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January 6th,
2007 - Death in Haditha News
article by the Washington Post |
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Eyewitness Accounts in Report Indicate Marines Gunned Down Unarmed
Iraqis in the Aftermath of a Roadside Bombing in 2005 By Josh White Washington Post Saturday, January 6, 2007; A01 U.S. Marines gunned down
five unarmed Iraqis who stumbled onto the scene of a 2005 roadside bombing in
Haditha, Iraq, according to eyewitness accounts that are part of a lengthy
investigative report obtained by The Washington Post. Staff Sgt. Frank D.
Wuterich, the squad's leader, shot the men one by one after Marines ordered
them out of a white taxi in the moments following the explosion, which killed
one Marine and injured two others, witnesses told investigators. Another
Marine fired rounds into their bodies as they lay on the ground. "The taxi's five
occupants exited the vehicle and according to U.S. and Iraqi witnesses, were
shot by Wuterich as they stood, unarmed, next to the vehicle approximately
ten feet in front of him," said a report by the Naval Criminal
Investigative Service on the incident that runs thousands of pages. One of the witnesses, Sgt.
Asad Amer Mashoot, a 26-year-old Iraqi soldier who was in the Marine convoy,
told investigators he watched in horror as the four students and the taxi
driver fell. "They didn't even try to run away," he said. "We
were afraid from Marines and we saw them behaving like crazy. They were
yelling and screaming." The shootings were the first
in a series of violent reactions by Marines on the morning of Nov. 19, 2005
that left 24 civilians - many of them women and children - dead, in what some
human rights groups and Iraqis have called a massacre by U.S. troops. The report, which relied on
hundreds of interviews with Marines, Iraqi soldiers and civilian survivors
conducted months after the incident, presents a fragmented and sometimes
conflicting chronicle of the violence that day. But taken together, the
accounts provide evidence that as the Marines came under attack, they
responded in ways that are difficult to reconcile with their rules of
engagement. Four Marines were charged
with murder last month in connection with the civilian deaths in Haditha:
Wuterich, who faces 13 counts of unpremeditated murder; Sgt. Sanick P. Dela
Cruz; Lance Cpl. Justin L. Sharratt; and Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum. Each
faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted. Through their lawyers, three
have argued that they behaved appropriately while taking fire on a chaotic
battlefield, and that the civilian deaths were a regrettable but unavoidable
part of warfare in an especially dangerous area. Dela Cruz's attorney has
declined to comment. The Marine Corps also has
charged four officers with failing to investigate and fully report the
slayings: Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani, Capt. Lucas M. McConnell, Capt. Randy
W. Stone and Lt. Andrew A. Grayson. The Marines told
investigators that they believed they were authorized to fire freely inside
two houses they raided in the minutes following the taxi shootings, after
concluding that insurgents were firing on them. After an officer ordered them
to "take" one of the homes and Wuterich commanded them to
"shoot first, ask questions later," the Marines considered the
houses "hostile," according to sworn statements to investigators. Marine officials have
accused the troops of failing to identify their targets before using grenades
and guns to kill 14 unarmed people in the houses, including several young
children in their pajamas, in a span of about 10 minutes, according to the
documents. Safah Yunis Salem, 13, who
said she played dead to avoid being shot, was the only person to survive the
Marine attack on the second house. Her sister Aisha, 3, was shot in the leg
and died; her brother Zainab, 5, was killed by a shot to the head. She said
she lost five other members of her family in the room, including her mother. "He fired and killed
everybody," Safah said. "The American fired and killed
everybody." Numerous Marine officers in
the chain of command in Iraq - including a major general - knew about the
civilian deaths almost immediately but did not launch an investigation for
months, according to interview transcripts. Some lower-level officers did not
believe that the Marines had done anything inappropriate, while high-ranking
officers had limited information about the incident and did not inquire
further. Neal Puckett, one of
Wuterich's attorneys, declined to comment on the case yesterday, saying he is
"deeply disturbed that any media have access to what sounds like the
entire investigation." Wuterich told investigators
in a February interview: "I want to make clear that we did not go in
