Fallujah and other massacres in Iraq

[BoarSpear]

video and interviews from fallujah...interesting...journalist having video STOLEN from their rooms in AMERICA? hmmm yeah, Bush has nothing to hide right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF-TA5wITq0

Or try this completley different story from a different city...can you say pattern of abuses and coverups?

Iraq to probe US massacre claims

The official US version differs widely from that of locals and the media
Iraq will investigate allegations that US marines carried out a massacre of civilians in Haditha in November, the country's prime minister has said.

Nouri Maliki told Reuters news agency there was "a limit to the acceptable excuses" for civilian casualties.

The Pentagon is close to ending its own inquiries into the deaths, initially attributed to a clash with militants.

Observers say the incident could deal a more serious blow to US standing than the Abu Ghraib scandal.

According to initial US military reports, 15 civilians and eight insurgents died after a bomb killed a marine in Haditha, a militant stronghold in Anbar Province.

The civilians were "victims of a wrong operation", Mr Maliki said in a separate interview with the BBC.

"It is not justifiable that a family is killed because someone is fighting terrorists."

Speaking to Reuters, he said his government was worried by "the increase in 'mistakes'" and would ask "for answers not only about Haditha but about any operation... in which killing happened by mistake".

"We will hold those who did it responsible," he added.

The BBC's Justin Webb reports from Washington that enough material has now been leaked to the US media about events in Haditha to suggest to many Americans that allegations of a massacre are very serious and may well be true.

'Cold blood'

US investigators are looking at both the actual events in Haditha on 19 November and an alleged cover-up by troops.

US marines in Iraq
Haditha has seen regular deadly attacks on US troops

The military said at the time that the civilians were killed as a result of either the bomb or a gun battle which erupted afterwards, in which the militants were reportedly killed.

But reports from Iraqi witnesses and in the US media allege that marines went on a rampage.

According to the Wall St Journal, there is evidence that marines killed civilians, including women and children, without provocation.

Several marines are likely to be charged with murder and others with attempting to cover up the incident, the newspaper said, quoting civilian and military officials close to the investigations.

One of the marines in Haditha that day, Lance Cpl Roel Ryan Briones of Hanford, California, told the Los Angeles Times he had taken photos and carried bodies out of homes as part of a clean-up crew:

"They ranged from little babies to adult males and females. I'll never be able to get that out of my head. I can still smell the blood."

Caution plea

Jim Murtha, a Democratic Congressman and former marine, has said he believes civilians in Haditha were murdered and the incident was covered up.

"They killed innocent civilians in cold blood and that's what the report is going to tell," he said.

"It is as bad as Abu Ghraib, if not worse," he told CNN television.

Gen Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and chief military adviser to the US president, said on Monday it would be premature for him to judge the outcome of the investigations.

"If the allegations as they are being portrayed in the newspapers turn out to be valid, then of course there'll be charges," he said.

"We'll get to the bottom of the investigation and take the appropriate action."
..........................................
Seems like every time you turn around lately we have another fiasco...exactly where does the buck stop again?

What dont we do anymore? killing women and childen, police torturing American SUSPECTS by applying electricity to the genitals etc...secret torture rooms in chicago's prison system, state sponsored spying, secret prisons...yeah, Exactly when did we become the scum?? Its time for some SERIOUS changes in this country.

[BoarSpear]

Sources: Lawmakers told to brace for Haditha fallout
Charges of murder, cover-up possible against Marines


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Some members of Congress have been told to brace for the fallout from potential charges of murder and cover-up stemming from an inquiry into an alleged massacre of Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines, sources say.

Military investigators strongly suspect that what happened in the western Iraqi city of Haditha last November was a rampage by a small number of Marines who snapped after one of their own was killed by a roadside bomb, the sources told CNN.

