...for a high-level position in the GOP? Or, at the very least, some sort of associate gig with Swift Prick John O'Neill?
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...
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.
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.
Neal A. Puckett, a lawyer for Sergeant Wuterich, was unavailable to comment.
Wuterich, the alleged evidence destroyer (and hey, let's give him some presumption of innocence, as is his right under the Constitution)--anyway, Wuterich is the one suing John Murtha, alleging defamation based on Murtha making the Haditha massacre public. I think the odds of the case NOT getting thrown out just went from "slim and none" to just plain "none."
And Wuterich sounds like the kind of person the GOP would LOVE to have as a member.
No comments:
Post a Comment