Troop of the Week
"The Pendleton 8 and Haditha Marines"
The Pendleton 8
The Pendleton 8 (or Innocent 8) started on April 26th, 2006 at
around 2:00 a.m. in Hamdania, Iraq. The Marines and a "Doc" were doing
searches looking for weapons cache and insurgents.
They apparently searched at least four homes that night.
The first home they searched they retrieved an AK-47 and a shovel. They
searched two more homes without incident. The last place of residence they
searched is where this story becomes conflicted and down right strange.
According to public records, the Marines encountered a Iraqi man at the last
home that they searched. A struggle ensued with the man and the Marines.
According to the nearby neighbors (which is real sketchy), thirty minutes later
shots were heard near the house. The next day, Iraqi policemen came across
Hashim Ibrahim Awad laying in the street with an AK-47 and a shovel beside him.
His face was so swollen that he was barely recognizable by neighbors. He
also had been shot in the face through the mouth. A military investigation
began, with cheap shots from former Marine Congressman John Murtha, in which, he
called the Marines murderers.
On June 21st, 2006 the Military announces that it is charging
the Pendleton 8 with kidnapping and murder. Being charged by military
prosecutors is worse than receiving a death sentence, because military
prosecutors have a 97% conviction rate. A controversy ensued because the
Marines and "Doc" were being held in the brig without even formally being
charged with any crime. After calls into the Hannity radio talk show, the
Pendleton 8 were released for almost 48 hours (confined to base) from the brig,
before the prosecutors arrested them all and made the kidnapping and murder
charges formal.
October 7th, 2006, "Doc" Melson Bacos testifies against his
Marines for a reduced plea. He states that the Marines were looking for a
known insurgent fighter that night that had been captured and released.
They came across Hashim Awad's (a retired iraqi policemen, father of eleven) and
took him and put him into a hole. They fired about 20 rounds into him,
once they made sure he was dead, the Marines called into the command center for
permission to fire upon a insurgent. With AK-47 fire (provided by Bacos),
the command center gave the okay. Then Bacos says, the Marines tried to
cover up what they had done by placing Hashim Awad by the road with a AK-47 and
a shovel to disguise him as a insurgent placing an IED (improvised explosive
device).
November 2006, LCPL Jerry Shumante was sentenced to 21 months
in the brig for aggravated assault upon testifying on the other Marines.
PFC Jodka and LCPL Jackson also have taken pleas of a lesser charge for their
testimony against their other brothers in arms. The Pendleton 8 has been
whittled down to the Pendleton 4. What you may here about in the next few
months as the court martial proceedings for the other four Marines takes place
is the way Hashim Awad avoided questions by the Marines, became combatant, and
started to fight with the Marines. From Patriotic Thunders views about
this, we just state the facts that we know now. As for war, Marines may
lose their head, but no one should judge a group of individuals (even a
congressman) before all the facts are presented.
__________________________________________________________________
The Haditha Marines
To understand Haditha, Iraq, you must look at some of the
history first. This is a detailed report on the Marines at Haditha.
Haditha Dam provides the hydroelectric power to most of the
Anbar Province. Haditha has been known as a hot-bed for insurgent
activity. July 16, 2003, the mayor of Haditha and his son were
assassinated. In
2004,
U.S. troops left a local police force in charge of the city and insurgents
rounded up dozens of local police officers and publicly executed them in a
soccer stadium. On August 1, 2005, an ambush killed six United States
Marine snipers in the city; on August 3, a roadside bomb killed another 14
Marines and their interpreter. According to an August 2005 report by The
Guardian (a British newspaper), the town was controlled by insurgents, with US
forces making only fleeting visits every few months.
The Haditha Marines Timeline: Year 2006
- Nov. 19: 7:14 a.m. U.S. Marines are
escorting Iraq policeman to Haditha headquarters for daily job. U.S. Intel
says that these Marines will be attacked today, information forwarded.
U.S. Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, 20, of El Paso, Texas, is killed by a roadside
bomb in Haditha, a Sunni Arab city considered among the most hostile areas of
Iraq. Two other Marines are injured seriously.
- Nov. 20: The Marines release a statement saying that insurgents
attacked a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol with small-arms fire after the blast,
triggering a gun battle that left eight insurgents and 15 Iraqi civilians dead.
