Leaking Haditha

Consistent with its anti-Bush, anti-Iraq war agenda and its habitual leaking, The New York Times once again is showing a complete lack of responsibility.

In today's Times, we get another smear piece.

David S. Cloud seems to wallow in the slamming of American forces in Iraq, reminiscent of Michael Isikoff's giddy telling, albeit fabricated, of the Koran in the Gitmo toilet.

The headline is fair enough.

Marines May Have Excised Evidence on 24 Iraqi Deaths

The operative word is "may." However, just read the first paragraph of Cloud's story and that emphasis is lost.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 — A high-level military investigation into the killings of 24 Iraqis in Haditha last November has uncovered instances in which American marines involved in the episode appear to have destroyed or withheld evidence, according to two Defense Department officials briefed on the case.

"Two Defense Department officials" = Two leakers wanting to undermine support for the war in Iraq

The investigation found that an official company logbook of the unit involved had been tampered with and that an incriminating video taken by an aerial drone the day of the killings was not given to investigators until Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the second-ranking commander in Iraq, intervened, the officials said.

Those findings, contained in a long report that was completed last month but not made public, go beyond what has been previously reported about the case. It has been known that marines who carried out the killings made misleading statements to investigators and that senior officers were criticized for not being more aggressive in investigating the case, in which most or all of the Iraqis who were killed were civilians. But this is the first time details about possible concealment or destruction of evidence have been disclosed.

"The long report that was completed last month but not made public... ."

Cloud relishes the opportunity to make these leaks/findings public.

Does anyone at The Times consider that there are reasons for not going public?

Is it possible that such inflammatory allegations could have a detrimental effect on the war effort and have a harmful effect on the troops now serving in Iraq, troops that had nothing to do with the Haditha incident?

Of course, The Times shows no concern for them.

The report’s findings have been sent to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which is investigating members of the unit involved in the killings, as well as higher-ranking officers in the Second Marine Division. No charges have been brought yet.

NO CHARGES HAVE BEEN BROUGHT YET.

The investigation is ongoing. So why go public with these leaks/findings now?

The report, based on an investigation by Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell of the Army, does not directly accuse marines of attempting a cover-up, but it does describe several suspicious incidents, according to the Defense Department officials.

It says that the logbook, which was meant to be a daily record of major incidents the marines’ company encountered, had all the pages missing for Nov. 19, the day of the killings, and that those portions had not been found, the officials said.

No conclusions are drawn about who may have tampered with the log. But the report says that Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, the leader of the squad involved in the killings, was on duty at the unit’s operations center, where the logbook was kept, shortly after the killings occurred, the officials said.

The report doesn't accuse Marines, but The Times does.

...The report has been closely held within the Defense Department, and the officials who agreed to discuss it did so because they said they thought it should receive wider public attention. They agreed to speak only if their names were not published because they had not been authorized by superiors to discuss its contents.

This makes me sick.

These DoD officials did not have clearance to discuss the report's contents, but they did.

It's as if the enemy has infiltrated our government.

The deaths occurred outside the town of Haditha after a three-vehicle convoy of marines was hit by a roadside bomb, killing a lance corporal. The squad then began going through houses nearby, killing Iraqis found inside in what defense lawyers have said was a justifiable use of lethal force by marines who believed they were under concerted attack by insurgents.

The Marine Corps issued a press release the next day saying that 15 of the civilian deaths had been caused by the bomb explosion. But several officers in the unit have said they knew even then that marines had killed all 24 of the dead Iraqis, 9 of whom were suspected insurgents.

Since then, the idea that any of the victims were insurgents has been challenged, both by Iraqi survivors and by some American military officials familiar with the case, noting that the victims included 10 women and children and an elderly man in a wheelchair. They have said that evidence suggests that the marines overreacted after the death of their fellow marine and shot the civilians in cold blood.

Cloud forgets to mention John Murtha.

Shooting civilians in cold blood is his line. Cloud is ripping off Murtha, hero to CODEPINK and other radical Leftist groups.

...The decision about whether to take disciplinary action will be made by Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis, the commander of Marine Corps units in the Middle East, based on his review of both the Bargewell report and the results of the criminal investigation still under way.

In addition to faulting officers in the Second Marine Division for not aggressively investigating the Haditha killings, the Bargewell report said the commanders had created a climate that minimized the importance of Iraqi lives, particularly in Haditha, where insurgent attacks were rampant, the officials said.

“In their eyes, they didn’t believe anyone was innocent,” said one of the officials, describing the attitude of the marines in the unit toward Iraqis. “Either you were an active participant, or you were complicit.”

This official/leaker has clearly pronounced the Marines guilty as charged in spite of the fact that NO ONE HAS BEEN CHARGED AT THIS POINT.

No charges have been filed and the investigation is ongoing.

I am sick of these "officials," these people who leak with impunity.

It's wrong for them to do it. It's wrong for The Times to spread their leaks.

To sum up the significance of what this article says, allow me to turn one of the officials' quotes back at that individual and at Cloud for their roles.

To the two Defense Department officials who agreed to discuss the report because they said they thought it should receive wider public attention and agreed to speak only if their names were not published because they had not been authorized by superiors to discuss its contents:

To Mr. Cloud:

Either you are an active participant in undermining our troops, or you are complicit.