Murtha Sued

It seems that at least two Marines are planning on suing John "I Was A Marine" Murtha over his public comments on the Haditha Incident once they are fully exonerated. From the first link:

Well, the Marine Corps investigator has now dropped all charges against 3 of the 8 accused Marines in the case, and only one Marine still stands accused of crimes at the scene. The others are charged with various after-the-fact issues that arose from investigations of Haditha, not the events themselves. Murtha’s aim, of course, in accusing the Marines of murder “in cold blood” was to pin the blame on Bush. But in the process of blaming Bush, he slandered those Marines.

One of those Marines, Col. Jeffrey Chessani, plans to sue Murtha once he’s exonerated.

I guess Murtha didn't follow events in Durham, North Carolina over the past year and a half.

The evidence is that the Marines were doing their job as trained and within the limits of the rules of engagement.

Based on that reasoning, the case against Wuterich is likely to fall apart too. He is the last Marine against whom charges from that night remain. If the charges against him fall, game over. Jack Murtha will have slandered Marines who acted according to their training during the course of ongoing combat.

Although Murtha is not a prosecutor he has certainly engaged in Nifongery. i.e. adverse pre-trial publicity on the part of a government agent, with reckless disregard for the facts.

The Marines may just have a case.

H/T Instapundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values and at The Astute Bloggers

The Honor Of The Marines Is At Stake

I have been having a discussion with Allen about the Haditha case.

Allen directs me to something he said at the Belmont Club. Let me quote a bit.

Indeed, from the polling, the United States military is the single, sole, and only institutional or professional entity in which the American public vests its unwavering confidence.

Therefore, the vociferous argument made by you and others, claiming that the Haditha Marines are being “set-up” or “sacrificed” by the military for political purposes, undermines confidence in the single institution in which the public places its trust.

The outrageous claims made by you and others, based on hearsay, innuendo, and blog and media opinion pieces, are NOT helping the Haditha Marines or (more importantly) the United States.

To which I replied:

The trust in the military is earned.

It is earned by the military correcting errors.

To think that the military does not respond to political pressure is to live in a fantasy world. If we can have a Nifong in North Carolina we can have one in the Marines.

Your argument reminds me of the Dreyfuss case where it was often argued that guilt or innocence was irrelevant. The honor of the army was at stake.

I don't buy it.

BTW this is a blog. I deal in hearsay and innuendo. Plus the occasional fact when I can find it. I have sources I link to. You can come to your own conclusions. Sometimes I'm right. Sometimes my connection with reality is tennuous at best. This is entertainment. If you actually learn something useful it is a side benefit. However, it looks to me like the prosecution of the Haditha Marines (as far as it has gone) is a political hit job to quiet the opposition (Time Magazine, John Murtha, et. al.). I thought that when the story first hit the blogs. I'm more convinced now.

John Murtha is no Marine. He forgot the Marine motto. Semper Fidelis.

Haditha Bombshell - Intel Evidence

New evidence continues to surface in the Haditha case that shows the Marines didn't do it.

Convincing evidence that corroborates NewsMax.com's accounts of the Haditha insurgent ambush has compelled the prosecution to take extraordinary steps to bolster their crumbling case.

The stunning announcement that all charges are being dropped against Sgt. Sanick P. Dela Cruz, formerly accused of murder in the Haditha incident where 24 Iraqis were killed during an insurgent ambush against the Marines, is indication that the prosecutors have a very weak case against all the defendants, lawyers for the some of the accused say.

There is more evidence of weakness in the case.

The announcement of the deal with Dela Cruz is further evidence that the cases against the Kilo Company Marines and several of their superior officers are in deep trouble. It comes on the heels of postponements of Article 32 hearings slated for Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, the battalion commander and two of the enlisted men charged with murdering civilians in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005.

Now here is the bombshell:

In a nutshell, the case exploded when an intelligence officer dropped a bombshell on prosecutors during a pre-hearing interview when he revealed the existence of exculpatory evidence that appears to have been obtained by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and withheld from the prosecutors.

