The Pendleton 8 - Coverups and Corruption
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    Angry The "Pendleton '8' K/3/5 - Hamdaniya" The Death of the Marine Corps?

    The Pendleton 8 - Coverups and Corruption
    Written by Kit Jarrell 23 December 2006

    It's my first show on BlogTalkRadio, and it'll be absolute, MUST-listen radio! If you've followed the saga of the Pendleton 8 cover-up at Euphoric Reality, then you're well aware of the lengths that certain folks have gone to in order to keep their dirty little secrets buried. But no more. We're hitting the public.

    The story we're telling is beyond important, because it goes to the heart of the problem in the War on Terror: Our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are being offered as sacrificial lambs for the political gain of those in power.

    Do I agree with the War on Terror? Absolutely. I support the mission. However, the military justice system is broken. Instead of being a system for justice and integrity, a place where the innocent are exonerated and the guilty punished, it has become a place where the end is known before the first witness is called; the winners are the generals and admirals and attorneys.

    The losers are the men who go out day after day and hold their fire when they're shot at for fear that they will be charged with murder. Just in case you still don't think what I'm talking about is really happening, allow me to tell you a story.

    In 1990, the executive officer of the USS Mars was court-martialed and convicted of dereliction of duty. It was just another court-martial, another win to chalk up for military prosecutors-who have a 97% conviction rate. But this case was different. Even the prosecutor is on sworn record as saying there was not enough evidence for conviction.

    We have hard copy proof of the following: The admiral who started the investigation against the XO not only ignored all evidence proving the XO innocent, but he actively engaged in unethical conduct throughout the investigation, Article 32, and trial.

    In fact, this admiral named himself as the convening authority for the case and handpicked the jury from his own staff. The admiral's Staff Judge Advocate, contrary to ethics and military law, continued to advise the admiral in secret throughout the case, even though he was the accuser against the XO. In one memo, he assures the admiral that "there is no copy of this memo" on his computer or in his office.

    The Staff Judge Advocate also complained about the prosecutor on the case, claiming that he didn't want to "win" bad enough. The defense attorney forged the XO's name to an official Response to the Letter of Reprimand after the court-martial. The XO never even knew this document existed for years after, and yet the Navy maintains that the XO's signature is real and that the document is a true and legal one. A handwriting expert, however, says that's not true.

    The NCIS is involved, as well, doing the bidding of those who stand to be embarrassed by the information coming out. Last year four NCIS agents showed up at the XO's residence. The armed agents told him to leave the situation alone, to stop making waves or they'd have him arrested by the county sheriff. In the last few weeks, the Department of Homeland Security have been to the XO's residence six times.

    What does all this have to do with cases like the Pendleton 8? I'll give you a hint. The head NCIS agent outside the XO's home that day last year just happens to be the same man in charge of the investigation of the Pendleton 8.

    This story has it all: lies, betrayal, treachery, and dishonor. I'll be talking about it on the 29th, live. I will have Tim Harrington from the Warrior Fund with me, going over the piles of evidence implicating everyone from the former head of Combat Logistics Group One, all the way to members of the current Congress. And, we'll be taking your calls.

    This is not a show you can afford to miss…but if you do, the archive will be available both as streaming and download on BlogTalkRadio and at Euphoric Reality.

    Stay tuned…this is about to be a hell of a ride.

    Listen at 10PM on 12-29-06.......

    http://blogtalkradio.com/kitjarrell

    Pass the word, fellow Jarheads!



    Below article germane...

    Mediacrity: U.S. Media May Hope Haditha Charges Are Dismissed
    By The JAG Hunter
    Dec. 26, 2006

    Mediacrity: U.S. Media May Hope Haditha Charges Are Dismissed

    ...the U.S. media would avoid itself possibly being put on trial for its shortcomings in coverage of the Iraq war. To the extent that the prosecutors' case relies upon the Iraqi stringers and suspect "witnesses" used by U.S. media, their case will be both weak and will publicly expose the grave shortcomings of the U.S. media's operations in the Iraq war zone - in effect, functionally often acting as useful adjuncts to our enemies and the secure and free future of Iraq and the region.


    With this public statement issued on Wednesday, 20 December...

