Charges Dropped Haditha

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1. shm10

   April 17th, 2007 at 12:34 pm

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   Clarice:

   I sincerely hope you are correct about the remaining Marines.

2. Macranger

   April 17th, 2007 at 12:51 pm

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   Good find Clarice!

   Not surprising the MSM isn’t picking it up. I wonder if Murtha will issue an apology?

   (Crickets…..)

3. clarice

   April 17th, 2007 at 1:42 pm

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   It’s been picked up now by AFP and others. Hot Air has a post on this, implying he was charged to turn state’s evidence and he may hvae. (He was not at the house where the “massacre” is said to have taken place.)
   http://hotair.com/archives/2007/04/17/charges-dropped-immunity-granted-haditha-marine-turns-states-evidence/

4. crosspatch

   April 17th, 2007 at 5:24 pm

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   BBC is reporting:

   Sgt Sanick Dela Cruz has been granted immunity in exchange for his testimony, the Marine Corps said in a statement.

   Three other marines are charged with unpremeditated murder and four with attempting to cover up the incident.

   Iraqi witnesses say the shootings were in retaliation for a roadside bomb that had killed a US marine earlier.

   “Charges against [Sgt Dela Cruz] were dismissed on April 2 after the government balanced his low level of culpability in the alleged crime against the potential value of his testimony,” the Marine Corps said on Tuesday.

   So the government might be taking a big gamble here. Evidently they figured that this guy probably wouldn’t be convicted anyway so they are going to give him immunity. But if the testimony he gives supports his fellow Marines, the government’s case is pretty much shot. My guess is they wouldn’t have done this unless they figured they didn’t have much of a shot at conviction anyway.

5. shield

   April 17th, 2007 at 7:37 pm

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   Here’s a local story on this.

   Charges dropped against Haditha Marine

6. clarice

   April 17th, 2007 at 10:49 pm

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   Cruz wasn’t at the house and I don’t think there’s any solid forensic evidence on that..All he could possibly testify about is the car incident.

7. Linda

   April 18th, 2007 at 10:22 am

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   http://action.civicworldwide.org/blog/comments.jsp?blog_entry_KEY=22243&t=

   an account by some of the witnesses – I don’t think I’ve read this particular one before. maybe bits and pieces.

8. Linda

   April 18th, 2007 at 11:13 am

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   http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1819267/posts

   interesintg – says his lawyer is anti-war and offered to represent him pro bono.