Pirate's Cove

Leave to the Times to create a way to say that the Haditha Marines got off on technicalities when *hint hint* they must have really been guilty.

Last year, when accounts of the killing of 24 Iraqis in Haditha by a group of marines came to light, it seemed that the Iraq war had produced its defining atrocity, just as the conflict in Vietnam had spawned the My Lai massacre a generation ago.

And the Times and all the other hysterical liberals were dancing with joy at the possibities!

But on Thursday, a senior military investigator recommended dropping murder charges against the ranking enlisted marine accused in the 2005 killings, just as he had done earlier in the cases of two other marines charged in the case. The recommendation may well have ended prosecutors’ chances of winning any murder convictions in the killings of the apparently unarmed men, women and children.

"Those murderous bastards are getting off!" How would the Times know, as they seem to sit safe in their hotel in the Green Zone sipping daquari’s?

Experts in military justice say the Haditha prosecutions were compromised by several factors having to do with the quality of the evidence, including a delayed investigation and the decision to conduct hearings in the United States, far from the scene of the killings and possible Iraqi witnesses.

Funny how liberals want terrorists in G’itmo tried here, but not a US soldier.

Perhaps nothing handicapped military prosecutors more than the delay in investigating the killings, on Nov. 19, 2005, because battalion officers initially decided the case did not require an inquiry.

That was before a sitting US Congressman called them murderers and psychopaths.

By the time the Marine Corps announced murder charges against the infantrymen, 13 months had passed. Evidence vanished, witnesses evaporated and memories paled.

Isn’t that what every liberal defense attorney attempts to do?

The rest is just the Times attempting to build a case of "really guilty but let off the hook" against the Haditha Marines. Don’t question their support of the military, though.

…..Last week, he noted, testimony in a Baghdad military murder trial suggested that an Army sniper, a member of one of the most highly trained infantry units, had planted evidence on the remains of a dead fighter — as insurance against second-guessing.

“That’s somebody who doesn’t trust the system,” Professor Noone said. “Do you want kids out there representing the United States who don’t think they’re going to be treated fairly?”

As long as the liberal media tries anything and everything to undermine the mission in Iraq of the US military-which the left hates anyhow-soldiers are going to be worried about being treated unfairly.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson’s Website, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Big Dog’s Weblog, , Right Truth, The Populist, Shadowscope, Stuck On Stupid, Leaning Straight Up, The Amboy Times, Adeline and Hazel, third world county, The Pink Flamingo, CommonSenseAmerica, Church and State, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, The Random Yak, AZAMATTEROFACT, 123beta, DeMediacratic Nation, Adam’s Blog, Webloggin, Phastidio.net, The Bullwinkle Blog, Cao’s Blog, , Conservative Cat, Nuke’s, Faultline USA, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Gone Hollywood, Public Eye, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.