AP: New Facts Emerge in Iraqi Slayings Case (Haditha)

[Eugene]

New Facts Emerge in Iraqi Slayings Case
New Details Emerge in the Marine Killings of 24 Iraqi
Civilians After 2005 Bombing in Haditha

WASHINGTON Jan 6, 2007 (AP)— A Marine squad that had just endured casualties
from a roadside bombing ordered five unarmed Iraqi civilians out of a taxi, and the
squad leader shot them one by one, witnesses have told naval investigators.

Four Marines have been charged in the deaths of 24 civilians, including women and
children, that occurred immediately after a bombing in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005,
killed one Marine and injured two others. In addition, four officers who were not
there during the killings but were accused of failures in investigating and reporting
the deaths have been charged.

-snip-

According to one witness, quoted in the report by the Naval Criminal Investigative
Service obtained by The Washington Post, a white taxi happened upon the scene
shortly after the explosion. The Marines' squad leader, Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich,
ordered the passengers, five unarmed Iraqis, out of the car, witnesses said.

The Post said naval investigators found that the five Iraqis were shot by Wuterich
as they stood there.

-snip-

Full article: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2774980

[jamesinca]

1. 3 crimes here

The shooting of the Iraqi civilians

The lack of investigation by the officers

The fact that these Marines were even sent to Iraq in an illegal war

War is hell, or so I have been told. From Vietnam we learned that people will do this in retaliation, stress, frustration etc.... I see the biggest crime here not that of shooting the civilians, not the lack of investigation, but putting the military in a situation where getting somebody out of a taxi and shooting them is for a moment considered justified. How screwed up must your day to day life be to justify that, only in a war. Dam you George Bush!!!

[rodeodance]

2. US marines killed Iraqis one by one in Haditha: report

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070106/ts_afp/usiraqmilitaryhaditha_070106060242

US marines killed Iraqis one by one in Haditha: report

50 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) - An investigative report compiled by the US military indicates that US marines gunned down five unarmed Iraqis who stumbled onto the scene of a 2005 roadside bombing in Haditha,Iraq, The Washington Post has reported.


Citing the document obtained by the newspaper, the account said that Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, the squad's leader, shot the men one by one after marines ordered them out of a white taxi in the moments following the explosion, which killed one marine and injured two others.

Another marine fired rounds into their bodies as they lay on the ground, the paper said, citing the military report.

"The taxi's five occupants exited the vehicle and according to US and Iraqi witnesses, were shot by Wuterich as they stood, unarmed, next to the vehicle approximately ten feet in front of him," The Post quotes the report by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service as saying.

One of the witnesses, Sergeant Asad Amer Mashoot, a 26-year-old Iraqi soldier who was in the marine convoy, told investigators he watched in horror as the four students and the taxi driver fell..........

[Erika]

3. Creating terrorists

An unjust war will never achieve just results.

[Judi Lynn]

4. I could swear previously they only wrote in accounts in newspapers that they killed one man

they grabbed out of a taxi. I suppose they just forgot about the four students.

Predictable by now, isn't it?

Thanks for posting the real story which came much, much later.

[classysassy]

5. Everyone

that helped Bushco steal the 2000 election,should hang their heads in shame.

[Disturbed]

6. Out right murders.

There is no excuse for these murders, period!

[Eugene]

7. (AP) Official: Evidence Doesn't Back Marines

Official: Evidence Doesn't Back Marines


Sunday January 7, 2007 1:46 AM

AP Photo DCWAP103, DCWAP102, DCWAP101

By ROBERT BURNS

AP Military Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. criminal investigators found no evidence to support the claim
of Marines charged in the deaths of unarmed Iraqi civilians that five were shot after
trying to flee the scene of a roadside bombing that killed one Marine, a senior defense
official said Saturday.

Investigators determined that all five Iraqis were shot within arm's length of each other
and no more than 18 feet from the white taxi they were ordered to exit by members
of a Marine squad in the western Iraqi town of Haditha, said the official, who is
familiar with reports produced by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly
discuss details of the killings on Nov. 19, 2005.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6327744,00.html

[Hissyspit]

8. .