US officers 'lax' on Iraqi deaths

A US marine general and two officers have been disciplined for a "lack of due diligence" in investigating the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in 2005.

However, the inquiry found no evidence of a cover-up over the deaths in the town of Haditha, the Marine Corps said.

"Letters of censure" have been sent to Maj Gen Richard Huck, Col Stephen Davis and Col Robert Sokoloski, it added.

The action comes as proceedings to decide whether a lower-ranking marine should be tried for murder continue.

Staff Sgt Frank Wuterich is one of four marines initially charged. The case against a second is under review and charges against two others have been dropped.

Attorneys for the marines say the troops were responding to an insurgent attack after a roadside bomb killed one of their squad members.

Iraqi witnesses say the marines shot unarmed civilians in retaliation for the death of their comrade.

He is alleged to be the ringleader of US troops who killed Iraqi civilians in November 2005 in the town of Haditha.

His lawyers are expected to argue that his actions were lawful because he followed rules of combat engagement.

Four marines were initially accused of unpremeditated murder, but charges against two of them have been dropped.

Officer advises dropping Haditha charges

SAN DIEGO (AP) - A defense lawyer says today an investigating officer has recommended dismissing charges against a Marine lawyer accused of failing to probe the killings of 24 Iraqis in the town of Haditha.

Captain Randy W. Stone was charged with failing to report and investigate the deaths of the men, women and children in a deadly sweep on a chaotic day of battle in the village.

Stone is among four officers charged with dereliction of duty. Three enlisted Marines, including Lance Corporal Stephen B. Tatum of Edmond, Oklahoma, are charged with murder.

Stone's attorney, Charles Gittins, says investigating officer Major Thomas McCann concluded in a report to the commanding general overseeing the case that Stone should not face court-martial and the matter should be handled administratively.

The investigator's recommendation is nonbinding. A final decision will be made by Lieutenant General James Mattis, the commanding general overseeing the case.

Court hears Haditha death details

Iraqi civilians in the village of Haditha were shot by US marines at close range, a military court in California has been told.

The commander of a battalion which is accused of killing 24 people in late 2005 is appearing at the military equivalent of a grand jury.

The hearing will decide whether Lieutenant-Colonel Jeffrey Chessani, 43, will stand trial.

He is accused of dereliction of duty for failing to hold an investigation.

Lt-Col Chessani is also accused of failure to follow an order, after he did not launch an investigation into the killings.

Twenty-four Iraqi civilians, including three women, seven children and several elderly men, died in the incident.

Three other officers are also charged with dereliction of duty and three marines face murder charges.

According to a prosecutor, some of the Iraqis were shot in the head, several at such close range, that their bodies had powder burns.

The victims were described in detail. One was a 66-year-old woman, another, a young woman shot while sitting with her back to a wall, and a teenage girl shot while on a bed.

Another woman is said to have been killed while trying to protect several small children.

Women and children died in the attack in Haditha

The prosecutor added that five young men killed near their car were apparently standing still, possibly with their hands in the air to surrender.

The court was told battalion commanders have a duty to report any possible alleged or suspected crime by their troops.

In this case, no such report was made.

Instead, the commander made only a superficial enquiry after the killings.

Lt Col Jeffrey R Chessani is the highest-ranking officer charged in the incident, which took place in November 2005 after a bomb killed a US soldier.

The military equivalent of a grand jury will decide whether he stands trial.

He could be charged with dereliction of duty and violating a lawful order for failing to investigate the deaths.

CAMP PENDLETON, California (Reuters) - U.S. commanders rejected a local council's request for an investigation days after Marines in Iraq killed 24 civilians in the town of Haditha in November 2005, according to testimony on Saturday at a military tribunal.

The councilors' concerns were dismissed because commanders believed the civilians died in cross-fire when troops responded to an attack by insurgents that had killed one of their own, said Maj. Dana Hyatt, who was at what he said was a 45-minute-long meeting between local officials and Marine officers.

"It wasn't the Marines who instigated this. Having (bombs) and attacks in the neighborhood was also their (the residents') responsibility, they had some responsibility," Hyatt said, in testimony at the hearing into the killings at Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps base in Southern California.

