Editorial: No justice in secrecy

[unhappycamper]

Editorial: No justice in secrecy

We may never know exactly what happened on March 4, 2007, when Marines from a special operations company in Afghanistan responded to a suicide attack on their convoy with overwhelming firepower.

Some say the Marines killed as many as 19 Afghan civilians, firing indiscriminately at vehicles and pedestrians along a 10-mile stretch of road while escaping from the attack site.

Others, including Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland of Marine Corps Forces Central Command, say the Marines “acted appropriately and in accordance with the rules of engagement and tactics, techniques and procedures in place at the time in response to a complex attack.”

If Marines were going to be charged in the case, Helland was the one to make the call. But while three officers face nonjudicial punishment related to other aspects of the deployment, no Marines will be charged criminally as a result of the shootout.

Helland based his decision on a rare Court of Inquiry, a noncriminal investigative panel conducted over three weeks in January Camp Lejeune, N.C. Led by a pair of Marine colonels and a lieutenant colonel, the panel heard testimony from more than 45 witnesses and reviewed more than 12,000 pages of documents.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/community/opinion/marine_editorial_secrecy_060908/