We’ve heard for months now how the Haditha 8 were innocent of the charge that they systematically killed unarmed civilians after being ambushed by an IED in Haditha Iraq in November of 2005. These defenses have gone beyond asking that the general public–and loud mouths like Jack Murtha–simply respect their presumption of innocent. We’ve been told they are factually innocent and that the charges against them were cooked up by insurgent sympathizers and further propagated by the ill will of the liberal media.
Well, what can one make of the defenses offered in favor of the accused when investigators have apparently concluded that at least some of the accused lied, destroyed evidence, and altered log books to keep investigators and prosecutors from seeing what really happened on the day of the alleged assault:
A high-level military investigation into the killings of 24 Iraqis in Haditha last November has uncovered instances in which American marines involved in the episode appear to have destroyed or withheld evidence, according to two Defense Department officials briefed on the case.
Returning Home The investigation found that an official company logbook of the unit involved had been tampered with and that an incriminating video taken by an aerial drone the day of the killings was not given to investigators until Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the second-ranking commander in Iraq, intervened, the officials said.
This factoid should caution those that would hurl epithets at the accusers in the Marine JAG corps and the NCIS–politically correctness and treachery chief among them. This evidence of evidence tampering has presumably been on their radar for a long time. It is notable that many of the Haditha Marines supporters in the blogosphere have so far not responded to the latest report. Kind of hard to say a group is innocent as doves when at least some among them decided to hide and destroy evidence.
Here, as in the Hamdania case, the best thing for the general public and media to do is simply to let the process run its course. If nothing else, just as the accused deserve some benefit of the doubt, the Marines’ judicial process and the Marines and Sailors of the JAG Corps who have taken the same solemn oath to defend the country and the Constitution deserve at least some respect in the manne and tone of any criticism.
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Haditha 8? You’re mixing events.
It’s always convenient to focus on minutia when the glaring facts in the middle of the room–in this case a missing logbook that one of the accused had custody of shortly after the incident–are extremely damning.
And, yes, I’m aware there are two incidents. One involves the killing of 15 civilians, the other the killing of a single crippled man, Hashim Awad.
Finally, while I’m not sure how many are implicated in Haditha, they’ve been called the Haditha 8 by none other than Euphoric Reality, who wrote in a blog comment, “The Haditha Eight did not sign any confessions. Their accounts have never wavered.”