Hyatt, who was in charge of condolence payments to families of the dead and acted as liaison between Marines and the community, characterized the deaths as "unfortunate."

He said he saw no need for an investigation at the time as he had been told there had been suicide bombers found with weapons among eight dead insurgents counted by Marines in Haditha.

Hyatt recalled meeting three vehicles carrying the bodies of the 24 slain civilians, including a child's body, at a local morgue in the early morning of November 20, 2005.

"I remember seeing a young child's head sticking out of one of the black garbage bags," Hyatt said. "I was trying not to stare too much."

Seven Marines have been charged in connection with the 24 deaths. Prosecutors allege the killings were revenge for the death of a popular young Marine killed by a roadside bomb.

The defendants say the killings occurred as they cleared an area after the attack as they had been ordered to do.

Three Marines have been charged with murder. Four officers not present at the killings have been charged with not investigating or obstructing the probe.

First Lt. William Kallop earlier this week testified he ordered troops into two houses to search for insurgents believed to have triggered the roadside bombs that killed Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas and wounded two other Marines.

Kallop said the Marines told him they heard rounds being chambered in one of the houses and then attacked with grenades and gunfire. The attacks on the houses left 15 civilians, including women and children, dead.

At least six witnesses have testified they never saw a reason to investigate the deaths until Time magazine submitted questions four months after the killings. Time's report on the killings prompted a Pentagon investigation.

US general warns against torture

The top US commander in Iraq has warned his troops not to sanction torture or abuse of Iraqi detainees and has urged them to fight by the rules.

In an open letter, Gen David Petraeus said the argument that torture could elicit information quickly was "wrong".

If the US wants to win in Iraq it must keep the "moral high ground", he said.

It comes a week after an army mental health advisory team released a survey of troops in Iraq, which found a wide tolerance for torture and abuse.

More than a third believed that torture was acceptable if it helped save the life of a fellow soldier or if it helped get information about the insurgents.

About 10% of those surveyed said they had actually mistreated Iraqi civilians by hitting or kicking them, or had damaged their property when it was not necessary to do so.

'Hasty actions'

In his one-page letter, published on a military website, Gen Petraeus said he was concerned by the results of the survey, conducted last autumn but not released until 4 May.

While we are warriors, we are also all human beings Gen David Petraeus

He wrote: "Some may argue that we would be more effective if we sanctioned torture or other expedient methods to obtain information from the enemy. They would be wrong.

"Beyond the basic fact that such actions are illegal, history shows that they also are frequently neither useful nor necessary."

Gen Petraeus also highlighted the finding that fewer than half those surveyed would be willing to report a fellow soldier for "illegal actions", such as abusing or killing civilians.

He acknowledged the stress of battlefield situations but said troops must not hold back from reporting wrongdoing by fellow servicemen.

"Seeing a fellow trooper killed by a barbaric enemy can spark frustration, anger, and a desire for immediate revenge.

"As hard as it may be however, we must not let these emotions lead us - or our comrades in arms - to commit hasty, illegal actions."

US forces "must observe the standards and values that dictate that we treat non-combatants and detainees with dignity and respect", he added. "While we are warriors, we are also all human beings."

Mental health

High-profile allegations of mistreatment of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere have damaged the US military's reputation in Iraq and the Middle East.

A hearing is currently under way in California for one of four US officers charged with dereliction of duty for not investigating the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005.

That inquiry is just one of a number the US military has been conducting into incidents of alleged unlawful killings by US forces in Iraq.

The Pentagon report concluded that troops suffering from anxiety, depression or stress were more likely to engage in unethical behaviour.

It also found that those on extended or multiple tours were more likely to suffer mental health problems.

Propaganda Fear Cited in Account of Iraqi Killings

Recently unclassified documents suggest that senior officers viewed the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in late 2005 as a potential public relations problem that could fuel insurgent propaganda against the American military, leading investigators to question whether the officers’ immediate response had been intentionally misleading.

Col. R. Gary Sokoloski, a lawyer who was chief of staff to Maj. General Richard A. Huck, the division commander, approved a news release about the killings that investigators interviewing him in March 2006 suggested was “intentionally inaccurate” because it stated, contrary to the facts at hand, that the civilians had been killed by an insurgent’s bomb.