- Feb. 14: Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the commander of Multinational Corps
Iraq, orders a preliminary investigation.
- March 9: Chiarelli directs further review of the incident by the Naval
Criminal Investigation Service.
- March 20: The U.S. military says it's investigating possible misconduct
by the Marines and confirms there is a videotape, which Time Magazine says shows
the aftermath of the Marines' assault. Haditha residents tell The
Associated Press that American troops entered homes and shot dead 15 members of
two families, including a 3-year-old girl, after a roadside bomb killed a U.S.
Marine.
- March 21: The video taken by an Iraqi is aired repeatedly by Arab
television stations showing bodies of women and children in plastic bags on the
floor of what appeared to be a morgue. Men were seen standing in the middle of
bodies, some of which were covered with blankets before being placed in a pickup
truck.
- April 10: The military says Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani, Capt. James
S. Kimber and Capt. Lucas M. McConnell have been relieved of their commands in
connection with problems in Iraq, including their battalion's actions during a
firefight that left 15 Iraqi civilians dead.
- May 17: U.S. Rep. John Murtha says a Pentagon war crimes investigation
will show Marines killed more than a dozen innocent Iraqi civilians "in cold
blood" in the town of Haditha.
- May 18: Military officials say the criminal investigation into the
firefight in Haditha is not complete.
- May 25: Top U.S. Marine Gen. Michael W. Hagee says he fears some
Marines could become "indifferent to the loss of a human life." His office
announces that he was enroute to Iraq to reinforce the Corps' standards of
behavior in combat.
- May 30: In his first statement on the case, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki says in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. that the
killings of civilians in Haditha were not justified.
- May 31: President Bush promises that any Marines involved in the
alleged murders of Iraqi civilians will be punished.
- June 1: The Iraqi government announces its own investigation into
reports that U.S. Marines killed unarmed civilians last year, and the
second-ranking commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, orders American
commanders to hold ethical training on battlefield conduct.
- June 6: Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Warner says his panel
won't investigate alleged U.S. Marine atrocities at Haditha until the Pentagon
completes its own investigation. But he renews his vow to hold open hearings on
the incident.
-June 16: The report by Maj. Gen. Bargewell into training and preparation
of Marines prior to the Haditha incident and the reporting of information
concerning the incident is forwarded to Lt. Gen. Chiarelli, the top U.S.
commander in Iraq. The report finds no evidence of a cover-up, but instead finds
that officers failed to ask the right questions or press the Marines about what
happened.
-August: Lt. Gen. James Mattis, the incoming commander of the 1st Marine
Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif., is briefed on the Haditha
investigative report by officials from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
Mattis will convene with his lawyers to determine whether charges should be
filed.
-Aug. 2: Military investigators find that there is evidence supporting
allegations that U.S. Marines deliberately shot unarmed civilians in the Iraqi
town of Haditha last November, according to unnamed Pentagon sources. Military
prosecutors are still weighing whether to recommend criminal charges.
-Dec. 21: The Marines file charges of unpremeditated murder against Staff
Sgt. Frank Wuterich, Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz, Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt and Lance
Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum. Charges of dereliction of duty charges for failing to
investigate are filed against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, Capt. Lucas McConnell,
Capt. Randy Stone and 1st Lt. Andrew A Grayson. Grayson also faces charges of
making a false official statement and of obstruction of justice.
Now for what most people don't know about Haditha.
The Marines had hot intel that warned them of an attack from at least 20
terrorists that day. They were fortifying the Command Outpost accordingly.
Several children knew about the attack ahead of time, and there were quite a few
people in the vicinity of the IED when it exploded. Their dead bodies are not
accounted for in any Iraqi statement thus far. When the IED exploded, the
Marines began taking heavy small arms fire (as corroborated by the surveillance
drone in the area). The Iraqi “eyewitnesses” claim the Marines were never fired
upon. There are radio records of what happened that day, and they will come out.
