Haditha Killings - Reaction

Reaction

According to Sidney Blumenthal in a Salon Magazine article,

"The coverup at Haditha reportedly began instantly. However, an Iraqi journalism student shot a video the day after of the bloodstained and bullet-riddled houses where the massacre had occurred. That video made its way to an Iraqi human rights group and finally to Tim McGirk, a correspondent from Time magazine. When Time made its first queries, the Marine spokesman, Capt. Jeffrey S. Pool, who had issued the first statement on Haditha as an action against terrorists months earlier, told reporters that they were falling for al-Qaida propaganda. 'I cannot believe you're buying any of this,' he wrote in an e-mail. Nonetheless, word reached Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the second-highest-ranking U.S. military officer in Iraq, that there had been no investigation and he ordered one immediately."

According to the Los Angeles Times, military and congressional sources distinguished between two squads: the original Marine squad involved in the explosion and shootings, and a Marine intelligence squad that took photos shortly after the shootings. According to LA Times sources, no investigation occurred until after a March 2006 Time magazine story alleging a massacre, even though the intelligence squad's photos were inconsistent with the Marine squad's report of a firefight. According to the Time story, military officials blamed the delay of the investigation on the Marine squad's efforts to cover up the events:

"Military officials say they believe the delay in beginning the investigation was a result of the squad's initial efforts to cover up what happened."

However, both military and congressional sources said that the "intelligence team" that took photos after the firefight did not appear to participate in any improper action:

"...ilitary and congressional sources said there was no indication that the members of the intelligence team did anything improper or delayed reporting their findings."

The same LA Times story quoted Republican Representative John Kline of Minnesota as follows:

"There is no question that the Marines involved, those doing the shooting, they were busy in lying about it and covering it up — there is no question about it. But I am confident, as soon as the command learned there might be some truth to this, they started to pursue it vigorously. I don't have any reason now to think there was any foot dragging."

In June 2006, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the killings and called for a swift investigation, saying: "The crime and misery of Haditha ... is a terrible crime where women and children were eliminated."

John Dickerson and Dahlia Lithwick of Slate suggested that the Iraqis should be able to put the Marines on trial:

"Let's let the Iraqis put the Americans alleged to have committed these crimes on trial. The United States wants to encourage the fledgling Iraqi institution of democracy, right? That's why we wanted Saddam tried in Iraq, and through the Iraqi judicial system--both to build up its legitimacy and to give Iraqis the sense of ownership that comes with having control over the legal process. Why, then, shouldn't we also turn over our own soldiers who were involved in either the Haditha massacre or any of the other possible massacres for trial under the Iraqi justice system?"

News website NewsMax suggested that the killings were not "unprovoked", and could have been "staged", and called Haditha "a hotbed of insurgent activity":

"Plainly, not all the residents of this terrorist hotbed were as innocent as Marine media critics are now claiming."