According to a transcript of the interview, Colonel Sokoloski told the investigators, “We knew the, you know, the strategic implications of being permanently present in Haditha and how badly the insurgents wanted us out of there.”

But Colonel Sokoloski told them he believed that the news release was accurate as written. “At the time,” he said, “given the information that was available to me and the objective to get that out for the press” before insurgents put out their own information, “that is what we went with.”

The documents also show that derailing enemy propaganda was important to senior Marine commanders, including Col. Stephen W. Davis, a highly regarded regimental commander under General Huck, who played down questions about the civilian killings from a Time magazine reporter last year, long after the attacks and the civilian toll were clear to the military.

“Frankly, what I am looking at is the advantage he’s giving the enemy,” Colonel Davis said of the reporter, Tim McGirk, whose article in March 2006 was the first to report that marines had killed civilians in Haditha, including women and children. In their sworn statements, General Huck and his subordinates say they dismissed Mr. McGirk’s inquiries because they saw him as a naïve conduit for the mayor of Haditha, whom the Marines believed to be an insurgent.

Four officers were charged with failing to properly investigate the civilian killings. The first hearing against one of the officers, Capt. Randy W. Stone, is set for Tuesday morning, in a military courtroom at Camp Pendleton, Calif. Three enlisted marines are charged with the killings. Their hearings, to determine whether the charges warrant general courts-martial, are set to begin in the coming weeks. As Marine Corps prosecutors prepare their evidence against Captain Stone and his fellow officers, the unclassified documents suggest that senior Marine commanders dismissed, played down or publicly mischaracterized the civilian deaths in ways that a military investigation found deeply troubling. The documents suggest that General Huck ignored early reports that women and children were killed in the attack, and later told investigators that he was unaware of regulations that required his staff to investigate further.

The documents, including a report by Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell of the Army, copies of e-mail messages among Marine officers in Haditha and sworn statements from several ranking officers, focus only on how the Marine chain of command handled the killings and have not been made public. Portions of the report and commanders’ reactions to the killings were reported by The Washington Post in January and April. The documents were provided to The New York Times by people familiar with the investigation only on condition that they not be identified.

Captain Stone, 34, of Dunkirk, Md., is accused of failing to investigate reports of the civilian deaths. In an interview that repeated similar frustrations voiced by lawyers for other accused officers, Captain Stone said he did not investigate the killings because his superiors told him not to.

“The regimental judge advocate informed me that we don’t do investigations for ‘troops in contact’ situations,” said Captain Stone, referring to the regiment’s lawyer, Maj. Carroll Connelly. Troops in contact is military language for combat against enemy fighters.

“That’s my understanding of what higher wanted,” Captain Stone said, referring to his superior officers, “and that’s why there was no investigation.”

“I don’t think I did anything wrong,” he went on. But he added, “There is a certain level of disappointment that the Marine Corps decided that, in the entire chain of command, that I am the one who should be held accountable.”

Major Connelly, who was not charged with any crime, has been granted immunity to testify at the coming hearings, said Captain Stone’s civilian lawyer, Charles W. Gittins.

After weighing evidence and arguments from prosecutors and defense lawyers, an investigating officer presiding over the hearing will determine whether there is sufficient evidence to recommend a general court martial. The other three officers facing dereliction charges are: Capt. Lucas M. McConnell, the company commander; First Lt. Andrew A. Grayson, a Marine intelligence officer; and Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani, the battalion commander.

The Haditha investigators pored over thousands of e-mail messages, slide presentations, sworn statements and field reports, sifting through sometimes contradictory information and conflicting points of view to determine what officers at each level knew and when they knew it.

The documents and interviews produced in the Bargewell investigation indicate that investigators had suspected possible wrongdoing, at least initially, at even higher levels.

“As you go up the chain of command, the question always becomes, ‘Where do you stop?’ ” said John D. Hutson, a former Navy judge advocate general, now the dean of the Franklin Pierce Law Center in New Hampshire. “You have to be reasonably certain that you’ll get a conviction.”

