Bush Learned of Haditha Massacre From Press

Posted on May 30, 2006

The president didn’t know about the November atrocity in which Marines killed 24 unarmed civilians until March, when a Time magazine reporter called the White House for comment on the story.

AP:

President Bush learned of reports that U.S. Marines killed two dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians only after reporters began asking questions, the White House said Tuesday.

Asked when Bush was first briefed about the events in Haditha, an insurgent stronghold in western Iraq, White House press secretary Tony Snow replied Tuesday: “When a Time reporter first made the call.”

Time magazine was first to report, in March, that the U.S. military was investigating a dozen Marines for possible war crimes in the November incident. The killings, which included women and children, came after a bomb rocked a military convoy on Nov. 19, killing a Marine.

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