Marine Sues Murtha

That is consistent with the testimony of the Marines involved.

They did not lie about it.

It is evident that you have not bothered to read the testimony of those involved, instead choosing to rely upon the media.

Big mistake.

 

Maybe this will help you understand, Galation...if you really care.

"According to the (Washington) Post, Wuterich told his attorney in initial interviews over nearly 12 hours that the shootings were the unfortunate result of a methodical sweep for enemies in a firefight. Two attorneys for other Marines involved in the incident said Wuterich's account is consistent with those they had heard from their clients.

Wrote the Post: "On Nov. 19, Wuterich's squad left its headquarters at Firm Base Sparta in Haditha at 7 a.m. on a daily mission to drop off Iraqi army troops at a nearby checkpoint. "It was like any other day, we just had to watch out for any other activity that looked suspicious," said Marine Cpl. James Crossan, 21, in an interview from his home in North Bend, Wash. He was riding in the four-Humvee convoy as it turned left onto Chestnut Road, heading west at 7:15 a.m.

"Shortly after the turn, a bomb buried in the road ripped through the last Humvee. The blast instantly killed the driver, Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, 20. Wuterich, who was driving the third Humvee in the line, immediately stopped the convoy and got out, Puckett told the Post, adding that while Wuterich was evaluating the scene, Marines noticed a white unmarked car full of "military-aged men" lingering near the bomb site. When Marines ordered the men to stop, they ran; Puckett said it was standard procedure at the time for the Marines to shoot suspicious people fleeing a bombing, and the Marines opened fire, killing four or five men.

"The first thing he thought was it could be a vehicle-borne bomb or these guys could be ready to do a drive-by shooting," Puckett said, explaining that the Marines were on alert for such coordinated, multistage attacks.

According to Puckett, as Wuterich began briefing the platoon leader, AK-47 shots rang out from residences on the south side of the road, and the Marines ducked.

A corporal with the unit leaned over to Wuterich and said he saw the shots coming from a specific house. After a discussion with the platoon leader, they decided to clear the house, according to Wuterich's account.

"There was a threat, and they went to eliminate the threat," Puckett said.

A four-man team of Marines, including Wuterich, kicked in the door and found a series of empty rooms, noticing quickly that there was one room with a closed door and people rustling behind it, Puckett said. They then kicked in that door, tossed a fragmentation grenade into the room, and one Marine fired a series of "clearing rounds" through the dust and smoke, killing several people, Puckett said.

The Marine who fired the rounds - Puckett said it was not Wuterich - had experience clearing numerous houses on a deployment in Fallujah, where Marines had aggressive rules of engagement.

Although it was almost immediately apparent to the Marines that the people dead in the room were men, women, and children – most likely civilians – they also noticed a back door ajar and believed that insurgents had slipped through to a house nearby, Puckett said. The Marines stealthily moved to the second house, kicking in the door, killing one man inside and then using a fragmentation grenade and more gunfire to clear another room full of people, he said.

Wuterich, not having found the insurgents, told the team to stop and headed back to the platoon leader to reassess the situation, Puckett said, adding that his client knew a number of civilians had just been killed."

 

They didn't.

 

You are confusing the official Marine version initially put out with the after action report of the Marines on the ground. Marine intelligence investigators were on the ground 30 minutes after the action and saw no inconsistencies in their after action report and the evidence at the scene.

They would have been charged months ago with falsifying their report if such had not been the case. They have never disputed the fact they shot those people while following what they considered to be their ROEs.

Why the official Marine version was initially different may explain why some officers were relieved of their commands. Enlisted Marines do not do press releases.

 

A military investigator uncovered evidence in February and March that contradicted repeated claims by Marines that Iraqi civilians killed in Haditha last November were victims of a roadside bomb, according to a senior military official in Iraq.
(same source)

[/quote]

What Marines?

 

A false assumption on your part. There is no report anywhere that the Marines actually involved in the shootings claimed 15 Iraqis were killed by a roadside bomb.

 

Then, it shouldn't be hard for you to produce a credible source for your claim.

The Iraqi doctor at the hospital is hardly credible and the Marines involved in the shootings are not the ones that delivered the bodies to the hospital.

If you're so determined that they be guilty of lying, produce the source that proves the lie.

So far, you haven't been able to do that.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by carpro
The Swiftvets are not involved. If you think they are, please provide proof.

Murtha, I guess, could have gotten his times mixed up...by more than 5 days,

You bet I'll believe the Commandant of the Marine Corps over a grandstanding politician.

Whats even more interesting is why Murtha, by his own admission, added the words "in cold blood" to his statement. Add a little drama, maybe. Or maybe for impact , instead of accuracy.

Try again.

Larry Bailey is not now and never has been affiliated with Swiftvets.

 

That the Iraqis were shot is beyond doubt. That some Marines shot them is a given. They reported it that way.

Some of your so called sources may or may not be lying. It really doesn't matter. You are only surmising. You don't have the proof.

I'm still waiting for the source that definitively quotes or says the Marines involved in the shooting ever said it happened any other way.

Of course, I know you don't have it. It doesn't exist.

But you already have them convicted as cold blooded murderers, like Murtha. Based largely on a lie you think they committed but can't produce proof that they did.

