Commandant said he briefed Murtha after Murtha's "cold blooded" comments

Reuters:

The head of the U.S. Marine Corps briefed Rep. John Murtha on the Haditha case after the vocal war critic publicly said Marines had killed innocent civilians in that Iraqi city, the Corps said on Thursday.

A group of Marines, while suspected in the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians, has not been charged, and official results from the military's investigation remain outstanding. A U.S. defense official said on Wednesday, however that evidence indicates Marines deliberately shot to death unarmed civilians.

Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, is being sued by one of the accused Marines for libel. He had told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Gen. Michael Hagee had given him the information on which he based his charge that Marines killed innocent civilians.

But a spokesman for the Marine Corps said Hagee briefed Murtha on May 24 about Haditha. Murtha had made comments on the case as early as May 17.

On May 17, for example, he said at a news conference, "Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood."

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What General Hagee is doing here is trying to save the potential prosecution from being dismissed for violating the command infleunce provisions of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. If it were found that he was telling people the Marines were guilty of cold blooded murder before they were even charged it is very likely the case would have to be dismissed. In the process he is also hanging Murtha out to dry in the civil case. It will be interesting to see who Murtha's sources was and what was actually said that led him to make his cold blooded statements.