A typical piece of biased reporting today by the Washington Post when they report on the fact that an investigating Sgt that viewed the Haditha scene corroberated most of what the still unyet-to-be charged Marines said happened:
A sergeant who examined the scene hours after Marines killed two dozen Iraqis in Haditha last year said the shootings appeared to be an appropriate response to a coordinated insurgent attack, according to a sworn statement obtained by The Washington Post.
Sgt. J.M. Laughner, part of a Marine human-intelligence exploitation team that was hunting down insurgent bombmakers, went from house to house in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005, and acknowledged finding two dozen bodies, including some of women and small children.
But Laughner said the scenes of the slayings appeared to match the version of events the Marine squad provided that day and did not seem especially out of the ordinary, according to a transcript of Laughner’s interview with military investigators in March.
Why would I call this biased reporting? Take a look:
Laughner’s statement, although just one viewpoint, is further evidence that Marines who were on the ground that day viewed the civilian deaths as accidental rather than the result of a vengeful rampage.
The transcript was provided to The Post by someone who is sympathetic to the enlisted Marines facing scrutiny for the shootings, which Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) has characterized as a coldblooded massacre…
When was the last time you heard any MSM outfit say “The transcript was provided to The Post by someone who is sympathetic to….”? Try rarely. Did they say this about the NSA wiretapping scandal? The CIA prison scandal? The SWIFT scandal? Nope.
Well anyways, the article goes on to detail the fact that they feared for their lives and were following the rules of engagement:
The Marines told Laughner they had taken fire from the houses and believed they heard people “racking AK-47s” — preparing to fire the automatic weapons.
The Marines then “cleared” the rooms using fragmentation grenades and rifle shots. Two other accounts given by lawyers for Marines in the unit are consistent with the version Laughner heard from the Marines involved in the incident on Nov. 19.
Laughner also said that 30 Jordanian passports and large amounts of cash were found in a home near the shooting scenes…
But no Al-Qaeda sympathizers there huh?
Allah at Hot Air takes issue with this:
The colonels interviewing Laughner focused several questions on a white vehicle that approached the Marine convoy just after the roadside blast. The car, which has been a significant subject in both an investigation of leadership failures and the ongoing criminal probe, could figure prominently in any charges lodged against the Marines.
Laughner said five military-age men appeared to have been killed as they ran from the vehicle, which stopped in the middle of the road near the convoy — a spot that could be considered threatening.
Allah stated the drone video supposedly contradicts this version of the event but I disagree. The whole reason they stated in an earlier report that the drove video doesn’t match the Marines version is because two bodies were stacked on top of each other. Unless there is some additional video that clearly shows them firing at men giving up this does not rise to a contradiction to me.
Do they know how far apart these guys were when they fired? Could they have just begun to run and were right behind each other? Could one have died a few seconds later then the one below him allowing him to gain a few feet and fall on the other guy? Lots of questions that need to be answered before I take their word that the video contradicts these Marines.
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