Vets for Freedom has a new ad out asking John Murtha to stop the smears against our Haditha Marines and apologize:

They also have a petition going:

In May 2006, you accused a group of United States Marines of killing “innocent civilians in cold blood”. You made these allegations during an ongoing investigation. In fact, a Marine Corps spokesman said that you made your statement a week before you had even been briefed.

You continued to accuse these eight Marines of “cold-blooded murder and war crimes”, even after the Marine Corps itself said your comments on the matter “would be inappropriate and could undermine the investigatory and possible legal process.”

As a result of the investigation, the charges were dropped against 7 of the 8 Marines and the other Marine is awaiting his day in court.

However, you have not withdrawn your statements or apologized for your defamatory remarks.

Marines implicated in the incident believe that you have committed slander and libel against them. These United States Marines, whose honor you have attacked, deserve to hear an apology from you. Read the rest of this entry »

This morning, like everyone, I checked my email INBOX, and I had an email from a friend that prompted a great deal of thought and reflection on the events that happen every day in Iraq. After a while, I decided to start looking back at my notes and checking out what events have happened on this day, September 17th in the history of the Iraq War (from 1990-today).

Here’s a little of what I’ve found…
Read the rest of this entry »

The entire article by Lance Fairchok at American Thinker is spot-on excellent, and exactly what I was looking for as an answer to this, which surprisingly seemed to get little media traction. However, I’d like to cite the following passage as a lead-in for a different, if not unrelated topic:
Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been extremely tardy in announcing that the 7th Haditha Marine has had his charges dropped.

And then there was one.

One more Marine exonerated in the Haditha case:

A Marine intelligence officer has been acquitted of charges that he tried to help cover up the killings of 24 Iraqi men, women and children.

A jury of seven officers delivered the verdict Wednesday in favor of 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson after more than five hours of deliberation.

Grayson, who has always maintained he did nothing wrong, was not present at the scene of the killings on Nov. 19, 2005, in Haditha. He had been accused of telling a sergeant to delete photographs of the dead from a digital camera and laptop computer. Read the rest of this entry »

ANN ARBOR, MI – Military prosecutors are expected to call as their witness General James N. Mattis, a highly respected Marine officer and one of only a handful of four-star Marine generals, to testify in the court-martial hearing against LtCol Jeffrey Chessani on June 2, 2008, at Camp Pendleton, California.

Gen Mattis, recently given his fourth star, was the previous convening authority for the Haditha cases and the officer responsible for referring LtCol Chessani’s case to a general court-martial. Prosecutors are relying on him to rebut previous findings of the Military Judge that there is evidence of unlawful command influence.

So let me get this straight. When the defense asks for Mattis’ sworn deposition, they’re denied. Yet the prosecution can call him as a witness with no problems at all? And what will Mattis say? Well, of course he’ll say there was no undue command influence, and the judge will nod and say, “Oh, okay. Wow. Good thing you came on the stand and set that straight. Thanks, guys. Let’s all go get a brewski now.”

Am I the only one who thinks this fish smells worse than a two-dollar hooker? As it turns out, I’m not. Read the rest of this entry »

Still waiting for Murtha’s apology and censure in the house:

Military prosecutors dropped all charges on Friday against a U.S. Marine accused of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault in the 2005 shooting deaths of two dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians at Haditha.

The charges against Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum, 26, were dismissed “in order to continue to pursue the truth seeking process into the Haditha incident,” the Marines said in a statement. Read the rest of this entry »

Feb. 13: Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, center, arrives for his motions hearing at Camp Pendleton, Calif. Wuterich is being charged for his alleged involvement in the death of Iraqi civilians in Haditha, Iraq in 2005. Mike Blake – Reuters

The program airs this Tuesday night. Bruce Kesler received an advanced copy, and gives a great review of the contents, here.

Curt has followed the story since its inception, and you can see his previous 41 blog entries here.

Good news, the coward Murtha may have to be sworn in and testify:

The defense for a Marine accused in the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians said Wednesday it wants to depose a Pennsylvania congressman to determine whether a general told him that the accused and his squad killed in cold blood.

