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.
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