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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
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March 19th,
2008 - Marine’s Defense Jabs at Evidence News article by the San Diego
Union-Tribune News article by North County Times |
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Marine’s Defense Jabs at Evidence By Rick Rogers San Diego Union-Tribune March 19, 2008 Camp Pendleton - Just days
before Marine Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum goes on trial in the slayings of 24
Iraqi civilians, his attorneys and prosecutors wrangled over the
admissibility of various statements and photographs during a hearing
yesterday at Camp Pendleton. Tatum is charged with
involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. He
was part of a Camp Pendleton-based squad that killed the civilians Nov. 19,
2005, in the town of Haditha. The incident began after a
roadside bomb struck a military convoy, killing one Marine and wounding two
others. Tatum and other Marines led by Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich raided
nearby homes with assault weapons and grenades, killing 19 men, women and
children in the process. They also shot to death five
men who got out of a vehicle near the site of the blast. Prosecutors have accused the
Marines of committing a war crime and violating the military's rules for
combat engagement. The defendants have maintained that civilians regrettably
got caught in the crossfire of a legitimate battle between Marines and
insurgents. Tatum was one of four
enlisted Marines originally charged with murder in December 2006. Since then,
the government has reduced its charges against him and Wuterich while
dropping all charges against the other two defendants. In addition, two officers
face courts-martial for allegedly failing to properly investigate the Haditha
killings. Tatum's trial might start as
early as March 28. If convicted, he could receive a dishonorable discharge
and be sentenced to a maximum of 19 years in prison. Yesterday, a military judge,
Lt. Col. Eugene Robinson, ruled on several pretrial motions and heard
arguments on several others. The hearing centered on the
admissibility of evidence, specifically photos of the dead Iraqis and
statements that Tatum allegedly gave to military investigators in the months
after the Haditha killings. Defense lawyers said
military investigators obtained those statements improperly, so the court
shouldn't allow them to be admitted as evidence. They also objected to
showing jurors pictures of the Iraqis' bodies. Jack Zimmermann, an attorney
for Tatum, asked Robinson to question prospective jurors about their mental
health. He said the photos are “gruesome” and could trigger post-traumatic
stress disorder. Robinson said he would rule
on the statements and photos in a few days. The sharpest exchanges of
the day occurred between Army Col. Greg Watt and defense attorney Kyle
Sampson. Watt was sent to Haditha in February 2006 with a team of
investigators to gather information on the killings. Sampson asked Watt why he
didn't tell Tatum during interview sessions that he was suspected of murder.
Watt said he was on a fact-gathering mission and didn't believe initially
that Tatum or any of his squad mates were guilty of a crime. External link: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20080319-9999-1m19haditha.html Marine can’t show jury
polygraph results By Teri Figueroa North County Times March 19, 2008 Camp Pendleton - A lance
corporal charged with two killing Iraqi children in Haditha in 2005 will not
be able to show a military jury the results of a lie-detector test he took
regarding the incident, a military judge ruled Tuesday. Lt. Col. Eugene Robinson
ruled that it is not permissible to present polygraph evidence in any
court-martial, no matter which side wants to present it. The trial for Lance Cpl.
Stephen Tatum is set to start on March 27. He has been charged with
involuntary manslaughter in the shooting deaths of two children in a Haditha
home on Nov. 19, 2005. Tatum, with Camp Pendleton's
3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, has pleaded not guilty. The deaths he is charged
with, and those of 22 other Iraqis, followed a roadside bombing that killed
one Marine and injured two others. Tatum was in a Camp
Pendleton courtroom Tuesday for a number of pretrial issues, including his
attorneys' request that Robinson suppress the statements their client made to
investigators. Army Col. Gregory Watt, who
led the initial investigation into the incident, testified that Tatum signed
a waiver of his rights, including his right to remain silent, before speaking
to him about the incident. The hearing is expected to
continue this morning. External link: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/03/19/military/14_30_393_18_08.txt Iraqi Journalists Forced
Into Exile By Kim Gamel Associated Press March 19, 2008 Baghdad - Hundreds of Iraqi
journalists have been forced into exile since the war started five years ago,
Reporters without Borders announced in a report released Wednesday. Most fled to Jordan or Syria
after receiving threats or surviving murder attempts, according to the
Paris-based advocacy group. "These journalists are
safe again after escaping the hell of Iraq, the world's deadliest country for
the media," the press freedom organization said. "But exile does
not mean the end of their problems." It said the first-ever
detailed report on the plight of Iraqi journalists forced into exile found
that most are unemployed and many had to give up their trade. "All or nearly all of
them are living from hand to mouth, alone or with their families," the group
said after interviewing many of those who fled. The report found that Iraqi
journalists face the unique danger of being targeted by multiple groups -
Sunni and Shiite militias, al-Qaida in Iraq, the police and other authorities
and U.S.-led forces. It singled out an Iraqi
correspondent for the Spanish news agency EFE who fled with his wife and two
children after seeing his name among a list on a poster at his local bakery
in an al-Qaida-controlled neighborhood of Baghdad. A veteran cameraman, who did
not want to be identified for fear of reprisals, said he moved to Syria after
learning that radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia was
asking questions about him in Baghdad. Another journalist, Hussein
al-Maadidi, left in October after purportedly incurring the wrath of the
Iraqi authorities and U.S. military with his reports about the killings of
civilians by U.S. Marines in the Anbar province city of Haditha in November
2005. "The police searched my
home 23 times," he was quoted as saying. "I never went home during
the last two years. I even worked under another name to avoid police
reprisals." The group noted that Syria
and Jordan have been overwhelmed with refugees from neighboring Iraq and
urged countries in Europe, North America and the rest of the Arab world to do
more to share the load and to "urgently adopt policies to make this
possible." A total of 210 journalists
and media assistants have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion began on
March 20, 2003, according to the group. The fate of 15 journalists
who have been kidnapped, including one Briton, is not known, the report said. Copyright © 2008 The
Associated Press. External link: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jtCsMnU1-ebtS4TJHnbC3EDs1mowD8VGO4TO3 |