Haditha Marine's lawyer wants to call Murtha

AP/San Diego Union-Tribune:

A Marine lance corporal charged with murdering two girls and killing other Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha believed he was following procedure by confronting a threat with deadly force, his attorney told a military court Monday.

Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum has acknowledged killing several Iraqis in two houses on Nov. 19, 2005, but said he was responding to a legitimate threat.

“He was taught that deadly force is the proper response to a threat,” attorney Jack Zimmerman said.

Tatum was supervised by his squad leader, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who is charged in the deaths of 18 Iraqis, Zimmerman said.

“His squad leader declared the house hostile,” Zimmerman said. “He does what he is trained to do and what his leaders told him.”

After the so-called Article 32 investigation, the military's equivalent of a grand jury hearing, Lt. Col. Paul Ware will recommend whether Tatum should be court-martialed.

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Tatum has told investigators that he used grenades and gunfire to kill several Iraqis because he was responding to what he considered a legitimate threat.

“Knowing what I know now, I feel badly about killing Iraqi civilians who may have been innocent,” Tatum told Navy investigators in March 2006. “But I stand fast in my decisions that day, as I reacted to the threats that I perceived at that time.”

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Zimmerman said Monday that he wanted to call Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., as a witness over statements that the congressman last year that U.S. troops in Haditha had killed “in cold blood.”

“This man is making claims that these Marines murdered people in cold blood,” Zimmerman said. “Did that really happen, or is he just trying to get re-elected?”

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It is unlikely that Murtha would be called, but it would be good theater to make him face the guys he has wrongly accused. The hearing officer is the same one who recommended not court martialing another Marine at Haditha. While at least some of the Iraqis killed by Tatum were civilians, whether he could tell that under the circumstances where he and his Marines were under attack will be the deciding factor. His defense is that if he hesitated while under attack he and his fellow Marines would be killed. The Marines have to be careful that Marines in those circumstances are not made too hesitant in similar circumstances.