This officer, described by senior Marine Corps superiors as one of the best and most dedicated intelligence officers in the entire Marine Corps, was in possession of evidence which provided a minute-by-minute narrative of the entire day's action — material which he had amassed while monitoring the day's action in his capacity as the battalion's intelligence officer. That material, he says, was also in the hands of the NCIS.

Much of that evidence remains classified, but it includes videos of the entire day's action, including airstrikes against insurgent safe houses. Also included was all of the radio traffic describing the ongoing action between the men on the ground and battalion headquarters, and proof that the Marines were aware that the insurgents conducting the ambush of the Kilo Company troops were videotaping the action — the same video that after editing ended up in the hands of a gullible anti-war correspondent for Time magazine.

When asked by the prosecution team to give his copies of the evidence to the prosecution, he told NewsMax.com that he was reluctant to do so, fearing it would again be suppressed or misused, but later relented when ordered by his commanding general to do so.

Confronted by the massive mounds of evidence that Marine Corps sources tell NewsMax proves conclusively that the cases against the Haditha Marines are baseless, the prosecutors were forced to postpone the Article 31 against Lt. Col. Chessani and two of the enlisted men in an attempt to regroup.

By granting immunity to the officer on the scene of the house-clearing effort, the prosecution, lawyers say, has further weakened its case.

It is looking more and more like there was no case to begin with. Just some allegations and a movie by our enemies. With Time Magazine taking the side of our enemies.

It is looking more and more like the Haditha Massacre will be put in the same category as the Duke Rape Hoax. Prosecutorial overstretch.

Robert Muise, the Thomas More Law Center attorney who questioned the officer, told NewsMax in a statement, "The intelligence officer is a crucial witness in this case. During his testimony, he effectively described the enemy situation prior to, during, and after the November 19 terrorist attack, providing the necessary context for the decisions that were made as a result. His testimony shows the complexity of the attack this day, the callousness of the terrorists toward the local civilians, whom they use to their advantage, and the error of viewing this incident in a vacuum.

"The officer also showed how the insurgents used allegations of wrongdoing by Marines as propaganda to support their cause. In fact, another witness, who was the assistant intelligence officer during the attack and is now the current intelligence officer for the battalion, testified that since the Haditha incident received so much negative attention, terrorist propaganda alleging law of war violations against American servicemen in Iraq has ‘ballooned.'"

So this case is what many had suspected all along. A propaganda effort by our enemy to smear American soldiers. And of course our media lapped it up uncritically. Who's side are they on anyway?

And what about old Stinking Jack Murtha who pressed the Marine Corps to investigate by saying that some of the Marines involved that day were cold blooded killers. Murtha, who used to be a Marine, is a disgrace to the Corps.

Haditha Roundup.

NCIS Misconduct Alleged in Haditha Probe

Curt at Flopping Aces has an excellent overview that is linkage rich.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Unlawful Command Influence

Rep. Jack Murtha may be in deep do do over his Haditha comments. A story in the Washington Times gives the details:

A criminal defense attorney for a Marine under investigation in the Haditha killings says he will call a senior Democratic congressman as a trial witness, if his client is charged, to find out who told the lawmaker that U.S. troops are guilty of cold-blooded murder.

Attorney Neal A. Puckett told The Washington Times that Gen. Michael Hagee, the Marine commandant, briefed Rep. John P. Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat, on the Nov. 19 killings of 24 Iraqis in the town north of Baghdad. Mr. Murtha later told reporters that the Marines were guilty of killing the civilians in "cold blood." Mr. Murtha said he based his statement on Marine commanders, whom he did not identify.

Mr. Puckett said such public comments from a congressman via senior Marines amount to "unlawful command influence." He said potential Marine jurors could be biased by the knowledge that their commandant, the Corps' top officer, thinks the Haditha Marines are guilty.

"Congressman Murtha will be one of the first witnesses I call to the witness stand," Mr. Puckett said yesterday.

