[Assam] America publicly introspects on Haditha episode while Indian troops continue killing sprees with impunity on innocents Assamese, latest one at Kaokpathar; in Assam and the world is hardly aware of these carnages by the Indian Forces.

[Bartta Bistar]

 Did Marines Massacre Iraqi Civilians? Military Officials Fear 'Haditha'
Will Become Synonymous With 'My Lai'
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=2006497&page=1



Twenty-four Iraqi civilians were killed in their residences last November.
Several U.S. Marines could face charges.  (ABCNews.com)

·
 By JONATHAN KARL

*May 26, 2006 -- * The commandant of the Marine Corps has traveled to Iraq
with an explicit warning for his troops to guard against what he calls "the
risk of becoming indifferent to the loss of human life," as senior Pentagon
officials are bracing for an investigation into the killing of 24 Iraqis
last November in the town of Haditha.

The officials told ABC News the investigation will likely result in criminal
charges that could range from dereliction of duty to murder. Investigators
say six of those killed were children ranging in age from 2 to 11.

A videotape shot by an Iraqi journalism student showed the bloody aftermath.
One man said, "A whole family was wiped out … they were innocent people."

As this unfolds, military officials said they feared Haditha would come to
mean what My Lai — the site of a massacre of Vietnamese civilians by
American troops in 1968 — had come to mean for an earlier generation.

The incident is still under investigation, but several senior military
officials say at least seven Marines could face criminal charges.

Although the investigation is not complete, the Pentagon has already briefed
key members of Congress on the details of the investigation. After a
briefing on Thursday, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner
told reporters, "There are established facts that incidents of a very
serious nature did take place."

ABC News has been told by several senior military officials that
investigators have so far established the following:

— Early in the morning of Nov. 19, a roadside bomb hit a small convoy of 12
Marines, killing Marine Lance Cpl. Lance Terrazas. All the Marines belonged
to Kilo Company of the 3rd Battalion 1st Marine Regiment.

— Shortly after the bomb went off, the Marines saw a taxi approaching and
fired, killing five Iraqi men. Military officials say all the Iraqis turned
out to be unarmed.

—    Some of the Marines, including a sergeant, then entered a cluster of
nearby homes from where, they later claimed, they had taken enemy fire.
Military officials now say they believe there was no enemy fire and that the
killings were unprovoked. By the time they left, six civilians had been
killed, including a 3-year-old boy.

In a second incident, officials said, a squad led by a sergeant went into
the town of Hamandiyah to apprehend a suspected insurgent. When they didn't
find him, they allegedly dragged an innocent man out of a house, shot him
and then planted an AK-47 on his body to make him look like an insurgent.

By the time the dust settled, at least 24 Iraqi civilians, most unarmed, lay
dead.

Sources familiar with the investigation say some of the Marines have
confessed, and that seven Marines and a sailor have been removed from Iraq
in connection with this incident and placed in custody at Camp Pendleton,
Calif.

An official told ABC News: "There was no logic in what they did. They just
wanted to kill somebody."

ABC News has learned from sources close to the investigation that the
ranking Marine in the group who entered the homes and is a focus of the
investigation is 25-year-old Sgt. Frank Wuterich.

The military issued a press release on Nov. 19 saying a roadside bomb killed
one Marine and 15 civilians, and that an additional eight insurgents were
killed in a firefight. It was not until February — when Time magazine showed
a U.S. military spokesperson a videotape of the bloody aftermath taken by a
Iraqi journalism student — that the military investigated the incident.

Sources familiar with the investigation say another group of Marines who
came on the scene shortly after the killings took photographs of the dead
Iraqis. Those photos were seized by military criminal investigators just
before those Marines finished their tour of duty in Iraq in early April.
Sources familiar with the photos say they show people shot at close range.

Already two senior officers higher up the chain of command — Capt. Luke
McConnell, Kilo Company commander, and Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, Battalion
commander — have been relieved of their duties due to "loss of confidence"
by their commanders. Neither McConnell nor Chessani were on the scene at the
time of the killings. A third Marine commander, India Company's Capt. James
Kimber was also relieved of his duties for an unrelated incident.

In a sign of how serious the Pentagon takes this, the Marine Corps' top
officer, Gen. Michael Hagee, is traveling to Iraq to offer a stern reminder
to fellow Marines. The Marines have distributed a copy of the speech Hagee
plans to give.

"We do not employ force just for the sake of employing force," Hagee says in
the speech. "We use lethal force only when justified, proportional and, most
importantly, lawful."

In light of these two incidents, the Pentagon is now bracing for two
separate trials this summer featuring Marines accused of killing innocent
Iraqi civilians. Officials say they are determined to show the allegations
are taken seriously, and that anyone found guilty will be dealt with
severely.

*Haditha incident: Bush vows open probe*

http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?template=newiraq&slug=Haditha+incident%3A+Bush+vows+open+probe&id=88618&callid=1
 ------------------------------



Friday, June 2, 2006 (Washington):

President George W Bush has promised to reveal the full results of an
investigation into reports that US Marines killed unarmed civilians in Iraq.


"The world will see the full and complete investigation," Bush said.

The US military is conducting at least two investigations into the November
19 killings of 24 people in Haditha, including women and children, following
a bomb attack on a military convoy in which a Marine died.

The Iraqi government is doing a separate investigation.

"If there is a wrongdoing, people will be held to account," Bush told
reporters after a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

The president said the ethical training ordered for US troops in Iraq
following reports that Marines killed unarmed civilians will serve as a
reminder of the international rules of war.

"This is just a reminder, for troops in Iraq or throughout our military,
that there are high standards expected of them and that there are strong
rules of engagement," said Bush.

He said he has spoken to Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the military's
Joint Chiefs of Staff, about the matter several times. (AP)
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