First Marine Report-Out on Haditha

The first report from the Marines on the ground at Haditha, as to what exactly happened there via WaPo:

A sergeant who led a squad of Marines during the incident in Haditha, Iraq, that left as many as 24 civilians dead said his unit did not intentionally target any civilians, followed military rules of engagement and never tried to cover up the shootings, his attorney said. Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, 26, told his attorney that several civilians were killed Nov. 19 when his squad went after insurgents who were firing at them from inside a house. The Marine said there was no vengeful massacre, but he described a house-to-house hunt that went tragically awry in the middle of a chaotic battlefield.................

The statement comes via Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich's attorney, but it is the first direct report I've read from a Marine on the ground at Haditha on what exactly happened there, and the article confirms that. Finally we have statements from people on the ground there, instead of pontifications from politicians and MSM reporters who have tried to use the story as an attack on the entire effort in Iraq. Many in the blogosphere have cautioned to proceed slowly on this story until the first hand facts started coming out. Of course the anti-Iraq ammo was to tempting for the anti-GWOT crowd to wait for facts, so ahead they ran..............

Josh White states later in the article that:

Three Marine officers have been relieved of command. In the absence of a public response from Marine Corps officials -- who are declining to comment to preserve the integrity of the investigation -- reports of what happened in the western Iraqi town have been leaking out piecemeal from the Haditha neighborhood and in Washington............

Where has that Haditha & Washington piecemeal drip been coming from? Well the biggest Washington source has been Murtha who stated even before the story had broken that our Marines' were cold blooded killers".........................What the hell is wrong with that former Marine and current US Rep? What a crime for a man who claims to support the troops to say that the Marines "killed innocent civilians in cold blood" before the story had fully been reported let alone the facts.............If this is proven to be a mistake but not intentional, Murtha should resign in the disgrace that already defines who he has become..................

What about the Haditha eye witnesses? Well the credibility of Ali al-Mashhadani is very much in question at this point. Andrew Walden has the recap:

Ali al-Mashhadani, an Iraqi journalist reporting on the Haditha incident was recently re-arrested by the Marines for suspected insurgent ties. He was held for 12 days. Al-Mashhadani had earlier been held for five months beginning August 8, 2005 and ending in January, 2006. According to Reuters, “Among Mashhadani's recent stories was reporting from the town of Haditha in March. Following Time magazine's revelation of accusations that U.S. Marines shot dead 24 civilians there in November, he filmed fresh interviews with local officials and residents that were widely used by international media.” ..................This video is the source of all the images being spread across the international media purporting to show the aftermath of the Haditha incident. The “internationally respected” Human Rights Watch (HRW) has been accused of anti-Israel bias and is funded by numerous left-wing foundations including George Soros’ Open Society Institute. HRW accuses US forces of “torture” in Iraq and Afghanistan which, in one report, it defines as, “interrogation techniques including hooding, stripping detainees naked, subjecting them to extremes of heat, cold, noise and light, and depriving them of sleep….” HRW advocates putting US soldiers under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court--a foreign-controlled judiciary.

So excuse me at this point for giving more credibility to the United States military and their investigative process rather than Ali al-Mashhadani, Murtha, Soros, the MSM and the Open Society Institute.................

If these guys jumped out of their socks once again to slime the military and the war effort and it's proven to be a false charge, I hope they are finally held accountable by a growing majority of Americans for the serious harm they continue to do................