~~ Ronald Reagan ~~
Friday, August 10, 2007
Murtha Must Go!
Congressman John Murtha, better known as “Mad Jack” Murtha, owes the Haditha Marines a very PUBLIC apology. Here is what he said way way back before there was even an investigation:
Murtha’s categorical declaration that the Haditha Marines had “killed innocent civilians in cold blood.” He made that accusation on May 17, 2006:
Rep. John Murtha, an influential Pennsylvania lawmaker and outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, said today Marines had “killed innocent civilians in cold blood” after allegedly responding to a roadside bomb ambush that killed a Marine during a patrol in Haditha, Iraq, Nov. 19. The incident is still under investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and Multi-National Forces Iraq.
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“It’s much worse than was reported in Time magazine,” Murtha, a Democrat, former Marine colonel and Vietnam war veteran, told reporters on Capitol Hill. “There was no firefight. There was no [bomb] that killed those innocent people,” Murtha explained, adding there were “about twice as many” Iraqis killed than Time had reported.The next day, Murtha was asked about the sourcing for his accusations. Here’s his answer:
Asked about his sources during a midday briefing on Iraq policy in the Capitol, Murtha confidently replied, “All the information I get, it comes from the commanders, it comes from people who know what they’re talking about.” Although Murtha said that he had not read any investigative reports by the military on the incident, he stressed, “It’s much worse than reported in Time magazine.”
The Marine Corps later corrected the record:
Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, is being sued by one of the accused Marines for libel. He had told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Gen. Michael Hagee had given him the information on which he based his charge that Marines killed innocent civilians.
But a spokesman for the Marine Corps said Hagee briefed Murtha on May 24 about Haditha. Murtha had made comments on the case as early as May 17. On May 17, for example, he said at a news conference, “Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood.”A spokeswoman for Murtha was not immediately available. (Sounds familiar.)
So now we jump to the present and find that the invesitgator recommend to the judge that ALL charges be dropped.
As previously reported by NewsMax, the battalion S2 officer made a full and complete report based on his monitoring of the day’s events and the intelligence he and others had amassed then and previous days. As we wrote at the time, the PowerPoint after-action report he sent up the command ladder proved to all the higher officers that the incident warranted no further investigation.
And Col. Ware’s report:
Cpl. Sharratt was accused of premeditated murder after he shot three Iraqi men with an M-9 service pistol in Haditha in 2005. If convicted, he would face life in prison.
The investigating officer, Lt. Col. Paul Ware, recommended in a report released yesterday that those charges be dismissed. The final say on the matter rests with the overseeing officer, Lt. Gen. James Mattis, commander of Marine Forces Central Command, who faces no timeline in making his decision. Gen. Mattis can accept, reject or modify the recommendation....
In Col. Ware’s opinion, the forensic evidence was not consistent with an execution, as the three men were shot facing forward and from a distance.
Col. Ware wrote in his report: “It is difficult, if not impossible to believe that trained and experienced Marines would decide to execute 4 unarmed men by leading them into a house, moving them to a back room with no light [curtains were closed] and allow them to move about the room while trying to shoot them with the least-effective weapon in their arsenal.”
He also found the witnesses’ accounts to be unreliable since their statements were taken in a group setting, and especially since they knew that other families in Haditha had received monetary compensation from the United States for events that occurred on the day of the shootings.
“To believe the government version of facts is to disregard clear and convincing evidence to the contrary and sets a dangerous precedent. ...,” Col. Ware wrote. “Even more dangerous is the potential that a Marine may hesitate at the critical moment when facing the enemy.”
And then this week on August 9th, Judge Mattis dropped ALL charges against Sharratt and Stone. and yet when Gary Gross tried to contact Murtha for a comment, his office hung up on him. So the big mouth, who has already shamed himself as a Marine, and who we all think is a coward has proved himself not only a coward but totally reprehensible.
Murtha should be expelled from Congress or do the decent thing and resign. Here are his office numbers. Since Congress is taking the month of August off, I would contact the Johnstown office.
District Office:
647 Main St
Johnstown, PA 15901
(814) 535-2642
(814) 539-6229 fax
12th District Toll-free:
(800) 289-2642
Washington, D.C. Office
2423 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-2065
202) 225-5709 fax
If you need a primer or a refresher on the ongoing saga of the Haditha story, check out Ongoing Coverage: Haditha by the North County Times which covers the news for the California Inland Empire and Camp Pendleton:
Special Report
UPDATED:
All the more reason to flood Murtha’s office with calls or faxes from concerned and interested citizens since according to the following, Bryan at Hot Air also got the hang up response.
AJ asks:
Murtha did one of the most dishonorable things you can do - as a Marine or an American. He lied openly (because he had no evidence for the statements of last year) about an incident where Americans on the front lines protecting this country were attacked and civilians killed. And he did it for political gain. The “Winter Soldier” syndrome Michelle Malkin wrote about regarding Pvt “Lying” Beauchamp is a much broader phenomena in the wacked out left in this country. While I am not including Democrats who remain proud of the military and this country in this statement, sadly the party is rife with these jerks.
Posted by Sara
on 08/10/2007 at 09:50 PM in Legal - Military - Terrorism-War-Foreign Turmoil - Iraq -
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