NYT - Initial Response to Marine Raid Draws Scrutiny

[DoYouEverWonder]

June 3, 2006

WASHINGTON, June 2 — Marine commanders in Iraq learned within two days of the killings in Haditha last November that Iraqi civilians had died from gunfire, not a roadside bomb as initially reported, but the officers involved saw no reason to investigate further, according to a senior Marine officer.

The commanders have told investigators they had not viewed as unusual, in a combat environment, the discrepancies that emerged almost immediately in accounts about how the two dozen Iraqis died, and that they had no information at the time suggesting that any civilians had been killed deliberately.

But the handling of the matter by the senior Marine commanders in Haditha, and whether officers and enlisted personnel tried to cover up what happened or missed signs suggesting that the civilian killings were not accidental, has become a major element of the investigation by an Army general into the entire episode.

Officials have said that the investigation, while not yet complete, is likely to conclude that a small group of marines carried out the unprovoked killings of two dozen civilians in the hours after a makeshift bomb killed a marine.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/03/world/middleeast/03haditha.html?hp&ex=1149307200&en=8b960e3026938b0e&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[babylonsister]

1. I hope that small group includes at the very least their COs, and

I'd prefer rumsfailed and dimson.
This atrocity happened in November. Who's been doing what since then? Plain and simple, the people trying to squelch this got caught.

[cal04]

2. "It's impossible to believe they didn't know"

A senior Marine general familiar with the investigation, which is being led by Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell of the Army, said in an interview that it had not yet established how high up the chain of command culpability for the killings extended. But he said there were strong suspicions that some officers knew that the Marine squad's version of events had enough holes and discrepancies that it should have been looked into more deeply.


"It's impossible to believe they didn't know," the Marine general said, referring to midlevel and senior officers. "You'd have to know this thing stunk." He was granted anonymity, along with others who described the investigation, because he was not authorized to publicly discuss it.

[babylonsister]

3. Kick . No other outraged folks? nt

[saigon68]

4. It's the usual Bullshit coverup

[UpInArms]

5. It would seem that since they did not view this as "unusual"

it is SOP in Iraq to murder civilians (but we here at DU are aware of this - see all those threads about bombin wedding parties, etc)

The commanders have told investigators they had not viewed as unusual, in a combat environment, the discrepancies that emerged almost immediately in accounts about how the two dozen Iraqis died, and that they had no information at the time suggesting that any civilians had been killed deliberately.

The discrepancies are not unusual - the murder of civilians is not unusual - the onlyl thing that is unusual now, is that there is absolute evidence of what they did - they meaning the troops and their officers - killed and covered up.