| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 6:55 pm Post subject: Did Israelis train US Marines in the Haditha massacre? |
| Were at least some of the US Marines (or their commanding officers) involved with the Haditha massacre trained in urban warfare tactics by the Israelis (in comparing what Israel did at Jenin in the West Bank to what the US military did in Falluja):
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/30/1332253
Take a look for yourself:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3625315.stm
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1222601_1,00.html
http://www.rense.com/general51/addad.htm
The Meaning of Haditha:
http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9081
How many of those US marines were suffering from post tramautic stress and were on meds as a result and (kept in theater instead of going home):
US sending mentally ill troops into front line positions in Iraq
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/05/14/hartford-courant-_n_20964.html
Were Israelis working with the US Marines directly like they were with the US Delta Force interrogators near the Baghdad airport:
Zionists and Torture in Iraq
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2004/09/09/the-zionists-and-torture-in-iraq.php
Is this US Marine Sgt. (Frank Wuterich) Jewish?:
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2017565&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
Are Major General Richard Natonski (the commanding officer) and Captain James Kimber Jewish?:
Saturday, May 27, 2006
The Marines in Haditha
On November 19, 2005, a roadside bomb killed Marine Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas of El Paso, Texas. The following news item was released by the Pentagon to the news wires:
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, 20, of El Paso, Texas died Nov. 19 from an improvised explosive device while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in the vicinity of Hadithah, Iraq. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, his unit was attached to 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward).
In this AP state and local news wire item, we learn a little more personal information about Terrazas:
Relatives of Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas said he felt like he had to join the Marines after high school, even though that meant he was probably headed to war.
"He thought it was his obligation to service his country, to protect his family," Terrazas' aunt, Rosario Terrazas, said Tuesday.
Miguel Terrazas, a 20-year-old from El Paso, was killed Saturday near the Iraqi town of Hadithah by an improvised explosive device, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Tuesday.
Terrazas was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif. He is at least the 178th Texas service member to die in Iraq since the war began in March 2003, according to the Pentagon.
Saturday wasn't Miguel Terrazas' first time in such a dangerous situation, his aunt said.
During his first tour of duty in Iraq in 2004, his unit was caught in an ambush. Rosario Terrazas said her nephew, whom she called "Mikey," was given a commendation for his efforts that day.
Rosario Terrazas said the commendation credits his quick thinking and targeting of an enemy insurgent with saving the lives of his fellow Marines.
Miguel Terrazas didn't plan to be a career Marine. His four-year enlistment, Rosario Terrazas said, was in part to fight terrorism and in part to follow in the footsteps of two Marine uncles and a grandfather who served in the Army.
"He had plans to go to college and get into law enforcement," Rosario Terrazas said.
And one day he hoped to marry and have a family, she said.
Rosario Terrazas, who spoke on behalf of the family Tuesday, said her nephew was a man dedicated to his family, who proudly claimed his older brother as his best friend.
And when he had the chance, he would make sure to spend time fishing with his dad and his brothers, or taking his nieces and nephews to the movies.
Miguel Terrazas is also survived by his father, Martin, brothers Martin Jr. and Andy, his sisters Vanessa and Melissa, his paternal grandparents and several other relatives.
On March 16, 2006, CNN's Barbara Starr broke the story that the U.S. military was investigating allegations surrounding the incident in Haditha. The Marines had reported that the bomb that had killed Terrazas was likewise responsible for the deaths of 15 Iraqi civilians. The following is the transcript from Paula Zahn evening program on Thursday, March 16, 2006:
ZAHN: We begin in Iraq tonight, where we have a pair of developing stories. The most disturbing one surfaced late this afternoon.
The U.S. military has opened a criminal investigation into the deaths of more than a dozen Iraqi civilians. The deaths were first reported to be the result of one of those countless roadside bombings last November, in a place called Haditha. But now there are questions being raised about possible misconduct by some U.S. Marines.
Let's turn to Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. She broke the story for CNN. She has been working her sources right up until right now.
Barbara, what have you learned?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Paula.
