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Breaking news!Judge recomends dismissal of manslaughter charges in Sgt John Winnick case. Recommends a minor dereliction charge with nonjudicial punishment. This is a developing story. Check back with Defend Our Marines for details.

A Marine sergeant charged with murdering an enemy combatant captured in Fallujah during the heat of battle repeatedly told Naval Criminal Investigative Service special agents he didn’t do anything wrong. Sergeant Ryan Weemer’s words were captured during a lengthy 2006 interview with NCIS Special Agents Mark Fox and Tess Berg obtained by Defend Our Marines. The interview took place on November 16 in Chesterfield, Missouri, a suburb of Saint Louis. A carefully cherry-picked version of his statement was revealed by the prosecution during Weemer’s Article 32 preliminary hearing last week. Much less was said about Weemer’s apparent confusion, his overwhelming...

CAMP PENDLETON ---- A military prosecutor on Friday asked a Marine officer to recommend that a veteran of the legendary Fallujah battle be tried for murder for his admission that he killed a prisoner under his control. "While he is a remarkably sympathetic figure," prosecutor Nick Gannon said of Sgt. Ryan Weemer, "especially on these facts, this is not a gray area. It's black and white. It's right and wrong." Gannon bolstered his argument by pointing to testimony that Marines who took prisoners during the massive 2004 offensive in Fallujah were told to treat the detainees humanely and get them...

ANN ARBOR, MI – In Iraq, LtCol Jeffrey Chessani, one of America’s most effective combat commanders, led the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines — one of the Marine Corps’ most decorated units. After devoting over 20 years of his life to the Corps, and three tours of duty in Iraq, he was criminally charged by government prosecutors for the combat action taken by four of his Marines who engaged insurgents in a fierce house-to-house, room-by-room battle, after being ambushed in Haditha, Iraq on November 19, 2005. On June 17, 2008 Military Judge, Col Steven Folsom, USMC, dismissed all charges against LtCol...

The unflappable public affairs officer for the Marine Corps Central Command during most of the explosive Haditha and Hamandiyah affairs is moving on. Lt. Col. Sean Gibson has been transferred to Marine Corps Installation West at Camp Pendleton after a tumultuous time facing heat for the Marine Corps. Lt. Col. Gibson, who says his age is a “state secret,” never missed a beat running the Camp Pendleton Media Center when it was the epicenter of an international media feeding frenzy. Along with a small staff of Marine public affairs specialists, Gibson quickly and honestly responded to the endless barrage of...

Marine Corps Sergeants Jermaine Nelson and Ryan Weemer will celebrate Independence Day in a Camp Pendleton brig instead of the San Bernardino County Jail, Defend Our Marines has learned. Sergeants Jermaine Nelson and Ryan Weemer, both veterans of the famous "Hell House" fight at Fallujah, Iraq, are currently being held in the San Bernardino County federal lockup for contempt of court charges. They were locked up after refusing to talk to a Grand Jury seated in Riverside, California. A spokesman at Camp Pendleton is still trying to determine whether they have already been transferred to the Camp Pendleton brig at...

The federal trial of former Marine Sgt Jose L. Nazario is on hold until August 19, Defend Our Marines has learned. Presiding US District Judge Steven Larsen issued the order last week. Nazario’s trial was scheduled to begin July 8 at the US District Court for Central California at Riverside. Judge Larsen has also issued an unusual order to Nazario’s defense attorney Kevin B. McDermott to keep the Grand Jury testimony he received in discovery secret, and to return the transcripts to the court undisclosed to the public upon the completion of the case. The delay in the Nazario case...

Evidence introduced during pre-trial motions in the court-martial of Marine Lt. Col Jeffrey Chessani for his role at Haditha revealed that commanding generals of Marine Corps Forces Central Command are often preoccupied with court fights as well as battlefields while the seemingly endless investigations drag on. The Marine Corps Forces Central Command – CENTCOM – was assigned the onerous task of investigating and adjudicating the sensationalized charges against Chessani. CENTCOM is the umbrella organization that controls Marine Corps’ war fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Marine Corps designated the CENTCOM commander to be the convening authority and final arbiter in...

