When I first looked at the headline of the NYT’s regarding their new Haditha story I thought “Maybe, just maybe they have come around”…..teaches me to think that a leftist MSM outfit could ever change it’s spots.
This is the headline:
Contradictions Cloud Inquiry Into 24 Iraqi Deaths
All good so far since it’s the truth. But a few paragraphs in I read this:
However, investigators have found evidence that the men in the taxi were not fleeing the bombing scene, as the marines have told military officials. Investigators have also concluded that most of the victims in three houses died from well-aimed rifle shots, not shrapnel or random fire, according to military officials familiar with the initial findings.
Oh really? And they found that these well-aimed shots had occurred by forensically examining the bodies? Nope. They base this on the video that was shot by the founder and leader of the Hammurabi organization, Mr. Thaer al-Hadithi. He founded this organization to expose the war crimes being committed by the US, god knows he couldn’t of founded the organization when Saddam was in power or he would have been thrown into a acid bath, but I digress. He has a huge bias in this investigation, he hates the US, and that my friends would color any testimony and any “evidence” he submits.
How else did they come to the conclusion about the shots? Dr. Dr. Walid al-Obeidi. Head of the hospital where those killed were supposedly taken. Does this doctor have any bias against the US?
An officer asked dr.Walid what he thinks of the Americans, and he replied “you are occupation troops, I wish that you were friends, but this way, things do not work.”
“Is it not better that we are here?” he asked again.
“No” dr. Walid replied “look at you, heavily armed in your military clothes, you frighten children. You create tension”.
Not only that but he has been arrested by coalition forces before.
These are the ONLY reasons the NYT’s informants are saying they were killed by “well placed shots”.
The only way to truly find this out is to exhume these bodies and do an autopsy on them.
The houses where the killings took place show no evidence of the violent room-clearing assault described by the marines and their lawyers, the officials said.
Really? You mean months after the battle things had been cleaned up? Go figure. And what exactly should a “violent room-clearing assault” look like? Are they imagining walls blown down and the roof collapsed like a Arnold Schwarzenegger movie?
But later in the article:
In addition, if the marines had violently cleared the houses using automatic weapons and fragmentation grenades, there would be lots of damage and bullet marks in the walls. Early investigators said they found no such evidence, although the walls may have been patched before they arrived.
You think?
But according to two people briefed on the investigation, one member of the Marine squad at Haditha, himself closely tied to some of the deaths, is now cooperating with investigators.
This is an interesting development.
When speaking about the taxi shooting:
Two people briefed on the investigation said Thursday that evidence gathered on the shooting of the taxi passengers now appeared to be the most at odds with the account given by marines through their lawyers.
One Defense Department official said photographs indicated that the positions of those corpses — and the pooling of their blood — can be viewed as sharply inconsistent with the marines’ version that the Iraqi men were shot as they fled.
You get that? The pooling of the blood from photographic evidence submitted by those who have an extreme bias against the US. We know they don’t have the bodies since they have not been exhumed, I doubt very much the car is still around since this was a non story until 9 of the 24 dead didn’t receive blood money from the US. Then all hell broke loose.
When speaking about those dead in the house:
The wounds of the dead Iraqis, as seen in photographs and viewed by the morgue director, were not consistent with attacks by fragmentation grenades and indiscriminate rifle fire, Colonel Watt found.
You see where I’m going? Every single bit of evidence is that which is gained from those who hate the US, from those who didn’t receive the blood money they thought were owed to them.
And the investigators are eating it up like it was candy.
Unbelievable.
And the New York Times writes another article with an extreme bias towards the residents of Haditha. The one Marine who has talked through his lawyer barely gets a mention except in a off hand, dismissive way.
Typical.
UPDATE
The Real Ugly American makes an astute observation about the supposed “taxi”:
Do you call un marked white cars taxis? I don’t. Why are the NYT, TIME, and other media organizations calling it a taxi?
And then Hot Air points us to the original TIME piece which said:
“The video was obtained by the Hammurabi Human Rights Group, and has been shared with TIME… 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 todays NYT’s article stated:
The houses where the killings took place show no evidence of the violent room-clearing assault described by the marines and their lawyers, the officials said.
So which is it?
Sigh
Other’s Blogging:
You see where I’m going? Every single bit of evidence is that which is gained from those who hate the US, from those who didn’t receive the blood money they thought were owed to them.
And the investigators are eating it up like it was candy.
Unbelievable.
See author page