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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
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August 18th, 2006 - Marines May
Have Excised Evidence on 24 Iraqi Deaths |
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Marines May Have Excised
Evidence on 24 Iraqi Deaths New York Times By David S. Cloud August 18, 2006 Washington, Aug. 17 - A
high-level military investigation into the killings of 24 Iraqis in Haditha
last November has uncovered instances in which American marines involved in
the episode appear to have destroyed or withheld evidence, according to two
Defense Department officials briefed on the case. The investigation found that
an official company logbook of the unit involved had been tampered with and
that an incriminating video taken by an aerial drone the day of the killings
was not given to investigators until Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the second-ranking
commander in Iraq, intervened, the officials said. Those findings, contained in
a long report that was completed last month but not made public, go beyond
what has been previously reported about the case. It has been known that
marines who carried out the killings made misleading statements to
investigators and that senior officers were criticized for not being more
aggressive in investigating the case, in which most or all of the Iraqis who
were killed were civilians. But this is the first time details about possible
concealment or destruction of evidence have been disclosed. The report’s findings have
been sent to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which is investigating
members of the unit involved in the killings, as well as higher-ranking
officers in the Second Marine Division. No charges have been brought yet. The report, based on an
investigation by Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell of the Army, does not directly
accuse marines of attempting a cover-up, but it does describe several suspicious
incidents, according to the Defense Department officials. It says that the logbook,
which was meant to be a daily record of major incidents the marines’ company
encountered, had all the pages missing for Nov. 19, the day of the killings,
and that those portions had not been found, the officials said. No conclusions are drawn
about who may have tampered with the log. But the report says that Staff Sgt.
Frank D. Wuterich, the leader of the squad involved in the killings, was on
duty at the unit’s operations center, where the logbook was kept, shortly
after the killings occurred, the officials said. Neal A. Puckett, a lawyer
for Sergeant Wuterich, was unavailable to comment. Investigators were also
initially told by Marine officers that videotape taken by the drone was not
available, one of the officials said. The officials added that the marines
produced the tape only after General Bargewell had completed his inquiry and
they had been asked again to produce it by General Chiarelli. The report has been closely
held within the Defense Department, and the officials who agreed to discuss
it did so because they said they thought it should receive wider public
attention. They agreed to speak only if their names were not published
because they had not been authorized by superiors to discuss its contents. The deaths occurred outside
the town of Haditha after a three-vehicle convoy of marines was hit by a
roadside bomb, killing a lance corporal. The squad then began going through
houses nearby, killing Iraqis found inside in what defense lawyers have said
was a justifiable use of lethal force by marines who believed they were under
concerted attack by insurgents. The Marine Corps issued a
press release the next day saying that 15 of the civilian deaths had been
caused by the bomb explosion. But several officers in the unit have said they
knew even then that marines had killed all 24 of the dead Iraqis, 9 of whom
were suspected insurgents. Since then, the idea that
any of the victims were insurgents has been challenged, both by Iraqi
survivors and by some American military officials familiar with the case,
noting that the victims included 10 women and children and an elderly man in
a wheelchair. They have said that evidence suggests that the marines
overreacted after the death of their fellow marine and shot the civilians in
cold blood. Marines have told
investigators that at least one Iraqi who was shot was brandishing an AK-47
assault rifle. But no records were found that such a weapon was recovered at
the scene and turned in to the unit’s headquarters, as regulations require,
the officials said. Lt. Col. Sean Gibson, a
Marine Corps spokesman, said: “The Marine Corps is committed to a full and
thorough investigation of the events that occurred at Haditha on Nov. 19, and
the actions that followed that may have contributed to any improper
reporting. If allegations of wrongdoing are substantiated, the Marine Corps
will pursue appropriate legal and administrative actions.” The decision about whether
to take disciplinary action will be made by Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis, the
commander of Marine Corps units in the Middle East, based on his review of
both the Bargewell report and the results of the criminal investigation still
under way. In addition to faulting
officers in the Second Marine Division for not aggressively investigating the
Haditha killings, the Bargewell report said the commanders had created a
climate that minimized the importance of Iraqi lives, particularly in
Haditha, where insurgent attacks were rampant, the officials said. “In their eyes, they didn’t
believe anyone was innocent,” said one of the officials, describing the
attitude of the marines in the unit toward Iraqis. “Either you were an active
participant, or you were complicit.” Two days after the Haditha
killings, Maj. Gen. Richard A. Huck, then the division commander, asked his
staff for a briefing on what had happened, the officials said. General Huck
later told investigators that he had ordered the briefing because he was
concerned about the reports of civilian casualties, one of the officials
said. But the briefing provided to
General Huck contained no mention of the civilian casualties, the
investigators learned. Instead, according to one of the officials, it dealt
almost entirely with the roadside bomb attack and other insurgent attacks on
marines in Haditha throughout the day. General Huck and other
officers from the Second Marine Division have been ordered not to talk about
the case, and a telephone call to the unit was referred to Colonel Gibson,
the Marine spokesman. But some senior officers have previously defended their
response to the killings, saying there was no reason to doubt the account
provided by enlisted marines at the time, contending that civilian killings
were an unfortunate but accidental byproduct of their pursuit of insurgents. The involved marines’
battalion commander, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, and their company commander,
Capt. Lucas McConnell, told investigators that they had not reviewed the
scene within the houses after the killings, despite the high number of
civilian casualties, one of the officials said. Colonel Chessani was relieved
of his command in April; Marine officials would not say whether the Haditha
case was involved in the decision but said there were several reasons. The video taken by the
overhead drone was very limited, according to one of the officials. The
aircraft was not flying over the site until after the bomb attack, so it only
captured the aftermath. Even so, the video appears to contradict statements
by marines about what occurred, the officials said. In particular, it has raised
doubts about a claim by enlisted marines that five Iraqis were shot as they
were running away after the roadside bombing. The officials said the video
showed the bodies of the five Iraqis on the ground close to the car that they
had been riding in, the officials said. In one case, the video appears to
show one body stacked on top of another, which the officials said was
inconsistent with the account that the men had been shot while fleeing. Copyright 2006 The New York
Times Company External link:
http:/www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/world/middleeast/18haditha.html |