Thread: My Lai Massacre Revisited

And some still don't see the parallel with the Vietnamization of the war

US 'winding up' Iraq deaths probe
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5022380.stm

An investigation into claims that US marines may have deliberately killed civilians in Iraq is nearing its end, the Pentagon says.

Official accounts from the Iraqi city of Haditha in November said 15 people were killed by a bomb and firefight.

But reports in the US press say as many as 24 people may have died, and that murder charges may be in preparation.

Moves are being made to prepare the public, perhaps for something shocking, says a BBC correspondent in Washington.

A defence department spokesman said he believed the inquiry into Haditha - being carried out by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service - was nearing an end.

But he would not say what investigators had found, and added that he did not expect an announcement on charges in the next few days.

Conflicting accounts

What took place in Haditha on 19 November last year is not clear.


There is the risk of becoming indifferent to the loss of a human life
Gen Michael Hagee
US marine corps commander
The US military said in statements issued after the incident that 15 Iraqi civilians had been killed by the blast of a roadside bomb, or in a subsequent firefight between US marines and insurgents.

But local Iraqis told a different story.

The criminal investigation has been seeking to establish whether or not the marines killed civilians in cold blood.

The Los Angeles Times has reported that investigators have concluded that marines went on the rampage, killing unarmed civilians, including women and children, after a marine was killed by a roadside bomb.

According to this account, up to a dozen marines were involved either in the incident, or covering it up afterwards.

The LA Times says investigators are preparing to call for charges including murder, negligent homicide, dereliction of duty and filing a false report.

The BBC's Adam Brookes in Washington says it certainly seems that public opinion in America is being prepared for the possibility that the investigators' findings will be shocking.

'Cold blood'

On Thursday, John Warner, chairman the Senate Armed Services Committee, said there were "established facts that incidents of a very serious nature did take place".

The commander of the US marine corps, Gen Michael Hagee, flew to Iraq the same day and said the scenes and experiences faced by marines "can be numbing".

"There is the risk of becoming indifferent to the loss of a human life, as well as bringing dishonour upon ourselves," he said.

Last week John Murtha, a Democrat member of the House of Representatives and a retired marine said US troops in Haditha "overreacted because of the pressure on them.

"They killed innocent civilians in cold blood. And that's what the report is going to tell."

For those who forgot out of convenience

Is the shit hitting the fan yet ?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...marines27.html

Marines executed Iraqis, photos indicate
By Tony Perry and Julian E. Barnes
Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — Photographs taken by a Marine intelligence team have convinced investigators that a Marine unit killed up to 24 unarmed Iraqis, some of them "execution style," officials close to the investigation said Friday.

The killings occurred in the insurgent stronghold of Haditha in November after a Marine was killed in a roadside bombing nearby.

The pictures are said to show that some of the victims, who included several women and six children, were shot in the head and some in the back, according to congressional and defense officials.


One government official said the pictures show that infantry Marines from Camp Pendleton "suffered a total breakdown in morality and leadership, with tragic results."

Marine officers have long been worried that Iraq's bloody insurgency could prompt such an overzealous reaction.

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a former Marine, said May 17 that the Haditha attack was far worse than originally reported and that U.S. troops killed innocent women and children "in cold blood."

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., confirmed Murtha's account two days later, and Marine Commandant Gen. Michael Hagee has briefed key congressional leaders on the upcoming report.

In their initial statement to the news media, Marine officials said the Iraqi civilians were killed either by an insurgent bomb or by crossfire between Marines and insurgents.

But the Marine Corps backtracked on that explanation and called for an investigation after Time magazine obtained pictures showing dead women and children and quoted Iraqis who said the attack was unprovoked.

An investigation by an Army general into the Nov. 19 incident is to be delivered soon to the top operational commander in Iraq.

A separate criminal investigation is also under way and could lead to charges from murder to dereliction of duty.

Both investigations are centered on a dozen Marines from the 3rd battalion, 1st Marine regiment, 1st Marine division. The battalion was on its third deployment to Iraq when the killings occurred.

Most of the fatal shots appear to have been fired by only a few Marines, possibly a four-man "fire-team" led by a sergeant, said officials with knowledge of the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The same sergeant is suspected of filing a false report downplaying the number of Iraqis killed, saying they were killed by an insurgent bomb and that Marines entered the Iraqis' homes in search of gunmen firing at them.

All aspects of his story are contradicted by pictures, statements by Marines to investigators, and an inspection of the houses involved, officials said.

Other Marines may face criminal charges for failing to stop the carnage or for failing to make accurate reports.

Of the dead Iraqis, 19 were in three to four houses that Marines stormed. Five others were killed near a vehicle.

The intelligence team took the pictures shortly after the shooting stopped. Such teams are typically assigned to collect information on insurgents after firefights or other engagements.

Investigators and top officers of the Camp Pendleton-based 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, which oversees Marine infantry, aviation and support units in Iraq, have viewed the pictures.

The incident began when a roadside bomb exploded as Marines passed through the town on the Euphrates River. Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, who was driving a Humvee, was killed instantly and two other Marines were wounded.

Marines quickly determined that the bomb was a type that would have required someone to detonate it. Marines and Iraqi forces searched houses and other structures in the narrow, dusty streets. Jets dropped 500-pound bombs.


Time magazine, in a report published in late March, quoted witnesses including a girl, Eman Waleed, 9, who said she saw Marines kill her grandfather and grandmother, and that other adults in the house died shielding her and her brother, Abdul Rahman, 8.

An elder in Haditha later went to Marine officials at the battalion's headquarters to complain of wanton killings.

The Marines involved in the shooting initially reported that they had become embroiled in a firefight with insurgents after the explosion. However, evidence that emerged later contradicted that version.

"There wasn't a gunfight, there were no pockmarked walls," said a congressional aide.

"The wounds indicated execution-style" shootings, said a Defense Department official who had been briefed on the contents of the photos.

Some legislators are asking the Marine Corps why an investigation wasn't launched earlier if the intelligence team's pictures taken immediately after the incident contradicted the squad's story.

The pictures from the intelligence team would probably have been given to the battalion intelligence officer, and they should have raised questions immediately, one congressional aide said.

The intelligence teams are typically Marine Corps reservists, often police officers or other law-enforcement officials in civilian life.

Oh yeah, real war heroes !!!

Originally Posted by britmaveric

Shite happens, what you expect when a mate of yours gets blown up by an IUD? I'm quite sure went ballistic and took out vengeance on whoever was about. The worst/best are brought out in war, least we forget.

Originally Posted by stroller

I certainly don't expect professional soldiers to kill unarmed civilians for revenge.

Stroll's spot on as far as I'm concerned, to pass the killing of women and children off as "shit happens" is calous at best. The marines are supposed to be a couple of rungs up the ladder as far as training and disipline go in the US armed forces.

You dont win the "hearts and minds" of people by killing their wifes and children. Think how you would react if it was terriorists killing western women and children, would you pass it of as "shit happens" then?

^ ok can you substantiate how I am a armchair hero ?

I believe in peace, not wars. I am curious how that makes me a armchair hero


Edited by mods: Removed insults. Against forum rules.