Haditha Coverage Raises Some Interesting Questions

While it would be foolish to make too much of anything as regards Haditha at this point, and no effort should be made to minimize any possible war crime, there are several discrepanicies and some apparent facts in the reporting worth pointing out, if only to reinforce the notion we simply don't yet know what happened.

Time states that they spent ten weeks investigating this story as far back as last year.

Here's what all participants agree on: at around 7:15 a.m. on Nov. 19, a U.S. humvee was struck by a powerful improvised explosive device (ied) attached to a large propane canister, triggered by remote control.

Now look at this from the Washington Post Foreign Service account today:

Aws Fahmi, a Haditha resident who said he watched and listened from his home as Marines went from house to house killing members of three families, recalled hearing his neighbor across the street, Younis Salim Khafif, plead in English for his life and the lives of his family members. "I heard Younis speaking to the Americans, saying: 'I am a friend. I am good,' " Fahmi said. "But they killed him, and his wife and daughters."

But on page 2:

In the first minutes after the shock of the blast, ... Then one of the Marines took charge and began shouting, said Fahmi, who was watching from his roof. Fahmi said he saw the Marine direct other Marines into the house closest to the blast, about 50 yards away.

And another interesting element, the Ali mentioned below was in his home in his bed clothes:

Ali was always one of the first on his block to go out every morning, scattering scraps for his chickens and hosing the dust of the arid western town from his driveway, neighbors said.

Putting aside what the military investigation reveals, a key witness for current media accounts was observing events from his roof immediately after a remote controlled IED was exploded. Is it commonplace to be on one's roof at 7 AM in Iraq? And is there a better place to perhaps activate a remote controlled IED? Just a thought. But there's more, as the WaPo seems to have uncovered a source never mentioned in Times ten week investigation.

The Marines moved to the house next door, Fahmi said.

Inside were 43-year-old Khafif, 41-year-old Aeda Yasin Ahmed, an 8-year-old son, five young daughters and a 1-year-old girl staying with the family, according to death certificates and neighbors.

The Marines shot them at close range and hurled grenades into the kitchen and bathroom, survivors and neighbors said later. Khafif's pleas could be heard across the neighborhood. Four of the girls died screaming.

Only 13-year-old Safa Younis lived -- saved, she said, by her mother's blood spilling onto her, making her look dead when she fell, limp, in a faint.

But look at this from the Time account regarding one of the other houses in question:

The Marines raided a third house, which belongs to a man named Ahmed Ayed. One of Ahmed's five sons, Yousif, who lived in a house next door, told Time that after hearing a prolonged burst of gunfire from his father's house, he rushed over. Iraqi soldiers keeping watch in the garden prevented him from going in. "They told me, 'There's nothing you can do. Don't come closer, or the Americans will kill you too.' The Americans didn't let anybody into the house until 6:30 the next morning." Ayed says that by then the bodies were gone; all the dead had been zipped into U.S. body bags and taken by Marines to a local hospital morgue. "But we could tell from the blood tracks across the floor what happened," Ayed claims. "The Americans gathered my four brothers and took them inside my father's bedroom, to a closet. They killed them inside the closet."

The Marines ultimately took 24 bodies to the morgue. So, one house was sealed off and guarded, the Marines removed all the bodies, yet, right next store, a WaPo witness Time never turned up lived because she was mistaken for dead? It might be true, but it doesn't quite add up - nor do some other elements of the WaPo's reporting.

Regarding the first house, they report:

Marines entered (the first house) shooting, witnesses recalled.

But the Time research refutes that and indicates there was some type of fire fight going on outside:

Eman ( who was in the first house) says she "heard a lot of shooting, so none of us went outside. Besides, it was very early, and we were all wearing our nightclothes." When the Marines entered the house, they were shouting in English. "First, they went into my father's room, where he was reading the Koran," she claims, "and we heard shots."

Yet, Eman is in the WaPo's story, though not quoted and they spell it Iman:

Iman and Abdul Rahman were shot but survived.

And the video tape made by the as yet to be identified Iraqi journalism student found another audience, as well. And not one Iraqi witness ever seems to have mentioned airstikes at all.

The remains of the 24 lie today in a cemetery called Martyrs' Graveyard. Stray dogs scrounge in the deserted homes. "Democracy assassinated the family that was here," graffiti on one of the houses declared.

The insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq said it sent copies of the journalism student's videotape to mosques in Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, using the killings of the women and children to recruit fighters.

Another point of dispute is whether some houses were destroyed by fire or by airstrikes. Some Iraqis reported that the Marines burned houses in the area of the attack, but two people familiar with the case, including Hackett, the lawyer, said warplanes conducted airstrikes, dropping 500-pound bombs on more than one house.

That is significant for any possible court-martial proceedings, because it would indicate that senior commanders, who must approve such strikes and who would also use aircraft to assess their effects, were paying attention to events in Haditha that day.

Finally, this from Time:

A day after the incident, a Haditha journalism student videotaped the scene at the local morgue and at the homes where the killings had occurred. The video was obtained by the Hammurabi Human Rights Group, which cooperates with the internationally respected Human Rights Watch, and has been shared with Time.

Above, I think they forgot to mention who in the loop co-operated with al-Qaeda and below, they forgot that one of their own eyewitnesses, Iman, stated she, "heard a lot of shooting, so none of us went outside".

The tape makes for grisly viewing. It shows that many of the victims, especially the women and children, were still in their nightclothes when they died. The scenes from inside the houses show that the walls and ceilings are pockmarked with shrapnel and bullet holes as well as the telltale spray of blood. But the video does not reveal the presence of any bullet holes on the outside of the houses, which may cast doubt on the Marines' contention that after the ied exploded, the Marines and the insurgents engaged in a fierce gunfight.

