“In a sign of further court battles ahead, Wuterich’s lead attorney, Neal Puckett, told Meeks that Tatum may not testify at all, prompting the judge the question whether Tatum may be charged with failure to follow an order requiring his testimony.”
So they’ve ordered him to testify against another marine knowing his testimony will be used against him when his trial starts.
These aren’t trails, they are debacles and witch hunts. The only crime is what is being done to these marines.
Murtha created a firestorm when he appeared on several TV news shows shortly after the Haditha incident came to light in early 2006 and said the Marines had gone on a rampage and "killed innocent civilians in cold blood."
I would venture to say that Murtha, a high ranking political official, is the wellspring of the entire incident. High ranking military officers always endeavor to please the sources of funding for the Department of Defense. The accusations and action against the marines spread like wildfire down the chain of command as a direct result of Murtha's public statements.
IMO, it is imperative to this case to have Murtha testify as to the credibility of the witnesses who gave him cause to falsely accuse our marines!
The prosecutors should be lined up against the wall and shot.
“There are a lot of inconsistencies in their testimony.”
That hasn’t prevented the prosecution from seating other witnesses.
The only crime, here, is the way these Marines are being treated. These armchair field commanders, sitting in their plush offices, far from the action, are subjecting to painstaking scrutiny the decisions made in an instant in the heat of battle, on an ill defined battlefield, against a nearly impossible to identify enemy.
Sorry, this whole process smells to high heaven.
The right and proper path is to dismiss all these trumped up charges, and prosecute Murtha and his ilk for lending aid and comfort to the enemy by bringing specious charges against these front line troops.
Lock and Load.
Don’t you just love it when a lowlife U.S. Representative (Not a Senator) has more power than the POTUS ?..Power to make or break a military investigation?..
Murtha should be put on the stand and grilled, bent, folded and stapled til his ears fall off !..Same fop DOD Winters and his assistant..
As for Marines being ‘compelled’ to testify?..No way, they still have the 5th Amendment to protect them, and probably some have faulty or hazy memories of what happened...
This trial is the legal equivalent of Nifong vs Duke LaCrosse Players...dirty, corrupt, influenced by powerful higher-ups, a mockery of over 250 years of military Rules of Engagement, an abuse of legal power, and a threat to every military person in uniform, and ultimately to every American citizen as more of our Freedoms is torn away...
The charges should be dismissed and DOD Winters should be compelled to write a letter of apology to each of the defendants. In addition, they should receive their combat medals rightfully earned, promoted and given retroactive pay raises since this trial has put all of their careers on hond- another great injustice...
This is clearly "selective prosecution" as the defense has claimed.
Attempting to dissect a combat action and assess culpability really is a gross violation of Trust between our country and our soldiers ONCE it is determined that they were in a firefight with the enemy.
There is no way that anyone could ever understand the split-second decisions made in the midst of trying to stay alive...especially in urban warfare. Even the participants themselves shouldn't be forced to defend themselves based on their memories. Little things, emotions, fears, suspicions, 6th and 7th sense intuitions -- how in the world can a man ever reconstruct that?
This prosecution is an awful violation of Trust, a supreme act of disloyalty toward these men, a stain on the integrity of our nation, and clear evidence that there is an elitist divide between our governmental bureaucracy and the men and women who serve. They do see them as expendable for their own political purposes.
I'm ashamed of Congress, the DoD, the Marine Corps and the nation for what they're doing to these men.
Well, sure - - Chessani was the designated scapegoat.
