Clipmarks | Haditha Clips

U.S. Deports Parents of Dead Soldiers

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 12:24:05 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Seems strange that the son can enlist.

Three years after U.S. Army Private Armando Soriano, 20, died fighting in Haditha, Iraq, his father is facing deportation. Soriano is now buried in Houston, Tex., his hometown, where his parents, undocumented workers from Mexico, are currently living.

Before his death Soriano had promised his parents he'd help them get green cards. He only succeeded partially before losing his life. Although his mother was able to obtain a green card, his father did not qualify and is on the verge of being deported.

Enrique Soriano, Armando's father, is not the only person to have lost a son or daughter in the Iraq war and face deportation. There are more than three million people born in the U.S. with parents who came into the country illegally. Those born in the U.S. are automatically citizens and have all the rights and duties enjoyed by Americans. That includes military service with the possibility of losing one's life.

Tags: politics

Dark Horse Challenging Murtha Turns Out To Be A Thoroughbred

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 05:43:48 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: It challenged the signatures on Russell’s petition in court. Just enough signatures were removed to assure that Russell would not be on the primary ballot-–which was the plan.

Undeterred, Russell asked voters to write in his name on the primary ballot to be the Republican candidate in the upcoming general election. He received more than 4,000 write-in votes in the GOP Primary and another 1,000 in the Democrat Primary, enough to once again make him a candidate, Luksik said.

It is an impressive performance in a district with approximately 345,000 registered voters. Instead of the "dark horse" Murtha’s machine expected, they encountered a thoroughbred who apparently knows how to run.

A Haditha Marine father joins "Murtha Must Go"

Darryl Sharratt is the father of former LCpl Justin Sharratt; last year his son was exonerated and publicly lauded for his remarkable courage by Gen James N. Mattis.

Murtha Must Go Blog
http://murthamustgo.blogspot.com/search/label/Jack%20Murtha

Clip Source: warchronicle.com

His unlikely opponent in Pennsylvania's 12th District is an Army Reserve lieutenant colonel named William T. Russell, 47, a Desert Storm and Iraq war veteran who is barred by the Hatch Act from stumping until August 1 when his active duty stint ends. A Cinderella candidate running against the tide of Democratic hopefuls elsewhere, Russell is garnering national attention for his improbable early success.

Just getting on the ballot was a tough battle for Russell, a political outsider who came to roost in Pennsylvania after serving his country around the world. During his military career he lived in 11 states and seven countries. Despite such handicaps he still managed to obtain enough voter signatures get on the primary ballot as the only Republican candidate in the district.

“He is just a nice guy,” Luksik explained. “When people hear him, when they meet him, they come away impressed.”

Murtha’s well financed and artfully crafted campaign apparatus was less easily swayed

Tags: murtha, pennsylvania congressman, lt. col. william t. russell, desert storm/iraq war veteran

Biden's refusal to apologize for Haditha

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:49:48 GMT

clipped by: sillysam

Clip Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

t's a transcript of Biden in June of 2006 on Meet the Press talking about the Haditha massacre. Now, when you hear Biden talking about this you must keep in mind that he was totally wrong about Haditha, just like Jack Murtha was and Biden has not apologized nor has Murtha. Eight of the Marines charged for that so-called massacre and the cover-up have already been exonerated. One case is still pending. Here's Russert: "Let me ask you a question on Iraq about Haditha, some of the other alleged atrocities. The fact is, our government knew about that for some time. How high up the chain, based on your information, do you think this goes?" Biden: "Secretary of Defense." Russert: "What should be done about Rumsfeld?" Biden: "He should be gone. He shouldn't be in his office tomorrow morning, but I'm so tired of saying this on your show. I've been saying this for two years." "Well, the president knew about Haditha in March." "Well, we can't get rid of the president.

Haditha Coverup

Fri, 18 Aug 2006 15:38:06 GMT

clipped by: Merican

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Marines May Have Excised Evidence on 24 Iraqi Deaths

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 — A high-level military investigation into the killings of 24 Iraqis in Haditha last November has uncovered instances in which American marines involved in the episode appear to have destroyed or withheld evidence, according to two Defense Department officials briefed on the case.