Comments

[newswatcher]

I guess you didn't know that the Iraquis sleep on their roofs in the warmer months. Being on the roof at 7AM is normal in May. For instance, it is 104 right now in Baghdad.

[splashtc]

Could the iraqis be lying? nooo, they have a reputation for always telling the truth-like bagdad bob.
They think we're fools for believing their b.s.

[Ali]

Thanks for picking all that up in the stories... you are a treasure.

I think I need to find the video and do more reading. Marines (how many) on the way to somewhere (what was the mission, anyone know), in the morning get hit by an IED (which you usually get fire from nearby houses as well, but no holes outside), and they took almost 24 hours there on people who didn't do anything (or covering up as some say, where were all the troops that held them hostage till 6 a.m. the next morning from)? There are a lot of next door neighbors (that lived I might add, even though they heard what happened), stray dogs walking around in houses (obviously not the ones from the airstrikes). Someone had to remotely set off the IED and where's the other account of the men in the car with guns.

Yep, I will wait for the evidence... and not from MSM, unless used as a counter-measure.

[Phoenix]

Sounds like a set-up to fire up some waning enthusiasm to die for virgins. Insurgents dressed as Marines plan this mini-holocaust, conveniently film it and send it out to enrage those who have become bored with this whole insurgency thing............ Brilliant recruiting strategy.

Just a thought.

[Dan]

I guess you didn't know that the Iraquis sleep on their roofs in the warmer months. Being on the roof at 7AM is normal in May. For instance, it is 104 right now in Baghdad.

So how is it this guy emerges 5 months later but was never cited in the Time report, Newswatcher? And you believe that with American troops running through his village shooting it up - he figures the best place to be is out in plain view up on the roof? Sure. Right.

[Laney]

A documented and witnessed murder of Iraqi women and children fills you guys with rage -- at the people who told the tale. So the MSM conspired with the bleeding heart human rights types to make this all up. Are Right World View and its various comment posters going to apologize when events force them to abandon this position and change the subject? Should I check this blog for retractions? Not a chance.

You'll still be attacking as unpatriotic scum anyone who questions this idiotic war and the lies that maneuvered America into it.

[FbL]

Thanks for drawing out those threads. They give me food for thought. Based on GEN Hagee's statements and those of others who have spoken on the record (as well as the fact that the battalion's leadership has already been relieved), I suspect we ARE going to find that something shameful has occurred. But looking at the contradicting threads you've outlined remind me that we really don't know what actually happened and thus should wait until evidence has been presented in the expected trials.

[Rick]

"But looking at the contradicting threads you've outlined remind me that we really don't know what actually happened and thus should wait until evidence has been presented in the expected trials."

What a novel idea!

[Natalya]

America is the most despised country in the whole world. After all you can not expect anything else from offsprings of settlers who robbed, killed and burned the real natives of america.

[Rick]

"After all you can not expect anything else from offsprings of settlers who robbed, killed and burned the real natives of america."

Posted by: Natalya | Sunday, May 28, 2006 at 05:32 AM

You're a freeking genius Nat. What's always left out is how Americans invented that whole idea. See, there was no evolution. The white man was thrust onto EVERY continent, except for North America. No, no, the mongols never invaded anyone, God knows African tribes stayed in their lil mud huts and never went anywhere. Those lovable Vikings only went to the coldest places where no one else lived. Now the "natives" of America. The ones who walked here from China? Well those sweethearts were so buzy gathering nuts and berries and singing Kumbaya that they were never seen pilaging neighboring tribes and making other people slaves. Bless your heart, if it weren't for the learned like yourself we'd all still be in caves in darkest Africa.

[Phoenix]

ha ha..... '....singing Kumbaya...'

hahaha...

Rick, you left out that the Isrealites settled in Binghampton, New York and started a religion in a hat.

[Rick]

Phoenix, Is that the one where Jesus came and left the copper plates on that potatoe farm?
I just get so fed up with these "whitey stole the native's land" whiners who aren't quite guilty enough to move back to Europe (or where ever) yet presume to be harbingers of national guilty conscience. Instead of the fools on Air America, perhaps they would be better served by actually READING a history book. Everybody has done the same shit to everybody else ever since there were enough of us to covet the other guys cave. The "Native American Asian Immigrants" murdered, enslaved and displaced each other as much as every other group in the world. So shut the hell up about it and if people truly feel like slitting their own wrists over their guilt then let's get yet another government program to hand out free razor blades.

[Stella]

I just get so fed up with these "whitey stole the native's land" whiners who aren't quite guilty enough to move back to Europe (or where ever)
Posted by: Rick | Monday, May 29, 2006 at 09:55 AM

Rick! You've given me a flash of brilliance - (and for me, that's a rare occurance, generally based on someone else's thoughts.) With the anticipated surge in population due to the amnesty, I mean guest worker, and other programs being pushed through by our duly elected officials (foolish innocents, aren't we? ha!) - I propose that the same wonderful folks legislate a counter-measure in an attempt to avoid some of the problems that our already over-burdened government may face. The US government should pay the cost of all expenses associated with documenting the nation of origin of all of those who feel guilt, pain, anguish over whatever - and move them back! We're told Europe hates the US, I am certain that they would welcome an onslaught of American expatriates with open arms. Aah - what a plan. I also suggest that all elected officials be put at the front of the line and processed immediately!!

[Rick]

Stella, Can I put North Carolina's Governor and a certain former Senator (who's really from SC) presidential candidate at the head of your list?

[Phoenix]

Damn. More bureaucracy. Another bureau: WASYAHTOAAYNGBureau.

We Are Sending Your Ass Home to Assuage Your Native Guilt Bureau.

Is there a PayPal place where I can charge my credit card way up to help?