Area Marine linked to Iraq killings
By Thomas Watkins
ASSOCIATED PRESS
07/06/2007

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- The Navy is investigating claims that Camp Pendleton Marines killed between five and 10 unarmed captives in a fierce battle in Fallujah, Iraq, in November 2004, current and former Marines say.

One of the Marines is an Illinois native with St. Louis connections.

The investigation centers on the actions of several members of Company K of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, they said on the condition of anonymity.

Different members of the same unit were later accused of wrongdoing in the killings of 24 civilians in Haditha in 2005.

The investigation started when former Marine Cpl. Ryan Weemer applied for a job with the Secret Service, according to an online report by military author Nathaniel Helms, who interviewed Weemer last year.

When asked in a polygraph test if he had ever participated in a wrongful death, Weemer
described the killings, said Helms, who once worked for the old St. Louis Globe-Democrat..

Weemer, 24, is originally from Hindsboro, Ill., a hamlet about halfway between Decatur, Ill., and Terre Haute, Ind. According to Helms, Weemer worked recently at a Starbucks in Chesterfield, Mo., and attended Belleville, Ill., Area College.

Weemer is said to be living now in the Paducah, Ky., area, where he is studying psychology. Although he could not be reached for comment, his sister Felicia Hudson said he was trying to put the event behind him.

"He does not like to talk about it," Hudson said. "He is very proud to be a Marine -- but he wants to get past all this and look to the future."

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service has confirmed that it is investigating "credible allegations of wrongdoing made against U.S. Marines" in Fallujah in the fall of 2004. But the NCIS has not described the nature of the allegations.

News that investigators were looking into the actions of Camp Pendleton Marines was first reported by the North (San Diego) County Times.

Helms also posted a story online this week. In the story, he describes how he met Weemer last year while researching a book about the ferocious battle to recapture Fallujah from insurgents in November 2004.

He says Weemer told him that Marines had killed several captives who were being held in an abandoned house around Nov. 10, 2004.

The Marines radioed headquarters for guidance on how to proceed. The response: "They're still alive?" The group's leader interpreted that response as an order to kill, Helms said.

David Glazier teaches the law of war at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. He said it is a war crime to kill captives who pose no immediate threat, unless they are trying to escape.

"Someone who has been taken into custody, they become protected under the law of war, no matter how egregiously they have behaved," Glazier said. "They can only be shot subject to the sentence of a validly conducted trial."

Helms says he warned a "penitent" Weemer to keep quiet about what he had seen. He made no mention of Weemer's account in his book, "My Men Are My Heroes: The Brad Kasal Story," about a Marine first sergeant who was decorated with the Navy Cross for his combat actions in Fallujah.

Weemer was working for the Chesterfield Starbuck's when he talked to the Secret Service. After the agents reported his allegations to the armed forces, NCIS investigators also approached Helms, he said. Hudson said her brother had not landed a job with the Secret Service.

Secret Service spokeswoman Kim Bruce declined to comment today.

A defense lawyer and former Marine captain who fought in Fallujah in December 2004 said the government would have a near-impossible task if it decided to prosecute.

"This is a huge rabbit hole, and I can't see it going anywhere," said the lawyer, Brian Rooney. "I was in Fallujah. It was nearly destroyed. The house is either gone or rebuilt completely, the bodies of the alleged victims are gone. Forensically you have no evidence."

Rooney represents Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, one of four officers accused of failing to investigate the deaths of the 24 civilians in Haditha.

In any Fallujah proceeding, he said, prosecutors would have to rely on eyewitness testimony to corroborate Weemer's account. With many of the Marines present at the time already out of the Marine Corps, that could prove difficult.

Weemer's sister said her brother had told Helms about the killings because he had wanted people at home to understand the difficult conditions that Marines faced in Iraq.

"His goal was to let people know what it was like over there, not for it to lead to this," she said.

Fallujah was the scene of two Marine battles in 2004, the first of which was launched in April after insurgents killed four U.S. contractors there. That battle was quickly aborted. In November that year, Marines led a second offensive against insurgent holdouts in the city, a fight that produced heavy casualties on both sides.

Camp Pendleton Marines already are the focus of two high-profile criminal cases.

-- In the Haditha deaths, three enlisted Marines are charged with murder, and four officers are charged with failing to investigate the case. The Marines say they are not guilty because the deaths were the result of a lawful combat operation.

-- The other case centers on the actions of a different squad, charged with kidnapping and murdering an Iraqi man in Hamdania in April 2006. Five of the eight people charged have pleaded guilty to reduced charges; trials for the remaining three are due to begin next week.

Fallujah, Hamdania and Haditha are all in Al Anbar province, west of Baghdad.

Ellie