Thomas More Law Center files lawsuit against State Department on behalf of eight 'Haditha Marines' accused of killing Iraqi civilians
Posted: December 8, 2011 Filed under: Military stories Leave a comment »
The Thomas More Law Center, a Michigan-based public-interest law firm that believes the criminal charges brought against eight Marines from Camp Pendleton in the killing of 24 Iraqis are politically motivated has filed a lawsuit against the State Department. Of the eight Marines, seven were either found not guilty or had charges dropped.
LA TIMES (H/T Rob E) The firm, which represented one of the eight Marines, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington to force the State Department to turn over what the center says is an investigation by the Iraqi government into the Nov. 19, 2005, incident in Haditha.
Charges against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, represented by More Center lawyers, were dropped because of the appearance of “undue command influence,” although a board of inquiry found his performance as a battalion commander had been “substandard.” That finding forced Chessani into retirement.
The More Center has long asserted that the case was brought by the Marine Corps in response to inaccurate media coverage of the killings and to satisfy critics of the Iraq war, including the late-Rep. John Murtha, D-PA, (who called these Marines “cold-blooded” murderers)
The legal theory behind the lawsuit is that the Iraqi investigation would prove that the incident did not justify criminal charges. Whether such an investigation was done by the Iraqis, however, is disputed.
The killings occurred as Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment swept through several houses looking for insurgents responsible for a roadside bomb attack minutes earlier that killed one Marine and wounded two others. Among the 24 killed were three women and seven children.
The final Marine accused in the case, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, the squad leader, is set for court martial in January at Camp Pendleton. “Loss of civilian life was considered a tragic but not uncommon occurrence in a war against insurgents who purposely placed civilians in harm’s way,” the Thomas More Center said in a statement.
I’m glad somebody is coming to their defense. The lying coward wouldn’t even answer the question. I don’t care about his service in Korea and Vietnam. Murtha was the enemy. He’s a turncoat and a disgrace to the military. This POS has an airport, building, or something named after him. What a crock.
Boundaries, disgracefully, the named a Navy ship after him.
Deceased, and grateful for that, most of us Marines, knew of Murtha, his start as a Reserve Marine Officers Corps member, and as an intelligence operator, knew as well he put a huge stain on the Corps. He was a political animal of the worse type. He would have thrown his own mother to the lions if it benefited his political career, no doubt about it. Now before anyone dares suggest it is dishonorable to diss a dead fellow Marine who can’t defend himself, I say to you, when a Marine bring dishonor, i.e. calling our fellow brethern, “cold blooded killers” before all charges against these fine warriors were even heard, or the report was completed, after action Report (AAR), he brought more dishonor to himself long before I mentioned just a few of the many political moves this coward shoved in the face of truely honorable men, before and after, his stint as a TRAITOR of this Republic. He was nothing more than a fellow traveler of the regressive type and was damn proud of himself for that alone.
I pray the remaining Marine will be cleared of all charges. When the Commander of this Unit was cleared it set about a position that under his command the Staff-Sergant was following his orders, thus he cannot be held accountable for the lies murtha and said regressives tried to establish as truth. It’s not going to go any further than a move to dismiss, because once the report of the Iraqi’ leadership is released and is established, it will be proven when the State Dept tired to hinder its discovery in the process clearing the Marines of their actions, there is nothing there to prosecute this Marine. The fact is, his job was to rid the Iraqi people of the insurrgents co-mingling within the population and using them as bait, and hiding behind them for their safety against these warriors, being the cowards they were and still are, they intentionally baited these Marines into the civilian centers as a means of propragandizing efffort against all the players of the United States to bring about stability to the region. The mere fact that a TRAITOR of this Republic, murtha, tried to run interference inbetween Command and the freely elected and installed Iraqi Government officials, says more of the actions of types like murtha, and his regressive wannabe slave masters in the State Dept ( I’ve said it before, this is a baston of vipers hiding behind the Color of law), than it does of the honor of this Marine, his devotion to protect the innocence and his duty to serve with distinction. Fucken TRAITOR MURTHA, and this grubmint had the arrogance to name a ship after this punk says all I need to know of the TRAITORS within. and should remind all of us what a political whore he was and the illegal use of his office he was willing push on We the Patriots, just because of his arrogance. I am sickened when I hear the word Marine and murtha in the same sentence, he was a disgrace to the Corps.
Semper Fi.
Of course, it was designed to make a political statement to appease muslimes who wanted a sacrificial lamb !!
Even the most ignorant person in the world knows that non-military will be wounded and killed during a war or any armed conflict.
