Murtha Alleges Coverup in Haditha Massacre

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20060530_murtha_haditha_massacre/

Posted on May 30, 2006

“They knew the day after this happened that it was not as they portrayed it,” Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) told CNN about the military’s response to the November killings of 24 unarmed civilians by U.S. Marines. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said it would be “premature” to judge what actually transpired.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s prime minister said that his patience was wearing thin on America’s excuse that it kills civilians by “mistake.”

Also, a CNN reporter who had been embedded with military units accused in the killings recalls that they usually took great pains to avoid civilian casualties. However, she was told that “investigators now strongly suspect a rampage by a small number of Marines who snapped after one of their own was killed by a roadside bomb.”

AFP:

US lawmaker John Murtha renewed his explosive charge that US soldiers killed unarmed civilians in Haditha, Iraq and the US military tried to cover it up.

“This is what worries me. We’re fighting a war about America’s ideals and democracy’s ideas and something like this happens, they try to cover it up,” Pennsylvania Representative John Murtha (news, bio, voting record) told CNN television.

“It is as bad as Abu Ghraib, if not worse,” Murtha stressed.

Two separate US military investigations are under way into the killings in November of some 24 unarmed civilians in Haditha.

“They knew the day after this happened that it was not as they portrayed it. They knew that they went into the rooms, they killed the people in the taxi. There was no firing at all. And this comes from the highest authority in the Marine Corps, so there’s no question in my mind,” he added.

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From Peter Brookes / The Times (UK)

Two investigations are underway into the November killing of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines.