Home > Fresh evidence of ’executions’ by rogue US marines in Iraq

Fresh evidence of ’executions’ by rogue US marines in Iraq

by Open-Publishing - Tuesday 30 May 2006
19 comments

Edito Wars and conflicts International USA

New photographs lend weight to allegations of revenge killings by US unit under attack in which 24 unarmed civilians died

by Paul Harris in Washington and David Smith in Basra

Fresh photographic evidence seen by US investigators is believed to reveal that some of the 24 unarmed Iraqis killed in the Iraqi town of Haditha after an American died in a roadside bomb in November were in effect executed, it was reported yesterday.

According to Congressional and defence officials quoted by the Los Angeles Times, the pictures show wounds to the upper bodies of the victims, who included several women and six children. Some were shot in the head and some in the back.

’There wasn’t a gunfight, there were no pockmarked walls,’ the paper reports a congressional aide as saying. And it quotes a US Defence Department official who had been briefed on the contents of the photos as saying ’the wounds indicated execution-style’ shootings.

US military investigators are probing the events of 19 November 2005, and a picture is gradually emerging of a small group of troops who lost control in the wake of an unrelated attack on their vehicle, which left one of their comrades dead. Other soldiers then helped to cover up the atrocity.

Claims that US marines massacred Iraqi civilians threaten to undermine public support for keeping British troops in the country, the UK’s most senior military officer said yesterday. The Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, said that reports of the unprovoked killing of up to two dozen unarmed Iraqis would be ’appalling’ if proved accurate. ’Our people are in Iraq and other parts of the world doing difficult and dangerous things in unpleasant circumstances on behalf of their country and they need the support of the people in their country. This sort of accusation - and it is at the moment just an accusation, of course - does make that harder to achieve,’ he told the BBC.

Two parallel investigations are trying to piece together what happened in the incident. They were sparked by evidence first collected by Time magazine and Iraqi human rights workers. One probe, by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is examining the killings, while another looks at any cover-up. Both are set to conclude in the next few weeks. It is widely expected that they will end with the courts martial of several marines and possible charges of murder.

Some top US politicians involved with defence issues have already been briefed on the issue and they have told reporters that the evidence is damaging. ’Marines over-reacted... and killed innocent civilians in cold blood,’ Congressman John Murtha, a former marine, told the Washington Post. One retired general, David Brahms, told the newspaper: ’When these investigations come out, there’s going to be a firestorm. It will be worse then Abu Ghraib. Nobody was killed at Abu Ghraib.’

The incident happened after a hidden bomb exploded as a US marine unit passed through Haditha. One marine, Miguel Terrazas, was killed. Two other marines were also wounded in the blast.

What happened next is the focus of the investigations. Eyewitnesses and human rights groups believe the marines swept through the town in a lust for revenge. The attack may have lasted for several hours. At the end of it, 24 Iraqi civilians had been killed. They included a 76-year-old amputee and a four-year-old boy. In one house an entire family, including seven children, were attacked with guns and grenades. Only a 13-year-old girl survived.

British soldiers currently in Iraq said they were anxious to distance themselves from the Americans but that Iraqis did seem able to make a distinction. One private, who did not wish to be named, said: ’We are given an education: the Americans get shown how to use a gun. The Iraqis know the difference.’

Captain Victoria Wedgwood-Jones, of 20 Armed Brigade, said: ’When the British come and say we are British, they welcome us warmly.’

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1784705,00.html

Forum posts

  • "Rouge"....that is really funny.....I guess the whole bunch of paid murderers are "rouge" ....Iraq is one big war crime unfolding, which parts of it are rouge????? To take guns and bombs and tanks to a country full of people armed with rocks and sling shots, and to occupy it with 200,000 trained killers what else was going to happen.... a picnic?? Come on guys, we knew this would happen, and will continue to happen. Racism is what drives the military, its okay to murder "rag heads" or camel jockeys....just like in Korea, and Vietnam when it was the slope heads and gooks we were murdering....there is no way to change that as long as we are "better" than them and they have something we want. Why feel guilty about killing the sub humans???

  • The marines will get the batch of honors for those disgraceful deeds. Remember: ...it is us doing this, and it can’t be crime. The American citizens whose majority is still in support for their "brave" troops are guilty on all counts.
    The Americans accused the people of Germany of being guilty in Nuremberg. There have been more Germans fighting in the resistance as currently in the U.S..

    Americans you should be ashamed, also for the glorifications of your Veterans at the past "Memorial Day". At least the Germans don’t glorify their Nazi troops you do..

