Posted on 12/31/2007 7:40:22 AM PST by RedRover
1st Lieutenant Andrew Grayson will face courts-martial for his alleged role in the incident at Haditha, Iraq on November 19, 2005. Grayson is the third Marine and second officer that is being sent to general court-martial at Camp Pendleton, California. The prosecution in the case is expected to level more criminal charges – including allegations Grayson attempted to fraudulently obtain his discharge from active duty early last summer.
On June 13th, Joseph Casas, Grayson’s California-based civilian attorney and a former prosecutor for the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps, announced that Lt. Grayson had been discharged on June 1, 2007 and was therefore not liable for prosecution under the UCMJ. The Marine Corps disputed the claim and ordered Grayson to remain on active duty. At the time of the incident a Marine Corps spokesman at Camp Pendleton declined to say why Grayson had been issued his "DD-214," the document active service members receive upon discharge from active duty.
The 26-year old intelligence officer with 2nd Counter-Intelligence Human Intelligence Exploitation Company (CI HUMINT Co) was attached to 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines (3/1) at Haditha when a squad of Marines from Kilo Co., 3/1 was ambushed by an al Qaeda led and trained attack force there. Grayson gained notoriety when he publicly refused to accept non-judicial punishment for allegation he destroyed evidence and impeded a criminal investigation into the matter.
Last September Grayson was offered a plea deal that required him to admit that he covered up the killings in Haditha, Iraq, in exchange for having all charges dismissed. Grayson refused, saying he had done nothing wrong and would be selling his integrity by accepting such a deal.
Grayson was recalled from leave just before the Christmas holiday and ordered to return to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He joined the service from Springboro, Ohio, and was on his second tour of Iraq at the time of the Haditha incident. He joined the service in May 2003 through the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps.
Marine Corps spokesman Lt. Col. Sean D. Gibson said Sunday that the Marine Corps would soon release a statement concerning Grayson’s situation.
Exemplary officer
An exemplary Marine officer, Lt. Grayson was nominated for a Bronze Star for his bravery after the ambush of a squad of Marines at Haditha triggered an all day fight that left 24 Iraqi citizens and one Marine dead and 11 Marines wounded. Lt. Grayson was nominated for the valor award before the investigation into Haditha began. Grayson's attorney, Joseph Casas, said the medal recommendation was written in February 2006, about the same time government agents were probing the deaths.
Casas said the nomination praised the Marine for learning of two other roadside bombs in Haditha from Iraqis he questioned in the wake of the attacks. He was also cited for obtaining information that led to the capture of two men who detonated the bomb that killed 20-year old LCpl Miguel “T.J.” Terrazas that sparked the violence.
Grayson already faces three charges related to the incident. Two of those charges comes with the possibility of five years prison time and dismissal from the service.
Preferred Charges and Specifications:
Charge I: Violation of the UCMJ, Article 92 (Dereliction) (Maximum punishment: Dismissal, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 6 months)
Charge II: Violation of the UCMJ, Article 107 (False Official Statement) (Maximum punishment: Dismissal, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 5 years)
Charge III: Violation of the UCMJ, Article 134 (Obstructing Justice) (Maximum punishment: Dismissal, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, confinement for 5 years)
Dispute over photos
The key prosecution witness in the original charges was SSgt. Justin Laughner, an enlisted marine under Grayson’s command at Haditha. Laughner testified several times during the eight-month long hearing process that preceded the charges that Grayson "pressured" him to erase photographs of the dead in Haditha from his computer. Laughner said he felt the order amounted to obstruction of justice but that he complied and later lied when asked whether any pictures had been taken.
Key defense testimony came from Capt. (now Major) Jeffrey Dinsmore, the intelligence officer of 3/1 and the officer who interacted with Grayson on a daily basis. On several occasions he testified that Grayson had done nothing wrong ordering Laughner to destroy the photographs per Marine Corps regulations because they held no intelligence value.
At the time Grayson gave the orders to destroy the photographs there was no hint that a war crimes investigation would ensue and that the photographs might one day be considered evidence.
Calling this prosecution a sham is a severe understatement. Lt Grayson was an officer who had no contact with the accused enlisted men, who was never at the scene, whose work led to the capture of those responsible for the IED, and who had nothing to 'cover up'.
We're sinking to whole new levels of "disgrace".
________________________________
In related news, one of LtCol Chessani's attorneys, Brian Rooney, told the North County Times that the defense will press its long-standing argument that the Haditha prosecutions are not driven by simple demands of justice.
According to today's NC Times...
"We are going to file a motion alleging undue command influence," Rooney said, citing statements from politicians such as U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who said after the killings came to light that the Marines had killed in "cold blood" and that commanders attempted to cover up the incident.
