PrairiePundit

Bill Rogio: Al Qaeda in Iraq video details deadly raid in Haditha The video shows the al Qaeda fighters dressed as cops while using a silenced pistol to kill captured police.  Don't hold your breath waiting for the human rights lobby to condemn the atrocity.  Haditha is where several Marines were accused of killing Iraqi civilians.  I doubt this case will get near as much attention.

LA Times:   U.S. combat troops have departed from  Iraq , but one last — and highly controversial — chapter of the long war there is being played out at Camp Pendleton. After years of delay and legal wrangling, the court-martial of the last of eight Marines charged in the shooting deaths of 24 Iraqis in the village of Haditha in 2005 is under way — with Marines with combat experience sitting as jurors. Opening statements are expected to begin Friday. Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, now 31, was on his first combat deployment when a roadside bomb killed one Marine and injured two others from his squad. In search of the bombers, Marines killed five young men yanked from a car near the explosion and then killed 19 family members in three nearby houses. No suspects in the planting or detonating of the buried bomb were found. Among the 19 killed in the houses were three women, seven children and a 76-year-old man confined to a wheelchair. Of the seven other accused Marines, charges wer...

The Washington Post again slanders the Marines at Haditha where some civilians were killed because the enemy's war crimes made the vulnerable to being caught in the cross fire. What U.S. troops leave behind The story gives the Iraqi version of why they would not agree to the continued presents of US troops.  It is a grossly misleading story that seems ignorant of how enemy war crimes shape the battle space.  It is one of the most inept war stories published by the Post.

Tom Stone: I have waited until the burial of Rep. John Murtha, D-PA, to allow an appropriate amount of time for the grieving of his family and the accolades of his accomplishments to subside before writing to put forth what is, in my opinion, a stain on his legacy that will never be cleared. Since his death, I have heard not a word from the press or print media regarding his involvement in what had been labeled “The Hadithah Massacre.” While Murtha was clearly frustrated with the Iraq War and sought its end, his method to achieve that end was the blatant, unfounded defamation of eight young Marines involved in that incident. His labeling of the young Marines as “cold-blooded killers,” and the officers as guilty of dereliction of duty in the reporting and investigating of the incident, without any substantive proof whatsoever, was shocking, irresponsible, and critical to the U.S. military’s obsessive pursuit of convictions of these eight young Marines. Murtha was the catalyst in th...

NCT: The Marine Corps has dropped its pursuit of criminal charges against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, the highest-ranking officer accused of misconduct after 24 Iraqi civilians were slain in the city of Haditha in 2005. Instead, Lt. Gen. George J. Flynn has decided to handle the matter administratively by appointing a three-member Board of Inquiry that will meet at Camp Pendleton this fall. The board of Marine Corps officers will determine if Chessani should be reduced in rank if it finds he engaged in substandard performance of duty, misconduct and professional dereliction of duty. Its finding will serve as a recommendation to the Secretary of the Navy, who will make the final decision. At stake is Chessani's rank after he retires from the Marine Corps, a retirement that has been on hold pending a decision in the Haditha matter. Chessani's retirement pay will not be affected by any decision to reduce his rank, Marine Corps spokesman Lt. Col. Roger Galbraith ...

NCT: The Marine Corps may be closer to giving up its troubled prosecution of Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, the highest-ranking officer accused of wrongdoing after 24 Iraqi civilians were slain in the city of Haditha in 2005. Chessani's attorneys said Tuesday that they've been told the service won't seek a third appeal of a ruling dismissing two counts of dereliction of duty against Chessani, who is accused of not ordering a full-scale investigation into the killings. A Marine Corps spokesman, however, said a final decision on possible further appeal hasn't been made. But the attorney for the appeal, Navy Lt. Timothy Delgado in Washington, confirmed a recommendation to drop the matter has been issued. If that recommendation is followed, a final decision on whether the case gets dropped rests with Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway. And if that happens, Chessani would become the seventh of eight Camp Pendleton Marines charged with crimes at Haditha to be fully exonera...

NCT: A military appeals court has refused to reconsider its decision upholding the dismissal of charges against Camp Pendleton's Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, who is accused of dereliction of duty for not ordering a full-scale investigation into the slaying of two dozen Iraqi civilians in 2005. The U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals in Washington rejected a request from the Marine Corps to reconsider its March decision upholding a military judge's ruling that unlawful command influence irreparably tainted the government's case against Chessani. "I think it speaks volumes how they just stamped the request 'Denied' without any comment at all," said Chessani's attorney Brian Rooney. ... Rooney said he anticipates the Marine Corps will appeal because the ruling may affect the prosecution of Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who is charged with nine counts of involuntary manslaughter in the killings that occurred in the city of Haditha. Chessani's c...

Mark Walker: In a major victory for the highest-ranking Marine accused of crimes in the deaths of two dozen Iraqi civilians in 2005, a military appeals court has upheld the dismissal of dereliction of duty charges against him. The unanimous decision by the United States Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals in Washington supports a finding that improper command influence unlawfully tainted the case against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani. "Praise God and amen," was the reaction of the 43-year-old Chessani when informed of the ruling by one of his attorneys, Brian Rooney. "He was very happy and appreciative," Rooney said. The ruling published on the court's Web site Tuesday also might be used in the only other unresolved case among eight Camp Pendleton Marines initially charged with wrongdoing at Haditha, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich. ... There is much more. Chessani should be able to get on with his life, but it is doubtful it will be in the Marine Corps. From wha...

Mark Walker: There is no First Amendment protection for journalists in the military justice system and thus CBS should hand over all its material from an interview with a Marine who led his men in the slaying of 24 Iraqi civilians, a prosecutor is asserting. The prosecutor, Marine Capt. Nicholas Gannon, wants the judge presiding over the manslaughter case of Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich to order the network to hand over unaired portions of its 2007 "60 Minutes" interview with Wuterich. Gannon argued that because there is no case law that extends newsgathering protections to journalists in military court matters, the unaired portions and anything else Wuterich said or did off camera should be disclosed. "The question is unresolved on reporter privilege and it's not for this court to decide," Gannon told the judge, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Meeks, during a court hearing Wednesday. ... Whether or not CBS has to produce the out takes maybe an open question, but I think the pros...

Mark Walker: Smiles and handshakes greeted U.S. Marines who strolled down a bustling commercial street here Wednesday. It was a much different picture from three years ago, when two dozen civilians were killed by a group of Camp Pendleton troops after a roadside bombing. The slayings led to an international outcry and criminal charges against eight Marines, six of whom have since been exonerated. That was Haditha in 2005. Haditha in late 2008 is a resurgent municipality no longer occupied by Marine forces. Any lingering animosity over the 2005 killings and the years-long military presence was not apparent. "You guys are like brothers to us," a prominent sheik, speaking through an interpreter, told a contingent of visiting Marine officers. "The insurgents killed our people. We don't have forgiveness for them." The sheik, Said Flayah Othman al-Jughayfi, along with the mayor of this city of 85,000 along the Euphrates River, are more interested in talking about econ...

NCT: The fog of war for one Camp Pendleton unit comes to television screens Sunday when HBO airs the first of seven episodes of its blunt miniseries "Generation Kill." The series is based on writer Evan Wright's account during the first days of the Iraq war for Bravo Company's 2nd platoon from the base's 1st Reconnaissance Battalion. The series profiles those Marines' actions and words as Wright saw and recorded them in dispatches for Rolling Stone magazine that were later compiled into the 2004 book "Generation Kill." In addition to depicting the troops' raw experiences, the series highlights the moral dilemmas and confusing directives ---- often referred to as the fog of war ---- they often confront, Wright said Monday. "If the show does one thing, it shows there is a lot more confusion and a lot of moral gray areas for the guys on the frontline," he said. "It dramatizes the perspectives and the struggles the trigger-pullers face...

Mark Walker: ... A day after the decision, prosecutors said they would appeal. They say they are doing so because of the effect the ruling could have on the primary target in the Haditha prosecutions, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, the Camp Pendleton Marine who led his squad in the killings following a roadside bombing in November 2005. "He's been the No. 1 guy they've been after from Day 1," said an attorney with intimate knowledge of the case and the discussions that have been taking place in Washington. What was unlawful in the Chessani case, a judge said, was that a legal adviser to the general overseeing that case and Wuterich's took that job after first serving as an investigator into the events at Haditha, an assignment that also made him a prosecution witness. Those dual roles constituted a fatal conflict of interest, the judge said, a grievous sin in the military justice system. It's also one that legal experts say was readily avoidable. Unlawful command ...

Jonathon Gurwitz: If you're an al-Qaida terrorist who has participated in operations that have killed thousands of Americans, if you've been captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan or Iraq by members of the U.S. military and you're lucky enough to be detained at Guantanamo Bay, you're entitled to challenge the legality of your detention in a federal court. So say five justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. If you're a member of the U.S. military fighting in Afghanistan or Iraq, risking your life on a daily basis to bring to justice — or send to paradise — the jihadists and you're accused of committing war crimes, the court of public opinion can issue an immediate verdict: Guilty. The bare majority decision of the high court opens a legal path that could conceivably lead to enemy combatants taken prisoner in a theater of war receiving the same legal rights as American citizens, including the presumption of innocence. If you're an Amer...

Mackubin Thomas Owens: I n November 2005, the Marine Corps reported that a number of civilians had been killed in Haditha by an improvised explosive device (IED) that also killed Marine Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas, and that eight insurgents were killed in the ensuing firefight. But in March of 2006, Time ran a story, “Collateral Damage or Civilian Massacre in Haditha?” which claimed, based on interviews with locals, that the Marines had killed 24 civilians in cold blood in retaliation for Terrazas’s death. In May, the Marine Corps charged a number of Marines from Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, with killing the civilians, and a number of officers for covering up the alleged killings. Although the investigation had hardly begun, opponents of the war pounced. The press, especially Time and the New York Times , presumed the Marines guilty . Rep. John Murtha (D., Pa.) piled on, claiming that “there was no firefight, there was no IED that killed these innocent people....

