Posted on 03/28/2009 1:21:28 AM PDT by Lancey Howard
CAMP PENDLETON ---- After failing to convict the first of three men to face trial in the alleged slaying of four insurgents in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004, authorities will try again next week when Sgt. Ryan Weemer goes on trial.
Weemer, the man at the center of the case, faces charges of unpremeditated murder and failing to adhere to the military's rules governing the treatment of captured enemy combatants. He has pleaded not guilty.
Weemer was part of a squad from the base's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment that is alleged to have encountered four suspected insurgents during the search of a home Nov. 9, 2004, the first day of the battle for what was then an insurgent-laden city.
Weemer was a corporal at the time, being led by then-Marine Sgt. Jose L. Nazario Jr.
Nazario is alleged to have shot two of the men, then ordering Weemer and a second Marine, Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, to kill the other two men, according to court documents.
Nelson, who also is charged with murder, faces trial in a few weeks.
The case is fraught with problems for the prosecution, which has based the case entirely around Weemer's statements and ones coaxed from Nelson. There are no witnesses and no names have been attached to any of the alleged victims, whose remains were never found despite attempts by investigators.
Nazario was prosecuted as a civilian in U.S. District Court in Riverside last year on charges he caused all four deaths. A civilian jury acquitted him and several jurors later said they did not believe they should have been asked to second-guess actions that occurred on a foreign battlefield.
(Excerpt) Read more at nctimes.com ...
(( ping ))
Mark Walker did a nice job with this report.
Is this one of the Pendleton Eight?
No. Totally different case.
Oh, okay. Thanks.
Can we have loser-pays with these persecutions?
First-place going to Murtha for his Haditha crimes, to be followed by instigators of such Soviet show-trials as the extant.
Let's see who can "handle the truth".
They don’t have bodies, weren’t able to prosecute the first three men, and seem to be relying on tainted testimony. Perhaps the prosecutors should be going to jail.
No bodies, no autopsies, no convictions.
Please correct me if I am wrong but ALL of these Marines & Corpsmen who were charged from this case to the Pendleton Eight have been exonerated because there were no autopsies.
And for all of these men to be incarcerated for YEARS in the Brig is outrageous if not unconstitutional! It just seems to be that these were hyped up false charges pursued by JAG's, who never saw a day in combat, looking for a promotion.
Semper Fi,
Kelly
Oh, wait, Stars Wars is just a story...
You do have to admire the tenacity. Just think what they could accomplish if we set them to digging ditches, instead of just digging holes.
I only hope the military panel has the same common sense that Nazario's civilian jury had:
A civilian jury acquitted him, and several jurors later said they did not believe they should have been asked to second-guess actions that occurred on a foreign battlefield.
I second that, Lancey! Even combat veterans that will be on these panels were not there and should give the benefit of the doubt to these Marines.
Walker did do a decent job on this. When he doesn't get Gary Solis involved with his ego and then agree with some of his statements Walker can write balanced articles.
Too bad I can’t blame this on Zero.
Walker also needs to note in every report about the Haditha case that a Marine, Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, was KILLED in the cowardly ambush and two other Marines were seriously injured.
Sometimes I think Mark is still in 2006 mode, when the liars and propagandists were still ahead of the curve.
Remember this BLAST FROM THE PAST?
Loser-pay should be the only way with these. Murtha and his ilk would be bankrupt.
You’re right about Mark and all of those “civilians” knew an IED was planted in that road because a twelve year old girl admitted she knew it was going to explode and covered her ears.
Yep, I remember that WaPo hit piece well. They tried to outdo the lying Tim McGirk (Time) and Fat Jack Murtha. I suppose it didn’t matter that most of the info for the piece came from a propaganga campaign by the Haditha insurgents.
Nazario stated that the events described by Weemer never happened. Ever. He never backed down on that to my knowledge. He wasn’t just saying that “he was innocent of shooting those terrorists.” He was saying that the situation described by Weemer never happened.
Nazario was exhonerated.
There was absolutely zero evidence to show that the event ever took place.
That means that Weemer, when he originally told the story, was probably dealing with a faulty memory. It was years later. So many combat engagements happened to those guys in Fallujah and in the days and months to come that memories could have bled into each other. At the same time, the guys were standing around smokin’ and jokin’ and being macho, and the details of different stories got blurred by a combination of one-up-manship and testosterone.
Faulty memories and embellished memories are real, and after a while of telling and retelling they take on a life of their own.
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