Posted on 06/08/2006 11:44:00 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
BAGHDAD, Jun 6 (IPS) - An Iraqi doctor who was in Haditha during a deadly U.S. raid last year says there are many more stories like that in Haditha that are yet untold.
The Pentagon admitted last week that U.S. Marines killed 24 civilians -- including a 66-year-old woman and a four-year-old boy -- in the Western Iraqi town last November. Before that, the military had maintained the civilians were killed by a roadside bomb.
"There are many, many, many cases like Haditha that are still undercover and need to be highlighted in Iraq," Dr. Salam Ishmael, projects manager with the organisation Doctors for Iraq, and former chief of the junior doctors in Baghdad's Medical City Hospital told IPS.
In Haditha itself, he said, the U.S. military cut electricity and water to the entire city, attacked the hospital and burned the pharmacy.
"The hospital has been attacked three times. In November 2005 the hospital was occupied by the American and Iraqi Army for seven days, which is a severe breach of the Geneva Conventions," he said.
"In one of these attacks, the U.S. soldiers used live ammunition inside the hospital. They handcuffed all the doctors and destroyed the entire contents of the medical storage. It ended with the killing of one of the patients in his bed."
The Iraqi Red Crescent reported at the time that nearly 1,000 families had been forced to flee their homes in Haditha following the launch of the U.S.-led military operation.
The Pentagon has responded to allegations of a massacre at Haditha by withdrawing the concerned soldiers from Iraq and investigating them for criminal misconduct. Authorities also say they will launch a new round of "ethical training" for American troops before they are sent overseas.
Joseph Hatcher served in the western Iraqi town of Dawr from February 2004 until March last year. He said his cultural training before deployment consisted of a three-hour class and a pamphlet he was given.
"It's just here's where you are on a map, because you'd be surprised how many people don't know that," Hatcher told IPS. "The only language training we received was a hand-out flip book type flyer which was how to say things like 'go down on your hands and knees' and 'don't resist'. We didn't learn how to make any kind of conversation."
During his time in Iraq, Hatcher took part in many house-to-house raids similar to the one in Haditha. He said none of the members of his unit spoke Arabic, and usually they went in without a translator.
"We would use very little language at all in house raids," he said.. "You point a barrel of a gun at somebody and pull them to the ground. It's fairly standard. There's no way to know if you're getting anyone of value.. You just arbitrarily raid an entire block."
Salam al-Amidi worked as translator for the U.S. military in the northern city of Mosul, which has been controlled by insurgents for over a year. He said he was the only translator for more than 5,000 U.S. troops.
He said the U.S. military relies mostly on paid informants in deciding which houses to raid.
"Maybe that person wanted revenge on that family and came and told us that he saw someone selling weapons. We would just go to that house at three in the morning, we'd break the door, and break everything in the house."
The Washington Post reported Monday that Marines went to the home of a 52-year-old disabled Iraqi, took him outside and shot him four times in the face. Like the killings in Haditha, the involved Marines are being investigated. All eight have been removed from Iraq and are being held at Camp Pendleton in California.
Increasingly, though, politicians are arguing that military justice is not enough.
"The test will be whether the leadership in the Department of Defence and the Administration does not try to confine these incidents in small compartments but looks to see if this is part of a large systemic problem," Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island said on Fox News Sunday. (END/2006)
"This doctor is a known terrorist sympathizer. Case closed."
Of course, to the MSM, that means his credibility is several times that of any US serviceperson -- because the MSM is also a bunch of terrorist sympathizers!
Copyright 2005 States News Service
States News Service
October 6, 2005 Thursday
LENGTH: 325 words
HEADLINE: OPERATION RIVER GATE CONTINUES
BYLINE: States News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
The following information was released by the Marine Corps:
Approximately 350 Iraqi Security Force soldiers and 2,500 Marines, soldiers and sailors from Regimental Combat Team - 2 continued Operation Bawwabatu Annaher (River Gate) in the cities of Haditha, Haqlaniyah and Barwana.