intentionally to spray everyone we saw. We were taking fire." Marine Corps and NCIS
officials declined to comment on details of the case because it is ongoing. A Routine Mission Turns Violent The report provides a
detailed narrative of the events leading to the violence in Haditha. The day
began about 6 a.m., when Lance Cpl. Salvador A. Guzman Jr. awoke at Firm Base
Sparta and members of his squad learned they would be bringing fresh Iraqi
troops to a traffic checkpoint in Haditha. He bumped into Lance Cpl. Miguel
"T.J." Terrazas, who joked that "we were going to get hit by
an improvised explosive device one day because we travel so much,"
Guzman told investigators. The Marines left the base at
about 6:45 a.m. and made the personnel changes by about 7 a.m.; then they
turned their four-vehicle convoy around and headed back. Sharratt, in the
turret of the first Humvee, waved a white sedan over to the side of
"Route Chestnut," and as it slid to the south shoulder a blast
rocked the neighborhood. Terrazas, who was driving
the fourth Humvee, was killed instantly by the remotely detonated propane
tank, which shredded the front of the vehicle and launched it into the middle
of the road. Another Marine, severely injured, was trapped in the wreckage. Marines who rushed to help
told investigators they took enemy rifle fire from several locations on the
north and south sides of the road. Navy Hospitalman Brian D. Whitt said he
could see bullet impacts near his feet and noticed men with rifles
disappearing from atop a house to the north. Some of the fire appeared to be
coming from behind the white taxi. The Marines concurred that
they were under fire from all sides, indicating that the incident was part of
a complex insurgent attack that lasted much of the day. One Marine and two Iraqi
soldiers told investigators that the men who had been in the taxi were
standing in a line outside it, some with their hands in the air, when
Wuterich began to fire on them. Wuterich said the men got
out of the car, and he shot them because he considered them a threat. But
Dela Cruz said the men were standing in a line when they started to fall. "As I crossed the
median I saw one of the Iraqi civilians, who was standing in the center of
the line, drop to the ground," Dela Cruz told investigators.
"Immediately afterwards another Iraqi standing by him raised his hands
to his head. I then heard other small arms fire and looked to my left and saw
Sgt. Wuterich kneeling on one knee and shooting his M16 in the direction of
the Iraqi civilians." Dela Cruz told investigators
that he pumped bullets into the bodies of the Iraqi men after they were on
the ground and later urinated on one of them. Minutes later, a Quick
Reaction Force arrived from the Marine base, bringing Lt. William T. Kallop,
the first officer on the scene. Kallop told investigators he began to receive
enemy fire almost immediately. About that time, Cpl. Hector A. Salinas
spotted a man firing at the squad from the corner of a house on the south
side of the road. "Salinas then stated
that he could see the enemy so Kallop told them to 'take the house,'"
according to an NCIS summary of an interview with Kallop. The interview
provides the first evidence that an officer ordered the attack. Richard McNeil, a lawyer who
represents Kallop, declined to comment about him or his role, but he warned
that "typically in an NCIS investigation, the narratives are always
slanted to the interpretation of the government." Wuterich, Salinas, Tatum and
Lance Cpl. Humberto M. Mendoza formed a team to attack the house, launching
grenades first and then busting through the door. "I told them to treat
it as a hostile environment," Wuterich told investigators. "I told
them to shoot first, ask questions later." Defense attorneys have
argued that the men were following their "rules of engagement" when
they shot into the homes, using effective techniques in a difficult
environment. The Marine division's rules-of-engagement
card in effect at the time in western Iraq instructed Marines to "ALWAYS
minimize collateral damage" and said that targets must be positively
identified as threats before a Marine can open fire. It also told Marines
that "nothing on this card prevents you from using all force necessary
to defend yourself." After entering the first
house through a kitchen, Tatum told investigators, he heard what he believed
was an AK-47 rifle being "racked," or readied to fire, around a
corner. He and Salinas tossed grenades into the room, according to the
documents. Waleed Hasan, 37, was killed. Khamisa Ali, 66, was shot dead in
the hallway before four others were killed in a bedroom by grenades and rifle
fire. Nine-year-old Eman Hamed
told investigators that a grenade landed near her grandfather's bed and