Tags: haditha, war, iraq, coverup, bush, bushit, cheney, publicans, republicans, lies

Haditha Marine prepares to sue Murtha over smear

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:35:47 GMT

clipped by: pkronfield
clipper's remarks: They should sue that fat pig Murtha, who, like another disgusting individual (Kerry) claims to be a war hero. Murtha seems to have long ago forgot what Semper Fi means, and stabbed his fellow marines in the back for political advantage. I say sue his ass. Then get him out of office on the double quick so for the first time in his life he will have to work for a living.

Clip Source: wnd.com

With most of the eight Marines charged in the Haditha, Iraq, incident now exonerated, the highest-ranking officer among the accused is considering a lawsuit against Democratic Rep. John Murtha, who fueled the case by declaring the men cold-blooded killers.

lead attorney for Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani said he and his client will look into suing Murtha and the Time magazine reporter, Tim McGuirk, who first published the accusations by Iraqi insurgents.

He noted the New York Times featured the case on the front page when it was being compared by war critics to the infamous My Lai massacre in Vietnam. But now, with evidence the Haditha accusations were a smear, the story has been relegated to the back pages.

Tags: loony left, democrat traitors

Validity of Charges on Haditha Marine Questioned

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 04:37:59 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: "Our position is that if this had not been Haditha and everything around it, he never would have been charged." - Attorney for defendant, Joseph Casas

Clip Source: nctimes.com

A military hearing officer said Saturday he has serious doubts over the validity of criminal charges filed against a Marine lieutenant

The hearing officer, Col. Robert Stahlman, said that if 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson was guilty of dereliction of duty for not ordering an investigation into the slayings, numerous other members of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment command staff should have been similarly charged.

Testimony during the hearing showed that Grayson had ordered the destruction of 70 photographs taken by a member of the intelligence team he led at Haditha. The order, however, was in keeping with a military policy that photographs deemed not to have any intelligence value be destroyed.

The man in charge of intelligence gathering for the 3rd Battalion at Haditha, Maj. Jeffrey Dinsmore, testified Saturday that he considered the photos "extraneous" and that Grayson and his team were responsible for developing intelligence leads and not probing civilian killings.

Tags: haditha, iraq, marines

Bush: Saddam execution video nearly as damaging as Abu Ghraib

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 01:25:07 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: Via Josh Marshall

Clip Source: dailynightly.msnbc.com

As is the custom prior to a major speech (normally the State of the Union and select others), the White House today invited a small group of broadcast journalists to the Roosevelt Room for a briefing, which was mostly with national security types... until the President walked in, unescorted. Tim Russert and I calculated that he was with us for just over an hour. He was forceful, animated and at times aggravated by the current state of the debate over Iraq. While the conditions of the conversation do not allow for direct quotation, we can certainly reflect the President's thinking when we come on the air tonight. Upon exiting the West Wing, I phoned one particular detail into MSNBC: Toward the end I asked the President if he'd seen the Saddam Hussein execution video. He said he had, and when I asked where it "ranked" (among the mistakes of the war) he indicated it was just below Abu Ghraib in terms of damage -- meaning slightly less damaging. The President also noted the damage done at Haditha.

Tags: bush administration, saddam hussein, incompetence, war, news, politics

3rd marine cleared of Haditha charges

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 03:37:10 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks:

Officials close to the Haditha case said they think prosecutors dismissed the charges in order to pursue Wuterich aggressively at trial. The cases against three of the Marines accused of shooting civilians have fallen apart, and Wuterich remains the only one left for prosecutors to target for accountability. Wuterich led the Marine squad and allegedly told his troops, as they approached a group of civilian homes that day, to shoot first and ask questions later.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

The Marine Corps yesterday dismissed all charges against one of the Marines accused of killing women and children in the Iraqi town of Haditha in late 2005, the third time a Marine linked to the slayings has been exonerated

Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum, who has admitted shooting civilians inside their homes as part of a pursuit of insurgents, was cleared and granted immunity to testify in further hearings related to the investigation. The move leaves only Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich to face charges in connection with the shootings on Nov. 19, 2005.

