Gen. Mattis to testify in Chessani's Haditha case

NCT:

Military prosecutors will call on Marine Gen. James Mattis to testify Monday about whether a lower-ranking officer improperly influenced his decision to file criminal charges against a Marine tied to the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha, a civilian defense attorney said Friday.

Mattis is in charge of U.S. Joint Forces Command, and also is the supreme allied commander in charge of military modernization for NATO.

It is rare for a four-star general to testify in a court-martial or pretrial proceedings.

Lt. Col. Sean Gibson, a Marine Corps spokesman for the Haditha trials, would not confirm whether Mattis would testify. He said the Marine Corps does not provide witness lists for court matters in advance of the hearing, nor do they discuss the travel plans of generals. Mattis is based in Norfolk, Va.

Defense attorney Brian Rooney, who represents Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, said Friday that government prosecutors are calling Mattis to rebut a military judge's finding that there was undue influence in Mattis' decision to bring charges against Chessani.

Chessani faces charges of dereliction of duty for failing to conduct a full-scale investigation into the Nov. 19, 2005, civilian deaths, which followed a roadside bombing that killed a Marine.

Chessani's attorneys have argued that Mattis' legal adviser, a colonel, improperly influenced the case. Mattis was a three-star general when he decided to bring the charges.

With the judge's pretrial finding, the burden falls on prosecutors to prove that no undue influence occurred.

...
This case like many of the other Haditha cases is in trouble. I would also be interested in what conversations Gen. Mattis had with people above him such as the former Commandant as well as any conversations he may have had with congressman Murtha or whether he was aware of Murtha's comments on the Haditha events.

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