Intangible considerations can also influence military lawyers in deciding whether to recommend charges when wrongdoing is more ambiguous. “If you know the guy and he’s done well and he’s never done anything dishonest before,” Mr. Hutson said, “you might give him the benefit of the doubt.”

Documents declassified by the military last week include an e-mail message within three hours of the Haditha attack from a battalion operations officer to the regiment, a superior command, saying that 15 civilians had been killed, “seven of which were women and kids.”

Senior commanders told investigators that such early field reports were passed on to General Huck’s staff.

In a statement he gave at Camp Lejeune, N.C., in April, nearly five months later, General Huck told investigators that he could not recall being informed of reports that 15 civilians had been killed. He said he was overseeing several combat operations at the time, and that he had no reason to believe that the civilians killed in Haditha were not enemy fighters.

“I didn’t know at the time whether they were bad guys, noncombatants, or whatever,” General Huck said, according to a transcript of the interview. Later in the interview, he added, “They may have been guys pulling the trigger, for all I know.”

General Huck, who is expected to testify at the accused officers’ hearings, told investigators he did not recall orders, called commanders critical information requirements that required him to alert his superiors and investigate the circumstances of any attack that killed at least three times as many civilians as American forces.

General Huck said that three days after the Haditha episode, in the midst of two combat operations, he visited Colonel Chessani, the battalion commander, who showed him an electronic slide show of the attacks that, according to investigators, did not mention the civilian deaths.

“I sat there and took the brief and no bells and whistles went off,” General Huck told investigators.

The bells, the general said, sounded two and a half months later, on Feb. 12, after he sent his boss, Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the commander of ground operations in Iraq at the time, an e-mail message with Colonel Chessani’s slide presentation attached to it.

“I support our account and do not see a necessity for further investigation,” General Huck wrote in the message to General Chiarelli in Baghdad, adding: “Allegedly, McGirk received his info from the mayor of Haditha, who we strongly suspect to be an insurgent.”

Less than five hours later, records show, General Chiarelli forwarded the e-mail message to his chief of staff, Brig. Gen. Donald Campbell, with a note.

“Don: We need to get together at the first possible moment tomorrow morning,” he wrote. “We’re going to have to do an investigation.”

In the first internal military study of battlefield ethics in Iraq, officials said Friday they also found that only a third of Marines and roughly half of soldiers said they believed that non-combatants should be treated with dignity.

The study also found that long and repeated deployments were increasing troop mental health problems. And it showed that more than 40% of Marines and soldiers said torture should be allowed to save the lives of troops.

The study was the fourth since 2003. Previous studies were more generally aimed at assessing the mental health and well-being of forces deployed in the war.

In the latest study, a mental health team visited Iraq last fall and surveyed troops, health care providers and chaplains.

"The Marine Corps takes this issue of battlefield ethics very seriously," said Lt. Col. Scott Fazekas, a Corps spokesman. "We are examining the study and its recommendations and we'll find ways to improve our approach."

SAN DIEGO - Military prosecutors have granted immunity to at least seven Marines connected to an attack that killed 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha, the deadliest criminal case against U.S. troops in the Iraq war.

Orders granting the immunity ensure any testimony the Marines volunteer cannot be used against them, making it highly unlikely charges will be brought against the men. They also suggest their eyewitness accounts will feature prominently in military court hearings for seven other Marines charged in the case.

The orders were obtained by The Associated Press from someone involved in the case who declined to be identified because the documents are not public.

Among those provided with immunity to testify are an officer who told troops to raid a house and a sergeant who took photographs of the dead but later deleted them from his camera.

One of the servicemen, Lance Cpl. Humberto Manuel Mendoza, was a member of the squad that cleared several homes and killed the Iraqis in the aftermath of a Nov. 19, 2005 roadside bomb attack that killed one Marine.

‘I was following my training’
Mendoza, who was not charged in the case, told investigators that he shot at least two men, but did so because they were in houses declared hostile.

"I was following my training that all individuals in a hostile house are to be shot," Mendoza told investigators. He was given immunity Dec. 18, just days before the Marine Corps announced murder charges against four enlisted men and dereliction of duty charges against four officers.

