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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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February 15th,
2008 - Haditha Trial Keys on Three Children |
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Haditha Trial Keys on Three Children By Kenneth F. Englade Washington Times February 15, 2008 Prosecutors trying two
Marines next month in the deaths of 24 civilians in the city of Haditha in
2005 will be relying heavily on evidence sought from three children during a
recent trip to Iraq to bolster sagging cases that might not otherwise be
winnable, according to court records. Lt. Col. Paul Ware, who
presided at pretrial hearings for Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich and Lance Cpl.
Stephen Tatum, warned last summer of the weaknesses inherent in the
prosecution's case - citing a dearth of reliable information from Iraqi
witnesses to the events that followed a bomb attack on a Marine convoy. One
Marine was killed and two were wounded in the attack. Col. Ware's warning
apparently was heeded by Lt. Col. Jeffrey Meeks, the judge at Sgt. Wuterich's
court-martial on manslaughter charges, which begins March 3 at Camp
Pendleton, Calif. At Sgt. Wuterich's
arraignment on Jan. 10, Col. Weeks readily approved a request from
prosecutors to go to Haditha to videotape interviews with three children,
aged 7 to 14, who survived the Marine attacks. The children have refused to
come to California to testify. On Aug. 23, 2007, Col. Ware
noted in a posthearing report that "it is likely that [the children]
will not testify, which will cause not only issues of exculpable evidence
being denied to the defense, but the likelihood that there will be a significant
impact on the ability of the government to prove any of the charges." Since Col. Ware wrote his
report, both Cpl. Tatum, 26, of Edmond, Okla., and Sgt. Wuterich, 27, of
Meriden, Conn., have been ordered to face general courts-martial. If
convicted, Sgt. Wuterich could be sentenced to as long as 160 years in jail;
Cpl. Tatum to 29. Cpl. Tatum, whose trial is
scheduled to begin March 28, is charged with two counts of involuntary
manslaughter, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. Sgt. Wuterich, who was the
squad leader, faces more serious charges. He will be tried on nine counts of
voluntary manslaughter, two of aggravated assault, three of reckless
endangerment, three of dereliction of duty, and obstruction of justice. All the charges stem from
the deaths of eight persons in a dwelling designated as House 2 to
differentiate it from two other houses that also were raided. Yunis Salim Rasif, 43, was
killed as Marines entered the house. The other seven victims - Mr. Rasif's
wife, a visiting relative, and five of the couple's six children - died when
Marines burst into their bedroom and opened fire. The only one to survive the
attack was a daughter, Safa, then 13, who escaped by pretending to be dead. Safa was one of the children
the lawyers wanted to interview. The others were a 6-year-old boy a
10-year-old girl who survived a similar attack on the residents in House 1. The 12-man squad of Marines
was returning from a routine resupply mission when an improvised explosive
device (IED) exploded under the last of the four vehicles. The driver was
killed instantly and his two passengers wounded. Moments after the explosion,
a white car carrying five military-aged Iraqis screeched to a halt fewer than
100 yards away. All five of the men were gunned down by Sgt. Wuterich and
another squad member, Cpl. Sanick Dela Cruz. Sgt. Wuterich claims the men
were running away when they were shot, but testimony during his pretrial
hearing contradicted his claim. One of the charges against him includes
killing "one or more" of the men. Sgt. Wuterich and Cpl. Tatum
claim the squad was receiving enemy fire from the houses, which touched off
the raids. Seven persons died in House 1, including a 76-year-old
wheelchair-bound grandfather, his 66-year-old wife, and a 4-year-old
grandson. Four other men were killed
in still another house, reportedly by Marines, including Sgt. Wuterich, who
have said they were acting in self-defense. No one is facing trial in
connection with their deaths. The Nov. 19, 2005, incident
is the worst by any single American unit so far in the war. The courts-martial of Cpl.
Tatum and Sgt. Wuterich, plus two officers who will be tried later on charges
of dereliction of duty, will be the second Iraq war-related trials held at
Camp Pendleton in the last 16 months. Earlier, seven Marines and a
Navy corpsman faced charges of kidnapping and killing a retired Iraqi
policeman at Hamdania in April 2006, then creating a scene to try to make it
look as if he were planting an IED when he was shot. Five of the men, including
the Navy corpsman, pleaded guilty. The other three were convicted. The only
two still in prison are the squad leader, who was sentenced to 15 years, and
the squad member who thought up the plan. He is serving eight years. Still pending are cases
against an active duty Marine, Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, and a discharged Marine,
former Sgt. Jose L. Nazario Jr. Both cases stem from an incident in Fallujah
in November 2004. They are accused of killing
a group of captive insurgents during the battle, which was the largest of the
war since the March 2003 invasion. Since Mr. Nazario is no longer in the
military, he is facing charges in a civilian court. Both Fallujah and Haditha
are in Anbar province, until recently the most violent in Iraq. External link: http://washingtontimes.com/article/20080215/FOREIGN/400476009/1003 |