24 slaughtered Iraqis = negligent homicide
Byrnzie
Posts: 21,037
America really has become a fucking disgrace!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7029183.stm
Friday, 5 October 2007, 00:27 GMT 01:27 UK
Marine may escape Haditha charge
An investigating officer has said no murder charges should be brought against a US marine accused of leading a massacre of Iraqi civilians.
Sgt Frank Wuterich is alleged to be the ringleader of US troops who killed 24 Iraqi civilians in November 2005 in the town of Haditha.
Lt Col Paul Ware recommended that Sgt Wuterich be tried for the lesser offence of negligent homicide.
The final decision rests with Gen James Mattis, who is overseeing the case.
Gen Mattis has already dismissed charges against four of the eight marines accused in the incident.
In his ruling, Lt Col Ware also recommended dropping charges of making a false official statement against Sgt Wuterich.
"We're both very pleased and also not surprised, given how the other cases have gone," said his attorney, Neal Puckett.
The marines need not accept the recommendation and could still pursue murder charges against Sgt Wuterich.
Last month Sgt Wuterich testified that he regretted the deaths but said he was following the rules of combat engagement.
The negligent homicide charge carries a maximum sentence of three years per count, whereas the murder charge carries a possible life sentence.
The BBC's Peter Bowes, in Los Angeles, says that if the recommendation is accepted for Sgt Wuterich, and a similar one for one of his corporals, it will mean no-one will face murder charges in the case.
Twenty-four Iraqi civilians, including three women, seven children and several elderly men, died at Haditha, in Anbar province, on 19 November 2005.
Iraqi witnesses say the shootings were in retaliation for a roadside bomb that killed one of the marines, Lance Cpl Miguel Terrazas, as his convoy drove through the town.
The US military at first reported that the Iraqis had been killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) that killed L/Cpl Miguel Terrazas, or in a subsequent gunfight with insurgents.
But Iraqi witnesses said the US troops shot dead five unarmed men in a car when they approached the scene of the bombing in a taxi.
They were then accused of killing 19 other civilians in three houses nearby over the next few hours.
Despite the accusations, there was no full US investigation into what happened until January 2006, when video footage emerged of the aftermath, shot by a local human rights activist.
Among the most serious allegations against Sgt Wuterich is that he and another marine shot dead five unarmed Iraqis while they had their hands in the air.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7029183.stm
Friday, 5 October 2007, 00:27 GMT 01:27 UK
Marine may escape Haditha charge
An investigating officer has said no murder charges should be brought against a US marine accused of leading a massacre of Iraqi civilians.
Sgt Frank Wuterich is alleged to be the ringleader of US troops who killed 24 Iraqi civilians in November 2005 in the town of Haditha.
Lt Col Paul Ware recommended that Sgt Wuterich be tried for the lesser offence of negligent homicide.
The final decision rests with Gen James Mattis, who is overseeing the case.
Gen Mattis has already dismissed charges against four of the eight marines accused in the incident.
In his ruling, Lt Col Ware also recommended dropping charges of making a false official statement against Sgt Wuterich.
"We're both very pleased and also not surprised, given how the other cases have gone," said his attorney, Neal Puckett.
The marines need not accept the recommendation and could still pursue murder charges against Sgt Wuterich.
Last month Sgt Wuterich testified that he regretted the deaths but said he was following the rules of combat engagement.
The negligent homicide charge carries a maximum sentence of three years per count, whereas the murder charge carries a possible life sentence.
The BBC's Peter Bowes, in Los Angeles, says that if the recommendation is accepted for Sgt Wuterich, and a similar one for one of his corporals, it will mean no-one will face murder charges in the case.
Twenty-four Iraqi civilians, including three women, seven children and several elderly men, died at Haditha, in Anbar province, on 19 November 2005.
Iraqi witnesses say the shootings were in retaliation for a roadside bomb that killed one of the marines, Lance Cpl Miguel Terrazas, as his convoy drove through the town.
The US military at first reported that the Iraqis had been killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) that killed L/Cpl Miguel Terrazas, or in a subsequent gunfight with insurgents.
But Iraqi witnesses said the US troops shot dead five unarmed men in a car when they approached the scene of the bombing in a taxi.
They were then accused of killing 19 other civilians in three houses nearby over the next few hours.
Despite the accusations, there was no full US investigation into what happened until January 2006, when video footage emerged of the aftermath, shot by a local human rights activist.
Among the most serious allegations against Sgt Wuterich is that he and another marine shot dead five unarmed Iraqis while they had their hands in the air.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
Acknowledge our mistakes that resulted from the tragedy of September 11th. That is forgivable, we were hurt. Remove the moron that took over by exploiting our pain. Put someone in dependable enough to make rational decisions when the nation has suffered to the point that they are temporarily irrational.
Just as the nation was - our troops are.. scared, tired and duped. Mistakes were make..
The first thing to do when you find yourself in a hole.....Stop digging!
i can see where you are coming from byrnzie, and it's a shitty story. 7 kids. no excuses for that. none.
my point is, no doubt there are some crazy fucked up people in the US military (just like there are elsewhere), but you can't look at it as the 'norm', and think that is how the majority are. someone recently posted a website that had lots of thoughts and quotes from returning soldiers from iraq. it was heartbreaking. there are good people over there too.
I agree with you for the most part, but you have to realize that they are trained to kill people. So a person who might not lose it in day to day situations here, might be more susceptible to losing it there.
Also, just like there are people who might be mentally unstable in the military, there are racist people there as well.
whats really disgusting is the amount of hatred you spew on a daily basis now. where is your hatred for China?
they are almost 100% responsible for the death in Myanmar AND Darfur. you make me sick. you really do.
falling on deaf eyes gurl. he would rather see america nuked.