This story is very unsettling, very few details -- none of them being officially made public by the military. But we can tell you tonight that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, after returning from an early trip to Capitol Hill today, has now been fully briefed here at the Pentagon, late in the day, about this unfolding criminal investigation into potential misconduct by Marines in Iraq last November.
The place, as you say, is a place called Haditha. November 19, 2005, Marines were in a convoy riding through Haditha when they were struck by a roadside bomb blast. Then there was very quickly a follow-up burst of insurgent gunfire.
By all accounts, the Marines returned fire, said they killed some insurgents, and also announced that 15 civilians were killed in the roadside blast. You see some video here from Haditha
But now, months later, a tip came in that maybe -- just maybe -- these civilians were not killed in a roadside blast, as the Marines said. There was an initial investigation conducted, Paula. And whatever was found, they found enough information now to proceed to that criminal investigation.
So, we learned late today, a criminal investigation has been opened. The question on the table, what happened there? Were these civilians possibly human shields used by the insurgents? Were they caught in the crossfire? Or is this criminal investigation looking at misconduct by Marines, did they indiscriminately, without appropriate military discipline, shoot these civilians in this incident in Haditha?
We don't know where this investigation is headed tonight, Paula.
ZAHN: A lot of critical answers to find out.
Hospital just about that time. We don't know if this was exactly the people that died, but there was a lot of activity at the hospital on that day.
As the investigation continued the Los Angeles Times reported on April 8, 2006, that three Marine commanders had been relieved of their duties:
A top Marine general fired a battalion commander and two company commanders Friday amid an investigation into whether Marines from the battalion wantonly killed Iraqi civilians in a November firefight.
Maj. Gen. Richard Natonski, commanding general of the 1st Marine Division, relieved Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, and two of his company commanders, Capt. James Kimber and Capt. Luke McConnell, of their duties. The three have been reassigned.
Marine Corps spokesman 2nd Lt. Lawton King said Natonski relieved the three of command because he lacked confidence in their leadership, based on their recent deployment to Iraq and a series of actions by the battalion.
It was unclear what the three officers did to lose Natonski's confidence. Under military rules, a commander can be relieved for the actions of his subordinates even if he knew nothing of those actions.
Military officials are investigating allegations by Iraqi civilians that Marines burst into several homes in Haditha, near Baghdad, on Nov. 19 and began firing indiscriminately.
Moments earlier, a Marine had been killed in a roadside bombing. When the incident first became public, the Marine Corps said the Iraqis had been killed in the explosion.
But video footage taken by the Iraqis showing the bloody bodies with gunshot wounds threw that assertion into dispute. Officials later said they had been killed in crossfire.
Fifteen Iraqi civilians were killed, including seven women and three children. Eight insurgents also were killed.
The Marine killed by the bomb was identified as Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas of El Paso, a member of Kilo Company of the 3rd Battalion.
Investigators are attempting to determine whether other Marines, angered at Terrazas' death, went on a rampage, ignoring rules meant to minimize civilian casualties. McConnell was the commanding officer of Kilo Company.
The tape of the bodies has been shown on Iraqi television, and the Baghdad Center for Human Rights has called for an investigation.
Troops could face courts-martial for violation of Geneva Convention protections for noncombatants if the inquiry determines that action is warranted.
Haditha is considered a stronghold of insurgent support. Militant leaders are thought to have fled there after the U.S. assault on Fallouja in November 2004.
About 25,000 Marines from Camp Pendleton and Twentynine Palms recently returned to Iraq to assume responsibility for much of the so-called Sunni Triangle, an area north and west of the capital that includes Fallouja. For many of the Marines, it is their third deployment to Iraq.
Natonski relieved the three officers of command on the same day he attended a memorial service at this sprawling base for nine Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, killed in November along the Syrian border.
