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Defend Our Marines / August 9, 2007
True lies: The Haditha cover-up that never was
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Evidence currently before Marine Corps Lt. Gen. J.N. Mattis shows
that a 2nd Marine Division public affairs officer
intentionally misrepresented what happened in Haditha, Iraq twenty
months ago when he claimed that 15 civilians were killed by an
Improvised Explosive Device rather than Marine small arms fire. The
official statement was approved at Division-level despite multiple
attempts by Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani’s subordinates to correct it,
investigation documents show.
Yesterday, Chessani’s second, three-hour long Article 32 hearing at
Camp Pendleton, CA was held to determine if there is evidence to
believe he was derelict for failing to update two combat journal (JEN)
entries. During his first Article 32 examination in May and June
Chessani endured 11 days of scrutiny. Col. Christopher Conlin, the
Investigating Officer presiding over his hearing, has already
recommended to Mattis that Chessani be charged with three counts of
dereliction of duty and failing to obey orders for not accurately
reporting what happened on November 19, 2005 at Haditha.
Mattis
is the convening authority and final arbiter in the investigation to
determine whether seven Marines from 3rd Battalion, 1st
Marines are guilty of massacring civilians at Haditha and then
covering it up. On Thursday he dismissed three charges of
unpremeditated murder against LCpl Justin L. Sharratt and dereliction
of duty charges against Captain Randy W. Stone, charged with violation
of a lawful order and two specifications of negligent dereliction of
duty.
Sharratt, a distinguished SAW gunner in the terrible fights in
Fallujah during 2004, is the first of three enlisted Marines to be
exonerated of massacring civilians. He intends to leave the Marine
Corps. Stone, an SJA lawyer and volunteer for hazardous duty in al
Anbar Province, was on his first combat deployment. Two other enlisted
Marines and three officers still face possible disciplinary action.
According to documents obtained during various legal maneuvers
preceding the charges against the Marines in December 2006, the
misleading press report was written by 2nd MarDiv PAO
Captain Jeffrey Pool, who has since been promoted to major. Pool was
never charged with any crime and has never testified at any of the
proceedings. He did however give both a deposition to Maj Gen Eldon A.
Bargewell’s investigators as well as a statement to the Naval Criminal
Investigative Service.
Pool
told investigators last year that he was given reports from 3/1 staff
officers that accurately described the Marines' killing of 15
civilians during a firefight. Pool claimed he released the incorrect
press release anyway because he believed the civilian deaths were
attributable to the roadside bombing because it led the Marines to
counter-attack. During the engagement 24 Iraqis and one Marine were
killed and eleven Marines were wounded.
The
evidence recently presented to Mattis by Chessani’s defense team shows
that Pool’s press account was an intentional misrepresentation. Pool
was informed about the civilian deaths before he wrote the press
release.
When
3/1 Operations Officer Maj. Samuel Carrasco saw the erroneous
information he immediately informed RCT-2 staff officers it was
inaccurate and asked for changes to be made. His request was
disregarded by RCT-2 and 2nd Division. For awhile
afterwards, however, the JEN notation (20-007) Chessani is now under
investigation for not updating still showed the civilians were killed
in the IED blast, the evidence shows.
Later
the same evening, however, Carrasco called Lt. Col. Christopher
Starling, the RCT-2 S-3 (Operations) Officer to inform him of the
inaccurate content of Pool’s press release. Carrasco told Starling
that Kilo’s Marines were “taking fire from buildings that they had to
go in and clear those buildings. When they got into the buildings
there were civilians,” Starling said in a statement to NCIS
investigators. “They had to clear buildings and some of the NKIA
(civilian dead) were inside the structures.”
In
addition, Capt. Jeffrey Dinsmore, 3/1’s S-2 (intelligence officer)
prepared a story board the same day and used it to brief Maj Gen.
Richard A. Huck, the 2nd Division commander. Huck had no
questions for the 3/1 staff nor did he request “a detailed assessment
of how these civilians died,” the evidence shows. All of this material
was available to Pool and anyone else in authority concerned enough to
ask for it. Nobody did until media inquires alleging a massacre at
Haditha began appearing.
When
the initial press report was later changed to reflect that the
civilians had been killed by a squad of Kilo Company Marines storming
four houses occupied by insurgent gunmen it touched off a press furor.
The resulting media frenzy sparked world-wide condemnation of the
Marines. Public pressure, fueled largely by a series of reports in
Time magazine, was trumpeted by Congressman John Murtha (Dem-PA) as
gospel.
Last
year Murtha publicly labeled the Marines cold-blooded murderers and
liars who covered up the crime to protect their skins. He repeatedly
told reporters interviewing him on CNN and other news outlets that he
obtained his evidence from the Time magazine stories. His influence
both as a former Marine colonel and House appropriations czar for the
Marine Corps made him a fearsome antagonist. Pragmatic Marine generals
reportedly don’t fool around with Mother Murtha.
According to a June 4, 2006 Time magazine story called “How
Haditha Came to Light,” Time reporter Aparisim Ghosh got the word on
March 14 2006 that the Iraqis had been killed by Marines and not an
insurgent IED. That is when a U.S. military official in Baghdad
“finally” responded to his inquiries, he said.
In
Ghosh’s account it took military authorities in Baghdad almost four
months to find out from Marines what really happened at Haditha on
November 19, 2005. According to the official, “the probe concluded
that the civilians were in fact killed by Marines and not by an
insurgent's bomb; that the civilian deaths appeared to be the result
of "collateral damage" rather than malicious intent.”
The
“probe: was in fact a routine Request for Information that came down
to 3/1 from a Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) officer wishing to know
what happened at Haditha the preceding November. The RIF indicated MEF
PAOs were receiving reports of atrocities of some sort at Haditha.
By then
Time magazine reporter Tim McGirk had already broken the story of the
alleged massacre using video tape and the personal accounts provided
by Thaer [Taher] al-Hadithi and Ali Omar Abrahem al-Mashadani for
evidence. McGirk elevated the two Iraqi men to near sainthood for
being unwavering human rights advocates, as well as “budding”
journalists and well-intentioned “students.” It would be more than a
year before evidence emerged that clearly showed McGirk was an
unwitting tool of a brilliant intelligence coup perpetrated by al-Hadithi
and al-Mashadani. Many Marines believe the damage to Marine Corps
morale by McGirk’s star witnesses could last for years.
Ironically, in the same Time story writer Jeffrey Kluger said, “If
there is any beneficiary at all of the tragedy, it is Hammurabi, the
human-rights group, which is flooded with new volunteers and free to
do its work more aggressively.”
Nathaniel Helms
Defend Our Marines
9 August 2007
Note: Nat Helms served three tours in Vietnam and, most
recently, is the author of
My Men Are My Heroes: The Brad Kasal Story (Meredith Books, 2007) |