Chicago magazine, July 2008: "Web sites such as DefendOurMarines.com and DefendOurTroops.com feature tributes to the marines of Haditha. Bloggers have said the troops acted 'heroically' that day. Those supporters have scorned [prosecution witness, Sgt Sanick] Dela Cruz, deriding his testimony that he watched Wuterich gun down a group of Iraqi men who were surrendering. 'Dela Cruz is one of the sleaziest characters to emerge from the Haditha prosecution,' declared one writer on FreeRepublic.com, a conservative blog site. As this article went to press, the supporters had reason to be pleased: Of all of the men accused in the killings, only...

The US Navy-Marine Corps Court of Appeals has ruled that the CBS television news magazine 60 Minutes must turn over outtakes from its interview with Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich in which he revealed what happened at the so-called “Haditha Massacre” in Iraq more than three years ago. The three-judge appellate panel Friday directed Marine Corps military judge Lt. Col. Jeffrey G. Meeks to “conduct additional fact-finding” including an “in camera review” of the outtakes to determine whether Wuterich revealed any information the government needs to bolster its prosecution against the Marine infantryman. The ruling of the military judge...

Attorneys representing Marine Lt. Col Jeffrey Chessani will find out June 16 whether the presiding judge in the “Haditha Massacre” case will grant a defense motion to dismiss his charges because of undue command influence. If Folsom denies the defense motion Chessani will stand general court-martial July 21 for alleged dereliction of duty and orders violations, said Richard Thompson, chief counsel of the civilian law firm representing him. The veteran combat Marine is the highest ranking officer to be charged with a crime in the discredited massacre investigation. Four enlisted men and three officers under his command were also charged...

With this documentary, photo exhibit and book our aim is to raise funding for and awareness of the men and women warriors that have given so much to protect our freedoms. Freedom is not free. www.freedomisnotfree.com

Haditha: No Massacre, No Cover-UpBy Ben JohnsonFrontPageMagazine.com | 6/6/2008 THIS WEEK YET AGAIN PROVED THE PARTY OF DEFEAT'S KING WEARS NO CLOTHES. On Wednesday, a jury found Lieutenant Andrew Grayson "not guilty" of covering up the (un)massacre at Haditha. The 27-year-old had been accused of multiple counts of making false official statements and one count of attempting to deceive by making false statements. A charge of "obstruction of justice" had been thrown out the day before. More than simply another exoneration of those accused of wrongdoing in Haditha – the sixth of eight accused – this verdict will go a...

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, three "huzzahs" were given by British infantry before a charge, as a way of building morale and intimidating the enemy. The book "Redcoat" by Richard Holmes indicates that this was given as two short 'huzzahs' followed by a third sustained one as the charge was carried out.Defend Our Marines headline, June 4, 2008: “Verdict in the Lt Grayson trial---NOT GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS!” Huzzah!I feel one of the striking impressions of the Haditha case is the lack of leadership demonstrated by the Marine General Officers. One of the principles of leadership is to...

CAMP PENDLETON ---- A Marine sniper has been charged with two counts of voluntary manslaughter in the June 2007 deaths of two civilians in Iraq. The sniper, Sgt. John Winnick II, faces additional accusations of aggravated assault against two other civilians and failing to adhere to the military's rules of engagement. The charges represent the fifth case involving alleged unlawful killings in Iraq to have been brought against Camp Pendleton Marines since the U.S. invasion in March 2003. A hearing for Winnick will take place at Camp Pendleton this summer to determine if the charges against him should stand. The...

<p>Lt Andrew Grayson, a defendant in the infamous Haditha case, has been found not guilty on all counts by a seven-member panel of Marine officers at Camp Pendleton.</p>

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Prosecutors will call a top NATO general to address a potential conflict of interest in the case of a Marine officer charged with failing to investigate the killings of 24 Iraqi men, women and children, defense attorneys said Friday. Defense attorneys say Marine Gen. James Mattis, currently NATO's top commander in charge of military modernization, is scheduled to take the stand Monday during a hearing to address a military judge's finding that there was evidence of unlawful command influence in the case of Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani.

