This image of shrouded bodies is from a video made by an Iraqi journalism student in Haditha, Iraq. Iraqis say Marines stormed their homes Nov. 19, killing 15 civilians
Posted on 03/21/2006 5:15:50 AM PST by yankeedame
Updated: 05:27 AM EST
Videotape Leads to Pentagon Probe of Iraqi Deaths
Military Investigates Marines' Role in Incident That Killed 15 Civilians
[*The title of this thread is the AOL title.
The title of actual article is above.]
By JONATHAN KARL, ABCNews.com
WASHINGTON (March 20) -- A bloody videotape shot by a local Iraqi journalism student has prompted the Pentagon to launch a criminal investigation into an incident that left at least 15 Iraqi civilians dead in the city of Haditha.
This image of shrouded bodies is from a video made by an Iraqi journalism student in Haditha, Iraq. Iraqis say Marines stormed their homes Nov. 19, killing 15 civilians
Haditha residents accuse U.S. troops of going on a rampage after a roadside bomb killed a Marine.
Marines attend a Nov. 29 memorial service for Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, the U.S. serviceman killed in the Nov. 19 roadside bombing that triggered raids in Haditha
The U.S. military initially said the bombing also killed the Iraqis, but officials now say the civilians were killed in crossfire as U.S. Marines stormed homes. Source: ABC
The details of what happened four months ago in Haditha are just now coming to light with the release of the videotape by an Iraqi organization called Hammurabi Human Rights.
The tape shows the bloodied and bullet-marked homes that had been allegedly stormed by the Marines, and includes comments by local residents.
"This is my father," a boy says on the tape. "He didn't do anything wrong. Why did they kill him?"
'These Are Children'
The video shows the bodies of some of the dead, including one of three children killed.
"These are children," one man on the tape says. "Are you telling me these are terrorists?"
It all started Nov. 19 when a roadside bomb hit a convoy of 12 Marines in Haditha, killing 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas.
The official press release said simply: "A U.S. Marine and 15 Iraqi civilians were killed yesterday from the blast of a roadside bomb."
Prompted by Magazine
What They Said
''First, [U.S. Marines] went into my father's room, where he was reading the Koran, and we heard shots. ...I watched them shoot my grandfather, first in the chest and then in the head. Then they killed my granny.''
-- Eman Waleed, 9, who says she saw U.S. troops kill seven members of her family Nov. 19 in Haditha, Iraq
1/6 Sources: TIME, ABC News, AP
Military officials now acknowledge the Iraqis were not killed by the bomb -- but, they now say, by crossfire as U.S. Marines stormed the surrounding homes.
The military did not launch an investigation until two months after the incident, when Time magazine showed officials the video and eyewitness testimony.
"We launched an investigation of our own with the help of a human rights group," said Aparisim Ghosh, a writer for Time. "We spoke to some eyewitnesses. And it turns out all the people killed were killed by the Marines in small arms fire and, in a few instances, by an explosive that was tossed into the home by the Marines themselves."
Senior Pentagon officials would not comment on the details of the case but said they take the allegations very seriously, which is why they've launched the criminal investigation.
It still is not clear the Marines used excessive force, but the locals seem to have made up their minds.
"They came and started shooting all of a sudden," one local said. "They didn't even knock on the door. They killed them wholesale."
According to a military spokesman, the Marines involved still are deployed in Iraq.
03-20-06 16:33 EST
Copyright 2006 ABCNEWS.com
According to the CIA World Factbook, the languages of Iraq are Arabic, Kurdish (official in Kurdish regions), Assyrian, Armenian.
The Koran was origionaly written in Arabic, true- or so they try to tell us. Arabic wasn't a written language during Mohammads time, and was just developing oraly.
The Arabic in the Koran it's not quite the same as the Arabic used in everyday life.
The Koran is also written in many other languages. As mentioned, the usual method used to teach muslim youth the koran is by memorization. The literally memorize the entire koran. That's that "singing" you hear all the time in Islamic cities and towns.
Westerners visiting placed like Egypt, not understanding what they are saying, often comment how 'religious' the place is, not realizing that they could be signing the "and kill them where ever they are found" parts of the Koran.
Have you ever agued with muslims over what the koran says? The reason they argue with you, is because they have never read it. They have only memorized it and were told what it meant. That's why they are very evasive and often have to go ask their imam for a proper interpretation, and accuse you of reading it wrong.
The point is, even if the guy DID speak Arabic, it's pure BS that he was sitting in his room quietly reading the koran. Why would he need to do that when he has had it memorized from early childhood?
Yes Assyrian and Armenian are closer to the Syrian side of the country, north west of Bahgdad. Bahgdad is where most of the Arabic would be heard, as well a south of Baghdad, closer to the Saudi border. Iranians and Iraqi Shia-eastern Iraq- speak farsi, or variants of it. And the Kurds of course are north near the Turkish border.
I'm sure many of them can speak several dialects. The only Iraqi's I've ever met spoke farsi. As to what percentage of iraqi's speak Arabic I don't know, but I do know it's not their ancestral language.
As I said, it's not really important anyways because it's not likely this guy was "reading" the koran. It's recited from memory. The authentic Arabic koran isn't the same Arabic used in everyday life, it lacks all the punctuations.
Unless he was reading a koran written in a different language, he was not reading the Koran. I sure wouldn't if I had the whole thing memorized and had repeated it everyday my entire life.
Another thing, many Iraqi's are not really all that 'religious'. Only the severly nutty ones do all that chanting. (and killing and blowing up things) The shia are far more religious than the Sunni's. At least that's what my Iraqi friend told me. ( he's dead now, he went crazy and started burning down churches, then hung himself) Most of the Sunni's don't even answer the call to prayer, at least not those around Bahgdad.
I call bull****.
Please hijack another thread.
Sure would be nice to have the comments on this subject on just one thread.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1600149/posts
Videotape Leads to Pentagon Probe of Iraqi Deaths
Who knew we were being hijacked?
Here is more information than you ever wanted about the languages spoken in Iraq, complete with estimates of the number of speakers of each.
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=IQ
Out of about 25M, there are about 227,000 Farsi speakers in Iraq. Farsi is the Persian language. It is thus Indo-European and therefore much closer to Kurdish than to Arabic, which is spoken by well over 90% of non-Kurdish Iraqis.
You may have personally met most of the Farsi-speakers in Iraq, unless you have the country confused with Iran. (Them dang pesky concluding consonants!) The Iraqi Shia consider themselves Arabs and speak Arabic.
I am aware that the Arabic of the Koran is very different from that spoken today. The King James Bible is by comparison written in modern English.
Here is more information than you ever wanted about the languages spoken in Iraq, complete with estimates of the number of speakers of each.
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=IQ
Out of about 25M, there are about 227,000 Farsi speakers in Iraq. Farsi is the Persian language. It is thus Indo-European and therefore much closer to Kurdish than to Arabic, which is spoken by well over 90% of non-Kurdish Iraqis.
You may have personally met most of the Farsi-speakers in Iraq, unless you have the country confused with Iran. (Them dang pesky concluding consonants!) The Iraqi Shia consider themselves Arabs and speak Arabic.
I am aware that the Arabic of the Koran is very different from that spoken today. The King James Bible is by comparison written in modern English.
Edited for clarification.
This would mean that there's as much chance of finding a 100% Honest terrorist...
...as much as there's a chance of finding a 100% Sober Sen. Edward Kennedy.
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