"We also think there was undue command influence by top Marine Corps officers that affected how the case was investigated and eventually charged," he said.
That motion is set be heard Feb. 15.
Rooney said the defense also will seek to have the case thrown out because Chessani's due process rights would be violated by what he called the impossibility of finding an untainted jury of Marines to hear the case.
"People throughout the Marine Corps have made judgments about Haditha and are now passing that down in classrooms," he said. "That calls into question if we can ever seat an impartial jury."
Marine Corps prosecutors say they will not comment on pending cases.
Are the prosecutors recruited from moveon.org, or Al Qaeda?
How can they live with themselves?
I'll say. It sounds like a witch hunt.
You take the cake on that one! BUMP.
Yes we did! Again, many thanks for all your diligence and hard work to Defend Our Marines!
"We are going to file a motion alleging undue command influence,"
the impossibility of finding an untainted jury of Marines to hear the case.
"That calls into question if we can ever seat an impartial jury."
Thank you Brian Rooney!
Those charges are pretty thin gruel. The prosecution is going to have a helluva time proving willful intent. I think that Grayson did the right thing by refusing to accept the Article 15, then refusing to accept a pleas bargain. They’ve brought their case, let them prove it.
Thanks for sharing. I was waiting for my ride at the airport in Windsor Locks, CT a couple of weeks ago when a young man with a seabag, also waiting for his ride, asked me if I had a light. We got to chatting, and he had just returned from his 3rd Iraq tour. His enlistment is up next month. I asked whether he had considered re-enlisting, and he said, “no, I was at the Haditha ‘massacre’.”. We talked more about that and when he realized I actually knew what that meant and cited the names of several of the Marines involved, he said he just could not take the risk of being held up the way his fellow Marines and officers had been/are being over the prosecution of these charges.
Marine Mom here SEMPER FI
The panel of Marines serving as the jurors at the upcoming courts-martial of 1st Lt Grayson will make this prosecution look like the sham that it is.
No one can convince me they will believe Laughner, an admitted liar, over the testimony of Major Dinsmore, an honorable Marine.
The bastards are not going to quit until they hang somebody.
WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! OUR GOVERNMENT IS WRONG ON THIS COUNT, TOO!
Nothing happened at Haditha but a firefight. That civilians were killed in the firefight was tragic, sad, and the nature of war. They were not targeted, as the military itself implicitly acknowledged by dropping all cahrges against most of the Marines involved.
Unfortunately, they’re under a lot of pressure from the anti-military, anti-American crowd to punish someone. Apparently, this good Marine is one of the designated scapegoats.
This is wrong. Their first charge is nonsense. Why in the world is an attached lieutenant responsible for a war crimes investigation ever. And why when he wasn’t even in the battle and was unable to say anything first hand about it at all? The IO called this charge nonsense and wondered why every officer in the entire flippin’ chain of command wasn’t charged with this, if this lieutenant was charged with it. It is absolutely amazing.
Grayson is being charged purely because of the photos. The prosecution knows that if they can get Grayson on the photos, they can forever claim that they were right but that a conspiracy derailed their efforts.
The truth is that it was illegal for Laughner to have those photos on his computer, and the lieutenant was correct to order them deleted.
I'm just getting the new charges and specifications. They're here as jpegs until I can transcribe them. Documents one, two, three, and four.
Sounds like the Corps is charging Lt Grayson for receiving a discharge form in error. Screwy.
He has tremendous courage to do the right thing in the jaws of this prosecution.
Why are these men still being prosecuted, so that the prosecutors can save face?
Cordially,
I still don’t fully understand the charge that 1st Lt. Grayson tried to fraudently obtain his discharge from active duty. It seems they are saying he actively tried to get his discharge papers knowing he shouldn’t receive them becuase he still had outstanding judicial proceedings against him. And then, horror of horrors, he actually accepted his discharge papers when they were issued.
Now, I’m assuming he was represented by Casas(his attorney) at the time. If I’m reading this right, it sounds like some fancy legal footwork that didn’t quite pan out. But why throw the book at Grayson if he did this on advice from his lawyer? Sounds like it has become personal at this point and it appears VERY petty, IMO.
Hiya, Justie! You’ll recall how an anti-Rumsfeld military guy once told you that the Marines were guilty because he’d seen the “evidence”.
With Rummy gone, you’d think the jackals might ease up a little on their whipping boys. Not a chance. They’re in this to the bitter end. We are, too.
Unless I am reading this post wrong, it appears Lt. Grayson shall be vindicated from all wrong doing, since he did nothing wrong.
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