The lawyer for the sargent in charge of the accused Marines at Haditha has given a statement from his client:From the WashingtonPost, title link:
A sergeant who led a squad of Marines during the incident in Haditha, Iraq, that left as many as 24 civilians dead said his unit did not intentionally target any civilians, followed military rules of engagement and never tried to cover up the shootings, his attorney said.
Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, 26, told his attorney that several civilians were killed Nov. 19 when his squad went after insurgents who were firing at them from inside a house. The Marine said there was no vengeful massacre, but he described a house-to-house hunt that went tragically awry in the middle of a chaotic battlefield.
"It will forever be his position that everything they did that day was following their rules of engagement and to protect the lives of Marines," said Neal A. Puckett, who represents Wuterich in the ongoing investigations into the incident. "He's really upset that people believe that he and his Marines are even capable of intentionally killing innocent civilians."...
Wuterich told Puckett that no one was emotionally rattled by Terrazas's death because everyone had a job to do, and everyone was concerned about further casualties. As Wuterich began briefing the platoon leader, Puckett said, 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, and after a discussion with the platoon leader, they decided to clear the house, according to Wuterich's account.
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 ...
Marine Reserve Lt. Jonathan Morgenstein, who served in Anbar province from August 2004 to March 2005, said that the account offered by Wuterich's attorney surprised him a bit.
"When I was in Iraq," Morgenstein said, "the Anbar-wide ROEs [rules of engagement] did not say we had the authority to knock down any door, throw in a hand grenade and kill everyone." Still, he said, if someone in a house in Haditha was shooting at them, the Marines' response may have been within procedure. "If they felt they took fire from that house, then that may be authorized."
A Marine who served near Haditha in November said it was not unusual for Marines to respond to attacks "running and gunning" and that it was standard practice to spray rooms with gunfire when threatened. "It may be a bad tactic, but it works," he said. "It keeps you alive."After going through the houses, Wuterich moved a small group of Marines to the roof of a nearby building to watch the area, Puckett said. At one point, they saw a man in all-black clothing running from one of the houses they had searched. The Marines killed him, Puckett said.
They then noticed another man in all black scurrying between two houses across the street. When they went to investigate, the Marines found a courtyard filled with women and children and asked where the man was, Puckett said.
When the civilians pointed to a third house, the Marines attempted to enter and found a man with an AK-47 inside, flanked by three other men; the first Marine to enter tried to fire his weapon, but it jammed, Puckett said. The Marines then killed those four men.
The unit stayed at the scene for hours, helping to collect bodies as photos were taken. Wuterich, who remains on duty in California, where he lives with his wife and two young daughters, told Puckett that for months no one questioned his actions (last four paragraphs of WashPo article added 9 a.m. -- FB)
Okay. This is more along the lines of what I'm willing to believe. Nothing in the above points to "Marines on rampage," or to "cold-blooded murder of civilians."
This also is what happens when insurgents hide behind civilians. Is there anyone on the face of this earth that thinks nothing's going to happen to them when somebody inside their house is shooting at US Marines in a war zone?
Meanwhile the story the media's been pushing, of Marines on the rampage, is unraveling bigtime.
Rielworld has been tracking inconsistencies of the Iraqi witnesses. Among other things:
Time did a ten week investigation of this story and if you search it, none of these witnesses existed. Not Al-Hadithi, Safa Younis, or the lawyer Khaled Salem Rsayef. Now, not only are they bringing out videos, they are claiming to have lived next door. And the MSM is splashing their stories all over the place. This is obscene.Heidi over at Euphoric Reality notes some inconsistencies in the 43 ear-old hospital administrator Iraqi human right activist ... ooops! "student journalist's" videotape:
"... the video clip shows Iraqis themselves removing the dead bodies and piling them into a truck in bags. That did not happen! The Marines did that. They called in a crew that had to take pictures and collect the bodies and remove them to the morgue. Haven’t we already heard at length about how traumatized the Marines were who had to do such a grisly job? Al-Mashhadani’s video is clearly a fraud!"
There's an article about an al Quada propaganda center in Haditha uncovered by AJ Strata which produced, among other things, snuff films. Wonder just who they found to "star" in the snuff films -- Haditha civilians, perhaps? He also points to an article from ABC Australia that describes how a Reuters camera man said that there were bodies laying on the street for hours ... once again contradicting press reports.
Then, there's Al Jazeera. There's a little confusion here. AlJazeera.com is the magazine, they've been on the story, and it's editorial in nature; the section of the media outlet that reaffirms how much they hate us. Al Jazeera.net is the satellite news station's breaking news page, which is the one I keep an eye on, since I've already figured out that they hate us. There's been exactly 10 stories from the news page on Haditha, none between November and March, and four of them are published before August 2005, long before the alleged massacre happened. No interviews with the Haditha citizens, and no original quotes from the "student" journalist, although this is the type of story Al Jazeera just loves. Which makes me wonder (again) whether or not the hard news editors over at Al Jazeera know something; they do seem to have stringers from terrorist groups ... ?
FloppingAces has a good round-up, including a quote from Allah at Hot Air that "All I’ll say is this: if it turns out Time was hoaxed, if this ends up being little more than a smear job on the Marines, the backlash will be ferocious like nothing blogs have ever seen. Rathergate will pale by comparison..." No kidding; I've rarely been this angry.
And, finally -- John Sifton of Human Rights Watch was the guy that told Time Magazine whiz reporter Tim McGirk that he heard about the damning photo, which our news ace then rushed to publish as fact. Guess who chairs Human Rights Watch? Peter Osnos, listed here as George Soros' publisher. I'm not finding any direct link at this point to Fenton and HRW, but here's a very interesting, well documented article from Sweetness&Light about other clients of Fenton communications.
Let's leave speculations aside, though, and just say that the stench around this story has increased by the day. The NYT's has nothing on Haditha today. but I suppose there's nothing to add to the stinking ball of innuendo which they've pushing, like the obedient dung beetles for the left that they are.
Here's my real question: just when will leftists, their buds in the media and the US Democratic Party learn to leave our military alone? John Kerry lost election because of long memories; if he hadn't tried to hype his military service, we might have a different President. If Dan Rather had left Bush's military service alone, there would have been no "Rathergate." It's a little harder to lie than it was back in the seventies.
Where's the denunciation of insurgent tactics from US Dems, and their buds in the media? Don't hold your breath waiting, but I'll give a beanie tip to the WashingtonPost for publishing the article I excerpted above.
Beth has some great commentary. Crossposted at RightWingThinking, and WhizbangBombSquad.
12:15 Links fixed
¶ 7:55 AM
