|
The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
|
May 30th,
2008 - Defense: Prosecutors Calling Top Marine General to Testify News article by the Associated
Press News article by San Diego
Union-Tribune |
|
Defense: Prosecutors Calling
Top Marine General to Testify By Chelsea J. Carter Associated Press May 30, 2008 San Diego - Lawyers for a Marine
officer charged with failing to investigate the killings of 24 Iraqi men,
women and children in Haditha say prosecutors plan to call as a witness a top
NATO general to rebut a military judge's finding that there was evidence of
unlawful command influence in the case. The finding stems from Lt.
Col. Jeffrey Chessani's claim that a military lawyer who investigated the
November 2005 killings had a conflict of interest when he later advised
generals overseeing the Haditha trials. Defense attorneys say Marine
Gen. James Mattis, who is currently NATO's top commander in charge of
military modernization, is scheduled to take the stand Monday during a
motions hearing to address the judge's finding. "The prosecution has a
high burden to overcome to show that unlawful command influence did not
affect the investigation or prosecution of the case," said Chessani's
civilian attorney, Brian Rooney. He said defense lawyers would ask that the
charges against Chessani be dismissed. Four enlisted Marines were initially
charged with murder in the killings that occurred shortly after a roadside
bomb hit a convoy, killing the driver of a Humvee and wounding two Marines.
Four officers were charged with failing to investigate the case. Charges
against all but three Marines, including Chessani, were eventually dropped. Chessani, the highest
ranking officer to be tried in the case, is charged with dereliction of duty
and violation of a lawful order on allegations he mishandled the aftermath of
the shooting deaths on Nov. 19, 2005. He was the battalion
commander. After the roadside bomb,
investigators say, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich and a squad member shot five men
by a car at the scene. Wuterich then allegedly ordered his men into several
houses, where they cleared rooms with grenades and gunfire, killing more
people. Because the judge found
evidence of unlawful command influence, the prosecution must show at the
hearing that it did not affect either the direction of the investigation, the
charges or the future of the case. Mattis is being called
because he referred charges against Chessani when he was both commander of
the Marine Corps Forces Central Command, and the commander of the 1st Marine
Expeditionary Force. Mattis has since been promoted to a four-star general
and serves as commander of both NATO's Supreme Allied Commander
Transformation and commander of U.S. Joint Forces. A Marine spokesman, Lt. Col.
Sean Gibson, would not confirm the defense claim, saying Marine Corps policy
prohibits the discussion of potential prosecution witnesses prior to
testimony. It is also against military policy to divulge the travel plans of
commanders. Rooney said the defense will
ask Monday that the charges against Chessani, of Rangley, Colo., not only be
dismissed but that prosecutors be barred from refiling them. The judge, however, can take
a variety of actions, from barring witnesses and evidence to throwing the
case out. The hearing comes as a
second Marine in the case, 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson of Springboro, Ohio, is
being court-martialed on charges of making false official statements, trying
to fraudulently separate from service, attempting to deceive by making false
statements and obstruction of justice by trying to impede an investigation. Grayson was not present at
the scene of the killings in Haditha, but is accused of telling a sergeant to
delete photographs of the dead from his digital camera. He has pleaded
innocent to the charges. Still to go to be
court-martialed is Wuterich, of Meriden, Conn., who faces voluntary
manslaughter and other charges. External link: http://www.pe.com/ap_news/California/CA_Marines_Haditha_343596C.shtml Analyst says Marine told him
to get rid of Haditha photos Intelligence officer’s trial under way By Steve Liewer San Diego Union-Tribune May 30, 2008 Camp Pendleton – Seeing the
corpses of 24 Iraqi men, women and children – all killed in a short span Nov.
19, 2005, in the city of Haditha – made a powerful impression on Marine Sgt.
Justin Laughner. A squad of fellow Marines
had done the killing. Laughner, an intelligence analyst, took pictures of the
bodies and stored them on his personal laptop computer. Then one day in February 2006,
he said, an intelligence officer told him to get rid of the images. In a Camp
Pendleton courtroom yesterday, Laughner identified that officer at 1st Lt.