Although the Marines were at first accused of going on a rampage, the case has evolved into a far more complex examination of the Corps' rules of engagement and the general conduct of wartime operations in hostile residential areas.

Tags: haditha, marines, iraq, war, civilian-killings, stephen tatum, frank wuterich

The Shame of Haditha

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 01:07:07 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: The tragedies of war aren't limited to the military engagements.

Clip Source: www.opinionjournal.com

It seems Haditha, though tragic, was exploited politically, and the allegations were exaggerated, if not unfounded.

In March 2006, Time magazine broke the story, which erupted in the press. The accounts relied on a narrative that the Marines had gone berserk after the killing of Cpl. Terrazas and murdered Iraqis in retaliation. "Eyewitnesses" reported that the riders in the car had been lined up and executed, and that there had been a rampage through the houses targeting women and children. A coverup by the top brass was also asserted.

Yet neither was Haditha the atrocity or "massacre" that many assumed--though errors in judgment may well have been committed. And while some violent crimes have been visited on civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, overall the highly disciplined U.S. military has conducted itself in an exemplary fashion.

The critics rushed to judgment; facts and evidence were discarded to fit the antiwar template.

This is the deepest shame of Haditha

Tags: iraq, haditha, media, marines

Murtha says U.S. poses top threat to world peace

Sun, 25 Jun 2006 23:23:45 GMT

clipped by: BitDrifter

Clip Source: www.azstarnet.com

MIAMI — American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said to an audience of more than 200 in North Miami Saturday afternoon.

Murtha was the guest speaker at a town hall meeting organized by Rep. Kendrick B. Meek, D-Miami, at Florida International University's Biscayne Bay Campus. Meek's mother, former Rep. Carrie Meek, D-Miami, was also on the panel.

War veterans, local mayors, university students and faculty were in the Mary Ann Wolfe Theatre to listen to the three panelists discuss the war in Iraq for an hour.

A former Marine and a prominent critic of the Bush administration's policies in Iraq, Murtha reiterated his views that the war cannot be won militarily and needs political solutions. He said the more than 100,000 troops in Iraq should be pulled out immediately, and deployed to peripheral countries like Kuwait.

"We do not want permanent bases in Iraq," Murtha told the audience. "We want as many Americans out of there as possible."

Murtha also has publicly said that the shooting of 24 Iraqis in November at Haditha, a city in the Anbar province of western Iraq that has been plagued by insurgents, was wrongfully covered up.

The killings, which sparked an investigation into the deadly encounter and another into whether they were the subject of a cover-up, could undermine U.S. efforts in Iraq more than the prison abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib in 2004, Murtha said.

"(The United States) became the target when Abu Ghraib came along," Murtha said.

Tags: iraq, iraq war, war, murtha, john murtha, congress, kook, democrat, news

Should be front page news

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:56:16 GMT

clipped by: sillysam

Clip Source: www.breitbart.com

US Marine acquitted of all charges in Haditha killings

A court martial on Wednesday acquitted a US Marine for his role in the deaths of 24 civilians in Haditha in Iraq in 2005, the sixth man to be exonerated in the affair, a military official said.

Lieutenant Andrew Grayson, 27, was declared "not guilty on all charges" by a jury, said a spokesman for the Camp Pendleton military base in southern California where the hearing started on May 28.

Grayson had been charged with making false statements and attempting to fraudulently separate from the Marine Corps. He was also charged with obstruction of justice, but the military judge dismissed this charge Tuesday.

He was the first Marine to stand trial in connection with the killings of 24 men, women and children in Haditha, the most serious war crime allegations leveled at US forces since the 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

Haditha Marines Cleared Of Murdering Civilians - Military Justice Or Injustice

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 05:31:16 GMT

clipped by: cptenaud
clipper's remarks: Who is the impartial jury anyway? Oh that’s right it’s the military, they try their own. Why? Well that’s who their peers are of course and only they know what it’s like to be confronted with the threat of unarmed, seventy-six year old Abdul Hamid, blind and in a wheelchair and why slaughtering him in cold blood is justified. Local coroners’ reports say Hamid was shot in the stomach and head and that his wife and five other unarmed relatives were also killed by multiple gunshot wounds. Four others inside the house survived, including ten year old, Iman who said this,

The Americans came into the room where my father was praying and shot him. They went to my grandmother and killed her, too.

