Posted on 05/19/2007 5:49:37 AM PDT by RedRover
The national media pretty much ignored the first of the Haditha hearings. I thought it would be a service to pull together all the testimony in one place for easy reference.
Unless it’s delayed again, the next hearing will be Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani on May 30th. The first hearing for an enlisted man will be LCpl. Justin Sharratt on June 11th.
Thanks for posting this.
My pleasure, Bigg. I should give a hat tip to Girlene who hepped, as they say in Dixie.
Me Lie Too is falling like a Frenchman’s rifle.
Pray for W and Our Marines
Red - as usual you did a fabulous job pulling all of the info together. McCann’s comments worry me but based on the testimony, I don’t see how a court martial could go forward.
Red, that wasn’t much “hepping” on my part. You have put together a great summary of the whole witness list/case!
In reviewing this list, there really aren’t too many witnesses for the prosecution. Dela Cruz I guess is a prosecution witness, but I’m not sure how relevant his changing testimony was to Capt. Stone. I guess the prosecutors just wanted some headlines?
Witness after witness at Capt. Stone’s hearing indicate that noone saw a reason to investigate. It took a Times reporter to harrass Marine leadership with inane accusations like ‘4 men were herded into a closet and mowed down’ to get the ball rolling.
You thought right! Thanks much for doing this...it is a tremendous help.
Also noted that throughout the summary the phrase was "15 civilians" was used. However, the good old NYSlimes had this to say:
whose men killed 24 civilians in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005
Lest ye forget...that is THEIR story and they are sticking with it!
A lie told often enough..........
Sacha Macha you work well together! Thanks.
I have a question. The prosecution keeps saying that Stone should have made an investigation. From what I can tell, a report of the incident was made, pictures of the scenes taken, relevant intel from a drone and radio communication were available. There was an investigation (or pulling together of relevant info), just not an accusatory one.
What kind of an “investigation” are they talking about? Is there some formal, legal, documented process that the prosecution is referring to? This has never been explained in the articles. IOW, did Stone not fill out form “AB123” that requires “steps 5,6, and 7” to be initiated and followed up?
My prediction is that the case against Capt. Randy W. Stone will not go to a court marital.
I agree...Lt. Col. Paul Atterbury and presiding officer Maj. Thomas McCann can make remarks and wonder why certain actions were or were not taken and whether other charges should have been brought against Capt. Randy Stone but from the testimony by many witnesses called at the hearing it doesn't seem a courts-martial is warranted.
Our system of justice requires evidence to be shown or testified to to convict a person of a crime, not the feelings of the prosecutor or the presiding officer.
This is just a guess about an “investigation”. The prosecution probably wanted Stone to talk to each of the Marines alone who were involved and see if their accounts matched of what had happened.
If nobody felt the ROE was ignored, then there wouldn’t have been a need for question and answer session.
Fr Mail
On Feb. 12, 2006, Maj. Gen. Huck learned in an e-mail from Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, that a Time magazine reporter asked about allegations including one that "four young men were herded into a closet and sprayed with bullets."
Now notice that Major Hyatt testified that four of the Iraqis killed inside the houses were insurgents.
Those are the same four men.
They were killed in the third house by LCpl. Sharratt and Sgt. Wuterich.
On June 11th, at LCpl. Sharratt's hearing, we'll finally get many more details about the engagement in this house with these four men. They were not "herded into a closet" and they engaged the Marines.
I'd be enjoying this, if it weren't for the mental anguish of the accused and their families. Regardless, I'm looking to the 11th when we'll finally get the facts on the record.
The diagram below shows how I believe the engagement at the third house went down. If anyone from Time magazine is lurking, you can use this free of charge...
Good reminder! I’m curious why noone asked LCpl Sharratt and Sgt. Wuterich about the incident with the 4 insurgents before jumping feet first into an investigation. That was a pretty inflammatory claim by the Iraqis. It might have put things into perspective before launching blindly into two concurrent investigations (Bargewell and NCIS).
LOL!! I don't think anyone from Time will be beating on your door for you to sign a release.
Good point about the testimony that will be coming out at LCpl. Sharratt's hearing. I'm anxious to hear what the prosecution witnesses (if they have any) have to say about the AK-47's.
They did ask Sharratt and Wuterich—through the thugs at NCIS.
When Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli ordered the investigation, no one at division or regiment had any fond feelings for Sharratt or Wuterich. Unfair though it would have been, I think the brass was mad as hell at those ant-like creatures far below them who caused all the trouble.
You see the result of the battalion commander sticking up for his guys.
I truly believe that the brass just felt that throwing the Haditha Marines to the wolves was the best way to make the problem go away (for them).
Thanks, lily. I wonder if interviewing Marines after combat is standard procedure when civlians are killed, and if that was part of Capt. Stone’s training. Capt. Stone had only been in Iraq for a couple/three months prior to the Haditha incident. The prosecution keeps saying Capt. Stone should have done more, but either the articles leave it out, or the prosecution never says, what that “more” part actually is.
I guess the point of Dela Cruz’s testimony was to try to prove that bad stuff went on and Capt. Stone did nothing to root out the Dreadful Crime.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.