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New Evidence Emerges in Haditha Case
New evidence continues to emerge that U.S. Marines did not wantonly kill Iraqi civilians in Haditha last November - and the soldiers' accounts of what happened are backed up by videotape shot by an ultralight vehicle, NewsMax has learned. According to media reports, last Nov. 19 members of a Marine Corps company killed some 24 innocent civilian Iraqis in Haditha, a town140 miles northwest of Baghdad and near the Syrian border. In the ensuing media firestorm that broke out after the story was revealed, many news reports here and abroad compared the Haditha deaths to the infamous My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War. Michael Sallah, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his May Lai reporting, has said: "You would have difficulties finding a single newspaper in Germany or elsewhere in Europe which does not deal with My Lai." But the facts and accounts from Marines and others on the ground tell another story.What is not in dispute is that the Marine's engagement in Haditha began when an IED (improvised explosive device) detonated, killing a Marine from Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. In the aftermath of the action two investigations were launched, one by Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell, who was charged with investigating how the incident was reported through the chain of command. A second investigation, headed by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), is looking into any possible criminal aspects of the incident. The Bargewell report has not been released and is still being reviewed by Army Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, a top U.S. commander in Iraq. But military officials told the Los Angeles Times that although it concludes there was no deliberate cover-up by senior Marine officers, the Corps failed to follow up and ask questions that the known details should have provoked them to ask. The NCIS investigation is still ongoing. Last May, when Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., appeared on "Good Morning America," he accused the Marines of K Company of killing innocent civilians in "cold blood" and that the killings were covered up by higher officers. The Bargewell report has disproved that allegation and with the NCIS investigation so far incomplete, and no soldier has been charged with a crime, how would Murtha know? Posted by: Steve 2006-06-26 |
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