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June 7th,
2007 - Haditha Slayings Were Seen As Combat-Related News article by Los Angeles
Times |
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Haditha Slayings
Were Seen As Combat-Related Officers decided that the 24 Iraqi civilian deaths occurred amid a
complex insurgent attack, a Marine testifies. By Tony Perry Los Angeles Times June 7, 2007 Camp Pendleton - Defending
the lack of a war-crimes investigation in the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians
in Haditha, a Marine intelligence officer testified Wednesday that it
appeared the deaths had occurred in the midst of a series of attacks by
insurgents that Marines had been strongly warned to anticipate. Capt. Jeffrey Dinsmore said
that Marine officers decided the deaths were combat-related and thus no
investigation was warranted. His testimony came during an Article 32 inquiry,
similar to a preliminary hearing, for a former battalion commander. In a sometimes bitter
exchange with prosecutors, he denounced the Marine Corps for charging Lt.
Col. Jeffrey Chessani with dereliction of duty. "Politically, the
Marine Corps made a decision to hang Col. Chessani out to dry," said
Dinsmore, who has served for 20 years and is now deployed to Iraq. He added
that he feels the investigation is hurting the corps. The military began an
investigation of the Nov. 19, 2005, killings only after Time magazine began
questioning the Marines' assertion that the civilians had been killed in
crossfire between Marines and insurgents. Dinsmore, in testimony that
was videotaped earlier this year, said Marines had developed intelligence
prompting them to prepare for a complex attack involving roadside bombs and
small-arms fire, with insurgents hiding among civilians in their homes. The events seemed to fit
that pattern, he said: A bomb exploding under a Humvee and a nearby firefight
that erupted after Marines stormed three houses and killed 19 civilians
inside. With an increasing tone of
incredulity, Lt. Col. Sean Sullivan, the lead prosecutor in the Article 32
inquiry for Chessani, repeatedly asked Dinsmore whether he had requested a
report on the deaths of 24 civilians in the Haditha incident. "No, sir,"
Dinsmore answered. Chessani is accused of
failing to launch a war crimes investigation of the deaths of five men
outside their car as well as three women, seven children and nine men inside
the three houses. All were killed by Marines
from Chessani's 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment. Dinsmore was the lead
intelligence officer for the battalion and was involved in developing reports
for superiors on the day of the killings; he has not been charged in the
case. Three days after the
killings, Maj. Gen. Richard Huck, then commander of the 2nd Marine Division,
came to the central Iraqi town for a routine update. Huck, who also has not been
charged, testified last week that after he saw a slide show put on by
battalion officers, he was satisfied the deaths were combat-related. Dinsmore
testified that Huck congratulated the Marines for repulsing attacks. The bloodshed began early in
the morning when a roadside bomb exploded beneath a Marine convoy, killing a
Marine. In short order, fellow Marines killed five men outside their car and
were ordered to "clear" houses nearby, resulting in the 19 other
deaths. Marines had told their
platoon commander that they had heard gunfire from the direction of the
houses, although no weapons or shell casings were found in or near the car
nor in the houses, according to testimony. Within minutes of the Humvee
blast and house-clearing, another group of Marines was engaged in a firefight
about 1,000 yards away in a palm grove. That battle left numerous troops
wounded and ended with the Marines calling for an airstrike. As they later reconstructed
the events of the day, Marines were convinced that the bombing and the
firefight in the palm grove were part of the same attack, Dinsmore testified. Two or three days before the
killings, Marines had learned that fighters from Syria were in Haditha,
waiting to ambush them, Dinsmore said. After Humvee blast, Marine
officers called for an aerial drone to scan the scene. Once it arrived, the
firefight at the palm grove was underway, officers have testified. Among other things, the
drone broadcast a picture of an insurgent who had been involved in the palm
grove firefight running into a nearby house and emerging with different
clothing and carrying a baby. With that image in mind,
officers decided that it was logical that insurgents had been hiding in
houses and firing on Marines after the explosion that killed Lance Cpl.