The Marine Corps said Tuesday that it dropped all charges against one of the eight men, Sgt. Sanick P. Dela Cruz of Chicago. Dela Cruz also has been given immunity to testify.

1st Lt. William Kallop, the first officer to arrive at the scene of the explosion, was granted immunity to talk to prosecutors April 3 as part of an order to "cooperate and truthfully answer all questions posed by investigators." He has not been charged in the case.

Kallop was with a rapid-response force that arrived minutes after the bomb went off. According to investigative documents, he said squad leader Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich and Cpl. Hector Salinas heard gunfire coming from a nearby house. Kallop told investigators that he ordered the men to "take the house."

In the ensuing raids on several homes, 24 Iraqis died, including women and children. Wuterich is charged with 13 counts of unpremeditated murder; Salinas has not been charged.

Kallop's attorney did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Two other officers and several enlisted men were also given immunity to testify.

A legal expert said by giving so many people immunity, prosecutors are taking a "conservative" approach to the case, which is the biggest to have emerged against U.S. troops since the start of the war in Iraq.

"These are legitimate moves by the prosecutor, who is very cautious," said Gary Solis, a former Marine Corps prosecutor and judge who teaches law of war at Georgetown University Law Center.

A Marine spokesman did not immediately respond to a phone message Friday.

Preliminary hearings for the seven Marines still facing charges are expected in the coming weeks at Camp Pendleton.

Aside from Wuterich, the others facing unpremeditated murder charges are Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, 22, of Canonsburg, Pa. and Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum, 25, of Edmund, Okla.

Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani, 42, of Rangely, Colo., 1st Lt. Andrew A. Grayson, 25, Capt. Lucas McConnell, 31, of Napa, Calif., and Capt. Randy W. Stone, 34, face charges in connection with how the incident was investigated or reported.

US marines 'devalued Iraqi lives'

The US Marine Corps fostered a climate that devalued Iraqi lives, a US general investigating the 2005 killing of Iraqi civilians in Haditha has said.

The report, submitted in 2006 but now declassified, said the US military had ignored signs of "serious misconduct", according to the Washington Post.

A total of 24 men, women and children were killed at Haditha by marines who said they were attacked by insurgents.

A criminal investigation into the incident is continuing.

The Haditha inquiry is just one of a number the US military has been conducting into incidents of alleged unlawful killings by US forces in Iraq.

Video footage

Maj Gen Eldon Bargewell's report is an indictment of actions throughout the whole chain of command, from the general in charge to the men who carried out the killings on 19 November, 2005.

"All levels of command tended to view civilian casualties, even in significant numbers, as routine and as the natural and intended result of insurgent tactics," the US newspaper quotes him as saying.

Gen Bargewell said statements taken from those involved suggested the marines thought "Iraqi civilian lives are not as important as US lives, their deaths are just the cost of doing business, and that the marines need to get 'the job done' no matter what it takes".

US inquiries into Iraq deaths

The US military's initial statement on Haditha said that a marine and 15 civilians had been killed in a roadside bomb. A subsequent firefight had left eight insurgents dead, it said.

However, a local journalist took video footage showing men, women and children shot in their homes. Locals said the marines had gone on a rampage.

The US military instigated investigations and confirmed that 24 Iraqi civilians had died, none of them killed by a roadside bomb.

Three marines have since been charged with unpremeditated murder and four with attempting to cover up the incident.

Gen Bargewell is quoted as saying officers had tried to protect themselves and their troops by wilfully ignoring reports of civilian deaths.

There was no interest in investigating reports of a massacre, although there was also no specific cover-up, he is reported to have said.

The general's report, filed in June last year, does not address the specifics of the killings, which are the subject of the criminal case, rather it tackles the command structure and investigation procedure.

Gen Bargewell found that the marines had not identified targets properly, the Washington Post says.

The report also says the marines' story was passed up the chain of command and at all levels signs that the incident was significant were ignored.

US drops marine's Haditha charges

The US Marine Corps has dropped all charges against one of the eight marines accused in the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005.

Sgt Sanick Dela Cruz has been granted immunity in exchange for his testimony, the Marine Corps said in a statement.

Three other marines are charged with unpremeditated murder and four with attempting to cover up the incident.