The Marines reacted swiftly, having already been briefed to expect such an
attack. At the time, they did not know that one of their own had been killed,
thus removing the media’s pet motive of “uncontrolled revenge triggered by Sgt
Terrazas’ death” from the scenario. Marine brass knew that a high number
of civilians were killed that day, both when the IED exploded and during heavy
crossfire. Nothing raised an alarm. A Reuters reporter on the scene hours
after the attack noted no reports or signs of a “massacre". The climate of the
community did not change in the days, weeks, or months after the incident. In
fact, nothing really cropped up until Tim McGirk of Time Magazine was given a
scoop by Ali and Abdel al-Mashhadani, conveniently ready-made with video footage
and weeping “survivors” in an insurgent stronghold (Haditha).
The highly questionable video of a Sunni photojournalist
and known insurgent sympathizer, combined with the questionable testimony of a
known anti-American Sunni doctor are the sole reasons any investigation was
launched. The name of this Sunni Doctor is Dr. Walid Al-Obeidi (Director
of Haditha General Hospital), the same doctor that said, "“they arrested me in
my house in front of my family, covered my eyes, and tied my hands to the back
on Oct 5, 2005 morning, during the last attack on Haditha. They occupied the
hospital for 8 days and made it their office. The first day they beat me on my
eyes, nose, back, hands, legs… My face was covered with blood. I could not wash
my face because bleeding would start again. When they removed the tie I could
not see. They investigated me until the afternoon. I realized later that I was
arrested in the hospital store. Then they tied my hands to the front, and left
me for two days. I was moved then to the pharmacy department. They accused me of
treating terrorists, and asked for their names.". I wonder if he had an
axe to grind with the U.S. Military? Anonymous Iraqis provided emotional
but conflicting testimony of what happened that day. One child's testimony
is curiously calm and unemotional while describing an uncanny knowledge of the
precise nature of her family’s killings, while the younger child, more confused,
offers conflicting details, uses adult military terminology (likely coached by
an adult), and volunteers foreknowledge of the attack. The Iraqis in Haditha
refuse to allow the military to exhume the bodies of those killed that day. A
simple examination will prove how those people died, and the Iraqis won’t allow
it. There is no doubt in my mind that they cannot allow the truth to be
discovered. They will hide behind their religion on this one and babble about
dishonoring the burials of the dead. And we’d better cry bullshit - these people
have been dumped into mass graves for decades on end, and have never protested
the exhumation of the bodies for identification purposes after Saddam’s regime
was toppled. We cannot allow their hypocrisy to blind this investigation.
The media ignores all the context above and chooses instead to believe that
these Iraqis are incapable of lying, when they’ve already been proven liars on
numerous details.
What ticks us off at Patriotic Thunder is the way the Drive-By
media sent all these Marines right down the river from the onset of this story.
As for Congressman Murtha calling our brave men "cold-blooded killers" he is
being sued by Staff Sgt. Wuterich (charged for murder) for libel and slander in
an on-going investigation.
As always, Patriotic Thunders intent is to give you all the
facts and let you decide what the truth is. In doing so, it appears some
Marines in Hamdania were guilty of some type of crime. However, we still
don't have all the story. As much like the Duke rape case, and as it
appears these young men are innocent, we must salute our troops bravery and
remind ourselves that they're innocent until proven guilty. The Haditha
Marines are still innocent and if you read the above, apparently have a defense
case, because these facts will come out. We will finish this column this
week by the words of a CNN reporter that was embedded with the Haditha
Marines a month before the actual incident.
CNN Reporter Arwa Damon-
"I know the Marines that were operating in western al
Anbar, from Husayba all the way to Haditha. I went on
countless operations in 2005 up and down the Euphrates River
Valley. I was pinned on rooftops with them in Ubeydi for
hours taking incoming fire, and I’ve seen them not fire a
shot back because they did not have positive identification
on a target.
I saw their horror when they thought that they finally
had identified their target, fired a tank round that went
through a wall and into a house filled with civilians. They
then rushed to help the wounded — remarkably no one was
killed.
I was with them in Husayba as they went house to house
in an area where insurgents would booby-trap doors, or lie
in wait behind closed doors with an AK-47, basically on
suicide missions, just waiting for the Marines to come
through and open fire. There were civilians in the city as
well, and the Marines were always keenly aware of that fact.
How they didn’t fire at shadows, not knowing what was
waiting in each house, I don’t know. But they didn’t.
And I was with them in Haditha, a month before the
alleged killings last November of some 24 Iraqi civilians."
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