Human (Or Is It Prurient) Interest Article On Sgt. Wuterich ...? Time Magazine is running a human interest piece on Sgt. Wuterich this week.

I don't know why he agreed to the interview; the piece is riddled with bias against him.

Second sentence, first page: "...Wuterich is the central suspect in the Iraq war's most notorious massacre, at Haditha, where 24 Iraqis were killed by U.S. Marines--Marines led by Wuterich.."

Then you find out he's a former honor student and band member.

Now, I'd have been kind of interested in which instrument he played. But, the reporter skipped to a lengthy rift about the tattoo's. He's got 8, which disqualified him from counterintelligence because they make him identifiable. Music notes, kanji card and a heart, but the one that the reporter makes an innuendo about is "The one tattoo he's reluctant to exhibit, on the inside of his right forearm, is of a skewer running through a bunch of severed fingers and eyeballs. "That's the one I really don't like," Marisol says sternly but with a smile..."

Sure. Fair reporting there, gotta throw some fodder over to the lefties.

Then, on the second page, the reporter gets down to some serious innuendo. "Iraqi witnesses and sources familiar with the two Pentagon investigations under way claim that several of the squad's 12 Marines then went on a rampage of killing in the town, leaving 24 Iraqis dead, including five women and six children."

There ya go. Just another brainless rampaging Marine. There's a subtle slam at Neal Puckett as well, for not allowing Wuterich to talk to the press, and the reporter helpfully explains that Puckett didn't allow Wuterich to talk to investigators, although he's responded to investigators through his lawyers. I thought that was acceptable legal procedure.

Then, the reporter quotes more anonymous sources, saying that six of the eight Marines will be charged, including Sgt. Wuterich. I agree with DB over at Sweetness&Light, who points out that Time must not have been confident of the information, or they'd have run it as their headline.

I guess they wouldn't want to have to publish retractions, like they did after the original hit piece on the Marines.

In the meantime, Time's reaffirmed the meme that the Marines went on rampage, led by Wuterich, which is something the rest of the wuuurld now believes about American troops, thanks to Time Magazine, the NYT's biased article around Memorial Day with the accompanying artsy snuff photo and the echo-chamber of Euro and Middle Eastern news.

Regardless of how the trial turns out, the damage is done.

Jayme Evans writes in WebCommentary:

Many “anonymous sources” have already chummed the feeding frenzy by declaring that the investigative findings seem to support the murder allegations. There has been no due process. No gag orders, no exhumations, nor autopsies. No ballistics, no nothing in either of these cases. Zero, zip, nada.

These US Marines have fewer due process rights than terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

John “Cold-Blooded” Murtha (D-PA) has already publicly stated on several occasions that the Haditha Marines overreacted and killed unarmed civilians in cold blood.

While he is trampling on the Constitutional rights of a US Marine who was so good at his job, he was actually promoted to Staff Sergeant, Murtha is hiding behind arguable constitutional protections that are supposed to exist when Congressmen are in chambers debating matters of public policy, not appeasing their antiwar constituents with inflammatory rhetoric.

Discussion so far: AllahPundit, OldWarDogs, and there's a pertinent interview over at BlackFive with Captain James Kimber, who was relieved for "lack of confidence" following Time Magazine's reporting of one version of the Haditha incident. Because India Company was in another town (not Haditha), the reasons for Captain Kimber's relief are very suspect of political pressure stemming from Haditha.

Here's an excerpt from Kimber's interview: "... the biggest detriment of our ROE is that the insurgents know exactly what it is, operate within its limits, and exploit it at every opportunity to achieve their goals of murder, intimidation, and undermining of the Iraqi Government ..."

The others that engage in exploitation are members of the Western media, to advance their goals of playing-like it's Nam again (oh, and incidentally make their journalistic careers), plus members of the US Congress whose only hope of bellying back up to power lie in politicizing the war.  ¶ 8:00 AM