Unlawful Command Influence under the Uniform Code of Military Justice means poisoning the jury pool. It is a rule meant to prevent the hierarchical nature of the military from influencing the outcome of a military trial.

Not only that, it appears that veterans are rising up to defeat Murtha. He is being opposed by Diana Irey in the November elections. She is supported by Vets for Irey. This will get ugly.

Hat tip: Instapundit.

Update: 16 June '06 1618z
Sweetness & Light has a nice bit about how the lawyers are getting on the Haditha case.

Update: 16 June '06 1746z

I expound a bit on military justice at Sweetness & Light. Here is what I had to say:

Basically because the military is a strict hierarchy, the chain of command is supposed to stay out of all judicial matters not involving non-judicial punishment. And even those are subject to review. Once a command unduly puts its fingers on the scales of justice the prosecution is over. No matter which side the command put the pressure on. It is also a very big black mark on an officer’s career.

Update: 18 June '06 0905z

The Squiggler has more on the anti-Murtha campaign. Curiouser & Curiouser focuses on the Irey campaign.

Update: 10 Sept '06 0704z
Irey for Congress www site.

Technorati:

Murtha, Jack Murtha, Pennsylvanian, Irey, Diana Irey, Veterans for Irey, Unlawful Command Influence, Haditha, Marines, US Marines, Lawyers, Military Law, UCMJ, Uniform Code of Military Justice, NJP, Non Judicial Punishment

Blood Money

Interesting times and proof that there may in fact be some justice in the world. We have the "Duke Rape Case" falling apart. Al Queda in Iraq leader al-Zarquari is dead.

And now the Haditha case against the Marines is falling apart. It appears that the "young" reporter (there is a picture) who is also a founder of a human rights group has some questions to answer.

Why start a human rights group if you want to remain anonymous? And why did Time pretend their source was young? Why did they pretend he had no involvement with Hammurabi? (When in fact he is its founder.)

But that is just the start of the many questionable aspects of Thabit’s accounts.

Bear in mind that this "budding journalism student" waited until the next day to videotape this alleged atrocity, which supposedly happened on his very doorstep.

Note that this same "budding journalism student" and self-proclaimed human rights watcher did not bother to turn over his video to a media outlet or a real human rights group from November 2005 until March 2006. A four month delay.

That’s how eager they were to make sure such a crime is never again repeated.

Read the whole thing to get the full context for the reporters on the case. Time Magazine is not looking too good either.

Even more interesting is the full social context of what is happening in Haditha. It may be all about an effort to extract more blood money out of the US Military.

On the side of a road in a ramshackle tent tribal elders have gathered for a court case, but it is not an ordinary law court, it's a tribal court. The case defies logic - one brother has killed another, but the tribe they belonged to is blaming a rival tribe for the killing.

Their argument is that if there had not been a feud with the other tribe, the killing would not have taken place; they are now demanding $20,000 in blood money….

At the tribal court, the discussion is heated, but not about guilt or innocence. Through a complex network of tribal support, both sides know where they stand, now it is just a matter of agreeing the money.

Eventually the price is knocked down to $4,000 and a woman, her value to be determined in later negotiations.

For many Iraqis it's a system that works, and in a violent region recompense appears much more practical than locking someone away.

The article has more on the blood money system and how it relates to the news from Haditha and a previous British case.

The logic in the British case and possibly in Haditha is simple: If the coalition did not have a fight with the insurgents, the deaths would not have occurred. The deaths cause a loss in the resources of the tribe. The tribe cannot file a claim with Zarqawi--he might chop their heads off--therefore it is the coalition that owes blood money. In the eyes of tribal people such as Haditha residents, this debt is owed regardless of who actually killed the 24 people in Haditha or the circumstances of those deaths. The payment of blood money is not an admission of guilt; it is a balancing of tribal obligations.

What tribal Iraqis would understand as blood money has in fact already been paid by US military representatives in Haditha. According to the May 31 New York Times payments totaling $38,000 were made “within weeks of the shootings” to the families of 15 of the 24 dead.

