WP: In Haditha Killings, Details Came Slowly: Official Version is at Odds

[pnwmom]

With Evidence.

Washington Post says that the Haditha scandal may be worse than Abu Ghraib. And that the Marines blew the whistle.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/03/AR2006060300710.html

"At 5 p.m. Nov. 19, near the end of one of the most violent days the Marine Corps had experienced in the Upper Euphrates Valley, a call went out for trucks to collect the bodies of 24 Iraqi civilians.

SNIP

"Despite what Marine witnesses saw when they arrived, that official version has been allowed to stand for six months. Who lied about the killings, who knew the truth and what, if anything, they did about it are at the core of one of the potentially most embarrassing and damaging events of the Iraq war, one that some say may surpass the detainee abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison."

SNIP

"At the Marine Corps headquarters, there was "genuine surprise at high levels," said an Army officer who has been working with the Marine Corps on the case. "It caught a lot of people off guard."

"That weekend, almost four months after the incident, "we went to general quarters," recalled one Marine general, using the naval expression for the call to arms. The following Monday, March 13, Marine officers began briefing key members of Congress on defense-related committees. Their message was succinct: Something highly disturbing had happened in Haditha, and its repercussions could be serious. The alacrity of the Marine response surprised some of Rumsfeld's aides in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. OSD, as it is called at the Pentagon, told the Marine Corps a few days later not to say anything to anyone about the investigation, recalled the general. Too late, the Marines responded, we've already briefed Capitol Hill."

SNIP

TOO LATE, RUMMY. THE MARINES GOT THERE FIRST.

[UpInArms]

1. the last paragraph speaks volumes:

The Marine Corps still has not corrected its misleading Nov. 20 statement asserting that the Iraqi civilians were killed in a bomb blast. A Marine Corps spokesman didn't return calls on Friday asking why it had not.

[TankLV]

2. "Most "EMBARASSING" and "damaging" "EVENTS".

Yeah - that's it AGAIN - it's all about EMBARASSING the repukes - "it's all about MEEEEEEEE"!

How 'bout it's DISGUSTING or DISPICABLE or INEXCUSABLE or HORRIFIC or FASCIST?!

And they wonder why WE'RE still ANGRY at these WAR CRIMINAL!

[evilkumquat]

3. Not to Divert from the Atrocity Itself...

...but what the hell is up with the language the reporter used in describing Murtha's press conference?

Then, on May 17, Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) let the news slip out. In the middle of a rambling statement at the outset of a news conference on Capitol Hill, he said -- almost as an aside -- that what happened in Haditha was "much worse than reported in Time magazine." He asserted that the investigations would reveal that "our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood." (Emphasis mine)

Remove the words in boldface above, and the meaning of the paragraph remains the same, but the tone would not make one think that Murtha is prone to "rambling" or tossing off an atrocity as a mere "aside".

Once again, another example of a reporter forgetting her job is to REPORT, not to inject personal bias into the work.

Evil Kumquat

[uppityperson]

4. I heard Murtha and he was not rambling or asiding.

dang librul media and all. Murtha was sternly commanding.

[pnwmom]

5. Welcome Evilkumquat!

Thanks for bringing that up. I noticed it, too, and didn't know what to make of it. No one's ever said Murtha was a fantastic speaker.

Maybe he was trying to excuse the reporters for not jumping on the story though -- by saying that Murtha didn't highlight it.

[daleo]

6. "Rambling" is often a journalist code word for drunk or senile

So, I think it was an attempt to de-legitimize Murtha a bit.

[nolies32fouettes]

7. After all this, look at what this person posted Here...

http://www.progressiveu.org/172900-what-is-the-real-situation-in-iraq

Please help me by posting to him too.

(the more the merrier)