|
The War Profiteers - War Crimes, Kidnappings,
Torture and Big Money |
|
December 31st,
2006 - Iraq Charges Sadden Marine |
|
Ohioan accused of impeding civilian-deaths probe sees case hurting
troops Associated Press December 31, 2006 Dayton - A Marine accused of
failures in investigating and reporting details related to the killings of 24
Iraqi civilians last year said he believes the charges against him will
detract from the Marines' work in the country. “I'm sad, taken aback and
definitely surprised by the allegations,'' Marine 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson told
the Dayton Daily News for an article published Saturday. “I know that this is
going to take away from all the wonderful things that the Marines on the
ground have done there.'' Grayson, a native of
Springboro, near Dayton, was in his third tour of duty when he was ordered
Dec. 19 to return to his home base. He was formally charged in the United
States a few days later with willfully failing to ensure that a thorough
investigation was conducted into a possible war crime, making a false
official statement and impeding an investigation. Four other Marines were
charged with unpremeditated murder in the bloody sweep of the town of Haditha
on Nov. 19, 2005, that came after one of their comrades was killed by a
roadside bomb. Grayson, 25, and three other officers who were not present
during the killings were accused of failures in investigating and reporting
the deaths in the biggest U.S. criminal case involving civilian deaths to
come out of the Iraq war. Grayson, who oversaw a team
of Marines who worked to find insurgents in Iraqi communities, said he was
ordered to investigate the attack that killed one Marine and injured two
others. “While I was not physically
present on that day, my Marines and I were responsible for determining...
those who killed and injured the Marines,'' he said. In the aftermath of the
blast, five men were shot as they approached the scene in a taxi, and others -
including women and children - died as Marines went house to house in the
area, clearing homes with grenades and gunfire. Grayson's lawyer, Joseph Casas,
said his client is innocent. “I think that there are a lot of politics
involved in this case at a much, much higher level than Andrew,'' he said. Grayson could be sentenced
to more than 10 years in prison if convicted. Casas would not allow his client
to answer questions about specific facts of the case, the newspaper said. Grayson, who is at home with
his family near Hamilton, was first sent to Iraq in August 2004. He graduated
in 2003 from the University of Arizona, where he was a member of the Naval
Reserve Officer Training Corps and was commissioned to the Marine base in
Quantico, Va. External link: http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/16356388.htm |