    ...guilty on all counts!

  • This is certainly not an exception. And while it may not be the rule, this murderous activity is somewhat the norm. I can’t understand what these soldiers think they’re fighting for. It’s certainly the ’protection’ of the US. It’s not ’freedom’. They must understand that they are the pawns of imperialism. Perhaps that’s what they are taught. But murder is ok in war. And the Bush gang of criminals will never see justice for their acts. They that have the guns make the rules.

    This illegal invasion has been a blight on the world since its inception. However, shortly, the imperialistic US must move on to Iran for the taking of more oil for the greater glory of Israel. Iraq can then breathe a bit more freely.

  • I feel sorry for these guy’s though they are put in a no win situation by a group of elite rich bastards that never went to war and if they ever did they would cower like scared little girls. War is fought for the ruling class by the lowest socio economic class. A lot of these guy’s are going to come back all fucked up in the head and will end up on the street panhandleing at your next intersection. I see a lot of hate towards these guys but the real hate should be toward Bush and company. This war on terror is pure bullshit. Just like 9-11 was.

    • What about individual responsibility.....could you really justify shooting little children and say Bush made me do it so go punish him.........get real, who should feel sorry for someone who blames others when they took a gun and blew the brains out of a baby???? Are we really supposed to look for excuses for them???? I for one will spit on them if they come home alive, in fact I pray to God they all get what they deserve and none of them come back here, they have done our country a huge disservice and made us part of their crime spree like sick bastards looking for a victim then blaming everyone else because they had an unhappy childhood, or their parents wouldn’t buy them a car.....and these sickos think the rest of us should give them a hero’s welcome and tell them we are proud of them for what they do.

    • So do American soldiers in several countries and they not only do not say they are sorry, they lie about it and cover it up with bullshit and they they get a mock trial and are let off Scott free, everytime....did you forget?

    • How would you feel if you saw your friends blown up by terrorists with the local people cheering , I am suprised they have been as restrained as they have been .I applaud the marines and our other brave soldiers fighting the islamic threat , because if we don’t kill them there we will eventually have these murdurous bastards over here (europe , US )

    • "...because if we don’t kill them there we will eventually have these murdurous bastards over here (europe , US )" - 84 82

      Isn’t it terrific that you can use the same faulty "Domino Theory" logic that was employed in the Cold War to justify U.S. aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq. You don’t even have to use one gray cell!

    • All of the same lies are being repeated from the Vietnam war propaganda machine....AND WE LOST THAT WAR......AND THEY NEVER CAME HERE TO KILL ANYONE....they had every right to though, since we massacred 3 million of their innocent citizens......but of course the stupid people in this country do not know their own history.

    • Can you not see that the Vietnam war was not really a war but a battle ,a battle of the cold war of which the west won , I am sure that you must rejoice in your comfortable lifestyle given to by the brave men & women who sacrificed their lives so you were not brought up by the communists whose demise was the defining moment of the 20th century.

    • How true. Old men direct our youth into unjustified wars - not that their own sons would be obliged to participate - where these youth are subject to terror and stress of the highest level.

      When these boys return - they are shells and will never be the same again. Do Western governments look after returned soldiers? No. Once they have fulfilled the ideology of their leaders - they are of no use to anyone.

  • Nobody wants to admit it but Iraq was stripped of all things nessesary for war before it was attacked, and further more it did not want war. Only cowards would attack a defenseless country living in peace and fake that it was a monsterous evil threat. Our soilders went in killing unarmed civillians not an attacking army and continue to do so under the pretence of a fake threat. They are cowards who need a charade to play "pretend hero’s". They are a monsterous evil. They mirror all the qualities of their shamefull leader Bush, the most cowardly man alive. Why won’t anyone admit that the Iraqi people who just want to live in peace? Our soldiers and their leader are a threat only to themselves, because in truth, (and the truth is karma, a mirror) they are only going to have to expirience the horror they force on others against thier will as pain and suffering in their next lives. Pain and suffering that will be inflicted on them in ways where no human choice is involved, ways that are born only of nature. They will be the mutated babies born of DU weapons and they will return as a crushed people who live in a waistland in abject poverty and oppression they will be reincarnated as their victims the Iraqis. Worse, as the war progresses without end the more evil acts they commit, the more suffering they inflict, the more demonically possesed they will become. They will return home with an addiction to committing attrocities and will wage holy hell on their fellow americans in the same pathologically sadistic ways they now do on the innocent iraqi people. They are already doing it. Welcome home psycho killers! The Karma of the USA is now total and complete devistation caused by natural forces that will match the devistation we caused to Iraq and Afganistan. The innocent people of Iraq and Afganistan will reap a heavenly reward for their goodness and faith in God, but the americans are only going to reap the hell they inflicted on innocent people who never threatened anyone or asked for any war. Hell is a mirror of one’s past actions after judgement after death. It is the truth of one’s being manifested. How soldiers abused tortured and mistreated others. War is hell and it creates Hell for those who waged it in their next lives. Following orders is no excuse. Americans will be foced thorugh acts of nature (our mirror) to feel all the pain and torment and horror they inflicted on others. Then they can see how "good" it is. The american hubris, their sin of ’false PRIDE’ is their worst sin and will be their ultimate down fall. Worse than all the militaries play toy weapons. All the atrocities they commit are "good" to them only because it feeds thier sin of false pride. in thier delusions of grandeur, in their cowardly charade of being "heros". Like their leader Bush they are cowardy wimps who delight in commiting sadistic cruelty on children, while drugged out of their minds. Bush is the leader of the US because he truly represents the character of most americans, character that is in the toilet.