AMP PENDLETON – Seeing the corpses of 24 Iraqi men, women and children – all killed in a short span Nov. 19, 2005, in the city of Haditha – made a powerful impression on Marine Sgt. Justin Laughner. A squad of fellow Marines had done the killing. Laughner, an intelligence analyst, took pictures of the bodies and stored them on his personal laptop computer. Then one day in February 2006, he said, an intelligence officer told him to get rid of the images. In a Camp Pendleton courtroom yesterday, Laughner identified that officer at 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson. “He told...

A Marine charged with murder for killing an insurgent prisoner has been jailed in California for refusing to testify at a federal Grand Jury hearing evidence of alleged murder at Fallujah, Iraq. US District Judge Percy Anderson Wednesday ordered Sergeant Jermaine Nelson to confinement at the federal lockup in Los Angeles after giving him several opportunities to relent. “It was a beautiful thing to see,” said lawyer Joseph H. Low IV, the former Marine infantryman representing Nelson. “The prosecutors are attempting to break the bonds formed in combat. Nelson told them he’d rather go to jail than rat out a...

Three days after Memorial Day, the Marine Corps will court-martial the officer personally responsible for capturing the Al Qaeda terrorist who organized the ambush that triggered the so-called “Haditha Massacre”. On Wednesday, May 28, 1st Lieutenant Andrew Grayson will stand general court-martial for obstruction of justice and lying to investigators about the events at Haditha and attempting to obtain a fraudulent discharge from the Marine Corps. Last September the government dismissed two counts of dereliction of duty against Grayson. Two weeks ago military judge Maj. Brian Kasperczyk set the stage for Grayson’s court-martial during a final motion hearing at Camp...

The Marine Corps attorneys representing Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich in the so-called “Haditha Massacre” investigation are expected to step down without closure more than a year after their client was charged. Baring unseen events, they will be off the defense team by August 1 and likely earlier than that, according to civilian co-counsel, Mark Zaid. Meanwhile, Wuterich remains in limbo at Camp Pendleton while government prosecutors wrangle with 60 Minutes lawyers over video outtakes the government says will help prove the incident at Haditha was a crime. Wuterich's trial will take place sometime in the fall. Lieutenant Colonel Colby C....

Marine Sgt. Jermaine A. Nelson has been ordered to testify against a former squad leader charged in federal court with killing two Iraqi prisoners at Fallujah, Iraq in return for testimonial immunity. Nelson, charged by the Marine Corps with unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty, has been ordered to testify against former Sergeant Jose L Nazario at a federal Grand Jury hearing evidence against him in Riverside, Calif. Under current federal rules anything Nelson reveals that is not already in the hands of federal prosecutors cannot be used against him at his own court-martial, a lawyer defending Nazario said. Nazario...

On May 1, 2008, Richard V. Stevens, of Stevens & Brash, L.L.C, won an acquittal in the case of Sgt. Leonardo Treviño. The week before, Frank Spinner, a counsel with the firm, defended SFC Corrales in a separate case. For background on the cases, see here and here. Rich sent this message for readers of Defend Our Troops and Defend Our Marines._______________________________________________ 10 May 2008 It is very difficult and confusing for our military members and their families, who have sacrificed and contributed so much to the military's missions, to suddenly face accusations of crimes out of combat in the...

The court-martial of the highest ranking Marine Corps officer accused of crimes in the infamous incident at Haditha, Iraq will face further delays if the Military Court of Appeals grants motions filed there by his defense team today. The Thomas More Law Center that represents Lt. Col Jeffrey Chessani announced today that it has filed a “Petition for Extraordinary Relief” with the United States Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals in Washington, D.C on his behalf. The petition asks the military appellate court to reverse the judge’s order denying the defense counsel’s request for evidence it deems essential to his...

