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Friday, June 09, 2006


The Haditha Hoax?

Interesting...

Evidence accumulates of a hoax in Haditha. The weblog Sweetness & Light has done an estimable service gathering together the articles which cast substantial doubt on the charge of a massacre of civilians at Haditha . Because the blog is too busy gathering and fisking the news, I offered and the publisher accepted my offer to put what he has uncovered in a narrative form.

Having done so, I can tell you that the story has a whiff of yet another mediagenic scandal like the TANG memos or the Plame “outing.” While the Marines quite correctly will not comment on the case pending the outcome of their investigation, I am not bound by those rules, and I will sum up the story for you.


Here's the conclusion:

Take a reporter with an anti-Administration agenda, an interested group (think of the Mashhadanis as the VIPS in the Plame case or Burkett and Lucy Ramirez in the TANG case) and a story too good to be checked and circumstances where the people attacked are limited in what they can quickly respond to and you get a story which smells to me like it will soon be unraveled.

This time, I’m betting the consequences to the press which rushed to judgment will be more disastrous than it was to Dan Rather. I surely hope so.


Read the whole thing.

I'm not convinced yet that there wasn't a massacre in Haditha (just as I'm not convinced that there was), but the evidence suggesting that this is all a big hoax is mounting and certainly suggests that there need to be some very serious questions asked and answered before anyone says another word about our Marines being guilty of anything.

Update:

Allah isn't so sure about this, and thinks that comparisons to the forged National Guard memos from CBS is overstating the case.

He may be right. I'm not convinced one way or the other yet, but the fact that there's room for doubt here is a serious indictment of the media (and politicians like Rep. John Murtha) who have already concluded that there was a massacre and that our Marines are guilty of it.

Update:

Also worth noting:

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A Presbyterian minister who was an embedded reporter with his son's U.S. Marine company, which is accused of killing 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha, said soldiers in private moments gave no indication anything horrible happened in the town.

Rather, the young men in Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment talked about earlier intense fighting in Falluja and other wartime ordeals.

"I would think that if it was as bad as everybody is making it out to be, I'd have heard something about it when I was there," said the Rev. Ben Mathes, 53, whose son, 1st Lt. Adam Mathes, is Kilo company's executive officer.

The military is investigating whether some soldiers from Kilo company went on a deadly rampage in November after an explosive device killed one of the most popular members of the unit, Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas.

The father spent 12 days with the unit in January in Haditha as a reporter with the Sacramento, California-based K-Love Christian Radio Network. He also ministered to the troops.

"It was freezing cold and everybody gathered around this kind of metal fireplace where we chopped up wooden pallets and burned them and we'd sit there and talk about home and family and the deepest things with these kids," he said in an interview on Thursday. "Not once did anything come up that something horrible had happened."

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Comments

Avatar for The Whistler

We do know that the leftie news media (in Britain) ran faked pictures in order to indict the Marines.

That’s enough proof for me to assume it’s a hoax, until actual evidence comes along.

The Whistler on June 9, 2006 at 10:52 am
Avatar for Carrick

I think that we have to hold some amount of skepticism about the “inside reports” on the investigations.  They may well turn up something very dirty, but you don’t know how much of what the officials are reacting to is from the investigation and how much of it are from an obviously slanted report in Times Magazine.

So my thoughts are, we don’t know whether the film even of the Haditha tragedy, or whether they were taken someplace else:  It’s not like the insurgency doesn’t have plenty of other photo ops, with daily massacres of Shiites, or anything like that.

Carrick on June 9, 2006 at 12:11 pm
Rob
Rob
22122 comments
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As I pointed out in the post, the fact that we’re even debating this is “a serious indictment of the media (and politicians like Rep. John Murtha) who have already concluded that there was a massacre and that our Marines are guilty of it.”


The purpose of government shouldn’t be to do good, but simply to refrain from doing evil.

Rob on June 9, 2006 at 12:12 pm
Avatar for Rodney Graves

Rob,

I wonder if Kilo Company can qualify as a class and sue for defamation?  That would be sweet.

Out Here
Rodney Graves
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Rodney Graves on June 9, 2006 at 01:41 pm
Avatar for robert108

It’s interesting that the MSM and the Dems question the “timing” of Zarqawi’s death, implying that it was “timed” for some political reason, but when they wait to bring out some alleged scandal for six months, it’s never about their “timing”.  I’m just sayin’...

robert108 on June 9, 2006 at 02:46 pm
Avatar for diane

It’s interesting that the MSM and the Dems question the “timing” of Zarqawi’s death, implying that it was “timed” for some political reason, but when they wait to bring out some alleged scandal for six months, it’s never about their “timing”. I’m just sayin’...


Bring it out?  It was kept under wraps.  And the Marines have already admitted they lied.

diane on June 9, 2006 at 04:29 pm
Avatar for Michael Toborowsky

So let me get this straight. Haditha is a hoax?
I must be getting my information from another dimension. The real stand out from the other dimension is the wounded Marine who was there and part of the operation as well as Kilo Company. His statement regarding his felow Marines seemed to sum it up for me. He stated,
“I guess they were just blinded by hate…”
  Of course my mind is open as the facts unfold but this one looks bad. Remember, no noe wanted to admit that AbuGhraib was actual and though it doesn’t come close to this level of illegality turns out people are doing hard time for “actions which the import and illegality of which are questionable at best”.
  Tragically, these things happen in war and neither side has a monopoly on madness. Remember, the first casualty of any war is truth.

Michael Toborowsky on June 10, 2006 at 08:01 pm
Avatar for Carrick

Michael, if you’re going to be objective, you at least need to get the facts straight.  The wounded marine you speak of was knocked unconscious by the IED and saw none of the alleged attacks.

As I mentioned in another post, the problem with Haditha is the length of time since the incident, and the publication of witness accounts by the media.  If you can’t figure out why these are problems, I can give more detail.

The real probative evidence will be the forensics, which again will be more difficult because of the length of time since the event in question.

Carrick on June 10, 2006 at 08:18 pm
Avatar for Michael Toborowsky

Carrick,
  I see your point about that guy. Thanks. It’s been a long day…. but thanks.

Michael Toborowsky on June 10, 2006 at 08:49 pm
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