Miguel Terrazas. Prosecutors have suggested
that the Marines, wary as a result of their intelligence reports, may have
only imagined that they were being fired on after the Humvee was attacked. Staff Sgt. Frank D.
Wuterich, the squad leader who led the house-clearing, told his platoon
commander that Marines had used grenades inside the houses after hearing
AK-47s being prepared for firing and after taking fire from an insurgent,
platoon commander 1st Lt. William Kallop testified this week. Wuterich is one of three
enlisted Marines charged with murder. Four officers are charged with dereliction
of duty. External link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-haditha7jun07,1,3896840.story Haditha probe called
political By Thomas Watkins Associated Press June 7, 2007 Camp Pendleton, Calif. - Seven
Marines accused in the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians cannot be guaranteed a
fair trial because the prosecution is politically motivated, a Marine officer
said in testimony played in court Wednesday. Capt. Jeffrey Dinsmore, the
intelligence officer for the battalion accused in the 2005 killings in
Haditha, was called as a witness at the preliminary hearing for Lt. Col.
Jeffrey Chessani, an officer charged with dereliction of duty for failing to
investigate the deaths. "You told me that
politically, the Marine Corps had made a decision to hang Lt. Col. Chessani
out to dry," prosecutor Lt. Col. Sean Sullivan asked Dinsmore, who
replied, "Yes." Dinsmore, whose testimony
was videotaped in March, said he doubted prosecutors could be objective,
given the politics surrounding the case, and said Chessani was "above
reproach." The Haditha killings sparked
the biggest criminal case against U.S. troops in the war in Iraq, with three
enlisted Marines charged with murder and four officers accused of
dereliction. The two dozen people were
killed after a roadside bomb killed Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, who was
driving a Humvee. In the aftermath, Marines went house to house looking for
insurgents. They used fragmentation
grenades and machine guns to clear the homes, but instead of hitting
insurgents, they killed civilians. Anti-war observers seized on
the deaths as evidence that the troops killed indiscriminately. The Marines who fired the
fatal shots say they reacted to a perceived threat the way they were trained,
and the officers say they saw no evidence of a law-of-war violation. Chessani's defense team
called Dinsmore as a witness to describe what was happening around Haditha in
the months leading up to the killings. His testimony was videotaped because
he was heading overseas for deployment. He said insurgents regularly
used hospitals and mosques to launch attacks. Men pretending to be asleep in
a house fatally shot a Marine when he entered. "They would exploit any
hesitation in order to gain an advantage," he said. After he learned of the
roadside bomb blast, Dinsmore said he sent an unmanned aerial surveillance
vehicle into the skies above Haditha, where it circled for much of the rest
of the day. The bomb that killed
Terrazas was only the first of a citywide series of attacks that injured
several other Marines and killed insurgents, Dinsmore said. He recalled Nov.
19 as the busiest day of combat in the battalion's tour. Grainy, black-and-white
images captured by the aerial drone were briefly displayed in the courtroom.
The photographs showed what Dinsmore described as insurgents meeting in a
palm grove and a house in which they subsequently hid. Marines went on to raid that
house, but several were injured when insurgents threw grenades at them. The
Marines then ordered a missile strike that destroyed the house and killed its
occupants. Dinsmore said the Marine
battalion felt at the end of the day that they had done well. The commanding
general in charge of Marines in Haditha at the time, Maj. Gen. Richard A.
Huck, was briefed about the day's combat actions three days later, including
details about women and children dying in their homes. Huck was
"congratulatory" about the battalion's actions, Dinsmore testified. Dinsmore and other Marines
initially said eight of the 24 Iraqis killed were insurgents, a claim
repeated up and down the chain of command and in a news release the day after
the attack. But under cross-examination from Sullivan, Dinsmore conceded he
had no solid evidence to support the claim and said it was possible that all
24 of the Iraqi dead were innocent civilians. At the end of Chessani's
hearing, an investigating officer will make a recommendation about whether
the charges should go to trial. External link: http://contracostatimes.com/nationandworld/ci_6078520 |