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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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February 20th,
2010 - Haditha’s Last Defendant |
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Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich wants charges in civilian killings thrown
out By Mark Walker North County Times February 20, 2010 It was a signature event of
the Iraq war: A squad of Camp Pendleton troops hit by a roadside bomb kills
two dozen civilians, including several women and children, as they hunt for
their attackers. Initially dismissed as an
unfortunate result of combat, the attack in the city of Haditha in late 2005
that left one Marine and two others injured was later branded a massacre
after a congressman alleged the troops had "killed in cold blood." It changed the way U.S.
troops conducted themselves on the battlefield. Eight Marines were charged
with criminal wrongdoing. But years later and after a series of exonerations,
only one defendant remains: Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich. Wuterich is due in a base
courtroom next month where his attorneys will argue that the nine counts of
voluntary manslaughter and related charges against him should be dismissed. "We are alleging
unlawful command influence," said Neal Puckett, Wuterich's lead
attorney, a retired U.S. Marine lieutenant colonel who spent five years as a
military judge. The argument set for hearing
on March 22 contends that a legal adviser overseeing the case tainted it
because he also took part in the initial investigation and is a prosecution
witness. Those factors, and the
adviser's participation in discussions about the cases with prosecutors and a
general overseeing the case, already have been ruled unlawful by one military
judge. That ruling came in 2008 in
the case against the battalion commander at Haditha, Lt. Col. Jeffrey
Chessani, who was accused of failing to conduct a full-scale investigation
into the killings. His conduct was deemed "substandard," but he was
allowed to retire at his current rank. Wuterich's attorneys are
essentially saying that the same finding of unfairness that tainted the
Chessani prosecution applies to their client. Prosecutors say Wuterich
deliberately ignored the rules of engagement and laws of war when he took
part in the shooting deaths of four men who drove up in a car immediately
after the bombing. He's also charged in the shootings of five civilians
inside a home near the bomb site. Wuterich, who was 25 and on
his first combat deployment at Haditha, has pleaded not guilty to the charges
- manslaughter, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, obstruction of
justice and dereliction of duty. If all those stand and he is convicted of
each, Wuterich could face a sentence as stiff as 160 years in prison. ‘Inaccurate theory’ The killings occurred at the
height of the war, when Marines were dying daily in what was then considered
the unwinnable Anbar province west of Baghdad. The disclosure that a large
number of unarmed civilians were slain inside their homes added an incendiary
element into the bitter national debate over what the U.S. was doing in Iraq. Wuterich and three other
Marines originally were charged with premeditated murder, an accusation that
suggested the squad from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment
had wantonly killed the civilians in a vengeful rage. Chessani and three of his
officers were accused of dereliction and similar offenses for allegedly
trying to sweep away the incident as mere battlefield carnage that occurred
in a city that at the time was rife with insurgents. In the years since
prosecutors announced the charges in December 2006, dozens of court hearings
and one trial have resulted in seven of the eight accused Marines being
cleared through acquittal, dismissal or withdrawal of charges. Puckett said those results
underscore his belief that national politics colored people's perceptions of
what happened at Haditha on the morning of Nov. 19, 2005. The flames were fanned when
Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who died earlier this month, announced on CNN that
he had received a briefing that led him to believe the Marines were under
severe stress and had "killed in cold blood." Murtha's comments set off a
firestorm of criticism of the Marines - and an opposing chorus that said they
were being prejudged without a full airing of the evidence. The comments by Murtha, a
former Marine considered a friend to the military, shaped the way the
Pentagon would treat the case, Puckett said. "Murtha said his
briefing came out of the office of the (Marine Corps) commandant, and that he
had heard that these guys committed a war crime. And that became a constant
whenever Haditha was mentioned," the attorney said. Evidence and rulings in the
earlier cases, however, present a mixed portrait. The men who drove up after
the bombing were unarmed, and investigators have testified they believe the
men had nothing to do with the bombing. Most of the civilians killed
inside three homes were unarmed, the evidence has shown. Three men inside one
bedroom, however, did have AK-47 assault rifles. That resulted in the
withdrawal of murder charges against Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt after a judge
concluded the Iraqis represented a threat. The Sharratt case and
similar rulings show the prosecution has been misguided, Puckett said. "The lesson of Haditha
is that inaccurate theories of guilt led investigators down the wrong paths,
to wrong conclusions and wrong theories of liability," he said. "It
resulted in one bad decision after another." Prosecutors are forbidden by
Marine Corps policy from commenting on pending cases and they refuse to
comment on cases that have been resolved. Wuterich remains on duty at
Camp Pendleton. If a judge sides with his attorneys, the Marine Corps can
appeal, drop the case or move to initiate a new investigation. The right tack Two experts in military law
say the Marine Corps had to fully investigate and ultimately file charges for
what happened. "The Marine Corps felt
a crime had been committed, and it has not backed off from that belief,"
said Gary Solis, a former Marine Corps judge who teaches the law of war at
Washington's Georgetown University. "It believed the evidence that was
produced early in the case and has pursued the cases unwaveringly." But even if Wuterich is
convicted of some or all of the charges, Solis said he doubts that a military
jury would put him behind bars. "I would not expect any
kind of heavy sentence," Solis said. That would fit a pattern in
cases involving other Camp Pendleton troops convicted of killing Iraqi
civilians in cases other than Haditha. Duke University's Scott
Silliman said a renewed militarywide emphasis in deliberate and ethical
battlefield conduct to minimize civilian killings is one of the hallmarks of
Haditha. So, too, is a requirement that mandates all such deaths receive at
least a cursory investigation. "It had a clarifying
effect, and today we see a much greater sensitivity to innocents and civilians
being harmed or killed," said Silliman, who heads Duke's Center on Law,
Ethics and National Security. Silliman said the
prosecutions have been proper. "The incident itself
had to be aired in a legal setting to have some kind of finality to what happened,"
he said. "To do nothing in the face of the accusations would be saying
there are two different standards - one during wartime and one during peace -
and that simply cannot be." External link: http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/military/article_60253373-7741-5b9d-8a66-91e832851030.html |