Andrew Grayson. “He told me I needed to
delete them,” said Laughner, now a staff sergeant. “I knew I had done
something wrong with those photographs.” Grayson, 27, is the first of
three Camp Pendleton Marines to be court-martialed in the Haditha case. He is
charged with three counts of making a false official statement, one count of
obstructing justice and two counts of fraudulently trying to leave the Marine
Corps. His trial began Wednesday
and is expected to continue through the middle of next week. Defense attorneys said
Grayson is being made a scapegoat by a military command that's under intense pressure
to assign blame for the 24 deaths. They pointed out that Grayson was nowhere
near the site of the killings. “We are here because
Lieutenant Grayson is a convenient fall guy for the government, pure and simple,”
Maj. William Santmyer, one of Grayson's lawyers, said during opening
statements. The Haditha incident started
when a roadside bomb struck a Marine convoy on Nov. 19, 2005, killing a
Marine and injuring two others. A squad led by Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich then
killed the 24 Iraqis. Wuterich is slated to be
court-martialed on charges such as voluntary manslaughter and aggravated
assault. Prosecutors said he and other Marines killed the Iraqis out of
revenge, while the Marines have maintained that they couldn't avoid killing
civilians during a battle with insurgents. Laughner was assigned to
photograph the scene of the deaths, and his pictures showed bodies riddled
with bullets and grenade shrapnel. He said yesterday that he showed the
images to Grayson and then kept them. “It seemed like Nov. 19
might be an important date,” Laughner said. “(The photos) might help explain
the Marines' actions later.” The Marines didn't
scrutinize the incident until a reporter from Time magazine started asking
about it several months later. The military has since conducted three
investigations into the case. Laughner said Grayson then
asked him to dictate an account of his actions on Nov. 19 and told him to
delete the photos. He said he didn't fully trust Grayson afterward. Under cross-examination,
Laughner acknowledged lying to multiple investigators about the disposition
of the pictures. He said he came clean after learning that his computer would
be seized. External link: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20080530-9999-1m30haditha.html Attorney: Gen. Mattis to
testify Monday in Haditha case By Teri Figueroa North County Times May 30, 2008 Camp Pendleton - Military
prosecutors will call on Marine Gen. James Mattis to testify Monday about
whether a lower-ranking officer improperly influenced his decision to file
criminal charges against a Marine tied to the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians
in Haditha, a civilian defense attorney said Friday. Mattis is in charge of U.S.
Joint Forces Command, and also is the supreme allied commander in charge of
military modernization for NATO. It is rare for a four-star
general to testify in a court-martial or pretrial proceedings. Lt. Col. Sean Gibson, a
Marine Corps spokesman for the Haditha trials, would not confirm whether
Mattis would testify. He said the Marine Corps does not provide witness lists
for court matters in advance of the hearing, nor do they discuss the travel
plans of generals. Mattis is based in Norfolk, Va. Defense attorney Brian
Rooney, who represents Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, said Friday that government
prosecutors are calling Mattis to rebut a military judge's finding that there
was undue influence in Mattis' decision to bring charges against Chessani. Chessani faces charges of
dereliction of duty for failing to conduct a full-scale investigation into
the Nov. 19, 2005, civilian deaths, which followed a roadside bombing that
killed a Marine. Chessani's attorneys have
argued that Mattis' legal adviser, a colonel, improperly influenced the case.
Mattis was a three-star general when he decided to bring the charges. With the judge's pretrial
finding, the burden falls on prosecutors to prove that no undue influence
occurred. And to that end, Rooney
said, prosecutors plan to have Mattis testify. The killings in Haditha led
to the largest war-crimes case involving civilian deaths at the hands of U.S.
forces since the start of the Iraq war. Mattis eventually ordered
criminal charges against eight Marines, four of them officers, including
Chessani, who was the battalion commander in charge of the Camp Pendleton
troops at the center of the Haditha incident. Col. John Ewers was one of
the investigators in the Haditha matter early on, and as such took Chessani's
statement. That role makes him a potential witness in the case. Later, as a legal adviser to
Mattis, Ewers discussed with the general whether criminal cases should be
brought against the Marines. Rooney said Friday that Ewers should not have
been part of those discussions. Before his promotion last
fall, Mattis, who was based at Camp Pendleton, was the head of Marine Corps
forces in the Middle East and commander of the I Marine Expeditionary Force -
and, as such, had authority to bring prosecutions in the Haditha matter. It is unusual for a
four-star general to testify, said Gary Solis, a military law expert who
teaches at Washington's Georgetown University and is a former Marine Corps
attorney, prosecutor and judge. But because Mattis was a
decision-maker in the case, Solis said, it is appropriate for him to testify. "And he is not the kind
to shy away from doing so," Solis said. As the cases have worked
through the military court system, charges have been dropped against five of
the eight accused men. Of the remaining cases,
court-martial is pending for Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who led the troops on
the ground that day. And the court-martial of Lt. Andrew Grayson, accused of
obstruction of justice, is expected to wrap up next week. External link: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/05/30/military/zdbb19b19669612e888257459005f6557.txt |