So they already have gotten their blood money. Could it be they are trying to enhance the deal? An excerpt from the New York Times quoted in the article:

In an interview Tuesday, Maj. Dana Hyatt, the officer who made the payments, said he was told by superiors to compensate the relatives of 15 victims, but was told that rest of those killed had been deemed to have committed hostile acts, leaving their families ineligible for compensation.

After the initial payments were made, however, those families demanded similar payments, insisting their relatives had not attacked the marines, Major Hyatt said….

The list of 15 victims deemed to be noncombatants was put together by intelligence personnel attached to the battalion, Major Hyatt said. Those victims were related to a Haditha city council member, he said. The American military sometimes pays compensation to relatives of civilian victims.

The relatives of each victim were paid a total of $2,500, the maximum allowed under Marine rules, along with $250 payments for two children who were wounded. Major Hyatt said he also compensated the families for damage to two houses.

"I didn't say we had made a mistake," Major Hyatt said, describing what he had told the city council member who was representing the victims. "I said I'm being told I can make payments for these 15 because they were deemed not to be involved in combat."

The article from the Hawaii Reporter has much more on the Haditha Stories discrepancies and the blood money system. Read it all.

The Marine who gave lurid details of the Haditha "crime" may have had a motive for being a fabulist.

Others have noted many weird aspects to Corporal Briones’ previous statements about being ordered to photograph the Haditha victims, and his further claims about his camera being stolen.

It is highly questionable that the Marines would order a rank and file soldier to do such a thing. And to use his own (non-official) camera to document such an important, possibly criminal event.

It is also highly improbably that they would enlist someone who could himself face future charges in such an effort.

And, lastly, it is very unlikely that they would allow such valuable evidence as these photos to disappear.

This latest news, however, may very well shed light on Briones’ motives.

Apparently all of Briones’ statements to the media about being ordered to photograph the Haditha corpses were made after his drunken hit and run felony on April 3, 2006. (His first appearance in the press seems to be an interview with the Los Angeles Times on May 29, 2006.)

If Briones was so traumatized by what he saw in Haditha, why did he wait six months to tell anyone about it?

Isn’t it possible that once the Haditha story came out, Briones latched onto it as a way to beat these very serious charges? They include auto theft, drunk-driving, resisting arrest and leaving the scene of an accident.

As more facts filter out it is looking more and more like Haditha=Duke Rape. Stories made up for profit. However, for once, a few of the slime balls living on the planet may be getting their due.

Link to a Haditha link fest

Update: 09 June '06 0327z

Riehl World looks at more story conflicts in the MSM.

Update: 11 June '06 0047z

Sweetness & Light has more on the blood money system. See the comment by DB.

Over at Mudville Gazette the Accused Speak

Technorati:
Haditha, Blood Money, Marines

Haditha Link Fest

Here is a round up of sites with information and measured judgement (innocent until proven guilty).

The Mudville Gazette on framing the reports.

Mudville Gazette also looks at what happened in Ishaqi and discrepancies in the Haditha reports.

Mudville Gazette's front page for today also has more links for media stories on Haditha.

Dean Esmay on jumping the gun in Haditha.

Sweetness and Light on the provenance of the reporter of the Haditha story.

Hot Air has a Marine in words and video.

Hot Air also has witnesses.

Hot Air says Captain Kimber had no indication from the city council anything was amiss.

Hot Air has a bit on Haditha and the "objectively on the other side" left.

Those hot Air folks have been busy. The last bit mentioned has a lot of links if you can't get enough.

Michael Yon talks about the stress of combat in Iraq.

Lawhawk has interesting comments and links. He says there is no substantiation for the claims. That is such a hot topic I'm going to provide a link.

Winds of Change discusses Murtha.

Update: 03 June '06 2148z

Terrorist murder of 19 conflated with events at Haditha.

Update: 04 June '06 1615z

Don Surber fisks a NYTs editorial.

Technorati:
Iraq, Haditha, War Crimes, Combat, Combat Stress