    Lt. Gen. Mattis interview "on Marines" with NC Times Mark Walker

    Now you can have any kind of (complaint) about the American media or Western media you want, but there is at least a nod, an effort toward objectivity. The [Iraqi] stringers who are being brought in, who are bringing in these stories, are not bringing that same degree of objectivity.

    So on the one hand, our enemy is denying our media access to the battlefield, where anything perhaps that I say as a general is subject to any number of interpretations, challenges, questions, but the enemy's story basically gets there without that because our media is unable to challenge them. It's unwitting, but at the same time, it can promote the enemy's agenda, simply because there is an apparent attempt at objectivity.


    JAG Hunter here: Let's follow Lt. Gen. Mattis' logic. Mattis correctly observes, on Wednesday, 20 Dec., Iraqi stringers and Iraqi sources for U.S. journalists are being "brought in," immune from objective challenge, as part of a dedicated campaign to "promote the enemy agenda." And yet on the next day, in the name of the president of the United States (convening authority for the Commander-in-Chief), Lt. Gen. Mattis advanced charges against 8 Marines, last Thursday (21 December) , chiefly based on reports of Iraqi stringers and loyalists (so far immune from challenge) who've accused our Marines (widely observed by many) as part of a dedicated campaign to "promote the enemy agenda."

    Lemme get this straight. Mattis first complained about flawed reporting calling for "objectivity" so far gone missing because of a U.S. media blocked and obstructed from the battlefield, but advanced charges against his Marines next day based in large measure upon that same incompetent journalism? Ya mean Marine officer whose reports up the chain of command were right, and the Iraqi based reports were wrong?

    Huh?

    And whattya know. Mattis just talked his Marines out of their imminent courts-martial. And he's supplied enough justification to efface those courts-martial findings Mattis' already dispensed.

    Here's my command to Mattis: RELEASE THOSE MARINES INSTANTLY. RELEASE THE CORPSMAN. DROP ALL CHARGES FACING EVERYONE ELSE. RETURN ALL THESE MEN TO ACTIVE DUTY.

    We need their help.

    And turn in your retirement papers. NOW!

    No one needs you, Lt. Gen. Mattis, any more.

    Wuterich allegedly ordered 'shoot first and ask questions later'

    By: MARK WALKER - Staff Writer

    NORTH COUNTY -- The man at the center of accusations that Marines under his control murdered 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha last year ordered his troops to "shoot first and ask questions later," according to a prosecution document.

    The document known as a "Charge Sheet" alleges that Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich issued those orders "or words to that effect" during the incident that took place on Nov. 19, 2005.

    In doing so, Marine Corps prosecutors further allege, the 26-year-old Connecticut native disregarded so-called rules of engagement directives that required he "have positive identification prior to engaging a target."

    The four-page document obtained this week by the North County Times also accuses Wuterich of directing a corporal charged in the case to lie by telling investigators that Iraqi army members shot and killed four men who emerged from a taxi that happened upon the scene. The corporal also was directed to falsely state that he had ordered the men to stop running.

    The version of events laid out in the document differs from a version Wuterich presented in a libel suit he filed against U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who last summer said the Marines in Haditha had "killed in cold blood."

    In the lawsuit version, Wuterich said the men in the taxi were "military-aged" and that the car was "lingering" by the site. After they ignored commands to stop, his lawsuit says, the four Iraqis were killed as part of a standard procedure to "shoot suspicious people fleeing a bombing."

    Wuterich, charged with 13 counts of murder, two counts of soliciting another to commit an offense and making a false statement, stands by what was in his lawsuit filed last summer, said Mark Zaid, one of his two civilian attorneys, on Wednesday.

    "Our take is that any differences go to the heart of what this case is all about and whether the actions that were taken were appropriate," Zaid said during a telephone interview. "The Charge Sheet is based on what others might have said, and a great deal of this case will come down to what Sgt. Wuterich and the other Marines were thinking."

    Charges and evidence

    Prosecutors this week sent defense attorneys a computer disk containing thousands of pages of investigative material, information that one lawyer said will take days, if not weeks, to read and sort through.

