Haditha Massacre charges dropped

[Just the Facts]

That Thabet would exagerate his credentials or allow people to believe he is young, daring and handsome doesn't prove his video was doctored.

Agreed. Why do you keep bringing that up? Trying to create the impression that that's the only suspicious detail?

Your reference is not objective and spins the facts to make it sound like delays in breaking this story in US, Thabet's embellishments of his qualifications prove the Haditha massacre didn't happen.

There you go again. Yes, that site is not objective, but they're not out of the blue either. They pose reasonable questions and cite their sources. They're biased, but not whack.

Its a fact that no one has proven the Haditha video was manufactured, and you can bet its been scrutinized closely.

Has it? You can bet on that, I won't be. Is the video available? All I've seen are blurry captures, usually with the bodies covered up or obstructed by someone standing over or in front.

Again, forensics 101....wouldn't the coroner photograph the wounds? If not, why didn't he? Why is a blurry video by a journalism student the only photographic evidence of a massacre?

The initial US military version of events was a deliberate attempt to hide this atrocity. Subsequent versions are a whitewash of what happened. The legal technicality which ended the trial was probably deliberate. The prosecution could try the case again, but likely they won't, because they have no interest in justice when it comes to US soldiers committing crimes in Iraq.

Maybe. Maybe not.

http://sweetness-light.com/archive/budding-journalist-sat-on-haditha-tape

 

[#juan]

Haditha was just one more example of what happens when the pentagon's story spinners get out of control. Remember private Jessica, who reportedly took on a platoon of the enemy before she was captured by enemy forces and finally rescued from a hospital by brave marines. It turned out that the "enemy" saved her life, and her injuries were the result of a vehicle crash and she was well taken care of in the hospital before the report of the staged "rescue" that stunk to high heaven.
Remember Pat Tillman, the football hero reported killed by enemy fire and the story that changed about nine times before it came out that he was killed by friendly fire.
Haditha was just another example of the same old same old. The initial story was that the civilians were killed by a roadside bomb but when the injuries didn't match that story, it was changed, and changed again,....... and again, before the truth started to show through the BS.
Why are we surprised?

 

[Zzarchov]

You know what, I shouldn't post a counter version of events because there is no evidence to support either viewpoint.

No one knows what happened, including Lynch.

 

[Just the Facts]

The initial story was that the civilians were killed by a roadside bomb but when the injuries didn't match that story, it was changed, and changed again,....... and again, before the truth started to show through the BS.

I believe it was only changed once.

 

[#juan]

I believe it was only changed once.

Then you are wrong. Don't you do any research at all?

 

[Just the Facts]

Then you are wrong. Don't you do any research at all?

Yes, lots. Which leads me to believe I am not wrong.

Other than the initial report that civilians were killed by the IED, the Marine's stories were actually quite consistant. Except, of course, for those who changed their story in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

But you already knew that, because you do research.

 

[darkbeaver]

You know what, I shouldn't post a counter version of events because there is no evidence to support either viewpoint.

No one knows what happened, including Lynch.

Lynch's own testimony is quite exacting about the incident Zzarchov but I see you've already disqualified it. Good work. you should get a christmas bonus this year.:lol: Maybe a nice big turkey you could pull down over your head.

 

[Zzarchov]

Lynch's own testimony is quite exacting about the incident Zzarchov but I see you've already disqualified it. Good work. you should get a christmas bonus this year.:lol: Maybe a nice big turkey you could pull down over your head.

Actually her testimony is largely, 'I blacked out and can't remember much of anything', which is quite common in post traumatic stress situations. So im actually giving her testimony alot of weight.

 

[darkbeaver]

Weight? Like what's the weight of that turkey?

 

[#juan]

Here is one account of what happened on that day on Nov. 19, 2005

http://tinyurl.com/4f6qtp

 

[Just the Facts]

That's the original article that put all the wheels in motion.

 

[#juan]

Here is another from shortly after:



Did Marines Kill "in Cold Blood"?

By SALLY B. DONNELLY Monday, May. 22, 2006



When a Congressman makes the extraordinary claim that U.S. troops killed innocent civilians "in cold blood," Washington takes notice. And when he's a former Marine and decorated Vietnam vet, the assertion carries special weight. Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha, who backed going to war in 2002 but has become a vocal critic of the Bush Administration's handling of Iraq, last week said U.S. Marines were guilty of murdering civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha last November--an event that was uncovered by TIME in March.