Take No Prisoners :
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5365.htm
“Hawkish Israeli Lobby Wants War with Iran!”
http://baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/display/12448/index.php
Former CIA Analyst Says Iran Strike Set For June Or July :
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2006/06/02/former-cia-analyst-says-iran-strike-set-for-june-or-july.php
Review: Neocons and the Corruption of the American Republic:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2006/05/31/review-neocons-and-the-corruption-of-the-american-republic.php
Last edited by Alpha on Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:37 pm; edited 11 times in total | |  | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 9:32 am Post subject: Marine's wife paints portrait of US troops out of control in |
| Marine's wife paints portrait of US troops out of control in Haditha
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1790499,00.html
· Unit accused of abusing drugs and alcohol
· Officers relieved of duty after killing of 24 Iraqis
Julian Borger in Washington
Monday June 5, 2006
The Guardian
The marine unit involved in the killing of Iraqi civilians in Haditha last November had suffered a "total breakdown" in discipline and had drug and alcohol problems, according to the wife of one of the battalion's staff sergeants.
The allegations in Newsweek magazine contribute to an ever more disturbing portrait of embattled marines under high stress, some on their third tour of duty after ferocious door-to-door fighting in the Sunni insurgent strongholds of Falluja and Haditha.
The wife of the unnamed staff sergeant claimed there had been a "total breakdown" in the unit's discipline after it was pulled out of Falluja in early 2005.
"There were problems in Kilo company with drugs, alcohol, hazing [violent initiation games], you name it," she said. "I think it's more than possible that these guys were totally tweaked out on speed or something when they shot those civilians in Haditha."
The troops in Iraq have been ordered to take refresher courses on battlefield ethics, but a growing body of evidence from Haditha suggests the strain of repeated deployments in Iraq is beginning to unravel the cohesion and discipline of the combat troops.
"We are in trouble in Iraq," Barry McCaffrey, a retired army general who played a leading role in the Iraq war, told Time magazine. "Our forces can't sustain this pace, and I'm afraid the American people are walking away from this war."
The Newsweek account described a gung-ho battalion that had staged a chariot race, complete with captured horses, togas and heavy metal music, before the battle for Falluja in late 2004. The marines were given loose rules of engagement in the vicious urban warfare that followed.
"If you see someone with a cellphone," said one of the commanders was quoted as saying, half-jokingly, "put a bullet in their fucking head".
At one point in the battle, a marine from the 3rd battalion was caught on camera shooting a wounded, unarmed man as he lay on the ground. However, the marine involved was later exonerated.
The third battalion lost 17 men in 10 days in Falluja and by the time the troops arrived in Haditha, in autumn last year, it was clear morale had plummeted. A Daily Telegraph reporter who visited its headquarters early this year at Haditha Dam, on the outskirts of the town, described it as a "feral place" where discipline was "approaching breakdown". He reported that some marines had left the official living quarters and had set up separate encampments with signs ordering outsiders to keep out.
Other observers, however, have come away from time spent with the marines with different impressions. Lucian Read, a photographer who spent five months with Kilo company, said it was generally well led, although sometimes squads had to go on patrol without an officer because there were not enough to go around.
Mr Read told Time magazine that Kilo company was the "most human" of the many units he had accompanied in Iraq. "They were never abusive," he said. "There was a certain amount of antagonism and frustration when people didn't cooperate. But it's not like they had 'kill 'em all' spray-painted on the walls."
Three senior officers in the Haditha-based 3rd battalion of the first marine regiment, known as the Thundering Third, have been relieved of duty because of a "lack of confidence" in their leadership.
The officers include Captain Lucas McConnell, the head of Kilo company, which was directly involved in the deaths of 24 unarmed Iraqis there on November 19.
Another captain from the battalion, James Kimber, was relieved of duty for a separate incident, according to his lawyer, who said his subordinates in India company had sworn and derided Iraqi security forces in an interview with Sky News.
The commander of the third battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Chessani, has also been made to step down pending the outcome of the Haditha investigation.
A criminal investigation conducted by navy investigators into the Haditha killings is still under way, but a parallel army inquiry into the wider issues has been completed. However, a military official said some findings might be withheld pending the principle inquiry findings.
On Saturday the Iraqi government rejected the findings of a US inquiry into the death of nine civilians in a US raid in the town of Ishaqi and said it would conduct its own investigation. | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