Accursed demon-a-rats don’t seem to recognize the fact that muslimes deliberately kill their own inbreds without any justification.
Assinine idiots need to be put on the front lines and see how they react to the potential that under each female tent or strapped to each little child could be one or more bombs !!!
It has happened before and it will happen here as our court system gives muslimes passes for all the wickedness they do in our own Country.
We just have to be prepared on on guard for mall muslime bombers.
Best thing about murtha is that he is “late”. May his tribe increase among the demon-a-rats !!
Political correctness was written all over this as if the reality of “the fog of war” did not exist. Iraqi insurgents did not then, and do not now, recognise anything to do with the laws of war. They are known to hide behind and among the civilian population just like all muslim insurgent groups. They are just plain evil. I’m glad the State Department is being sued over this. Liberal politicians throw up all manner of constraints upon our servicemembers making our job so much more difficult, if not impossible to carry out. As a matter of opinion, liberals render aid and comfort to our enemies. Murtha was a joke.
Civilians DO get killed in wars, there’s no way around it but to avoid war, all-to-gether. War by definition is the killing and tearing up of things until one side surrenders.
Good news! Best of luck.
Look at Murtha, trying to hide behind his hand…….
I’m pretty sure I’ll catch some flack over my statement, but I’m going to say it anyway.
I am sick and tired of our men and women in the Military going over there to save their butts and being blasted for “pp’ing in the wrong direction; or taking a dump in the wrong direction (away from Mecca); having to bend over backwards including having the cross taken off where they attend church “IN ORDER TO PROTECT THESE PEOPLE.”
We are having our men/women in the Military being murdered and maimed fighting for them. Just bring them home and let the civilians fight their own damn wars.
I’m glad as well someone is coming to their defense. sometimes civilians get killed in war.
This just demonstrates a fact that should be known to anyone in possesion of “full mental capacity”; DO NOT HOLD YOUR BREATH waitng for an apology from ANY worthless butt kissing bureaucrat!! You might as well wait for an icestorm in Hell as to wait for one of these liberal socialist b*******s to EVER admit he/she was wrong!!…..Prime example currently occuping the Oval Office!!
Ret. Marine You said what needed be said ! Thank You and Semper Fi
John Murtha a self surving ass hol+. These marines should be given medals. There are no innocents in war. They are part of the machine one way or the other. Thus to charge and reprimand these soldiers is a crime in itself.
Yes Murthr Furkr showed how a good Marine can sell out his country by getting bought off. I don’t guess they go to Leavenworth for being spy’s. Thank God he was out of the Marines. Whenever our warriors are treated this way by liberal media, it it time to get out of the war.
Those jerkoffs. How dare they sue our Marines. I am so sick and tired of these Dhimmi retards handing our country to a bunch of ass-lifting 7th century barbarians. These men are ordered to go over there and protect people who hate us. Those people are so backwards they kill their own for not being Muslims enough. Those Marines should be given medals to decrease the Muslim population in the world, not sued.
BNI,
Yes naming a ship after him pissed me off so bad I could’ve eaten nails. Heard on Mark Levin tonight that the crack heads we have naming our ships, named a ship after Cesar Chavaz last year. Now THAT makes me royally pissed.
Boundaries, I heard Mark talk about that too. Pure insanity.
Don’t get me wrong I am NOT anti american,
How can the state bring these marines to justice for killing civilians in conflict of war ,Wthat state gave orders for ANOLA GAY to drop that bomb killing all those innocent women and chilren living in HOROSHUMA , IS IT NOT THE SAME CASE ,there were no armed forces in that area , Not like there was in IRAQ.
It just puzzles me to know how the state in America works.
SO Please tell me why nations go to war? Is it to play chess or poker or is it to defend and kill or be killed! Didn’t this govt learn that in Vietnam younf children use to offer shoe shines to military members and then have a bomb go off in that shoe box!! The object is to TAKE property and kill or be killed! Stop the politiacla correctness B.S. It gets service men killed..STUPID idioys! What would you do if you had to fight the wars you sent so man of us out to fight??? Kiss thier butts!!!
tedjusant flush out your headassclown if we invaded japan it would have cost a million causulties and probley the lives of ten to twenty million japanise dead. by the way the bomb droped onhiroshima was droped on an army base. learn your history.
Thomas More Law Center needs your financial assistance to keep the fight going. Our latest release today.
Widow of Fallen Marine Represented by the Thomas More Law Center Pleads with Marine Official to Keep Camp Pendleton Memorial Cross
http://www.thomasmore.org/default-sb_thomasmore.html?632888026