Murtha made his claims after being briefed on an ongoing U.S. military investigation sparked by TIME's story, which detailed allegations that 15 Iraqis at Haditha might have been shot by Marines--not killed by a bomb, as the Marines had said. "It's much worse than was reported," said Murtha, the top Democrat on the House Defense Subcommittee. "There was no firefight. There was no [improvised explosive device] that killed those innocent people." Murtha claimed that "about twice as many" Iraqis were killed as had been reported. Other sources say investigators have found that up to two dozen Iraqis died, including eight men who had earlier been described by military sources in Iraq as enemy combatants. As TIME reported earlier, eyewitnesses cast doubt on the military's claim, saying four of the Iraqis had been pushed into a closet, then shot. Military sources deny the victims had been in a closet and said one had had a gun while another had "seemed" to be reaching for one.
The military investigation is expected to conclude in the next few weeks. Pentagon sources say at least three Marines are likely to face criminal charges, including homicide. Three officers have already been removed from their posts--in part for actions related to Haditha--and may be punished further. An additional nine Marines at the scene that day, who were led by a staff sergeant, could be charged with lesser violations.

 

[Just the Facts]

Murtha is being sued for that comment.

 

[earth_as_one]

I believe this US marine's testimony with 60 minutes:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/15/60minutes/main2574973.shtml

Basically he decided every Iraqi nearby was hostile. Shoot first ask questions later. Unfortunately most of them were unarmed civilians including women and children.

You know what, I shouldn't post a counter version of events because there is no evidence to support either viewpoint.

No one knows what happened, including Lynch.

Jessican Lynch was unconscience most of the time so she doesn't know what happened. But given the extent of her injuries caused by her vehicle accident, it can be assumed she recieved good care from Iraqi doctors, otherwise she would be dead.

Iraqi version of Lynch's treatment

...The doctors in Nassiriya say they provided the best treatment they could for Lynch in the midst of war. She was assigned the only specialist bed in the hospital, and one of only two nurses on the floor. "I was like a mother to her and she was like a daughter,"says Khalida Shinah.


"We gave her three bottles of blood, two of them from the medical staff because there was no blood at this time,"said Dr Harith al-Houssona, who looked after her throughout her ordeal. "I examined her, I saw she had a broken arm, a broken thigh and a dislocated ankle. Then I did another examination. There was no [sign of] shooting, no bullet inside her body, no stab wound - only RTA, road traffic accident," he recalled. "They want to distort the picture. I don't know why they think there is some benefit in saying she has a bullet injury."

The doctors told us that the day before the special forces swooped on the hospital the Iraqi military had fled. Hassam Hamoud, a waiter at a local restaurant, said he saw the American advance party land in the town. He said the team's Arabic interpreter asked him where the hospital was. "He asked: 'Are there any Fedayeen over there?' and I said, 'No'." All the same, the next day "America's finest warriors" descended on the building.

"We heard the noise of helicopters," says Dr Anmar Uday. He says that they must have known there would be no resistance. "We were surprised. Why do this? There was no military, there were no soldiers in the hospital.

"It was like a Hollywood film. They cried, 'Go, go, go', with guns and blanks and the sound of explosions. They made a show - an action movie like Sylvester Stallone or Jackie Chan, with jumping and shouting, breaking down doors." All the time with the camera rolling. The Americans took no chances, restraining doctors and a patient who was handcuffed to a bed frame.
There was one more twist. Two days before the snatch squad arrived, Al-Houssona had arranged to deliver Jessica to the Americans in an ambulance. "I told her I will try and help you escape to the American Army but I will do this very secretly because I could lose my life." He put her in an ambulance and instructed the driver to go to the American checkpoint. When he was approaching it, the Americans opened fire. They fled just in time back to the hospital. The Americans had almost killed their prize catch...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/may/15/iraq.usa2

Safe to say, Lynch fared far better than many Iraqi POWs. She was not sexually humiliated, beaten, tortured or murdered.

WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES of AMERICAN TREATMENT OF IRAQI POWs
http://kidpieces.wordpress.com/my-purpose-of-life/tomorrow-is-valentinestoday-it-is-war-crimes/