exploded, sending shrapnel through the room. Her mother and 4-year-old
brother were killed as she huddled, injured, with another brother, Abid, 6,
who survived. "All rooms," Abid told investigators. "They were
shooting in all rooms." Several Marines said they
quickly cleared the home by fire, shooting through the dust, debris and
darkness to eliminate what they believed was a threat. From there, Wuterich,
Mendoza and Tatum said, they moved to a second house after suspecting that
insurgents might have escaped. Mendoza told investigators that the Marines
approached the second house the same way they did the first, treating it as
hostile, according to his sworn statement. Mendoza said he shot a man, 43-year-old
Yunis Rasif, through the house's glass kitchen door. "I fired because I had
been told the house was hostile and I was following my training that all
individuals in a hostile house are to be shot," Mendoza told
investigators. The Marines then entered the house and tossed grenades before
firing into a back bedroom, which they later found was filled with women and
children. "Knowing what I know
now, I feel badly about killing Iraqi civilians who may have been innocent,
but I stand fast in my decisions that day, as I reacted to the threats that I
perceived at the time," Tatum said. "I did not shoot randomly with
the intent to harm innocent Iraqi civilians." Jack Zimmerman, Tatum's
attorney, declined to comment yesterday but decried the publication of the
documents. "The ethical rules that govern lawyers prohibit me from even
discussing the matter," he said. Mashoot, the Iraqi soldier
who was with the Marines, said he thought the attack on the houses was
warranted because the entire convoy was taking fire. Investigators noted that
he believed the Marines "had justification" because they were
"defending themselves." Another group of Marines,
including Dela Cruz, simultaneously went to the north side of the road and
found a dwelling that they believed was the "trigger house" for the
roadside bomb. They took several Iraqis into custody, according to the
documents, but did not shoot anyone in a search of several houses. Another
man was shot after Marines observed him running along a ridgeline. A few hours later, Sharratt,
Wuterich and Salinas approached a third and fourth house after noticing men
they said were peering at them suspiciously. The investigative reports
show that what happened there is unclear. Iraqi witnesses said the Marines
angrily separated men and women into two lines before marching the men into
the fourth house and shooting them. The three Marines told investigators they
were searching for the men they had seen and separated the women into a safe
area before Wuterich and Sharratt entered the house. Sharratt told investigators
that he saw a man raise an AK-47 rifle as if to shoot him. Sharratt said his
gun jammed, but he grabbed his 9mm handgun and shot the attacker. He told
investigators he saw another man with a rifle and shot him and two others
because he "felt threatened." Wuterich also shot at the men, he
said. Sharratt has been charged
with unpremeditated murder in three of the slayings. Gary Myers, a lawyer
representing Sharratt, declined to comment yesterday. At First, No Inquiry The military did not launch
an inquiry of the Haditha deaths until a Time magazine reporter began to
inquire about the incident two months later. Marine officers told
investigators the reason was simple: Nothing in the reports they received
from the field caused them to believe that a probe was warranted. Investigators appear to have
found little evidence that Marines on the ground or at headquarters tried to
conceal the day's events. But Dela Cruz told investigators that Wuterich
asked him to back up claims that the men in the taxi were trying to flee
before they were shot. Puckett, Wuterich's lawyer,
challenged Dela Cruz's assertion: "Staff Sergeant Wuterich adamantly
denies asking anybody to lie or change their story." The documents show that
Marines in Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, reported the
incident to their base as it was happening and made clear that there were a
significant number of civilian casualties. Though at first the Marines
classified eight of the civilians as insurgents, they quickly reported that
at least 15 civilians had been killed in what they called
"crossfire" with the enemy. The events came amid heavy
insurgent attacks in Haditha that day that ultimately prompted Marines to
call in airstrikes on suspected insurgent homes. The hectic nature of the day
caused some early reports to be confused and inaccurate, Marines told
investigators. The Kilo Company commander,
McConnell, told his Marines on the day of the attacks that they had done a
good job, according to an investigative summary in the NCIS report.
