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May 11th,
2007 - Officer Says did not Mention Haditha Deaths in Homes |
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Officer Says
did not Mention Haditha Deaths in Homes Reuters May 11, 2007 3:57 PM EDT Camp Pendleton - A military
intelligence officer testified on Friday he did not mention that 15
civilians, including women and children, died in two houses in his report on
the U.S. killings in Haditha, Iraq, in 2005. Capt. Jeffrey Dinsmore spoke
on the fourth day of testimony in pretrial hearing at Camp Pendleton for
Capt. Randy Stone, 34, a legal adviser for the company that killed the 24
Iraqis at Haditha. Stone is one of four men charged with dereliction of duty
and obstructing the investigation. Dinsmore testified that it
did not matter whether his report mentioned where or how civilians died on
November 19, 2005. "I said women and
children were killed in that particular engagement," he said. "It
isn't a requirement of combat reporting" to report exactly where they
died. Dinsmore said the detail
that many of the killings occurred in homes rather than out in the open was
not included for the sake of brevity in a briefing provided to higher
commanders. The 15 civilians were among
24 civilians killed that morning. Two children also were wounded. Three other Marines are
charged with murder in what Iraqis have called a rampage of revenge in
Haditha after a beloved member of the platoon was killed in a blast. The
accused Marines say they were conducting a lawful operation that had terrible
accidental results. ‘Common Knowledge’ The death of civilians in
two houses "was common knowledge" to battalion members, Dinsmore
told prosecutors, and the understanding was that they died caught in the midst
of gunfire in the squad's pursuit of insurgent fighters. Several unit members have
testified that insurgents often used local civilians as human shields in
carrying out attacks on U.S. military or Iraqi security forces. Yet a press release issued by
Marine public affairs after the November 2005 incident blamed the deaths on
the explosion of the improvised explosive device that morning. The hearings this week, the
first court proceedings in the Haditha cases, have revealed new details about
the killings that have further tarnished the U.S. image worldwide. On Wednesday, one Marine,
Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz, admitted in court that he urinated on one of the dead
Iraqi civilians, saying he was angered by the death of platoon member. He also said the squadron
leader had shot five men whose hands were tied up near a car. The general who oversaw the
U.S. Marines in Haditha said on Thursday he knew his troops had killed a
large number of Iraqi civilians there in November 2005 but that he only
learned months later of accusations the Marines may have committed murder. Stone could face a maximum
penalty of two years in prison and a dishonorable discharge. This week's
hearings are part of an Article 32 hearing in which a military court reviews
whether the evidence warrants bringing the case to trial. © Reuters 2006. All rights
reserved. External link: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1117977820070511 Intelligence
officer rejected Haditha town council complaints By Mark Walker North County Times May 11, 2007 2:56 PM PDT Camp Pendleton - A military
intelligence officer testified Friday that he dismissed complaints from the mayor
of Haditha and its city council about the slaying of 24 of its townspeople in
2005 because he believed insurgents heavily influenced the local government. Capt. Jeffrey Dinsmore said
he also questioned the veracity of complaints in a pamphlet published by the
council a week after the slayings, which took place at the hands of Marines
from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment Kilo Company. The flier asserted that the
Nov. 19 killings were a massacre by troops enraged by a roadside bombing that
killed one of their own. The pamphlet called for an official investigation. "My assessment was the
city council was being used as a tool of insurgent propaganda," Dinsmore
said. "They would take grains of truth and add details that were false
and it would end up looking like a wild allegation." Dinsmore's testimony came on
the fourth day of a court hearing to determine whether Capt. Randy Stone
should face trial by court-martial for dereliction of duty. Stone is one of
four officers charged with failing to investigate the deaths. Three enlisted
men face murder charges in the incident. Testifying by telephone from
Iraq for nearly four hours, Dinsmore also said the battalion commander, Lt.
Col. Jeffrey Chessani, knew that women and children had been killed during an
assault of two homes near the site of the bombing but left that aspect out of
his first reports to his commanders. Reports of civilian deaths
such as those of the women and children were routinely reviewed above the
battalion level to determine if an investigation should be conducted,
Dinsmore acknowledged. Chessani' attorney Brian
Rooney said his client had included that information in more detailed
reporting and that several officers above him were aware the dead included
women and children. Kilo Company members say
they launched an assault on the homes because they believed the bomb trigger
man and other insurgents were inside and firing at them. The first reports from Kilo
Company officers and battalion commanders said that 15 civilians had been
killed as a result of a bombing, reports the Marine Corps later acknowledged
were false. A Marine general in Iraq
testified Thursday that the only information he had before February of 2006
were the reports that said 15 people had died as a result of a combat action. The first five Iraqis to die
were men who emerged from a car that drove up after the bomb destroyed a
Humvee, killing Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas and wounding two others. Those men
were shot by two sergeants as they were being held at gunpoint, according to
one of the shooters, Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz, who testified earlier in the
week. The 19 people in the homes
died from grenade and gunshot wounds, and a search of the residences in the aftermath
did not turn up the bodies of any insurgents. The Stone case is the first
to reach court following the charges being filed against the Marines on Dec.
21. Those charges came 13 months
after the events in Haditha, and nine months after Time magazine first
reported the Haditha killings appeared to violate the military's rules of
engagment. See Saturday's North County
Times for more on Friday's court proceeding. External link: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/05/11/news/top_stories/1_01_205_10_07.txt |