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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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December 6th,
2006 - Haditha Murder Charges? |
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A senior Marine commander tells Congress that Haditha killings may
constitute negligent homicide By Sally B. Donelly Time Magazine Wednesday, Dec. 06, 2006 A senior Marine general leaves
his Pentagon office and heads to Capitol Hill Wednesday with grim news from
Iraq. In a series of private briefings, he's expected to tell lawmakers that
serious criminal charges - possibly including murder - are going to be
leveled against as many as five Marines for the bloodbath at Haditha last
year. The heads-up comes two weeks before the Marines are expected to
publicly unveil the charges the week of Dec. 18 at the Marine base at Camp
Pendleton, California. The Haditha case began after
an insurgent bomb killed a Marine in Haditha, 60 miles north of Baghdad, on
Nov. 19, 2005. In the hours after his death, a squad of Marines killed 24
Iraqis, including some who local civilians claim were innocents simply in the
wrong place at the wrong time. The Marines initially reported that only 15
Iraqis had died, and that they had been killed by a roadside bomb. Senior
Marine officers did not investigate the incident at the time. The death toll
went uninvestigated until TIME magazine raised questions last January. Lt. Gen. Richard Natonski,
who will brief the House and Senate armed services committees behind closed
doors, has experience investigating alleged Marine wrongdoing in Iraq.
Critics claimed a videotape of a Marine shooting a prone Iraqi inside a mosque
in 2005 was an example of a war crime, but Natonski disagreed. As the senior
officer responsible for deciding how to handle the case, he cleared the
Marine, saying the Iraqi used an insurgent's "common tactic" when
he concealed his left arm behind his head and "feigned death."
Insurgents would often then "rise to continue fighting." In what
many sources say what a move related to Haditha but not publicly explained,
last spring Natonski removed three officers after the incident because he had
"lost confidence" in them. The three have not been charged. Natonski is expected to
summarize the findings of the two separate investigations into Haditha. One
was conducted by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service that looked for
criminal wrongdoing and focused on the Marines on the ground at Haditha. The
second, conducted by Army Major General Eldon Bargewell, looked at how the
commanders responded to the event. Natonski, Marines say, will
echo what the commanders overseeing Iraq have told others: That Nov. 19 was a
typically frantic day. According to a Pentagon source, the on-scene officers
were dealing with "numerous" other significant events, including
firefights and bombings. A bombing that killed 15 "would be one of maybe
a dozen high interest items in a single day," says an officer who served
in Iraq. But it is clear that Marines misreported the initial incident, did
not correct it, and officers did not investigate it. The question Natonski
will get - and one that may be answered by a military court martial - is
should the commanders have known? Regardless of the pain
caused the Pentagon by the Haditha probe, it can take some solace from a new
study by Colin Kahl of the University of Minnesota. "Despite some dark
spots on its record, the U.S. military has done a better job of respecting
noncombatant immunity in Iraq than is commonly believed," Kahl, an
assistant professor of political science, says in the November-December issue
of Foreign Affairs magazine. "I have found not only that U.S. compliance
with noncombatant immunity in Iraq is relatively high by historical
standards, but also that it has been improving since the beginning of the
war." Kahl contrasts the Iraq war
with prior counter-insurgencies in which the U.S. has been involved, and
comes away impressed. In Vietnam, for example, he writes that the number of
civilians killed per month was nine times higher than in Iraq. "Even if
the estimates for Iraq are off by a factor of two or three," Kahl
writes, "the conflict's casualty count is far lower than that in
previous U.S. counterinsurgency campaigns." That is little comfort to
the leadership of the Marine Corps, which is focused on holding Marines
accountable for Haditha and preventing any more. Copyright © 2006 Time Inc.
All rights reserved. External link:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1566619,00.html About 6 Marines likely to
face charges in Haditha killings Thomas Watkins Associated Press December 6, 2006 San Diego - About six Marines
will likely be charged in the killing of 24 civilians in the Iraqi town of
Haditha, a congressman said Wednesday. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colorado,
did not know the charges but said they were serious. Rep. Silvestre Reyes,
D-Texas, said the military would file charges in weeks, not days. He declined
to be more specific about the timing. The congressmen spoke after
Lt. Gen. Richard Natonski gave a one-hour, closed-door briefing to the House
Armed Services Committee on the military's investigations into the deaths and
the likely next steps. "I think all of us in
there were struck by the incident, the number of civilians involved, and the
extent of the tragedy," said Udall. "There are some questions that
still have to be answered, but it appeared the rules of engagement hadn't
been followed." The congressmen were asked
not to speak publicly about the military's findings, and Natonski declined to
comment. The Marine Corps confirmed Tuesday that prosecutors are finalizing
charges in the case. "I'm just updating
Congress," Natonski said. Asked about any criminal charges, he said,
"We're looking at it soon." A military official will
brief the Senate Armed Services Committee on the investigation Thursday. A squad from Camp
Pendleton-based Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment has been
under investigation for the Nov. 19, 2005 killings. According to defense
attorneys, the squad was on a routine mission when a roadside bomb ripped
into a Humvee, killing one Marine and injuring two others. In the aftermath of that
explosion, 24 Iraqis also died. Defense lawyers have said their clients were
following rules of engagement when they returned fire from several houses
nearby and shot several men in a taxi. Udall said Natonski
described how the killings appeared to occur over a period of a "few
hours." A while after the initial explosion, more people in a nearby
house were killed. The Marines and several
lawmakers declined to name the troops who are expected to be charged. The New
York Times identified five, citing an unnamed Marine official and a lawyer
involved in the case. They included squad leader Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich
and Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum. Lawyers for the men said
they had not been notified if and when charges would be filed. "Our position remains
that the collateral deaths of civilians was a tragedy but all of them were
legally justified actions in a time of war," said Wuterich's lawyer Mark
Zaid. Tatum's attorney, Jack
Zimmerman, said his client believes he did nothing wrong. Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo. who
attended the briefing, said, "Clearly, this was a tragedy. Now it is up
to the legal process to determine if it was criminal. What happened at
Haditha was horrific, but it does not reflect the actions of the vast
majority of our brave military men and women who serve with honor." Associated Press Writer
Erica Werner in Washington contributed to this report. © 2006 AP Wire and wire
service sources. All Rights Reserved. External link: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/16171485.htm |