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Home Front: WoT
Ex-Marine Says He Committed Atrocities
2005-10-08
Warning: nothing he says is true. Don't want any regular reader getting high blood pressure on this one.
PARIS (AP) - A former U.S. Marine in Iraq alleges that his battalion committed atrocities against Iraqi civilians during the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, including shooting unarmed protesters.

Jimmy Massey, a staff sergeant who was in the Marines for 12 years and served three months in Iraq before being honorably discharged with post-traumatic stress syndrome, details the allegations in his book "Kill! Kill! Kill!", written with the French journalist Natasha Saulnier and published in France.

A Pentagon spokeswoman said Massey's complaints had already been investigated and found to be unsubstantiated.
So the book can be filed under 'fiction'.
Massey said he was in charge of a platoon in the 3rd Batallion of Regimental Combat Team 7, responsible for setting up checkpoints and providing armed cover against terrorists and insurgents. He alleges that over a period of a month and a half in 2003, his platoon killed more than 30 civilians in Iraq. "We in fact, I feel, escalated the violence," he told The Associated Press in an interview.

Massey, however, said in one case shortly after April 2003, Marines who heard a gunshot fired upon 10 Iraqi demonstrators shouting anti-U.S. slogans and wielding banners saying "Go Home" near the sprawling Al-Rashid military complex southeast of the city center. All but one of the demonstrators were killed, said Massey, who estimated he himself fired about 12 shots.

Massey said he later found several rocket-propelled grenades propped on a wall some 500 feet away. He interpreted the demonstrators' failure to use the weapons as a sign of their peaceful intentions. "That day we shot the protesters in the Rashid complex was when I had a moment of clarity and I understood that by our actions of doing that, we set the tone overall for what the Iraqis were seeing and the brutality of what we were doing was being displayed," he told AP.

Maj. Gabrielle Chapin, a spokeswoman at Marine Corps headquarters in the Pentagon, said the Marines are committed to investigating all allegations of violations of "law of war or rules of engagement."

"Mr. Massey made allegations of genocide by members of his command, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, resulting in an investigation," she said. The investigation was completed in June 2004, "and these allegations were found to be unsubstantiated in regards to law or rules of engagement violations," Chapin said.
Which is why he went to France to peddle his lies.
The French-language version of Massey's book went on sale in France this week.

Massey said he was not surprised by the reluctance of U.S. publishers. "The picture that I paint within the book is very difficult for a lot of Americans to grasp, and I understand that," he said.
For starters, we don't react well to liars.
Posted by:Steve White

#11  Massey said he was in charge of a platoon in the 3rd Batallion of Regimental Combat Team 7

I've never heard a Marine unit identified in these terms before. If its is real, someone from his platoon should start making noise about what really happened. Marines I've known would not be happy to have someone trying to make a buck by taking a dump on their honor and making the mission more dangerous for those still in combat. This guy is talking trash about his buddies, the nation and the Corps.
Posted by: Baba Tutu   2005-10-08 23:23  

#10  Massey said he later found several rocket-propelled grenades propped on a wall some 500 feet away. He interpreted the demonstrators' failure to use the weapons as a sign of their peaceful intentions.

Oh horsesheet, it means that they didn't get a chance to use it. There were plenty of fedayeen around back then to require high security.

Not having a functional Iraqi army set the tone.
Posted by: Clomomp Wholuck8822   2005-10-08 14:01  

#9  Published in France to avoid US libel laws?

I mean, allegations of crime are libel per se, right? So anyone in his battalion could sue him if he published his lies in the US.

C'mon, Massey. Don't be a pussy. Publish in the US. I'm sure there are people who will support your legal defense; I know I'll help support the offense.
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2005-10-08 12:42  

#8  I feel sorry for him. He's mentally ill.
Posted by: Jackal   2005-10-08 11:18  

#7  The answer is simple. He has admitted to crimes, we should try to extrodite him and put him on trial to get to the bottom fo this publicly (especially since we know he's lying). We should harrass the French for protecting an admitted war criminal and putting him on a pedistool rather than putting him up on trial at the Hague.

Force them to admit they are either full of shit regarding (a) Human rights (b) the World Court (c) This guys book.

They say once a Marine always a Marine. Is there anyway to revoke that for bringing shame upon the Marines for profit and a fauning Anti-American public?
Posted by: rjschwarz   2005-10-08 10:45  

#6  Cap'n, yeah, it's the same James Massey.
Posted by: ed   2005-10-08 03:04  

#5  Massey will regale the the gullible French with tales of CIA missions to Cambodia Syria, silver star worthy singlehandedly blowing away a wounded teen capturing a village, and his doggie VC AQ blown off his Swiftboat tank by a mine IED and onto another Swiftboat tank. Deja, effing, vu.
Posted by: ed   2005-10-08 03:03  

#4  Didn't John F'ng Kerry go to France to meet with the Viet Cong? Massey is simply carrying on the fine tradition, a gent with a donk future no doubt.

Incidentially, this yaawho was campaigning for Kerry in Iowa in '04. I remember reading about him.
Posted by: Captain America   2005-10-08 02:09  

#3  written with the French journalist Natasha Saulnier and published in France

yes of course
Posted by: Rafael   2005-10-08 01:47  

#2  hummmm...
Posted by: Shock Thraiting7687   2005-10-08 01:00  

#1  Thus far its tantamount to keeping the Democratic Party, aka the MSM/LeftMedia, a viable political contender by headline sensationalism and related. He "scalpelizes" almost like AL SHARPTON and KATRINA-GATE. O'Reilly keeps shooting Sharpton's anti-Bush, anti-Fed, and anti-Federalism criticisms down with "Bush vs Clinton" statistics, to which ole' AL merely argues "THATS NOT MY POINT" - in between Washington pols are publicly climbing on the anti-Fed KATRINA-GATE bandwagon, Nagin and Blanco are now quitely trying to introduce vital reforms to NOLA and State planning wid barely a whimper.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2005-10-08 00:31  

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