Investigators wrote that McConnell did not want to question his Marines on a
day they lost a comrade but that he informed his superiors about the civilian
deaths. "There was never a hint
whatsoever that these kids did anything improper. Not one," said Kevin
McDermott, a lawyer who represents McConnell. Marine officers said
Chessani, the Marines' battalion commander, informed his superior, the
regimental commander, of the civilian casualties the day they occurred and
was told by that officer, Col. Stephen W. Davis, that no investigation was
needed. "There was nothing out
of the ordinary about any of this, including the number of civilian dead,
that would have triggered anything in my mind that was out of the norm,"
Davis told military investigators, according to a transcript. "There is
nothing about this incident that jumped out at any point to us." Maj. Gen. Richard A. Huck,
the division commander, told investigators he learned about the civilian
casualties on the day they occurred and believed that they were the result of
a roadside bomb and the ensuing gunbattle between Marines and insurgents.
Huck visited Haditha three days later and was briefed on the incident. "Nothing in the brief
caused any concern to me," Huck told investigators. "I do not
recall if the brief discussed the number of Iraqis killed that day, but I do
recall the brief discussing Marines clearing houses following the IED
attack." McConnell and Chessani have been
charged in the case; Huck and Davis have not. Attempts to reach Chessani or
an attorney for him were not successful. In December 2005, the
Marines authorized $38,000 in condolence payments to the families of the
civilians killed in the first two houses, and Chessani, in early February,
explained the payments in a memo. "The enemy chose the time and place of
his ambush. Without callous disregard for the lives of innocent bystanders,
the enemy would not have chosen to fight from the bedrooms and living rooms
of civilian-occupied houses," he wrote. The official inquiry began
two weeks later, after the Time reporter sent a list of questions about the
incident to Marine officials in Iraq. In his e-mail, the reporter raised the
possibility that Marines had massacred civilians and executed the men from
the taxi, based in part on a videotape made by an activist a day after the
incident. Huck told investigators he
dismissed the allegations, believing they were part of an insurgent campaign
to smear the Marines. Other Marine officers, such as Davis, also believed
that the allegations were outlandish. But Maj. Samuel H. Carrasco,
then a battalion operations officer, said he and the battalion executive
officer suggested an investigation to Chessani. Carrasco told investigators
that "Lt. Col. Chessani then shouted, 'My men are not murderers.' " The first investigation, by
Army Col. Gregory Watt, ordered by Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, then the top
field commander in Iraq, essentially supported the Marines' accounts of
events. Watt determined that the troops had reason to be suspicious of the
men in the white car and concluded that while they did not positively
identify targets in the houses, it might have been "unrealistic to
expect" on the battlefield that day. He also found no indication
that the Marines "intentionally targeted, engaged and killed
noncombatants," but he suggested a criminal investigation nonetheless.
The NCIS investigation began March 12, leading to last month's charges. Staff researcher Julie Tate
contributed to this report. External link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/05/AR2007010502248.html Official: Evidence Doesn’t Back
Marines By Robert Burns Associated Press Janurary 6, 2007, 5:32 PM ET U.S. criminal investigators
found no evidence to support the claim of Marines charged in the deaths of
unarmed Iraqi civilians that five were shot after trying to flee the scene of
a roadside bombing that killed one Marine, a senior defense official said
Saturday. Investigators determined
that all five Iraqis were shot within arm's length of each other and no more
than 18 feet from the white taxi they were ordered to exit by members of a
Marine squad in the western Iraqi town of Haditha, said the official, who is
familiar with reports produced by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The official spoke on
condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss
details of the killings on Nov. 19, 2005. Two Marines are charged with
murder in the five deaths. They are Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich and Sgt.
