Posted on 06/23/2006 6:39:19 PM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The head of an Iraqi group that has accused U.S. Marines of killing civilians in Haditha dismissed suggestions on Friday that his human rights organization lacks credibility and has links to insurgents.
"We are a small group working under difficult conditions to show what is happening in Iraq," said Abdul Rahman al-Mashhadani of Hammurabi Human Rights and Democracy Monitoring.
"None of us have any ties to insurgents."
Lawyers for Marines will question the authenticity of a videotape at the heart of the case and the credibility of Hammurabi, which provided it, sources close to the Marines say.
The videotape, given to Time Magazine in January by Hammurabi, shows a number of corpses and purports to show the aftermath of a massacre. It prompted military probes into the November 19 incident in which as many as 24 people died.
Mashhadani said it was some weeks before he handed the tape to Time after failing to interest Iraqi newspapers and Arab television stations in the story. Journalists at satellite channels Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera said they never saw the tape.
Time, in its first report in March which brought the case to public attention, said the tape was made by a journalism student the day after the incident and said Hammurabi was working with Human Rights Watch. It later issued a correction saying the New York-based group had no ties with Hammurabi.
The Marine sources also said defense lawyers would say the man described by Time as the journalism student, 43-year-old Thaer Thabit al-Hadithi, was a founder of Hammurabi and one of only two employees. Mashhadani said Hadithi was taking courses in journalism and was not one of the group's two founders.
Hadithi, based in his native Haditha in Anbar province, was one of six board members, Mashhadani said, adding that the group had 10 other administrative staff in 14 local offices.
VOLUNTEERS
Countering a remark by a lawyer for one of the Marines that Hammurabi lacked credibility and only had two employees, he added: "We have volunteers across Iraq."..............."
Without doubt, given time, they can produce people who will say what is required, and it is a given that NOBODY not on the lamb in Iraq admits to having anything to do with the insurgency.
ping
"Dismiss" this...
ping
If they don't have better evidence than the testimony of these freaks, then let them go.
Anyone found their link to George Soros?
"If they don't have better evidence than the testimony of these freaks, then let them go."
Agreed. What I'm wondering is, did our personnel ever get the opportunity to conduct autopsies? Or is the medical side of the evidence all produced by this doctor---the guy who claims that Marines regularly comes storming into his clinic and beat him up for treating insurgents?
Again, no autopsies, no trial.
"None of us have any ties to insurgents."
BS, total BS. Thats like saying Jack Murtha is a combat, honored Marine. Both are lies.
Yet the Marine Corps was quick to slap these 8 into chains and solitary. If this proves to be a false charge, the Commandand of the Marine Corps has to go.....and his Sergeant Major too. Both failed to protect their Marines.
I swear this guy is actually Baghdad Bob.
[What I'm wondering is, did our personnel ever get the opportunity to conduct autopsies?]
No, the medical evidence came from the doctor in the link below that has ties to insurgents.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1642385/posts
Ah, but do you have any ties to the NY Times?
This story could do to Time magazine what the Bush National Guard story did to CBS.
Why anyone would give credence to anything these people say is beyond belief! There's got to be a connection with the powers that want the US to fail, and that fund the terrorists. I mean the Gucci Guys!
Could any reasonable person believe this?
"No, the medical evidence came from the doctor in the link below that has ties to insurgents."
If that's true then this whole thing stinks to high heaven.
You better believe it does. Plus this Hadithi guy that took the video lives in Haditha and supposedly is connected to Mashhadani and this human rights group. Hadithi also has ties to the insurgency. The whole thing stinks.
DAMNED right! FREE OUR MARINES! Run the Sgt. Major and Commandant of the USMC out of Dodge, they are a disgrace anyway by going along with this like sheeple by not at least protecting the Marine's rights.
I think the problem is that some of the soldiers have said things that are incriminating. What it comes down to is whether they knew they were civilians, I think. Unfortunately, you can't tell that from an autopsy.
Please, please, keep shouting this from the rooftops.
I wonder if either has any actual wartime experience.
My late husband had the blue emblem with a silver rifle, only given to troops who served under fire.
Anyone know what the name is for this badge?
That's the Combat Infantryman's Badge, commonly referred to as the CIB. It's only awarded to Army infantrymen who have been in combat.
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