Senior officers lied about Haditha massacre, feared public relations problem

[babylonsister]

And soldiers are supposed to look up to their leaders? :banghead: :banghead:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/world/middleeast/06haditha.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Propaganda Fear Cited in Account of Iraqi Killings


By PAUL von ZIELBAUER
Published: May 6, 2007

Recently unclassified documents suggest that senior officers viewed the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in late 2005 as a potential public relations problem that required an immediate and misleading response to prevent insurgents from using it as propaganda against the American military effort.

“We knew the, you know, the strategic implications of being permanently present in Haditha and how badly the insurgents wanted us out of there,” said Col. R. Gary Sokoloski, in a sworn statement to investigators in March 2006.

Colonel Sokoloski, a lawyer who served as chief of staff to Maj. General Richard A. Huck, the division commander, approved a news release about the killings that investigators suggested was “intentionally inaccurate” because it stated, contrary to the facts at hand at the time, that the civilians had been killed by an insurgent’s bomb. Colonel Sokoloski told investigators that he believed that the news release was accurate as written.

“At the time, given the information that was available to me and the objective to get that out for the press” before insurgents put out their own information, “that is what we went with.”

The need to defeat enemy propaganda played a role in decisions by senior Marine commanders, including Colonel Stephen W. Davis, a highly regarded regimental commander under General Huck, to play down questions about the civilian killings from a Time Magazine reporter last year, the documents show.

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[BrklynLiberal]

1. Sah-praz! Sah-praz! Sah-praz! If their lips are moving, they are probably lying.

Tillman, Lynch, AbuGrahib, Gitmo, THE WHOLE DAMN INVASION....and how many indicents that we know nothing about yet?

[shenmue]

2. Can't we call it what it is--

Murder?

:grr:

[msongs]

3. the american military is corrupt and getting more so because of the occupation nt

[merh]

4. We have to impeach

We have to replace the "leadership" of our nation so that the rest of the world KNOWS that they do not speak for us and their crimes were not done in our name or with our approval/complicity.

Top to bottom, we have to rid ourselves of the criminals. :grr:

[lpbk2713]

5. A reflection of the shining example set by their CinC

And all the other cronies in BushCo.

They lie, cheat and deceive at the drop of a hat if it serves their purposes.