Scandal: Prosecutors Doctor Haditha Video
And Newsmax also reports the prosecution’s main witness fell apart:…the prosecution’s star witness all but collapsed on the witness stand after a withering cross-examination.
Wrote Helms: “During four hours of cross examination by defense attorney Lt. Col. Colby C. Vokey, Dela Cruz was unable to clearly explain his previous testimony. At one point he simply stopped talking and stared into the distance, seemingly at a loss for words. At other times he simply rambled on until he was ordered to quit talking.”
Richard Thompson is president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, a legal advocacy group that has represented Marine Lt. Colonel Jeffrey Chessani, who was charged with failing to fully investigate and report Iraqi civilian deaths in Haditha. Thompson wrote:
Newsmax:
A video taped from a Scan Eagle unmanned aerial vehicle – purported to show the action that took place in Haditha when 24 Iraqi civilians and insurgents were killed – was heavily edited by government investigators, a NewsMax investigation reveals.
The reason, according to an inside source: to avoid showing anything that exonerates the Marines who were accused of murdering the victims.
Four Marines originally faced murder charges stemming from the Haditha incident. Charges against three of them have since been dropped, but Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich is still facing a court martial.
NewsMax can reveal that the video – which was broadcast by CNN – was a small, carefully edited part of what the Scan Eagle transmitted during its daylong surveillance flight over the battle scene on Nov. 19, 2005. And shockingly, the approximately one hour of edited footage was the only Scan Eagle footage provided to the Marines’ defense teams by the prosecution.
According to CNN, “The video appears to show that, throughout that day, Marines engaged in fierce firefights and called in air strikes to level buildings - often with no definitive idea of who was inside.”
Had the entire video been shown it would have revealed that the Marines knew exactly “who was inside” - insurgents were clearly shown entering the target buildings before the structures were bombed. If CNN had been able “to review the whole video, they would see that we did indeed have a definitive idea of who was inside,’” an intelligence officer told NewsMax.
The insurgents’ car parked outside the buildings “was packed to the gills with weapons, and we had just witnessed them complete an ambush on our ambulance,” the officer said. “We saw them enter the house, clapping each other on the back and congratulating themselves.”
The deliberate editing of the video to show the defendants in the worst possible light, the Marine intelligence expert told NewsMax, “should have the defense screaming prosecutorial and NCIS misconduct.”
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My God, how can this be that NCIS would try to frame our guys? What does the gov’t get if they screw these marines? Ego and turf war, looks like to me. How stupid.
September 7th, 2007 at 12:35 amNifonged! Now, Nifong has to only do one day in jail and he lost his license. Marines still do take them out back and shoot them, don’t they? Please tell me that they do.
September 7th, 2007 at 1:48 amQuite simply, how much of this shit is going to go on until we have a cleansing?
September 7th, 2007 at 4:35 amDefeatists will stop at nothing to make sure that this war looks bad on not just President Bush, but this country. I spose they think that is the only way to “correct the wrongs” done by this country in surviving WWII, and then the cold war.
I say we find the specific individual who edited the recording and put him/her on trial for sedition and treason. At that point, he/she will be forced to air exactly who ordered him/her to edit the recording, then we can stretch their necks too. Aid and comfort to our enemy at the very least.
It is high time that we start fighting back and take OUR country back. Kick people like Hitlery Clinton, Howard Dean, John Kerry, and the rest of their ilk out of the country permanently. I fought for their right to express themselves, but I firmly believe they have gone past self expression when they are directly responsible for our own troops getting killed by encouraging the resistance to hold out just a bit longer, praying that we will give up and go away. Just like we did in October of 1993 thanks to a certain other communist Clinton piece of trash. If any of you doubt that Clinton had/has nafarious intentions, why do you think that he fought so hard on the ‘assault’ weapons ban? He figured once disarmed, the resistance would fade away.
Those of you who took the oath to support and defend the Constitution from enemies foriegn AND domestic, wake up, these are our domestic enemies.
September 7th, 2007 at 4:46 amAlso, sorry for the multi-post, remember that those willing to be subjugated, will be.
September 7th, 2007 at 5:12 amAs far as fairly dispensing justice goes, all prosecutors face a conflict of interest. They can’t advance their careers without guilty verdicts. And when a high-profile case that can make you a famous winner comes along, things can get ugly.
September 7th, 2007 at 5:41 amHardball,
I couldn’t agree with you more. Capital crimes have been committed here and someone deserves to pay with his life. We would then have an example and a precedent.
September 7th, 2007 at 5:53 amHad a buddy of mine years ago, who was a member of the Naval Investigative Service. He told me that they suck. Case in point: The Iowa investigation. I figured out the Iowa disaster because I use to do Fire Support at a similar level. If the NCIS people had called in people like myself, the case might have had a different outcome than it did initially. Second case in point: This one.
The idiot on the stand got blown away, because he’s been lying all along. Nice job.
September 7th, 2007 at 10:35 amDisgusting. Hang em from the yardarm.
September 7th, 2007 at 10:52 am