White House: Haditha details to be public

[Fluffdaddy]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060531/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_iraqi_civilians

Snow said that he has been assured by the Pentagon that "all the details" will be made available...

Rep. John Murtha... has said Marines shot and killed unarmed civilians in a taxi at the scene and went into two homes and shot others.

On Tuesday, said President Bush learned of the killings only after a reporter from Time magazine asked questions...

Asked when Bush was first briefed about the events in Haditha, an insurgent stronghold in western Iraq, Snow replied Tuesday: "When a Time reporter first made the call."

According to the attorney for one of three Marine Corps officers relieved of command from a Marine battalion are not targets of investigations into whether their troops killed the civilians or tried to cover it up.


Meanwhile, Lance Cpl. James Crossan of North Bend, Wash., who was injured in the roadside bomb attack in Haditha, told a Seattle television station that some of the Marines might have snapped after seeing one of their own killed in action.

[pepperbear]

1. Tony says it's so? OK, then, where do I sign? eom

[Rose Siding]

2. The Snow Dance of Equivocation

The first Time article was in the March 19th issue which was released, what, on the 16th? The reporters could have been working on the story for months before that. Even if he didn't know *right* after it happened, he could still be up to his elbows in a cover-up.

[noonwitch]

3. Have a congressional investigation

I don't know what exactly happened, but it needs to be investigated fully. I don't like to think our soldiers are capable of slaughtering a bunch of unarmed people, but I have never been in a war zone (well, except maybe Detroit's east side in the late 80s when the Chambers brothers and White Boy Rick were running the crack trade)and have no context to judge the actions of the Marines but the picture painted by the media.

As a government employee, I do know that our stories always get told last. I assume this applies to the military, too. We are constrained by rules about talking to the press- victims and alleged victims are not. There needs to be some kind of unbiased/bipartisan investigation, by Congress, to see what happened. I'm not going to make judgements about the Marines involved until I hear their side of it.

[coalition_unwilling]

4. How about an international War Crimes tribunal, featuring

the policy makers? (eom)

[bemildred]

5. Right, maybe in 60 years or so ... nt