think there is a sense of holding accountable seniors and doing it in a public way.”

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20070906-9999-1n6haditha.html

Almost everyone else has been cleared in the case. All enlisted I believe have been cleared (hence the comment above). There are a few still pending charges.

Haditha Marine Rejects Plea Deal

Associated Press | September 11, 2007

LOS ANGELES - A Marine officer accused of failing to investigate Iraqi civilian deaths in Haditha rejected a plea deal under which his charges would have been dismissed in exchange for an admission that he covered up the killings, his attorney said Monday.

First Lt. Andrew Grayson is one of four Camp Pendleton officers who were charged with dereliction of duty on suspicion that they failed to probe the Nov. 19, 2005, assault that left 24 Iraqis dead.

Attorney Joseph Casas said Grayson has done nothing wrong, and the Marine said taking the deal would have been like selling his integrity.

"I was asked by the prosecution to fall on my sword for the greater good of the Marine Corps," Grayson, 26, of Springboro, Ohio, said in a brief statement e-mailed to The Associated Press. "The prosecution wanted me to distort the truth to fit their end goal."

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,148859,00.html?ESRC=marine-a.nl

No one gets punished for murder of 15 Iraqi civilians? The Truth will get out sometime, whether the military likes it or not. Like the Tillman case.

Newsmax is a laughable source.

Shove it up your a$$, Mulder. What the F*CK happened to innocent until proven guilty! The Truth? Gawd you're an idiot. YOU'RE LAUGHABLE (and I don't see the Newsmax reference)....and pathetic, swinging your pious attitude around with no combat experience, no legal experience, and no knowledge of military law, talking of The Truth.

If it was a group of black guys who killed fifteen whites claiming self defense, you'd be the first jerk-off in line screaming "innocent until proven guilty".

Go pleasure yourself with a cheese grater, dumbass.

And now back to our regularly scheduled program:

SAN DIEGO - The highest-ranking U.S. serviceman to face court-martial involving combat since Vietnam was ordered to trial Friday for failing to investigate the killings of 24 Iraqis, including women and children, in Haditha two years ago.

Another Marine was also ordered to face court-martial for charges including involuntary manslaughter.

Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani faces charges of dereliction of duty and violation of a lawful order on allegations that he mishandled the aftermath of the Nov. 19, 2005, shootings, which followed a roadside bombing that killed a Marine driver.

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,153758,00.html?ESRC=marine-a.nl

The truth will probably come out in the Court Martial, moron.

The original poster used Newsmax as a source.

Since when do you need combat skills for law?

Justice is blind.

To know the environment in which this occurred.