Meet the decider, Lt. General John Mattis. Mattis, known as "Mad Dog Mattis" to his troops, is currently commanding general of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Virginia. The General whose job it is to decide the fate of the Haditha marines has said,

Clip Source: bravenewfilms.org

Many marines are honorable and decent and serve their country with honor and distinction. But not all.

In November 2005, in Haditha, Iraq, twenty-four Iraqi civilians including women and children were shot after a marine was killed in a roadside bombing. The Haditha deaths justifiably sparked international anger. Even Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had this to say about the Haditha case.

Iraqi and multinational forces must respect human rights and the rights of Iraqi citizens, and a family cannot be killed because someone is fighting terrorists.

Yet, as supposed military justice continues it’s inexorable march towards “injustice” in Camp Pendleton, California, one after another of these marines are being set free. Predictably, the hysterical cries from the right in support of the Haditha marines slaughter of twenty-four civilians are deafening.

Tags: as, a, marine, i, know, right, from, wrong

Jack Murtha Steps In It Again

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 14:21:31 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: And, Murtha still has not apologized to the 7 innocent Haditha Marines he accused of cold-blooded murder last time.

UPDATE: Murtha's opponent this year for Congress is Lt. Colonel William Russell a decorated combat veteran who has served in Desert Storm, the Iraq War, and the Pentagon on 9/11.

You can donate to his campaign HERE.

A WilleyBCoyote Video.

Murtha Makes An Outrageous Allegation

http://newsbusters.org/node/5410

Clip Source: gatewaypundit.blogspot.com

[Video]

Here is what Murtha says:

Murtha: I think they have 17 or so guidelines and they've solved 4 or 5 of them.
(Actually they've completed 15 of the 18 benchmarks.)

Murtha: I think the short term it (the Bush Surge) has reduced incidents. I'm not sure if it's because the Iraqis are just worn out but certainly the way they are doing it today it makes a big difference. It used to be we broke down doors. We went in and we killed people inadvertantly. Now they're much more careful about it.

And, just think...
This hateful boob is the national security "expert" in the Democratic Party!

Blackfive adds: "And they wonder why no one takes them seriously in those areas???"

Let's hope justice is served against this hateful man some day soon. Murtha put those Haditha Marines through hell these past few years and he isn't man enough to apologize to them.

He is a coward.

Tags: jack murtha, iraq, surge, u.s. troops, marines

Haditha Marines want Murtha censored...oooRAH!

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 02:11:28 GMT

clipped by: caoilfhionn
clipper's remarks: Hope he feels the heat.

Clip Source: amyproctor.squarespace.com

A Marine being cleared of wrongdoing in the Haditha murders of Iraqi civilians wants John Murtha censured for saying he killed civilians “in cold blood”. Another Marine is suing. OORAH!

Tags: marines, haditha, murtha, jack murtha, code pink

Vets Break Silence on War Crimes

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 03:28:50 GMT

clipped by: Geshizar

Clip Source: www.ipsnews.net

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 28 (IPS) - U.S. veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are planning to descend on Washington from Mar. 13-16 to testify about war crimes they committed or personally witnessed in those countries.

"The war in Iraq is not covered to its potential because of how dangerous it is for reporters to cover it," said Liam Madden, a former Marine and member of the group Iraq Veterans Against the War. "That's left a lot of misconceptions in the minds of the American public about what the true nature of military occupation looks like."

Iraq Veterans Against the War argues that well-publicised incidents of U.S. brutality like the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the massacre of an entire family of Iraqis in the town of Haditha are not the isolated incidents perpetrated by "a few bad apples", as many politicians and military leaders have claimed. They are part of a pattern, the group says, of "an increasingly bloody occupation"

Tags: bush, war on terror, united states, military, justice, iraq