8 Marines charged in Haditha case

BBC:

Eight US marines have been charged over the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha last year.

Four are accused of unpremeditated murder and four others are charged with attempting to cover up the incident.

Men, women and children were killed by marines who said they were under attack from insurgents at the time.

The US military initially said the civilians died in unrest. If found guilty of second-degree murder, the marines could face life imprisonment.

Squad leader Staff Sgt Frank Wuterich has been charged with the unpremeditated murder of 12 Iraqis and ordering his troops to kill six people, his lawyer Neal Puckett said.

Lance Cpl Justin Sharratt has also been charged with three such counts, his legal representatives say.

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The story does not mention how the enemy's violation of the Geneva Conventions was responsible for the actions of the Marines. Hopefully their attorney will be able to bring this up at the trial.

Four of the eight charged were officers who were not present during the acts that are the basis for the charges. The San Diego Union-Tribune says they were charged for not reporting the incident properly.

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The officers charged were Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani, 1st Lt. Andrew A. Grayson, Capt. Lucas M. McConnell and Capt. Randy W. Stone. They face counts such as violation of a lawful order, making false official statements, obstruction of justice and dereliction of duty.

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The implication from those charges is that if the officers had done their job properly the killings would not have happened. I think that is going to be a difficult case to prove. The charges themselves will be enough to ruin their career in the Marine Corps.