SubscribeAll Charges Dropped Against Haditha Captain
From a disappointed Washington Post:
Marine Corps Exonerates Captain in Iraq Killings
By Josh White
Wednesday, September 19, 2007; A10A U.S. Marine company commander who led the unit that killed as many as 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha, Iraq, has had all criminal charges against him dismissed nearly two years after the shootings occurred.
Marine Corps officials announced yesterday that Capt. Lucas M. McConnell no longer faces two counts of dereliction of duty in allegedly not investigating the Nov. 19, 2005, shootings and not reporting up his chain of command. Three senior officers above McConnell received administrative punishments this month for their own actions and inactions after the incident.
McConnell, who was not at the scene of the killings, has long maintained that he and the Marines of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, reported the incident to higher authorities and that he thought the shootings were part of an appropriate response to a complex insurgent attack. In the incident, a Marine squad killed a group of Iraqis on a roadside immediately after a huge bomb killed a member of their unit, and members of the squad then raided nearby homes, killing women and children as they hunted for the enemy.
The dismissal of the charges, officially dated Sept. 12, amounts to a full exoneration for McConnell, who was one of four officers charged with crimes related to the aftermath of the shootings.
“It’s long overdue,” said Kevin McDermott, McConnell’s civilian attorney. “It is clear that everything these guys knew went up the chain of command.”
Another captain — a battalion lawyer — was also cleared.
Please note that the Washington Post buried this on page 10.
It was ever thus.
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12 Responses to “All Charges Dropped Against Haditha Captain”
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September 19th, 2007 at 11:03 am
Scumbag murtha at his best……
http://tinyurl.com/2ouo86
September 19th, 2007 at 11:11 am
Great News! Now let’s just pray that Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani and the two other Marines get their charges dropped. This is all Murtha’s fault because he believed a scumbag MSM minion over trusting the Marines. I loathe that guy!
WI…good reference, the video shows how uninformed this clown is.
September 19th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
I would like to see Murtha staring down the barrel of an M-4 wielded by the exonerated Marines….backed into the corner of the parking garage of the building where he just received another half million pay off from MoveOn.org for his role in accusing the Marines of cold blooded murder.
Murtha needs to be dropped off in downtown Tikrit with a sign duct taped to his back that says “muhammed is a flaming queer” and ” Islam is for pussies”….and left to defend himself against a growing crowd of not too pleased terrorists. He is a disgrace. A complete and utter disgrace. Oh, and a fat pig too…
September 19th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
About time! This fiasco was all about Bush winning the 2000 elections. No other reason. The mainsteam media and the far-out left don’t have the power to reverse the elections and summarily execute Bush, then hold a trial for crimes against humanity. They even lack the power to do so in fantasy–because of libel laws, and because of market-driven economics. Hanging George Bush on the silver screen is beyond their means.
So, as usual with liberals, blame the powerless. Crime is caused by the poor. Overpopulation is caused by the poor. Global warming is caused by the poor. The solution–kill off the powerless. Unborn babies are powerless. Old people, ill people, Marines forbidden by regulations to talk to the press without permission are all powerless. The left cannot get George Bush, so they crassly persecute those who the left CAN prosecute.
There are serious problems with this flawed plan–the UCMJ mirrors the ‘innocent until proven guilty’ formula of US law. Court martial boards consist of career officers indoctrinated with ‘follow the rules.’ Apparently, there was too much integrity in the system to railroad these Marines. Somebody in uniform will pay for the left’s defeats, and living under the gun for two years as a criminal suspect is no vacation, but this time the good guys won the battle. There is a chilling effect, of course. the intent was obviously to get the military to ignore ‘illegal orders’ from the commander in chief of America’s armed forces. Remember the ‘what if they gave a war and nobody came’ doctrine of the 60’s and 70’s? That is flawed because one combatant is enough to wage war.
I guess the left is going to have to stick to abortions and compelling school children to take up homosexual lifestyles. They failed to get George Bush, and they failed to nail Marines as George Bush stand-ins.
September 19th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
LT. COL Chessani had an obstruction charge upheld - none of the others.
And on Ssgt Frank Wuterich’s site: http://www.frankwuterich.com/
you can read the PDF of his lawsuit against Rep. John Murtha (TRIATOR).
I am glad that someone went after Traitor (did you catch his I enlisted in Korea and went to Vietnam line?!?) The liberals always fall back on that ‘absolute moral authority’ bs.
We all fall down, we all do something grand in our life - it is about truth, abiding by the Constitution and reality in making America great, keeping her free and doing the right thing. Not selling out to the highest bidder and certainly not an ex-Marine sacrificing 8 young Marines in a combat zone on the alter of getting more bucks from the Code Pink commie mommies.
September 19th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
one combatant is enough to wage war.
Two sides, actually are needed for a war. When only one side fights it’s called a massacre.
I would love to see Murtha go down for this, but if Abscam didn’t do it I don’t know what will.
September 19th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
“I would love to see Murtha go down for this”
The male Mexican prostitutes wont take that laying down.
September 19th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
“LT. COL Chessani had an obstruction charge upheld - none of the others.”
Actually:
As of 30 August 2007, Lt. Col Jeffrey R. Chessani , has had 2 charges of dereliction of duty referred by an Article 32 hearing to Lt. Gen. Mattis, the Commander, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Central Command, and the Consolidated Disposition Authority for the cases related to this incident. Lt. Gen Mattis has not yet decided to either uphold this referral or to dismiss the charges referred. None of the charges have been upheld
Semper Fi LtCol Chessani
http://tinyurl.com/2rs7ff
September 19th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Dez….only on their knees…..at least that’s what I heard.
September 19th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Wow, I just took a reeking steaming Murtha, wiped my Pelosi, and flushed the moveon.org. Works for me!
Murtha is the poster child for corruption in Congress. He makes it worse by being one of the most vile traitors to ever disgrace the citizens of this Nation. He is worse than the mexican prostitutes…..he screws people for free.
September 19th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
The safe havens provided to the Democrats and their media propaganda apparatuses, poisons the potential for human growth and progress. They are free to attack, destroy, and tear down while protected and safe. In every guerrilla war, that is only true if the fighters won’t or can’t attack the logistics of the occupation.
September 20th, 2007 at 9:08 am
I think it’s time to redeploy Congress.
Those suffering bastards, like Murtha, are obviously the victims of TSD* & need to Get Out Now!
CONGRESS IS LOST!
*Treason Stress Disorder (a disorder that strikes certain individuals who sell their soul & throw their nation’s national security & the wellfare of its armed forces to seal the deal).