Dude..as far as i know he doesnt live in CHina. Criticizing the truth is better than defending horrible acts and behaviour due to nationalisim. It's not like pointing out these things are the norm here in the mainstream.
We're all humans, and there are bad ones out there. It's your duty to call it out, not defend it, when your flag is wrapped around it.
he doesnt live in America either. blanketing "America" and disgusting isn't something I'm going to sit back and agree with just because a few rogue soldiers made some mistakes.
you see a million isolated incidents.. makes it easy.
you can always find someone worse or at least as bad.. its comforting to you to say China is bad too?
We have to clean up ourselves before we can expect to effect positive change abroad.
There comes a time when you need to stop defending people just because they come from the same place as you. I'm not agreeing with the "disgusting" remarking, I'm saying you need to stop calling murder mistakes.
its war. fucked up shit happens in war. I'm not defending these soldiers. if they killed innocent civillians they should be tried for it.
where is the outrage for an el queda suicide bomber killing hundreds in an open market car bomb? none. with him its all america america america. it gets old.
you know the only reason those suicide bombers have to do that is b/c america is involved...they'd be at home singing to their kids and planting flowers together singing koom-by-yah if it wasn't for America
Understandable. But what gets your attention more? suicide bomber blows up market or soldier mows down civilian. The soldier is going to open more eyes. It's sad, but we expect that suicide bombing. We know it's going to happen. That's not surprising at all. Same shit, different day. But when a story like this tells about how OUR soldiers are committing crimes, it's going to be more shocking. It's more shocking because we hold our soldiers to a standard and we expect them to act a certain way. We expect the best of the best. We expect excellent training that equals excellent action. But now we get shit like this.
(By the way, this post really wasn't aimed at you. I just started stating things.)
right, I agree. I would (and am) just as outraged as everybody else about this story. my comments would have been completely different had byzine left out his 2 cents about america in general.
your nationalism gets the better of you ... the reality is that america is a disgrace ... if you showed some objectivity - you might actually realize it and maybe try and make it the place it can be instead of the place it is now ...
you take each comment about america personally without stopping to actually see if it is true ... you can point out a million things wrong about every other country but it still doesn't change the fact that america now stands for things that are disgraceful ...
thats your opinion. I do not think America is a disgrace.
Do you actually read history?
You do just gloss over the things that america has done, I'm intrigued by how many millions of people have died because of America since world war II.
The economy has polarized to the point where the wealthiest 10% now own 85% of the nation’s wealth. Never before have the bottom 90% been so highly indebted, so dependent on the wealthy.
yes I do read history. do you ignore all the good america has done? you honestly loved 9/11 didnt you? we got what we deserved.
according to your logic you must hate several countries around the world. several.
it's a shame isn't it?
A few rogue soldiers who were put there by a disgrace of a president who was RELECTED to a second term, after starting a war based on lies. Does this make Americas whole history a disgrace? Probably not. Does it make America a disgrace during this period of time? An argument could definitely be made for that.
Whats wrong with you, why can't you take critcism against America?
It's not a perfect country, hate to break it to you buddy, there are no perfect countries out there, but your blind patrotism isn't making your country any better.
What are you going on about several countries?
The economy has polarized to the point where the wealthiest 10% now own 85% of the nation’s wealth. Never before have the bottom 90% been so highly indebted, so dependent on the wealthy.
not claiming america is perfect. I think the Iraq situation has hurt the US but history isnt written yet about the true impact of the war.
I think america is a great country and does alot of good in the world. you choose not to acknowledge that.
I dont hear you calling out china or north korea or many other countries in the world that do direct harm to people while not doing much good.
So the fact that you have done many good things justifies you to do many bad things. At this point it ceirtainly appears that the US is doing alot more harm than good in the world. And im sure they are doing some wonderfull things but to me the war and carnage that is going on in Irak dampens any effort of goodwill that they can provide. And frankly it makes them look like hypocrits. Its very sad, because I know most of the people in America are good.
I'm not basing my opinion of America on just iraq, how many coups did the CIA bring about in south america and other countries when the goverments there didn't act in America's interest any longer. They did the same with Saddam. He was america's best buddy and a blind eye was turned to all the bad things he did because he was America's friend, but when he no longer acted in America's interest it was time to bring up all the those things he had done and dispose of him.
You take everything so personally but if you bothered to look outside of America you would see that England is as involved in this bulls**t to.
The countries you mention, aren't trying to police the world. Or going in to coutries to control oil to stay on top of the game.
The economy has polarized to the point where the wealthiest 10% now own 85% of the nation’s wealth. Never before have the bottom 90% been so highly indebted, so dependent on the wealthy.
i can agree that America has done some disgraceful and some positive things. Can you agree that Kanada has done virtually every disgraceful thing America has done or been complicite with America in them?
Seriously i'm just trying to figure out where people stand here.
Are you all just America haters or do you recognize the fact that pretty much every country on Earth that has existed for more than 200 years and has had any degree of power has done the same things? Do any of you recognize the fact that when 90% of foreigners come on here to relentlessly bash the US some AMericans that actually love their home nation are going to defend it and point out good things there country is responsible for as well as point out bad things your country is responsible for?
So well said.
The economy has polarized to the point where the wealthiest 10% now own 85% of the nation’s wealth. Never before have the bottom 90% been so highly indebted, so dependent on the wealthy.
shows how little you know. do you have any idea what China is doing? obviously not.
Please tell me how you equate pointing out that some of what America is doing at the moment and since the end of world war II as wrong and hypocritical is hating America?
Do you hate everyone that you disagree with?
The economy has polarized to the point where the wealthiest 10% now own 85% of the nation’s wealth. Never before have the bottom 90% been so highly indebted, so dependent on the wealthy.