The New York Post is an excerpt only site so here's a snip...One group, Defend Our Marines, states on its Web site that British-born Broomfield claimed he'd show the world the "unflinching truth" about Haditha, but instead had actors improvise phony, obscenity-filled dialogue as they shot innocent civilians. One scene in which an Iraqi is gunned down as he flees through a field is said to be completely fictional. Charges against five of eight Marines involved have been dropped so far.

I am a military writer and reporter by trade, and write extensively about the "Haditha Incident," as well as the so-called "Fallujah murders" your editors failed to mention. Coincidentally, I am also a combat veteran and former police officer. The incidents at Haditha and Fallujah represent only two of a litany of prosecutions of combatants currently underway in both military and civilian courts. It has become fashionable to prosecute our service members for war crimes. It seems your editorial board - like the people responsible for eating our young - have confused the warriors with the war, a tragically familiar...

April 21, 2008, Riverside, California--The defense team representing Marine infantryman Jose Luis Nazario asked a federal court judge Monday to dismiss voluntary manslaughter charges against their client for allegedly killing two Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah, Iraq more than three years ago. At the time Nazario was a squad leader engaged in desperate house-to-house combat. The decorated Marine veteran was assigned to 3rd Platoon, Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines when the incident allegedly occurred. A year later four enlisted members of the same platoon would be charged with murder and other war crimes in the unrelated “Haditha Massacre” incident. Government...

Back in November 2005, the mainstream media and much of the Democratic Congress, spurred on by the anti-war, military-bashing, hate-America crowd, went into hysterics over the so-called "Haditha massacre." The claim, made by Iraqi witnesses, was that a squad of Marines in the village of Haditha -- angry after comrade-in-arms Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas was ripped in half by a roadside bomb -- retaliated by wantonly slaughtering unarmed women and children. Big-city newspapers, network and cable TV ran with the firestorm for days. Time and Newsweek had cover stories on it. Congressional members denounced Marines' so-called brutality, highlighted by U.S....

CAMP PENDLETON -- A military judge on Tuesday again refused to dismiss charges against the highest-ranking officer accused of wrongdoing in the slaying of 24 Iraqi civilians following a roadside bombing in the city of Haditha in 2005. The judge, Col. Steven Folsom, ruled there was sufficient cause for Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani to proceed to trial by court-martial at Camp Pendleton. Folsom made a similar finding last month. The judge's latest refusal to dismiss charges of dereliction of duty and violating a lawful order by failing to order an investigation into the civilian deaths was followed by a series...

Is it okay to hate a movie before you've seen it? I hated Nick Broomfield’s movie Battle For Haditha from the first few moments into the seven-minute trailer.But at least one Marine doesn’t think I’m being fair.Elliot Ruiz is the lead actor in the film. He plays Corporal Ramirez—a character based on the real-life Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich. Ruiz was also a real Marine. He served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The war ended for him in April 2004 when an Iraqi drove a car through barbed wire at a checkpoint, and the wire almost tore Ruiz’s leg apart. We had...

Hearing will set stage for start of court-martial of Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani CAMP PENDLETON ---- The highest-ranking U.S. Marine officer accused of wrongdoing in the wake of the slaying of 24 Iraqi civilians in the city of Haditha in 2005 is due to appear in a Camp Pendleton courtroom on Tuesday. The officer, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, 44, is charged with dereliction of duty and violating a lawful order for failing to order a full-scale investigation into the civilian deaths. He faces up to 30 months in jail and dismissal from the service if convicted and sentenced to the...

CAMP PENDLETON -- A court hearing is scheduled to begin Friday in the case of three Marines charged with killing prisoners during the 2004 battle for Fallujah, Iraq. Sgt. Jermaine Nelson is accused of murder and dereliction of duty for his alleged role in the incident, which took place on Nov. 9, 2004, according to Marine Corps officials. Prosecutors say that Nelson and two other members of his squad shot four unarmed prisoners captured during a fight to wrest the city from insurgent control. Attorneys representing the accused troops contend there is no evidence beyond a statement from one of...

