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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
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June 25th,
2008 - CBS to Appeal Ruling on Marine Interview News article by the Associated
Press |
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CBS to Appeal Ruling on
Marine Interview By Chelsea J. Carter Associated Press June 25, 2008 San Diego - CBS News said it
plans to appeal a ruling by a military appellate court that ordered a judge
to review unaired footage of an interview given by a Marine squad leader
charged in the killings of 24 Iraqis. CBS News spokeswoman Sandra
Genelius said Wednesday the news network would appeal the finding by the
Navy-Marine Corps Court of Appeals, which remanded the case to a military
court. The appeals court ruling
said a judge must review the footage to determine the legal basis for the
television network's refusal to turn over unaired "60 Minutes"
footage of its interview with Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich. The appeals court also
ordered the judge, Marine Lt. Col. Jeffrey Meeks, to decide what, if any,
newsgathering privilege would prohibit the network from complying with a
prosecution subpoena. The decision by the
appellate court comes after a military prosecutor appealed a judge's decision
to throw out a subpoena, saying the unaired footage is vital to the case
because it contains admissions by Wuterich of crimes in the attack in
Haditha, Iraq, on Nov. 19, 2005. CBS News has 30 days to file
its appeal. Wuterich "apparently
admits in an unaired segment that he did in fact order his men to 'shoot
first and ask questions later,'" Marine prosecutor Capt. Nicholas Gannon
said in a motion filed in early February. Meeks had ruled that
prosecutors did not need the CBS footage to get the evidence they needed. Wuterich, 27, of Meriden,
Conn., faces voluntary manslaughter and other charges in the Haditha deaths,
which happened after a roadside bomb hit a Marine convoy, killing a Humvee
driver and wounding two other Marines. Wuterich and a squad member
are accused of shooting five men at the scene, after which Wuterich allegedly
ordered his squad into several houses, where they cleared rooms with grenades
and gunfire, killing Iraqis, including women and children. In the interview aired March
15, 2007, Wuterich recounted to CBS correspondent Scott Pelley his
recollection of the events that led to the deaths. Attorneys for CBS News,
which is a division of CBS Corp., called the subpoena "unreasonable and
oppressive." Wuterich's attorney, Neal
Puckett, said CBS' appeal indefinitely postpones Wuterich's court-martial. "It puts his life on
hold basically. He is waiting to get back into court," Puckett said. Authorities originally
charged eight Marines - four enlisted men with counts related to the killings
and four officers in connection with the investigation. Charges were dropped
against five men and a sixth, 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson of Springboro, Ohio, was
acquitted of charges he hindered the investigation. A judge dismissed charges
earlier this month against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani of Rangely, Colo., after
finding that a four-star general overseeing the case was improperly
influenced by an investigator. Military prosecutors are appealing that
ruling. Wuterich is currently the
sole defendant. He has pleaded not guilty. Puckett said once the CBS
News matter was resolved, they would pursue an undue command influence motion
- similar to the one that resulted in dismissal of charges against Chessani. Copyright © 2008 The
Associated Press. External link: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hNUaTPsL6OBHarjCDUGxJ0EYsm9AD91HFH083 Court orders review of ‘60
Minutes’ Haditha outtakes Media outlet says it will appeal ruling; won't give up unaired material By Mark Walker North County Times June 25, 2008 A military judge has been
ordered to determine if prosecutors can view unaired portions of a television
interview with Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, a Camp Pendleton squad leader
charged with manslaughter in the slaying of 24 Iraqi civilians. The directive from the
Navy-Marine Corps Court of Appeals in Washington comes after the judge sided
with CBS attorneys in February and quashed a government subpoena for the
potentially damaging outtakes. The interview was broadcast
on "60 Minutes" in March 2007. Wuterich's attorneys said they
agreed to the session to "humanize" their client who had been
portrayed in some reports as leading his men in a wanton rampage following a
roadside bombing. The ruling handed down
Friday directs the judge, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Meeks, to review the outtakes in
private to "develop the factual and legal basis for any CBS refusal to
comply with the federal subpoena." It also requires that he
determine whether "any asserted newsgathering privilege applies to limit
or preclude disclosure of necessary evidentiary audio-video material in this
case." Sandra Genelius, a "60
Minutes" spokeswoman in New York, said CBS attorneys plan to appeal the
ruling. When he argued for the
unaired material, the prosecutor, Capt. Nicholas Gannon, said Wuterich
"apparently admits in an unaired segment that he did in fact order his
men to 'shoot first and ask questions later.'" Wuterich is charged with
nine counts of voluntary manslaughter and related offenses for slayings that
took place in Haditha, Iraq, on Nov. 19, 2005. Scott Silliman, a Duke
University law professor and director of the Center on Law Ethics and
National Security, said the ruling does not mean the prosecution will ever
see the unaired material of the interview broadcast in March 2007. "It's an interim ruling
that says the judge should at least review it to decide if any is relevant
and should be allowed," Silliman said during a telephone interview. When they argued against the
subpoena, the network's attorneys said the government was in effect trying to
gain access to its reporter's notes. Federal courts generally deny
prosecutor's efforts to obtain notes and unbroadcast material if they find
the material can be obtained by traditional investigative measures. Wuterich's attorney Neal
Puckett said defense attorneys not directly associated with the case also may
join in an appeal. The attorneys are worried that a precedent allowing a
judge to see material that would not routinely be available could set a
dangerous precedent in military law, Puckett said. Wuterich's court-martial was
supposed to start in June, but has been delayed indefinitely by the "60
Minutes" issue. The Connecticut native remains on duty at Camp Pendleton
pending resolution of his case. Charges against seven other
Marines originally accused of crimes at Haditha have been withdrawn,
dismissed or resolved by a jury's not-guilty finding. In the most recently decided
case, a judge last week dismissed dereliction of duty charges against the man
in charge at Haditha in 2005, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani. The former head of the 3rd
Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, Chessani was accused of criminally failing to
order an investigation into the civilian deaths. Prosecutors have since filed
a notice that they intend to appeal the judge's finding that unlawful command
influence tainted the government's case beyond repair. External link: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/06/25/military/zd4b6ae5d825e0f8a88257473006a8aa8.txt |