Jack Zimmermann, an attorney for Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum, told judge Lt. Col. Eugene Robinson that he also wants a deposition from Gen. Michael Hagee, former commandant of the Marine Corps now retired, to find out what he may have said to Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., and to Marines serving in Iraq.

~~~

Zimmermann said Murtha, a former Marine who is an outspoken opponent of the Iraqi war, refused to be interviewed because squad leader Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich — who is charged with unpremeditated murder in 17 of the deaths — filed a defamation lawsuit against him last year.

“Murtha said (during several media interviews) he was briefed at the `highest levels’ that Marines (in Tatum’s squad) committed murder, killed in cold blood … it was another My Lai,” said Zimmermann.

My Lai was the site of the killing of more than 300 apparently unarmed Vietnamese civilians by U.S. soldiers in 1968.

“Could these be construed as political rantings?” the judge asked the defense attorney.

“Murtha said, `I was briefed by the commandant of the Marine Corps,” Zimmermann responded.

The attorney urged the judge to order depositions by Murtha and Hagee.

“We don’t think there’s any congressional immunity here,” Zimmermann said. “We want to ask General Hagee, Did you tell him (Murtha) that? Where did he get this? Is he making it up?”

Recall what he said:

The man is a disgrace to the Marine Corps and to his chosen profession.  The sad thing is even if he is sworn in, I doubt he will tell the truth.  He is so full of corrupt earmark dealings and other lies I doubt he even knows what the truth is anymore.

So one more piece of evidence to show to Jack "coward" Murtha to prove that his calls for the heads of Marines serving this country was nothing but a publicity stunt.

A Marine Corps official has recommended that murder charges be dismissed against a Camp Pendleton squad leader accused in the deaths of 17 civilians killed in the Iraqi city of Haditha two years ago.

The official, Lt. Col. Paul Ware, said in a recommendation obtained by the North County Times that rather than face murder charges, squad leader Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich should be tried for the lesser offense of negligent homicide in the deaths of five children and two women.

Ware recommended 10 other murder charges against Wuterich be dismissed.

“I believe after reviewing all the evidence that no trier of fact can conclude Staff Sgt. Wuterich formed the criminal intent to kill,” Ware wrote in reference to the women and children. “When a Marine fails to exercise due care and civilians die, the charge of negligent homicide, and not murder, is appropriate.”

Ware’s report, issued to prosecutors and defense attorneys this week, found the evidence against Wuterich contradictory. Ware’s role as the case’s investigating officer is akin to that of a judge presiding over a pretrial hearing.

“The case against Staff Sgt. Wuterich is simply not strong enough to conclude he committed murder beyond a reasonable doubt,” Ware wrote. “Almost all witnesses have an obvious bias or prejudice.”

And guess what?  I can guarantee you that he will not be convicted of negligent homicide.  He was following his training, his rules of engagement, and did what needed to be done.  The enemy used human shields to protect themselves and in the process caused all those innocent men, women and children to die.  Sad, but the fault of those who attacked our Marines.

Still, no apology from this disgrace of a Marine named Jack Murtha.  But thats par for the course.  Being a Democrat means you never have to say your sorry.

Another Marine has had the charges dropped in the Haditha case:

Charges have been dropped against a captain who was accused of failing to investigate the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha, the Marine Corps said Tuesday.

Capt. Lucas M. McConnell of Napa was granted immunity and ordered to cooperate with officials looking into the November 2005 killings, the Marines said in a press release.

Charges have now been dismissed against four of the eight Marines who were initially charged with murder or failure to investigate the deaths. A battalion commander has been recommended for a court-martial; a final decision is pending.

And we’re still waiting for Murtha’s apology:

The coward.

The Investigating Officer of Haditha Marine LCpl Stephen Tatum is now recommending that no court martial be done on the Marine.

An investigating officer has recommended that a Marine Corps general drop all charges against a Marine accused of murdering civilians in Haditha, Iraq, finding again that the 2005 shootings were “tragedies” but that the Marine did not violate the laws of combat.

Lt. Col. Paul J. Ware wrote in a 29-page report that there is insufficient evidence to show that Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum did anything other than follow Marine Corps rules when he killed women and children in two houses in a residential neighborhood in Iraq on Nov. 19, 2005. Ware found that Tatum followed orders to attack the houses and shot a group of civilians only because another Marine in the unit was already shooting at them.

~~~

“What occurred in house 1 and house 2 are tragedies,” Ware wrote. “The photographs of the victims are heart wrenching, and the desire to explain this tragedy as criminal act and not the result of training and fighting an enemy that hides among innocents is great. However, in the end, my opinion is that there is insufficient evidence for trial. LCpl Tatum shot and killed people in houses 1 and 2, but the reason he did so was because of his training and the circumstances he was placed in, not to exact revenge and commit murder.”

Jack B. Zimmerman, a civilian attorney for Tatum, said he is pleased with the report and will await Mattis’s ruling before commenting further. Should Mattis dismiss the charges, it would leave pending murder charges in the case against one enlisted Marine, Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich.