    • You wrote,(Nobody wants to admit it but Iraq was stripped of all things nessesary for war before it was attacked,)
      Do you not think it was preferable to destroy their main weapons & aircraft before the coalition went in to SAVE Iraq.Only an imbecile would not try to get an advantage before putting our troops into harms way.
      Not until creeps like the person who wrote this twaddle experience the carnage that the islamic world would like to visit on him (if he’s not a muslim) will we win this new 100 year war.
      One only has to look at islamic sites to realise how much they despise us(anyone not muslim).
      In Thailand muslims killing Buddhists(you can’t be much more peaceful than Buddhists).
      In India muslims killing Hindu’s
      InIsrael muslims killing Jews
      In Lebanon muslims killing Christians
      In Egypt muslims killing Copts
      In Egypt , Iraq,Pakistan ,Iran muslims killing muslims because they are the wrong sort of muslims.
      Wake up & smell the coffee.

    • And, Christians murdering innocent Iraqis
      Christians murdering innocent Christians, etc......

      On and on...ain’t religion grand...it is responsible for 400 wars in recent times and the total death counts are astronomical to many millions to record....religion is the leading cause of death throughout history...

      Imagine a world with no religion, one that could celebrate our diversity, love one another, do unto others, and respect the earth and all the things that live upon it....share the abundance without a terrible invented God boogeyman authority that preaches hatred and killing and jealousy and dissatisfaction and petty competitions of "My God is bigger than yours"....wouldn’t that be paradise?

    • Absolutely , all religeons are twaddle , we should all now be intelligent to have realised that it was just a way to keep down the masses , but whereas if you are any of the religeons (except muslim ) & decide to act grown up it,s NO problem all what might happen is that you maybe shunned , contrast that with islam where they chop off your head , and still they allow muslims to enter our countries.

    • Unfortunately, young soldiers can be brainwashed into doing anything they are ordered to & in an immoral war they lose their own moral footing.

      Falluja has permanently tarnished the reputation of the Marines, their good name is gone.

      At the very least, almost the entire evil officer corps should be cashiered and moral officers from the other services brought in.

  • The Bush administration is famous for death and destruction. That will be their legacy. They don’t care how many people they kill, or torture, or maim as long as they got their oil, their bases, and their enormous embassy in a building still owned by the Iraqis. Our soldiers are pawns in the neocon game of world conquest. They are cannon fodder and don’t really count as far as power to affect anything is concerned. They go where sent, do what they are told to do, and will shoot anything that moves toward them. So don’t talk about out "brave boys". They are straw in the wind and will bend wherever the Bush wind blows. Their lives are worthless for Bush except as political dice. Any talk about democracy, sovereignty, liberty is verbal diarrhea, fodder for True Believers who like to think they matter to the universe. Ask a veteran how Bush has raised the cost of living to them, not to mention shamefully cutting down the Veteran’s Administration to the bone and raising prices for services oer 150% in the past 4 years. Compassion my aching butt!

    • well hey what do you expect. they gave us 2 skull and bones members in the 2004 election take your pick HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHA the skull and bone society of death.

    • rogue? Hardly. The murder of Iraqi’s is sanctioned by the US military. The US military are murdering coward b*stards and I hope they get what they so richly deserve. Iraqi’s need to unite and destroy the murdering cowards americans.