In an exclusive story by correspondent Nat Helms, NewsMax has revealed that it was a Time magazine reporter's unsubstantiated allegations that sparked the notorious investigation into the death of civilians on November 19, 2005 in Haditha Iraq and subjected eight Marines of Kilo Company, Third battalion, 1st Marines to years of unwarranted harassment and prosecution. The NewsMax story does not identify the Time correspondent by name but Defend our Marines can report it was Time reporter Tim McGirk. The wildest of McGirk's allegations were never reported in print. Neither did McGirk inform his readers about the evident problems his sources...

SAN DIEGO -- A Camp Pendleton Marine has been charged with murder and dereliction of duty for his alleged role three years ago in the killing of a detainee in Fallujah, Iraq. Sgt. Ryan Weemer on Tuesday became the third person charged in the case that centers on allegations that a Marine squad shot a group of unarmed captives during heavy fighting in November 2004. The case came to light when the 25-year-old Weemer applied for a job with the Secret Service. Investigators claim Weemer described the killing during a polygraph test that included a question about whether he had...

CAMP PENDLETON ---- On the eve of his trial, the Marine Corps for the third time has ordered a lance corporal charged with killing Iraqi civilians in Haditha to provide testimony against his co-defendant and squad leader. The order requires Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum provide the government with ammunition for its case against Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, the man who led him at Haditha. The directive also may signal a weakness in the government's case. Both men face upcoming courts-martial at Camp Pendleton in the high-profile killing of two dozen Iraqi civilians in November 2006. The deaths, which included several...

 Urgent Letter From Christopher Ruddy Publisher, Newsmax.com  Dear CFIF Activist:Two Marines need your help . . . again. Last year, I wrote to you about the plight of three American heroes, Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum, Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, and Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich. The three were under investigation for allegations that they committed atrocities in Haditha, Iraq, in November 2005. When I first wrote to you about these courageous men, they were under Article 32 investigation — the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing. The hysteria against these Marines was set off by a Time magazine reporter whose...

The long anticipated court-martial of Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich is now on hold, clearing the way for the first trial of a Marine rifleman facing charges for unlawfully killing Iraqi civilians after being ambushed in Haditha, Iraq. Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum is now scheduled to stand before a general court-martial on March 28, marking the beginning of the end of the 29-month ordeal for four Marines still waiting to come home from the war. “We have been told that SSgt Wuterich's trial has been stayed for appellate review of a pretrial ruling. I have not seen a court order. However,...

It has been awhile since I have had much of an update on this situation.  But I wanted to let everyone know, we may need to get some more help for Lt. Colonel Chessani. If you are not familiar with the story, then go here and here for a quick intel dump so you know. But it seems that the Lt. Col, who is on trial for his life and career, for not investigating something that never happened, should tell you something about what is going on in a larger sense in our fight against the Islamofascists. And it should...

Since the invasion of Iraq, I have been reading every piece of material and watching every news story I came across about the war. Books entitled My Men are Heroes and No True Glory now sit in my bookcases along with books such as With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa, Victory at High Tide and Fire in the Streets. I focus on the war because, at least for this old Marine, it is a tremendous source of pride, especially, when I read about and watch Marines in combat. From the Iraq invasion, to battles in Ramadi and Fallujah,...

Another perspective on Haditha By: THAD COAKLEY - Commentary Publication of Time magazine's "One Morning in Haditha" (March 2006) thrust an otherwise nondescript Euphrates River town into the American, then international, consciousness. Those who have served in combat, more specifically with Marine battalions in Haditha or elsewhere in the al-Anbar Province, knew immediately that the article was based on many assumptions clearly questionable absent further corroboration. Buried deep within the article was the significant caveat: "The available evidence does not provide conclusive proof the Marines deliberately killed innocents." But editorialized reporting of beliefs over facts gave the greater emphasis to...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A U.S. Marine officer accused of destroying evidence in the 2005 killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha was arraigned on Wednesday by a military judge who set his court martial for May. First Lt. Andrew Grayson was ordered to face court martial on May 28 on charges under the military legal code of making false official statements, obstruction of justice and attempting to fraudulently separate from the Marines. Grayson was not at the scene when two dozen unarmed Iraqi men, women and children were shot to death by Marines at Haditha on November 19, 2005...