NCT: The Marine Corps is appealing a judge's ruling dismissing dereliction of duty charges against a battalion commander accused of failing to investigate the 2005 shooting deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians. On Tuesday, Col. Steven Folsom, presiding as the military judge over the case against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, ordered the charges dismissed after finding that a general was improperly influenced by a legal adviser who also is a witness in the case. The watershed ruling found that the legal adviser, Col. John Ewers, should not have sat in on meetings and discussions with two generals who have overseen the case. That degree of participation by Ewers, who also investigated the killings in the city of Haditha, Iraq, irreparably tainted the decision to charge and prosecute Chessani, Folsom ruled. The notice of appeal delays the case indefinitely. The appeal document was signed by the lead prosecutor in the case, Lt. Col. Sean Sullivan, and sent to Chessani's attorneys late Wednesd...

Michelle Malkin: Quoted material removed. You may read the original at the link above. One reason Murtha won't apologize is that he was portraying the Marines as murderers and victims at the same time. The victim meme was meant to argue as another reason for retreating from the war in Iraq. Democrats have taken a vacation from history when it comes to counterinsurgency warfare. Historically insurgents lose 90 percent of the time, but Democrats have a belief that counter insurgents lose 100 percent of the time unless they are willing to practice genocide against the insurgents. Professor William Polk has written the book on this thesis called Violent Politics . For Democrats Haditha fit this "inevitable" premise. As the cases are falling apart, Democrats and anti war activist should take another look at what Haditha is like today after a successful counterinsurgency.

AP /NCT: A military judge has dismissed charges against a Marine officer accused of failing to investigate the killings of 24 Iraqis. Col. Steven Folsom dismissed charges Tuesday against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani after defense attorneys raised concerns that a four-star general overseeing the prosecution was improperly influenced by an investigator probing the November 2005 shootings by a Marine squad in Haditha. ... The charges may be refiled but it would have to be by a different command. I think it unlikely that they will be refiled because the case against all the other defendants has crumbled. Only one Marine involved at Haditha is still charged with offenses. His charges were already reduced from the original murder charge. He has a good case for asking for acquittal because of the enemy's war crimes which prompted the action. Update: Mark Walker has more on the judges decision and its impact on the one remaining case. ... The dismissal leaves Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich ...

NCT: A military judge has scrapped plans to hear motions in a key 2005 Iraq war crime case, telling attorneys he is limiting discussion Tuesday to a ruling on whether a Marine general was unlawfully influenced by a legal adviser. The case involves charges against a commander tied to the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians killed in the city of Haditha following a roadside bombing. The decision by the judge, Marine Col. Steven Folsom, suggests the case against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani may be over or set for substantial change when Tuesday's court session at Camp Pendleton concludes. "We were originally scheduled for motions to be heard Monday through Wednesday, but on Thursday night, the judge said he would only take up the unlawful command motion and that it would be the only matter discussed," one of Chessani's attorneys, Brian Rooney, said Friday. The message from Folsom buoyed the hopes of Chessani's supporters, who say the charges against him are unwarranted. ... Hi...

Mark Walker: Six of eight Camp Pendleton Marines charged with murder and other offenses in the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in 2005 have been exonerated, raising fresh questions about whether the prosecutions ever should have occurred. The acquittal of 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson on Wednesday and the earlier withdrawal of charges against five other defendants also are prompting some to ask if the military justice system is stacked in favor of the accused troops. Grayson's acquittal came after a Camp Pendleton jury of seven officers ruled he was innocent of any offenses related to his role in the aftermath of the Haditha killings. The 27-year-old Grayson was accused of lying to investigators about the civilian deaths and later trying to fraudulently get out of the Marine Corps. His acquittal and the dropping of charges against the other original defendants should cause the Marine Corps to reconsider whether the remaining two cases should go forward, said David Brahms, a Carlsbad militar...

A judge is deliberating on whether unlawful command influence prompted teh prosecution of Lt.Col. Chessani. In a separate case jury is also deliberating whether 1st. Lt. Andrew Grayson was lying when he told investigators there were no photos of the aftermath of the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians, and whether he tried to get a discharge from the Marine Corps before his case could come to trial. Update: 1st. Lt. Grayson has been acquitted . ... Cheers erupted as the seven-officer panel cleared 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson, who was the first of three Marines to be tried in the biggest U.S. criminal case involving Iraqi deaths linked to the war. The judge, Maj. Brian E. Kasprzyk, admonished those in court, telling them: "There will be no more of that." The verdict came just five hours after deliberations began. ... Hey, we are outside the court room so we can all cheer for 1st Lt. Grayson. At this point the prosecution is batting zero on these cases.