Senior Marines may face blame for Haditha deaths

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Senior Marines may face blame for Haditha deaths
By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, September 23, 2007

ARLINGTON, Va. — Since April, charges have been dropped against half of the Marines facing legal proceedings in connection with the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha.

One military law expert said that seems to show Corps leaders are putting the burden of responsibility on senior Marines and those most directly involved in the incident.

Gary Solis, who teaches the law of war at Georgetown University and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, said he expects most of the remaining Marines facing charges to go to trial.

“There may be at work in the Haditha case an expression of the Marine Corps’ institutional understanding that NCOs and officers sometimes bear special responsibilities and burdens,” said Solis, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel and former military prosecutor.

At the same time, he said, Lt. Gen. James Mattis may be extending the benefit of the doubt to Marines who were not “driving forces in Haditha.” Mattis serves as the convening authority in the case.

The incident took place on Nov. 19, 2005, after a Marine was killed and another injured by a roadside bomb. Prosecutors later claimed that Marines killed Iraqi civilians for revenge.


Rest of article at: http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=48969