Iraqi witnesses say the shootings were in retaliation for a roadside bomb that had killed a US marine earlier.

"Charges against [Sgt Dela Cruz] were dismissed on April 2 after the government balanced his low level of culpability in the alleged crime against the potential value of his testimony," the Marine Corps said on Tuesday.

Investigation delayed

Lance Cpl Miguel Terrazas was ripped in half by a bomb that exploded under the marine convoy as it drove through Haditha, 240km (150 miles) north-west of Baghdad, on 19 November 2005.

Defence lawyers for the accused marines have argued that the squad of marines then came under fire from the houses in which the Iraqis died and that they had shot back in self defence.

The US military at first reported that the Iraqis, among them seven women and three children, had died in the bomb blast and subsequent firefight, but later said that was incorrect.

There was no full US investigation into what happened until three months after the event when video footage taken by a local human rights activist of the aftermath reached Time Magazine.

Once their report showed flaws in the initial marine statement, an investigation began.

Sgt Dela Cruz was charged with unpremeditated murder and making a false report about the incident.

A military judge has yet to decide if there is enough evidence against the remaining seven accused marines to convene a court martial.

If found guilty, the three marines charged with second-degree murder could face life imprisonment.

US marine 'justifies' Iraq deaths

A US marine, charged with murdering unarmed Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005, said he regrets the deaths but would make the same decisions again.

In a TV interview, Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, 26, said he shot five unarmed Iraqi men because he believed they had hostile intent towards his men.

Iraqi witnesses say the shootings were in retaliation for a roadside bomb that killed a colleague hours earlier.

Eight US marines have been charged over the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians.

Four are accused of unpremeditated murder and four others are charged with attempting to cover up the incident.

Wuterich is charged with the  unpremeditated murder of 12 Iraqis and ordering his troops to kill six people.

It is the biggest US criminal case to emerge from the war in Iraq in terms of Iraqis killed. If found guilty of second-degree murder, the marines could face life imprisonment.

'Absolutely sorry'

In an interview with the 60 Minutes programme on the US TV channel CBS, to be broadcast on Sunday, Sgt Wuterich apologised for the deaths.

"There is nothing that I can possibly say to make up or make well the deaths of those women and children, and I am absolutely sorry it happened that day."

However, he said firing at the men was justified because he had identified them as military-age males in a car close to where a roadside bomb had just exploded.

He said they tried to run instead of obeying an order not to.

"I would make those decisions again today. Those are decisions that I made in a combat situation and I believe I had to make those decisions," he said.

'No bullets fired

The defence team says the marines from Kilo Company in America's First Marine Division were engaged in a furious battle on 19 November 2005 in Haditha after the roadside explosion.

The official US version differs widely from that of locals and the media

It is known that five unarmed men were shot dead in a car when they approached the scene in a taxi and others, including women and children, died in three houses over the next few hours.

Those who died included a 76-year-old man and a three-year-old child. There were also several women among the dead.

An initial marine press statement said that some civilians were killed in the initial explosion and others in crossfire by insurgents.

But local people say that there were no bullets fired other than by the marines. The defence lawyers accept that innocent civilians may have died during the chaos but they deny premeditated killing.

There was no full US investigation into what happened until three months later when video footage taken by a local human rights activist of the aftermath reached Time Magazine.

Once their report showed flaws in the initial marine statement, an investigation began.

The Haditha inquiry is just one of a number the US military has been conducting into incidents of alleged unlawful killings by US forces in Iraq.

Sgt Raymond Girouard, 24, is the most senior soldier to face a court-martial for the killings during a raid on a suspected insurgent camp near Samarra.

He denies ordering his soldiers to shoot the Iraqi prisoners, but admits his role in covering up the deaths.

Two soldiers have pleaded guilty to murder and were jailed for 18 years. Another was sentenced to nine months.

Sgt Paul Cortez admitted four murders, rape and conspiracy to rape. His plea means he will avoid the death penalty.

In November, Spc James Barker, 24, admitted rape and murder over the same killings and was jailed for 90 years.

Cortez broke down as he confessed to raping the girl as her parents and sister were shot dead in another room.