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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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July 19th,
2010 - Top Marine Officer Charged in Haditha Killings is Forced into
Retirement |
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Top Marine Officer Charged
in Haditha Killings is Forced into Retirement By Tony Perry Los Angeles Times July 19, 2010 Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani,
the highest-ranking of the eight Camp Pendleton Marines charged in the 2005
killings of 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq, has been forced into retirement,
his lawyers said Monday. Chessani's last day on
active duty was Friday, according to the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Thomas More
Law Center, which called the occasion "a sad day for America and the
Marine Corps." In June, the secretary of
the Navy upheld a ruling by a Board of Inquiry at Camp Pendleton that found
Chessani was not guilty of misconduct but had shown "substandard'
performance and should be required to retire. The Board of Inquiry was
convened after a military appeals court upheld the trial judge's ruling to
dismiss criminal charges against Chessani because of the appearance of
"undue command influence" in the case. Chessani was commander of
the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment on Nov. 19, 2005, when troops under
his command killed five civilians in the street and 19 in three houses in a
fruitless search for the insurgents who had planted a roadside bomb that had
just killed a Marine. Chessani was not at the
scene of the killings nor did he give the fateful order to "clear"
the houses near the bomb explosion. But he was charged with failure to
conduct a thorough investigation. All but one of the Marines
charged have been exonerated or had charges dropped. The squad leader, Sgt.
Frank Wuterich, faces a possible court-martial in September. Chessani was on his third
combat tour in Iraq. Before the Haditha killings, he had a string of
top-notch evaluations and seemed destined for promotion and greater
responsibility. External link: http://tinyurl.com/2wcpdqk |