Dan Rather immortalized the phrase "fake but accurate". Now a Marine-turned-actor is telling the media that Nick Broomfield's Battle for Haditha is "not true-true but the basics are there".

The actor is Montreal-born Eric Mehalacopoulos who stars in Broomfield's slanderous film about Haditha. Broomfield brings to life Congressman Murtha's account of enraged Marines, extracting vengence for an IED, by indiscriminately slaughtering innocent Iraqis.

"Not true-true" is at odds with director Broomfield who bills his latest film (which received its world premiere in Toronto this past week) as "the unflinching true story". 

But after five hearings regarding the incident in Haditha, Murtha's account has now been officially revealed as a lie from the start.

Of course, anyone without an anti-war bias already knew that.

The original stories about Haditha were based on a tale told by insurgent sympathizers. And Murtha revealed on CNN in May 2006 that his "proof" was Time magazine.

So, in truth, Battle for Haditha is neither "a true story" nor even "not true-true". It is an anti-American, anti-Marine Corps, piece of propaganda.

And nitwits like Marine veteran Eric Mehalacopoulos helped.

According to The Gazette (Montreal)...

Battle for Haditha is a look at a dark moment for the U.S. military in Iraq. On Nov. 19, 2005, 24 Iraqis were killed in the city in western Iraq....But months later, allegations surfaced that the dead Iraqis were all civilians - not insurgents - and that they had been massacred by the U.S. marines as payback for the killing of a fellow marine.

Mehalacopoulos admits the incident doesn't reflect well on the marines, though he continues to call the U.S. Marine Corps "a great organization." He knows about the intense pressure the troops are under in Iraq, but he says that's where the leadership comes in: squad leaders have to make sure the guys don't snap.

He is aware of the irony that while he believes the marines are an ultra-disciplined fighting force, he is starring in a film that showcases the marines at their most undisciplined....

Broomfield - whose other films include Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam and Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer - wrote a detailed script outline but did not have a finished screenplay. Instead much of the dialogue was improvised during the shooting, and Broomfield relied on the ex-marines to try to keep it real. But there were some on-set squabbles between the Iraq veterans and the filmmaker.

"It's a movie, so it's not true-true, but the basics are there," said Mehalacopoulos. "It is somewhat exaggerated, and those were some of the arguments we had with the director. Because we're experts in our field."

Mehalacopoulos and his Marine veterans co-stars (including Elliot Ruiz and Andrew McLaren) are certainly not experts on Haditha or the accused that they portray. There is no evidence that squad leader SSgt. Frank Wuterich, or the Marines who fought beside him "snapped".

The Haditha Marines will be exonerated in court, where facts matter and allegations are distinguished from truth. But the accused, the U.S. military, will never be exonerated in the court of public opinion for Haditha. It's sickening that Marine veterans are going along for the Hollywood ride.