    It was one week ago today that the Marine Corps announced the results of a nine-month investigation into what happened at Haditha. In addition to Wuterich, Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz was charged with five counts of murder and one of making a false statement; Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt was charged with three counts of murder; and Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum was charged with two counts of murder, four counts of negligent homicide and one count of assault.

    Prosecutors also filed criminal charges against four officers, the highest number of officers accused of any wrongdoing in Iraq in a single incident since the U.S. invasion in March 2003.

    Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani was charged with failing to properly investigate what happened under his command and two counts of dereliction of duty.

    Also charged was the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment's legal officer at the time, Capt. Randy Stone, the first legal affairs officer ever charged with criminal acts in a war setting, according to Gary Solis, a Georgetown University law professor who spent more than two decades as a Marine Corps legal officer.

    Another accused officer is Capt. Lucas McConnell, the man commanding the Kilo Company squad that included Wuterich and the other enlisted defendants. McConnell is charged with two counts of dereliction of duty.

    The fourth officer indicted in the Haditha killings is platoon commander 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson, accused of two counts of dereliction of duty, and one count each of obstruction of justice and making a false statement.

    Jack Zimmerman, a Texas-based attorney who is representing Tatum, said Wednesday that analyzing the government's case and the hundreds of interviews, reports and related documents it has now provided will be a painstaking process.

    "It took the government and all its lawyers nine months to investigate and put together its case. No reasonable person should expect we can digest all the information very quickly."

    Victims and discrepancies

    In a release distributed to reporters last week, the Marine Corps identified 21 Iraqis who died at Haditha. While the Marine colonel who announced the charges said last week that there were 24 victims, three of them remain unidentified, a discrepancy that neither the Marine Corps nor defense attorneys was immediately able to address Wednesday.

    "The charges that have been preferred reflect the deaths that are supported by the investigation at this point," a statement issued by the Marine Corps said. "The investigation is ongoing and there is always the potential for additional charges."

    That is one of the many discrepancies that attorney Zaid said will go to the heart of his client's defense, and likely those of the other seven defendants, none of whom is confined as a result of a decision by Lt. Gen. James Mattis, commander of Marine Corps forces in Iraq and the "convening authority" over the Haditha case.

    According to Wuterich and the other Marines at Haditha, the incident began when a convoy of four Humvees was passing through the city at about 7:30 a.m. A massive explosion from a bomb embedded in the road destroyed one of the Humvees, killing 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas of El Paso, Texas.

    A short time later, the Marines said, they began taking small-arms fire, prompting an eventual storming of nearby homes where most of the Iraqis were killed.

    "There is no dispute now that the Marines came under fire," Zaid said, pointing to the Marine Corps release announcing the decision that confirmed that aspect. "So what Congressman Murtha has said is now completely unsubstantiated."

    As a result of the bombing and small-arms fire, Zaid said the rules of engagement will be a key factor in the case.

    "They were absolutely following the rules as they understood them to be," Zaid said of his client and the other enlisted Marines. "I don't represent murderers, and I don't believe Sgt. Wuterich is a murderer."

    Grayson called victim of politics

    Joseph Casas, a San Diego attorney who represented a Marine private accused in the kidnapping and death of a retired Iraqi policeman in April (an unrelated case involving a different Camp Pendleton unit), has been retained to represent Grayson in the Haditha case.

    Casas said he believed the Marine Corps was pressured to charge the officers in the Haditha case because of the worldwide outrage expressed when the incident came to light.

    "It is clear that military investigators, evidently bowing to political pressure, were on a witch hunt to find a cover-up," Casas said Wednesday. "1st Lt. Grayson is a consummate Marine. He is saddened that the Marine Corps has targeted him, but he is confident that the military justice system will confirm his innocence."

    Casas, who represented Pfc. John Jodka III in the unrelated April kidnapping and killing of the former Iraqi policeman in the village of Hamdania, said Grayson had been recommended for a Bronze Star with combat distinguishing marker for his actions in Iraq last year.

    That award has been put on hold pending the outcome of the case against Grayson.

    "Based on my conversations with 1st Lt. Grayson regarding the Haditha incident and my initial review of the facts and evidence, I am unequivocally convinced that military investigators barked up the wrong tree with this Marine officer," Casas said.

    -- Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.

    Ellie

    Last edited by thedrifter; 02-05-07 at 05:47 PM.

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