Pentagon sources told CNN that at least 24 Iraqis were killed.(Watch for specifics on where and when they died -- 1:57)

Sources told CNN on Monday that the investigation is substantially complete, and that charges -- including murder charges -- could be filed sometime in June. And, sources said, investigators have concluded there was a cover-up -- but won't say if it is limited to the handful of Marines who did the killings.

The formal findings of investigations into the matter are several weeks away, said Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Pace cautioned against a rush to judgment.

"There are two ongoing investigations," he told CNN. "One has to do with what happened. The other investigation goes to why didn't we know about it sooner than we knew about it."

Pace said the investigations may not be complete for "a couple of weeks," adding, "We should not prejudge the outcome."
IED first blamed for deaths

The U.S. military had previously refused to believe villagers who accused the Marines of murdering unarmed civilians, even when presented with credible evidence assembled by Time magazine for an article in March.

"They were incredibly hostile," said Time's Aparisim Ghosh. "They accused us of buying into enemy propaganda, and they stuck to their original story, which is that these people were all killed by the IED [improvised explosive device]."

But that story has fallen apart in the wake of an investigation that sources said is likely to result in murder charges against some Marines and dereliction of duty counts against others.

Sources said between four and eight Marines from Kilo company of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, were directly involved -- but some Marines from other units knew what happened because they helped document the aftermath.

Lance Cpl. Ryan Briones told the Los Angeles Times that he took pictures of at least 15 bodies and is still haunted by the memory of picking up a young girl who was shot in the head. (Full story)

"I held her out like this," he said, demonstrating with his arms extended, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs."

Briones' mother, Susie Briones, told CNN her son is now suffering from post-traumatic stress.

"It was horrific," she said. "It was a terrible scene. The biggest thing that comes to his mind is the children.

"Since he was part of the cleanup crew, he had to carry that little girl's body, and her head was blown off," she said. "Her brains splattered on his boots. And that is what affected Brian the most."
Killings began after Marine slain

Pentagon sources said the killings began after a roadside bomb killed 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas at 7:15 a.m. on November 19 in Haditha, a city along the Euphrates River in western Iraq.

The Marines originally reported that 15 civilians also died in that blast.

But according to the Pentagon sources' account, the Marines immediately suspected four Iraqi teenagers in a taxi and fatally shot them, along with the driver, when the Marines said they failed to lie on the ground as ordered.

The hunt for the bombers then moved to a nearby house, where seven people -- including two women and children -- were killed. Then eight people, including six women, were shot and killed next door, while women in a third house were not harmed, the sources said. In a fourth house, four men were killed.

"We're supposed to be fighting this war for democracy and yet something like this happens that sets us back," Rep. John Murtha told CNN on Tuesday. "It's as bad as Abu Ghraib, if not worse."

The Pennsylvania Democrat said the military tried to cover up the incident. "They knew the day after this happened that it was not as they portrayed it," he said. "They knew that they went into the rooms, they killed the people in the taxi. There was no firing at all. And this comes from the highest authority in the Marine Corps."

Pace told CNN that "as soon as we found out there were allegations" -- which he said was about February 10 -- "the investigations began."

Also on ABC, Sen. John Warner, the Virginia Republican who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, announced that his committee would hold hearings on the matter.

Separate accusations surfaced earlier this month that Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment killed a civilian near Hamandiya, west of Baghdad, on April 26.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/05/29/marines.haditha/index.html?section=cnn_latest

[BoarSpear]

Mmmm huh 15 reads so far no comments...as usual, when the facts bother you, you ignore them.

[7r14ngL3Ch0k3]

And WHY did those marines kill all those people???

[BoarSpear]

And WHY did those marines kill all those people???

Because thier friend was killed in combat by a roadside bomb...so they drove to the closest village and massacred it for revenge...just like the Nazi's did when the resistance attacked them.

go ahead tell me that excuses shooting women and kids in bed...BS that's the face of evil....these are armed soldiers killing civilians, how much different is that than terrororist killing women and children?