Sgt. Wuterich Responds to NYT's Hit Piece Sgt. Wuterich responded to the hit piece done on him by the NYT's.

From TimeMagazine:

"...Through his lawyers, Staff Sergeant Frank D. Wuterich, the Marine who was the unit leader in Haditha on Nov. 19, says that, while he was on duty in the makeshift operations center the following day, he never handled the radio operator's green logbook. The logbook, he said, is usually kept by a low-ranking enlisted Marine and simply tracks the time of radio calls in and out of the center. Wuterich says he never took any pages out of the logbook and never "tampered" with it.

Wuterich says he also never saw any other more substantial logbook that would have contained so-called after-action reports — detailed descriptions of incidents. Other Marines with experience in Iraq say that such battlefield operation centers are often confused and informal settings where the rush of events prevents methodical record-keeping. They say it would be highly unusual to have so-called "after-action reports" kept there...

The New York Times story also said that there is no official record of an AK-47 rifle that the Marines claim was taken from one of the town residents killed that day. But Wuterich's lawyers say their client has a clear memory of what was done with that AK-47; he says it was put into the first Humvee in his convoy, along with a suitcase taken from one of the Iraqi houses, by another Marine (whom the lawyers will not name). The AK-47 and the suitcase were to be taken back to base, tagged and put in a secure location. Wuterich says he does not know what happened to it after that ..."

The Marines, however, removed three officers after the initial probes into Haditha, including Wuterich's commander. Military sources say they expect other officers to be punished for not thoroughly investigating the events. In addition, military sources have told TIME that they expect criminal charges to be brought in this case, as early as September, when Lt. Gen. James Mattis, the commander overseeing the case, is expected to complete his review of the investigation

Note the use of unnamed sources. Kind of like the unnamed source that talked about the phoney photo that nobody's quite ever been able to locate.

Also note that it looks like the punishment involved would be aimed at officers who failed to investigate the incident -- but it's Wuterich and his squad who have been slandered publically by irresponsible public figures.

HotAir has a piece about the NYT's article, and points out that the drone footage supports the "killing in cold blood" theory. However, the footage was taken after the fact, and it only proves that the bodies were seen stacked next to the car after the fact.

There are three lurid cases going on.

Regarding the Haditha Marines, I think the civilian casualties were a result of terrorists hiding behind civilians.

Regarding Mahmoudiya, where the young girl was raped and murdered -- the facts emerging seem to indicate that the odious crime happened. It's indefensible, and I think the soldiers involved should be tried, convicted and hung. (But wouldn't it be refreshing to actually have the adage innocent until proved guilty apply to the armed forces?)

And regarding the incident at Hamadan -- I'm not sure. There has been plenty of counter publicity released by the defense lawyers.

THe point with all three cases is that the soldiers involved have been tried, hanged, drawn and quartered in the press, and in gleeful efforts by the Democratic partyto prove Bushlied, and belly their way back to the public feeding trough.

And, of course, every mainstream reporter is angling, scheming and falling all over himself to playlike it's Watergate -- or is it Tailwind?  ¶ 8:00 AM