Inquiry Suggests Marines Excised Files on Killings (NYT)

[spindrifter]

By DAVID S. CLOUD
Published: August 18, 2006

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 — 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.

Those findings, contained in a long report that was completed last month but not made public, go beyond what has been previously reported about the case. It has been known that marines who carried out the killings made misleading statements to investigators and that senior officers were criticized for not being more aggressive in investigating the case, in which most or all of the Iraqis who were killed were civilians. But this is the first time details about possible concealment or destruction of evidence have been disclosed.

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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.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/world/middleeast/18haditha.html?hp&ex=1155873600&en=8857edef59f80ea1&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[bahrbearian]

1. O.K ..Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli,, you are now on "Notice"