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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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July 11th,
2006 - Haditha Report to be Made Public |
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Haditha Report to be Made
Public By Mark Walker and Teri Figueroa - Staff Writers North County Times Tuesday, July 11, 2006 12:29 AM PDT A summary of a report said
to fault the way Marine Corps brass responded upon learning 24 Iraqi
civilians were killed by a Camp Pendleton unit should be released this week,
a military spokesman said Monday. Meanwhile, an attorney for
that unit's leader said he doesn't believe there is enough evidence to file
criminal charges against the men responsible for the Nov. 19 shootings in the
city of Haditha. "I know too much about
what happened that day (in Haditha) to think that any of these kids are going
to be placed in pretrial confinement," said Kevin McDermott, an attorney
hired by the company commander, Capt. Lucas McConnell. McConnell was not present when
the incident took place and has said through his attorney that he informed
his superiors that there was a high number of civilian casualties in Haditha
immediately after learning of the shootings. The summary is being vetted
by legal affairs officers for the Marine Corps at U.S. Central Command in
Tampa, Fla., Lt. Col. Sean Gibson said in a written response to an inquiry
from the North County Times. The report is a synopsis of
a more than 3,000-page document prepared by Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell
and forwarded to Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli in Iraq last month. Late last week, Chiarelli
sent the document and his recommendations to Gen. George Casey, commander of
Multi-National Forces, Iraq. Published reports over the last
few days say the document faults Marine commanders handling the first reports
of the deaths in Haditha last November. It also is said to take issue with
the chain of command's handling of instructions in dealings with Iraqi
civilians. While critical of the way
commanders handled the reporting, Bargewell's investigation reportedly did
not find evidence of an attempted coverup by high-ranking Marine officers. The Naval Criminal
Investigative Service is continuing a separate probe into what happened in Haditha
following a roadside bombing that killed one of the men from the unit under
investigation, Kilo Company from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment based
at Camp Pendleton. None of the men under
scrutiny have been jailed or face any restrictions. The unit was attached to
the II Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., when the
incident took place. McDermott said Monday that
if criminal allegations are brought, as many as 25 Marines could face charges
between the Haditha incident and the unrelated alleged murder of a civilian
in Hamdania, Iraq, by seven Camp Pendleton Marines and a sailor. But he said he does not
expect any charges to be filed in the Haditha incident. The attorney pointed
to the lack of forensics - the military has not yet been able to get approval
to exhume the bodies of the victims - as well as the credibility of the
evidence and the sources who first complained of the shootings. McDermott said he expects
officers with the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune will face disciplinary
action. "I can't imagine the
(Bargewell) report being extremely negative about a coverup at the company
level," McDermott said in a telephone interview from Orange County. Like McConnell, a 1997
graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, some of the other men who were in Haditha
have hired civilian defense attorneys. McDermott said he is helping some with
that process, adding that a large firm in Washington, D.C., has offered help. With congressional hearings
into alleged Iraq war atrocities looming, the Marine Corps last week directed
all its commanders to make certain they preserve all documents and e-mails
related to the Haditha investigation and the alleged premeditated kidnapping
and murder of an Iraqi in the village of Hamdania on April 26. In the April incident, seven
Marines and a Navy corpsman from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine
Regiment are in the base brig awaiting pretrial hearings after being charged
last month with murder, kidnapping and related offenses. McDermott said he does not
think any of the Haditha troops will find themselves in the brig. The document directive
issued last week by the Marine Corps said all commanders "should take
appropriate measures to retain and preserve documents and e-mails related to
the incidents, their planning, execution and subsequent reporting." McDermott said he and other
defense attorneys wonder why such a directive wasn't issued weeks ago. In Washington, Josh Holly, spokesman
for the House Armed Services Committee chaired by U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter,
R-El Cajon, said Monday that a hearing on alleged war crimes and how they are
being investigated will probably take place before that panel the last week
of this month. U.S. Sen. John Warner,
R-Virginia, plans a similar hearing before the Senate Armed Services
Committee. External link:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/07/11/news/top_stories/23_01_367_10_06.txt |