Iraqi Security Forces and Marines were attacked with a roadside bomb in Haditha late this afternoon. Examination of the blast site revealed electrical wiring leading to Qaryat Al Khadfah mosque. Iraqi soldiers and Marines discovered the initiating device for the explosive inside the mosque. In addition, numerous artillery rounds, pre-wired and ready to use as roadside bombs, were hidden on the mosque grounds. No Iraqi soldiers or Marines were injured by the bomb's blast.
Iraqi soldiers and U.S. Marines and soldiers are clearing the three Euphrates River Valley cities. In the past 24 hours, the combined Iraqi and U.S. forces have discovered two weapons caches, one in Haqlaniyah and the other in Haditha, consisting of more than 40 mortar and artillery rounds, two complete mortar systems, small-arms and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
This morning, Marines discovered an insurgent-planted improvised explosive device. Upon conducting a controlled detonation of the device, electrical service was disrupted in Haqlaniyah and Bani Dahir due to the bomb's proximity to an electrical source. Marines are working with local officials to restore electrical service in those towns.
Iraqi soldiers are continuing to provide security for Haditha General Hospital's patients and personnel.
Since Operation River Gate began, Iraqi soldiers and U.S. forces have located 10 improvised explosive devices.
The operation's goal is to deny Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) the ability to operate in the three Euphrates River Valley cities and to free the local citizens from the insurgents' campaign of murder and intimidation of innocent women, children and men.
LOAD-DATE: October 11, 2005
Copyright 2005 Congressional Quarterly, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
FDCH Federal Department and Agency Documents
REGULATORY INTELLIGENCE DATA
October 6, 2005 Thursday
LENGTH: 1006 words
HEADLINE: U.S. SOLDIER KILLED IN BAGHDAD; OPERATION RIVER GATE CONTINUES
AGENCY: DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
SIC-MAJOR-GROUP: 09 - General Classification
snip:
During the operation, Iraqi soldiers are providing security for Haditha General Hospital's patients and personnel. The hospital is the largest medical facility in western Anbar province and was targeted in spring by a suicide car bomber. River Gate has not disrupted essential civilian services, such as electricity, water and access to medical care, officials said.
spot on! we sit safely in front of out tv's or computers (courtesy of those on the front lines) without a clue to just what a hell these young men are going through every single day....KIDS, never knowing when the breath they draw may be their last...sheesh...sorry, this jsut tears me up! kids and the effrontery of the MSM with their so-called 'loyal' opposition.....
AMERICAN MILITARY kills terrorists, and the UN KILLS INNOCENTS, SCAMS FOOD FROM THE STARVING FOR BILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF PROFIT, AND RAPES WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN AFRICAN REFUGEE CAMPS. MUZZIES TAKE A DULL BUTCHER KNIFE TO SEVER THE HEADS OF INNOCENTS!
If civilians hide and aid the enemy, they are LEGITIMATE TARGETS! KILL ALL TERRORISTS!
LLS
If the Iraqis are unhappy with our tactics, they can always ask us to leave. I don't believe that the the Iraqi government has such a request on the table.
Dr. Baghdad Bob "reporting."
This is precisely Crap.
And that's all I'm going to say about that.
As we were discussing!
Don't you just love the way this journalist tried to get quotes from people on both sides of the issue.
Not biased at all.
That's a good one! It always tickles me when the fools of your generation are so certain of themselves when in an anonymous environment. Remember the 'net is the great equalizer: you never really know exactly who is on the other side of that wire, do you?
Your little marxist panties seem to be in somewhat of a knot, though. Hope you manage to unbind them someday; until then, ta!
More amazing is the continued spew on these threads. I will depart to calm down now.
These nutties will easily believe rumors and suppositions, unsubstantiated and fantastical, of our troops, yet blindly stare Saddam's and others atrocities in the face and call them nothing, fail to acknowledge them in any way, deep, deep denial. And these are our 'objective' MSM, believed and beloved by many sheeple. Blech.
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