Haditha Case Collapses Further
June 18th, 2008 at 01:46am Mark Noonan
Just one man left to be cleared:
A military judge on Tuesday dismissed the case against the highest-ranking U.S. Marine charged in the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians at Haditha, whittling down the list of those who must still face justice for the 2005 incident to just the accused ringleader.
Military Judge Col. Steven Folsom dropped all charges against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, who was accused of violating a lawful order and dereliction of duty, at a hearing at the Camp Pendleton Marine base in Southern California.
Folsom’s decision means that, out of eight Marines originally charged in December 2006, six have won dismissals of their charges and one has been cleared at court martial.
The accused ringleader, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, still faces court martial. The proceedings against him, however, have been put on hold pending the appeal of a pretrial ruling.
Folsom threw out the charges against Chessani, a 44-year-old Colorado native, after finding that a four-star general who oversaw the case could have been influenced by an investigator who later became his adviser.
The judge ruled that military prosecutors could refile the case but it was not immediately clear if they would do so. The prosecution could also appeal his ruling.
It will be very hard to get a conviction against a “ringleader” who, apparantly, had no ring to lead because no one else is going to be convicted of the alleged crime. Essentially, the whole Haditha case appears to be enemy propaganda cooked up against our troops and sadly taken up by the American left (most prominently by the very ex-Marine Murtha) looking for any club they could to beat President Bush with.
The mean, cruel and spiteful way the left has attacked our effort in Iraq turns my stomach and makes me ashamed to think that such people can be my fellow Americans.
UPDATE: Michelle Malkin says it all.
Entry Filed under: Kook Left, War on Terror
11 Comments
1. congressive | June 18th, 2008 at 5:31 am
An impossible post to comment on. Any comment will be taken as an attack on those fine soldiers, etc, and deleted immediately.
HooRah!
2. hermie | June 18th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Sorry, but these soldiers are not out of the woods yet.
Obama has pledged that he will have anyone accused of ‘war crimes’ brought to trial. That means he has pledged to send these Marines before a UN kangaroo court.
Congressman Murtha has made these accusations and so Obama must back up his fellow Dem and party leader; as well as MoveOn, Code Pink, George Soros, etc. He cannot afford to go against his base, and do nothing about the Haditha marines.
3. Dollardays | June 18th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
1. congressive | June 18th, 2008 at 5:31 am
With you on this one. Our fighting force is the best and most lethal the world has ever seen.
4. Magnum Serpentine | June 18th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
This is why United States troops who are arrested for War Crimes should be tried in the Netherlands. Its clear that an Activist Judge had the case.
5. neocon | June 18th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
So Mags,
NOW you have a problem with activist judges????
Who ties your shoes in the morning?
have a nice day
peace, neocon
6. FmrMarine | June 18th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Neo;
Hmmmmm
Klinton pardoned DRUG dealers, hillarys brother, money launderers.
Maybe W will pardon the Marines, as well as the Border agents.
7. neocon | June 18th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
fmrMarine,
I am afraid he may have to.
8. Darius Blood | June 18th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Deleted - paranoid ravings.
9. neocon | June 18th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Yes they will Darius. It’s all true. But don’t let too many people know, because they are real close to taking over the world, and imposing a Christian Theocracy, where everyone will have to blame themselves for something they did wrong every day.
Not only that but they are going to erase the word homosexual from the dictionary and they’ll hand out Bibles and pearl necklaces to all the women.
It’ll be fun
peace, neocon
10. kjstrouble | June 19th, 2008 at 1:04 am
Wish Darius’ ranting had not been deleted, would have love to have read what he wrote and neo so thoughtfully responded to.
As for Haditha, I hope that Bush will pardon them, and the two border agents who were imprisoned for doing their job, (ie - stopping illegal entry into the US).
And Darius - don’t worry about a Christian Theocracy - worry about an Islamic Theocracy based on either Wahabism, or Shi’ism.
11. Darius Blood | June 19th, 2008 at 7:01 am
Fanatic theocracies are all the same, but that is not what I wrote about.
Just read your headlines.
Noonan can delete my comment, but he cannot delete the headlines.