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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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August 3rd,
2007 - Marine’s Haditha Hearing to Reopen |
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Marine’s Haditha Hearing to Reopen By Thomas Watkins Associated Press August 3, 2007 Camp Pendleton, Calif. - Two
more charges will be considered next week against the leader of a battalion
involved in the killings of 24 Iraqis in Haditha, the Marine's attorney said
Friday. The preliminary hearing
against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani will be reopened after Marine prosecutors
recommended that Chessani face two new counts of dereliction of duty, said
attorney Brian Rooney. Lt. Gen. James Mattis, the general overseeing the
case, agreed to reopen the hearing next week. Chessani, 43, the highest-ranking
of seven Marines charged in the deaths, already faces two counts of
dereliction of duty and one count of violation of a lawful order for failing
to investigate the deaths. The two new counts accuse
Chessani of the same offenses but were drawn up by prosecutors using
different legal terms, Rooney said. "It's the shotgun
approach," Rooney said. "We are confident these charges don't have
any merit." Rooney, who works for
Christian law firm the Thomas More Law Center and represents Chessani for
free, asked Mattis to reopen the Article 32 hearing so Chessani can clarify
whether prosecutors want to file the new charges along with, or instead of,
the original charges. The hearing is set to reopen
next Wednesday. Chessani is accused of
failing to accurately report information about the killings, and for failing
to launch an investigation. The Article 32 hearing is
the military equivalent of a grand jury. The investigating officer has
already recommended Chessani go to trial on the original charges. "Lt. Col. Chessani
failed to do his duty," investigating officer Col. Christopher Conlin
wrote in his report after the investigation closed in June. "He failed
to thoroughly and accurately report and investigate a combat engagement that
clearly needed scrutiny." The killings took place Nov.
19, 2005, when a Marine squad was attacked by a deadly roadside bomb. In a
response to the blast, a Marine squad went house to house looking for
insurgents. Using grenades and gunfire,
the troops cleared several homes. But instead of killing insurgents, they
killed women, children and elderly people. Three enlisted Marines are
charged with murder and four officers are charged with dereliction of duty
for failing to look into the deaths. © 2007 The Associated Press External link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/5026760.html |