Why would you want to find out you are wrong?

http://time-proxy.yaga.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1174682,00.html
One Morning in Haditha
U.S. Marines killed 15 Iraqi civilians in their homes last November. Was it self-defense, an accident or cold-blooded revenge? A TIME exclusive
By TIM MCGIRK/ BAGHDAD

EXCERPT

The available evidence does not provide conclusive proof that the Marines deliberately killed innocents in Haditha.

 

The Media Smear Known As Haditha

From our friends (and readers) at the Weekly Standard:

The My Lai Lie

Behind the coverage of Haditha.
by Fred Barnes, for the Editors
07/03/2006, Volume 011, Issue 40


THE MEDIA COVERAGE of the killing of 24 Iraqis at Haditha has given rich new definition to the phrase "rush to judgment." The coverage, plus the reaction of antiwar politicians like Democratic representative John Murtha, amounts to a public verdict of guilty, rendered against a handful of Marines, before an investigation of the bloody incident is completed or a trial (if there is one) held.

An egregious example was MSNBC host Chris Matthews’s interview with Murtha on May 17. Asked to "draw us a picture of what happened in Haditha," the congressman said he’d tell "exactly" what occurred. "One Marine was killed and the Marines just said we’re going to take care. They don’t know who the enemy is. The pressure was too much on them, so they went into houses and they actually killed civilians."

"Was this My Lai?" Matthews interjected, referring to the slaughter of more than 300 civilians by American soldiers in Vietnam in 1968. "Was this a case of–when you say cold blood, Congressman, a lot of people think you’re basically saying you have got some civilians sitting in a room [or] out in a field and they’re executed."

"That’s exactly what happened," Murtha replied.

Murtha, of course, doesn’t really know if the Haditha civilians were killed in cold blood. There’s no way he could know. He’s been briefed by Marine Commandant Michael Hagee, but so have other key members of Congress. Republican Duncan Hunter, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, talked to Hagee and did not conclude either that the case was all but closed or that 24 Iraqis had indeed been executed. Murtha, an ex-Marine, claims to have other Marine sources, but it’s doubtful any of them were in Haditha on November 19, 2005, the day of the killings. So Murtha is winging it–and in a particularly shameful way.

But Murtha’s accusation is only the worst example of prejudicing the case against the Marines. There are others:

* The press has repeatedly likened the Haditha killings to the My Lai massacre, an invidious comparison if there ever was one. Newsweek, for instance, wrote that Haditha "may turn out to be the worst massacre since My Lai." True, the magazine writes that "the scale" of Haditha "should not be exaggerated" and the 24 Iraqis killed are "a fraction of the 300-plus lined up and murdered at My Lai." But with the facts in Haditha so sketchy or in serious dispute, the mere association of Haditha with My Lai is, to say the least, tendentious.

* In breaking the Haditha story last March, Time relied heavily on statements from a 9-year-old girl, a self-styled human rights activist with credibility problems, and a doctor who has publicly expressed his hatred of America. Since then, Time has issued three corrections. A video of the 24 dead bodies and the places where the killings occurred was not taken by "a Haditha journalism student," as first reported, but by a 43-year-old Sunni Muslim who heads the two-person "Hammurabi Human Rights Group." Nor is that group associated with Human Rights Watch, the respectable if anti-American outfit, as the magazine had said.

 

He has made previous wild and unsubstantiated claims against U.S. forces.


http://www.brusselstribunal.org/ArticlesIraq2.htm#doctors

Iraqi Doctors Beaten and Arrested in Haditha Hospital
Sabah Ali (30/10/2005)

Dr. Walid Al-Obeidi, the director of Haditha General Hospital and Dr. Jamil Abdul Jabbar, the only surgeon in the Haditha area were arrested for a week, very badly beaten and threatened to face the same treatment in the future by the American troops.

Dr. Walid said “they arrested me in my house in front of my family, covered my eyes, and tied my hands to the back on Oct 5 2005 morning, during the last attack on Haditha (360 kilometers west of Baghdad). They occupied the hospital for 8 days and made it their office. The first day they beat me on my eyes, nose, back, hands, legs... My face was covered with blood .When they removed the tie I could not see. They investigated me until the afternoon. I realized later that I was arrested in the hospital store. Then they tied my hands to the front, and left me for two days. I was moved then to the pharmacy department. They accused me of treating terrorists, and asked for their names.

I told them that I treat patients regardless of their identity, according to my oath as a doctor; even if they were national guards (which we actually I did) or American soldiers. And any way, if I do not want to treat the insurgents, I have no choice, because they were armed and masked. I would do anything they tell to do. Few days later, one of the soldiers came in the room, did not say anything, kicked me again on my face and left”.

SNIP

Dr.Walid said he does not know who wrote on the wall outside the hospital, what the names of the insurgents are, because they were masked. He explained that the dead bodies’ pictures were of unknown people whose bodies were found after the fighting. “We can not keep these bodies forever; we do not have enough cold boxes. So, after two months, we take their pictures and bury them, so that whenever some one from their families comes to ask we show the pictures of the dead bodies”.

The UN, the international HR organizations, WHO, Doctors sans frontiers…and all who it may concern are called upon to do some thing to help these, and other Iraqi doctors, and to prevent similar treatment in the future. Dr.Walid and Dr. Jamil believe that they may face the arrest and beating in the future. They demand that the American troops stop occupying the hospital and destroying it every time the attack Haditha. They also believe that the Iraqi authorities are incapable of protecting them.