Sanick P. Dela Cruz. Two other Marines - Lance
Cpl. Justin L. Sharratt and Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum - face murder charges
in connection with the deaths of other Iraqi civilians shot shortly after the
killings by the taxi. Through his lawyers,
Wuterich has claimed he acted appropriately and within military rules
governing the use of deadly force in combat. Mark Zaid, an attorney for
Wuterich, said in an interview Saturday he was highly disappointed that
information from the government's investigative report on Haditha had been
leaked to the media. He called it an effort by unidentified Pentagon
officials to "portray a negative slant of these Marines." Tatum's attorney, Jack
Zimmerman, said he got the report the day after Christmas and has not
"even begun to crack it." He called disclosure of details from the
report a "serious, serious violation" and said he may ask the
military to investigate the source of the leak. Attempts on Saturday to
reach lawyers for DelaCruz and Sharratt were unsuccessful. Dela Cruz told investigators
he fired bullets into the five bodies as they lay on the ground and that he
later urinated on one, the defense official said. These details about the
deaths were first reported in Saturday's Washington Post, which said it
obtained a copy of a lengthy government investigative report. The Post
published photos from the investigative file that had not previously been
made public; one shows the five Iraqis sprawled near the taxi. One of the five may have
been kneeling at the time he was shot, the defense official told The
Associated Press. In addition to the four
Marines facing murder charges, four other Marines who were not at the scene
were charged with dereliction of duty for failing to report or properly
investigate the killings. In all, the case involves the deaths of 24 Iraqi
civilians. The Haditha investigation is
the biggest U.S. criminal case involving civilian deaths so far in the Iraq
war. Members of an explosive
ordnance disposal team that was summoned to the scene scoured the taxi and
found no weapons or evidence of bomb-making materials, the defense official
said. At least two, and possibly four, of the five Iraqis were students; the
other was the taxi driver, who was taking the students to school. The Marines claimed later
that the five were attempting to flee and that they fit the profile of
military-age men who, in the past, had acted as spotters for insurgents
setting off roadside bombs. Zaid said Wuterich's position is that the five
had disobeyed the Marines' orders, issued in Arabic, and were starting to
flee. He said the report that they were up to 18 feet from the taxi supports
Wuterich's position. The NCIS investigators
determined that the five had no apparent link to the bombing that morning in
Haditha that shattered a Marine Humvee utility vehicle and killed Lance Cpl.
Miguel Terrazas; two other Marines were injured. The shooting of the men near
the taxi was the first in a series of violence responses by the Marines,
according to the NCIS investigation. The Marines subsequently raided four
nearby houses, killing 18 unarmed civilians inside three of the residences. One
other was shot dead outside. Among the dead were women and children. The Marines were with Kilo
Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, based at Camp Pendleton, Calif. After the deaths, the
Marines announced that 15 civilians had been killed in Haditha from a
roadside bombing and a Marine firefight with insurgents. The Marines said
eight insurgents also were killed. The Marines have since acknowledged that
that report was false. The matter, involving an
unusually large number of civilian casualties, was not investigated by the
military until a Time magazine reporter inquired about the deaths in January
2006. The military launched the
first phase of its investigation in February, and in March it began a
separate administrative probe focusing on how the matter was reported in
official Marine Corps channels and whether there was an attempted cover-up.
On the basis of that investigation, four Marines were charged with
dereliction of duty. The NCIS began its probe in
March and it grew into the agency's largest criminal investigation in years. One worry of military
prosecutors is that American investigators failed to persuade the families of
the any of the 24 dead to permit their bodies to be exhumed and examined to
obtain forensic evidence. The NCIS had hoped to gain
access to the bodies so they could, for example, compare wounds on the bodies
to the blood stain patterns at the scene and to other evidence and witness
statements. U.S. government officials
went so far as to propose through the Iraqi government in Baghdad last year
that a nongovernment humanitarian organization with medical credentials be
permitted to exhume and examine the 24 bodies, but the families rejected that
approach. Associated Press Writer
Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report. External link: http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/16400770.htm |