You can read the IO’s report here in PDF format.  Some interesting passages:

In most homicide cases, a killing can be presumed to be unlawful absent evidence to the contrary. That is not the same as placing a burden of raising an affirmative defense upon the accused but recognition that in our society, killing another is not normally legal or authorized. There are two obvious exceptions to which the presumption of a killing is not lawful, law enforcement and military combat operation. Marines engaged in combat are expected to kill. This legal authority to kill, however, is certainly not absolute. Our Marine Corps makes great efforts to ensure Marines are educated and trained on the limits of authority to kill under the rules of engagement.

In a homicide case arising from actions by a Marine within a combat environment, the government may not rest on the normal presumption that killing is wrong and therefore burdened with proving that the killing was in violation of the rules of engagement. The ambiguity that arises in this case is not what the rules of engagement require, but how those rules are applied for criminal liability. Is the requirement to identify hostile act and intent based on subjective or objective criteria? If it is subjective, does that belief have to be honest and reasonable or just honest? If it is an objective test, is that based on the experience of a basic trained Marine or a combat veteran? Government witnesses indicated that the test was subjective. My opinion is that the test should be a subjective, honest and reasonable belief so that Marines in combat that are acting in good faith have the protections of the rules of engagement if they honestly perceive hostile acts or intent and make a decision to use deadly force that in hindsight, with time to reflect, others might consider such a decision to be a mistake.

~~~

The government counsel argued that positive identification of occupants of the room was required under the rules of engagement. Such a theory, requiring positive identification before engaging targets in a room that you hear an AK-47 racking within a home that is declared hostile, would appear to be a rewrite of the rules of engagement and is clearly contrary to the training and experiences of the witnesses that testified. The government did not present even one witness that testified that positive identification under such circumstances is required before employing deadly force.

Using the government’s theory that positive identification was required within the room of house 1 when LCpl Tatum heard a noise he and his fellow Marines believed was an AK-47 racking, they would be authorized to throw a grenade into the room, but when entering the room they would be required to distinguish between enemy and innocents within the room. Such a result seems counter intuitive.

~~~

Such restraint might be good practice for law enforcement or special operations forces conducting hostage rescue operations, but not in combat. In combat Marines are trained to neutralize the enemy with overwhelming force. If we adopt the theory of liability espoused by the government, we in tum are placing innocents in grave danger as they will become truly effective shields against our Marines engaging the enemy.

Murtha cares little, it seems, to the "protections of the rules of engagement."  He cares little for the men who were fighting and dying over there because if he did you could damn well bet he wouldn’t  go half cocked and call them murderers.  He wanted to score political points.  Thats it in a nutshell.  Just like Scott Beauchamp and TNR wished to show that Iraq is bad because they force our soldiers into becoming bloodthirsty robots we have Murtha wanting to show the same thing, on the backs of our Marines:

Think we’ll hear an apology from the EX-Marine? 

Remember in 2005 when Haditha was a word on everyone’s lips?  Especially Murtha and his ilk.  They intertwined Murder with Marine over and over and over again.  The nightly news ran stories galore on the incident calling it the new My Lai. 

Well, two more Marines have been cleared of wrongdoing:

The Marine Corps announced Thursday that it had dropped charges against Lance Cpl. Justin L. Sharratt, who was accused of murdering three Iraqi brothers in November 2005.

Sharratt was one of eight Marines initially accused in the slayings of 24 civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha after a roadside bomb killed a Marine.

Four enlisted men were charged with the killings and four officers with dereliction of duty for not ordering a war crimes investigation.

Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis, commander of Marine Force Central Command, said he dropped the charges out of a belief that Sharratt acted within Marine Corps standards when forced to make a quick decision while searching a house for insurgents.

In a separate decision, Mattis also dropped charges against Capt. Randy W. Stone, who was a lawyer with the battalion involved.

And very little is said on the nightly news, in our newspapers. 

Mattis also praised Sharratt for his service.  Here is the complete statement from General Mattis:

"The events of November 19, 2005 have been exhaustively reviewed by Marine, Army, and Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigators. An independent Article 32 Investigating Officer has considered all the facts and determined that the evidence does not support a referral to court-martial for LCpl Sharratt. Based on my review of all the evidence in this case and considering the recommendation of the Article 32 officer, I have dismissed the charges against LCpl Sharratt.

"LCpl Sharratt has served as a Marine infantryman in Iraq where our Nation is fighting a shadowy enemy who hides among the innocent people, does not comply with any aspect of the law of war, and routinely targets and intentionally draws fire toward civilians. The challenges of this combat environment put extreme pressures on our Marines. Notwithstanding, operational, moral, and legal imperatives demand that we Marines stay true to our own standards and maintain compliance with the law of war in this morally bruising environment.

