From: <trevor.hache_-at-_sympatico.ca>
To: <nowar_-at-_flora.org>, <scaw_-at-_yahoogroups.com>
Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 10:22:15 -0400
`No question' Iraq killing was murder `Iraq's My Lai' hushed up: Critic Top brass to testify at Marines' probe May 29, 2006. 05:51 AM TIM HARPER WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON—The focus has quickly moved from the alleged crime to the cover-up in what is now being dubbed "Iraq's My Lai," a tale of murder that is blossoming into the worst scandal of the U.S. war in Iraq. A leading war critic and former Marine, Pennsylvania Democratic congressman John Murtha, said yesterday it was clear to him the alleged murders of 24 Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines in Haditha last November were originally hushed up. Comparisons are being made to the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam, when U.S. soldiers, including members of an army platoon led by Lieut. William Calley, killed some 500 innocent Vietnamese villagers. The massacre was blamed, in part, by the psychological pressure of overtaxed soldiers fighting an unpopular war and Murtha has already speculated that with respect to the current incident, the members of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, made up of Marines mostly in their second Iraq deployment, may have been stressed past their limit. Murtha, one of a handful of American legislators to be briefed on the Iraqi incident, said on ABC's This Week that investigators went to the site the day after the alleged rampage and then a blanket was thrown over any information dealing with the atrocity. The Republican chair of the Senate armed services committee, John Warner of Virginia, agreed there were "serious questions" about a possible cover-up and he said he would summon military brass to testify under oath about the investigation. The day after the deaths, a U.S. Marine spokesperson from Ramadi issued a statement detailing the death of an American soldier and 15 civilians from a blast from a roadside bomb, then detailed how immediately after the blast, Iraqi insurgents attacked the joint American-Iraqi convoy, resulting in eight deaths when the coalition soldiers "returned fire." Investigators at the scene now believe the only shred of truth in that statement was the death of Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, a 20-year-old from El Paso, Tex., who died from the blast of an improvised explosive device. Instead, Marines are now alleged to have gone through the neighbourhood door to door, firing shots at such close range, according to witnesses quoted by The Washington Post, that the bullets passed through the bodies of the victims and into walls or floors. Included among the dead was a young mother shielding her 1-year-old daughter. Witnesses reported hearing her screams for mercy before she and the child were shot and Marines tossed grenades into the kitchen and bathroom of the family home. Five men in a taxi who happened to drive into the neighbourhood at the wrong time were shot and killed when they attempted to flee, the Post account stated. No questions were raised about the events that day until Time magazine published an account of events based on its own probe, which included accounts of survivors and a video of the local hospital and victims' homes shot by a young Iraqi journalism student. Yesterday, Time reported that some of the most damning evidence uncovered by military investigators is photos taken by the Marines themselves, perhaps personal snapshots, raising memories of the notorious photos taken during the 2004 Abu Ghraib prison scandal. ` I will not excuse murder. And this is what happened. There's no question ...' John Murtha, Democratic congressman If any Marines are charged with murder, they would face the death penalty. There is a second, unrelated murder probe involving Marines, stemming from an April 26 shooting of an Iraqi civilian in Hamadiya. The charges of war-time atrocities come as U.S. President George W. Bush and other administration officials pay tribute to the military today on the Memorial Day holiday. "We don't know how far (the cover-up) goes," Murtha said. "I mean, it goes right up the chain of command, right up to (Pentagon Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter) Pace. "When did he know about it? Did he order the cover-up? Who ordered the cover-up? I'm sure he didn't, but ... who said: `We're not going to publicize this thing; we're not even going to investigate it'?" Murtha, who touched off a political firestorm last year by becoming the first elected U.S. legislator to call for the immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, became a lightning rod again in the Haditha case when he went public to accuse stressed Marines of murder "in cold blood." Murtha, a career soldier before entering politics, again said yesterday — as he had when he called for the troops to come home — that he has worked harder than anyone in the U.S. Congress to support Americans fighting abroad. "We've got to make sure the world knows this is not something that our troops do," Murtha said. "We can't allow something like this. "I will not excuse murder. And this is what happened. There's no question in my mind about it. This investigation should have been over two or three weeks afterwards, and it should have been made public, and people should have been held responsible for it." Warner, who was also briefed by the military on the incident, said he would convene hearings as soon after the completion of the military investigation as he could. "I can assure the American public this morning, as chairman of the armed services committee, I'll do exactly what we did with Abu Ghraib," Warner said. "Those people were before our committee, promptly, raising their right hand, under oath, giving the explanation in full." The Post reported the death certificate on the body of one Haditha victim — 76-year-old Abdul Hamid Hassan Ali, who had been confined to a wheelchair since diabetes led to the amputation of one of his legs — said he took nine rounds of gunfire to chest and abdomen, leaving his intestines spilling out the back of his exit wounds. Several Marines are being held in custody at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and several more are restricted to the base pending an investigation in the slaying of an Iraqi civilian in April, a Marine spokesperson told The Los Angeles Times. As part of the investigation into both incidents, military officials are in Iraq reminding Marines of their obligations regarding unarmed civilians under the Geneva Conventions. But Ken Pierson, a 20-year-old Marine from Milwaukee, told the Los Angeles newspaper: "The Geneva Convention doesn't really exist over there. We're dealing with terrorists, not an army." _______________________________________________ Nowar mailing list Nowar@list.nowar-paix.ca http://list.nowar-paix.ca/mailman/listinfo/nowar