By: Philip V. Brennan Article Font Size Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, a heroic United States Marine was described by his commanding officer as "a superb leader, who knows his men, knows the enemy, knows his business," and as an officer with "unlimited potential and value to the Marine Corps." Today, that same "superb leader" who brilliantly led his troops in combat against al-Qaida terrorists is involved in another battle, facing another enemy, which has cut short a career that would surely have led him to a general's stars. That enemy is not al-Qaida — it is the world's media that...

Jim Culp is a former Army paratrooper turned Berkeley-law school grad who represents the entire conservative wing of his law school class. He was once an enlisted man, a shined-up grunt assigned to the ultra-STRAC Berlin Brigade when the infamous Wall came tumbling down. It was an epiphany to watch freedom literally overcome tyranny before his eyes, Culp said, a rare privilege indeed. Culp represents Sgt. Evan Vela, then a 22-year old Ranger-trained airborne sniper going to trial in Kuwait on January 28 for murder. The Army alleges Vela gunned down an Iraqi man who innocently walked up on his...

Springboro High School graduate and Marine 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson will face a court-martial on charges related to the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005, the Marine Corps announced Monday. Grayson, 26, will stand trial on charges of making false official statements, obstruction of justice and attempting to fraudulently obtain his discharge last summer. Grayson was not present during the Nov. 19, 2005 incident in which four Marines allegedly killed 24 Iraqi citizens with grenades and gunfire after a roadside bomb hit a Marine convoy, killing the driver and wounding two other Marines. Grayson, an intelligence officer,...

The Marine Corps has now acknowledged that none of the Marines charged with criminal offenses for their actions at Haditha, Iraq committed murder. Lieutenant General Samuel Helland’s decision to dismiss charges of unpremeditated murder against Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich lay to rest specious allegations by Time Magazine reporter Tim McGirk and Congressman John Murtha that a My Lai-style massacre occurred in Haditha on November 19, 2005. A Marine Corps spokesman said Monday that Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich will face trial on charges of voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, dereliction of duty and obstruction of justice for his role in...

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, the accused leader in the 2005 killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha, will face voluntary manslaughter charges but not more serious murder charges, the U.S. Marines said on Monday. "The charges referred against SSgt Wuterich are voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, dereliction of duty and obstruction of justice," Camp Pendleton, California, said in a statement. Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, the commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Central, "dismissed the charges of unpremeditated murder, soliciting another to commit an offense and false official statement," the statement said. Eight Marines...

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...

CAMP PENDLETON - On the legal front, the last 12 months have been a trying time for the Marine Corps. While most troops went about the business of training and deploying to battlegrounds in Iraq and Afghanistan or spent months on expeditionary cruises, a series of hearings and trials involving men accused of committing murder or being derelict in duty in Iraq dominated much of the news coming out of Camp Pendleton, the service's premier West Coast base. It was also a year in which the service cracked down on drill instructors at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San...

Photo above: SSgt Frank Wuterich and then-Cpl Hector Salinas in Iraq, 2005. Click to enlarge.Marine Corps Sergeant Hector A. Salinas (erroneously identified as a murder suspect by the media for his role at Haditha, Iraq but never charged) has been granted testimonial immunity by the general overseeing the investigation of the so-called “massacre” of 24 Iraqi citizens killed that day. On November 19, 2005 Salinas, then 21, was a grenadier in a squad of Marine infantrymen from Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines that was ambushed by an Al Qaeda financed and led attack force at Haditha. His four-vehicle convoy...

A Marine dictum holds that when things go well, the squad leader deserves credit and when they go badly, he most assuredly will get the blame. Indeed, in the three major cases...the major defendant is the squad leader. Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich awaits a general's decision on whether he will be ordered to court martial for allegedly killing civilians in Haditha in 2005. Former Sgt. Jose Luis Nazario is facing trial in federal court in Riverside for allegedly killing prisoners in Fallouja in 2004. And Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins was...convicted by a Marine jury of killing an unarmed Iraqi in Hamandiya...