"The experience of combat is difficult to understand intellectually and very difficult to appreciate emotionally. One of our Nation’s most articulate Supreme Court Justices, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., served as an infantryman during the Civil War and described war as an ‘incommunicable experience.’ He has also noted elsewhere that ‘detached reflection cannot be demanded in the face of an uplifted knife.’

Marines have a well earned reputation for remaining cool in the face of enemies brandishing much more than knives. The brutal reality that Justice Holmes described is experienced each day in Iraq, where Marines willingly put themselves at great risk to protect innocent civilians. Where the enemy disregards any attempt to comply with ethical norms of warfare, we exercise discipline and restraint to protect the innocent caught on the battlefield. Our way is right, but it is also difficult.

"With the dismissal of these charges LCpl Sharratt may fairly conclude that he did his best to live up to the standards, followed by U.S. Fighting men throughout our many wars, in the face of life or death decisions made in a matter of seconds in combat. And as he has always remained cloaked in the presumption of innocence, with this dismissal of charges, he remains in the eyes of the law – and in my eyes – innocent."

So lets look at what we have here:

And with each dismissal there are calls for Murtha to apologize, and none ever come.  The sign of a true coward.  The case is unraveling but we don’t hear the left and our MSM admitting that maybe, just maybe, they were wrong in convicting these heroes before there day in court. 

For a great timeline and rundown of evidence in the case and against Murtha check out this Let Freedom Ring post:

1. Murtha made these malicious accusations before he’d received an official briefing.
2. Murtha initially said that his information came from “commanders” and other people “who know what they’re talking about.”
3. A Marine spokesman said that Gen. Hagee briefed him but that didn’t happen until a week after Murtha went public with his accusations.
4. Murtha said that Gen. Hagee had briefed him before Gen. Hagee had briefed him. I’ll let readers decide whether Rep. Murtha lied outright when he said that.

And from NewsMax comes this rundown of Captain Jeffrey Dinsmore testimony, the battalion intelligence officer, who testified for 8 hours some months back and whose testimony was declassified in June of this year:

• Intelligence gathered by Marine S2 officers in advance of the events of Nov. 19th, 2005, revealed that it was known that an insurgent ambush was planned for the day.
• Although exact details of the planned ambush were not known, some important details were revealed — most importantly, that some 20 insurgents would take part, and a white car would play an important role in the ambush.
• The intelligence was made available to the officers and men of Kilo Company including Sgt. Frank Wuterich who has been charged with, among other things, murdering the occupants of a white car that came on the scene following the IED explosion that killed one Marine and seriously wounded another. The evidence will show that Wuterich acted appropriately when he shot the passengers of the vehicle.
• Although the media continues to report that 24 innocent civilians were killed that day, the S2’s testimony shows that eight of the dead, including four of the five occupants in the white car killed by Wuterich, were known insurgents and the dead civilians therefore numbered 16, not 24.
• The insurgents whose communications were intercepted and which revealed the planned ambush were the same two men who were the sources of the fallacious and dishonest Time magazine story, which was the source of the accusations against the Marines.

As previously reported by NewsMax, the battalion S2 officer made a full and complete report based on his monitoring of the day’s events and the intelligence he and others had amassed then and previous days. As we wrote at the time, the PowerPoint after-action report he sent up the command ladder proved to all the higher officers that the incident warranted no further investigation. None!

It told the full story, was supported by photographic evidence, logs of all the day’s radio transmissions, and included an almost minute-by-minute narrative of the day’s events.

The eight hours of testimony and cross examination offered by Capt. Jeffrey Dinsmore, the S2 officer, gave full details of the intelligence passed on to the officers and men of the 3rd Battalion 1St Marine Regiment including the Marines of Kilo Company. It buttressed previous briefings which alerted the Marines of insurgent tactics such as the killing of seven reconnaissance Marines who were ambushed by insurgents in hospital beds with AK-47s hidden under the bedcovers.

According to Dinsmore, a 20-year up-from-the ranks captain reputed to be one of the best intelligence officers in the Marine Corps, as well as the unit’s only officer awarded a Bronze Star for his service in Haditha, the officers and men of 3rd Battalion 1St Marine Regiment were specifically alerted to the possibility of a white car being involved in the planned ambush.

But they trudged on with this witchhunt because of Murtha and the MSM.  They have put and are putting these Marines through years of hell to satisfy their craving for another My Lai they can trumpet.  Our Marines be damned.

UPDATE

Listen to Bryan from Hot Air calling Murtha’s office and being hung up on after asking if a statement was forthcoming: