Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
San Diego Union-Tribune
May 12, 2007
By Steve Liewer, Staff Writer
CAMP PENDLETON--Official complaints from Iraqis, a Time magazine report and two military investigations into the killing of 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq, all failed to shake Marine commanders' confidence that the deaths were justified, an officer testified yesterday at Camp Pendleton.
“They didn't give me any indication there was anything else we should look into,” said Capt. Jeffrey Dinsmore, the intelligence officer for the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment when the killings occurred Nov. 19, 2005.
Dinsmore testified during the pretrial hearing for Capt. Randy Stone, one of four officers from the battalion who are charged with dereliction of duty for failing to scrutinize the Haditha incident.
Three enlisted Marines from the battalion's Kilo Company are accused of going on a rampage after a roadside bomb blast killed one Marine and wounded several others. They shot five men who arrived in a car shortly after the bomb explosion and killed 19 other Iraqis in three nearby houses over the next hour.
Top officers for the battalion knew within hours that many of the dead were women and children, Dinsmore said. But they strongly believed that insurgents used those civilians as human shields for their attack on the U.S. convoy and then fled during the Marines' counterattack, he testified.
Marine Corps officials never investigated the Iraqis' deaths because their convoy was attacked first, Dinsmore said. The military calls that scenario “Troops in Contact,” or TIC.
“It's well-established that this was a TIC, and the civilians were unfortunately collateral damage,” Dinsmore said.
Dinsmore acknowledged that he and other officers reached that conclusion without interviewing the Marines involved or evaluating their statements about the incident.
Dinsmore didn't change his mind despite hearing complaints from the mayor of Haditha and reading a translated copy of a flyer circulated around the town to protest the killings.
“The City Council was being used as a tool for insurgent propaganda,” he said.
Dinsmore still saw no reason to investigate the Haditha deaths after a Time magazine reporter submitted a list of questions about the incident in January 2006. He said a Google search showed him that the journalist, Tim McGirk, had an “anti-military bias.”
It was an unwritten rule that civilian deaths occurring during combat didn't rate an investigation, said Maj. Carroll Connelley, the deputy staff judge advocate for the regiment, a command one level higher than Stone's.
Connelley said because he was already busy, he felt relieved to get an e-mail from Stone stating that the Haditha killings didn't require scrutiny.
“It was reconciled as having been in combat,” Connelley said. “I didn't have any concerns.”
Col. Keith Anderson, a lawyer in the Marine Corps Reserve, testified that he taught a three-day class on the “Law of War” to Stone and other officers in 2004. He said he instructed them that any loss of civilian life ought to prompt an investigation.
“If a bad act occurs, the worst thing you can do is not investigate,” Anderson said. “You don't know where these allegations are going to come from. When they do, it's better if you've looked into it.”
Stone's pretrial hearing is scheduled to continue today. Once it is completed, the hearing officer, Maj. Thomas McCann, will recommend whether the charges against Stone should be referred to court-martial.
May 12, 2007
By Steve Liewer, Staff Writer
CAMP PENDLETON--Official complaints from Iraqis, a Time magazine report and two military investigations into the killing of 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq, all failed to shake Marine commanders' confidence that the deaths were justified, an officer testified yesterday at Camp Pendleton.
“They didn't give me any indication there was anything else we should look into,” said Capt. Jeffrey Dinsmore, the intelligence officer for the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment when the killings occurred Nov. 19, 2005.
Dinsmore testified during the pretrial hearing for Capt. Randy Stone, one of four officers from the battalion who are charged with dereliction of duty for failing to scrutinize the Haditha incident.
Three enlisted Marines from the battalion's Kilo Company are accused of going on a rampage after a roadside bomb blast killed one Marine and wounded several others. They shot five men who arrived in a car shortly after the bomb explosion and killed 19 other Iraqis in three nearby houses over the next hour.
Top officers for the battalion knew within hours that many of the dead were women and children, Dinsmore said. But they strongly believed that insurgents used those civilians as human shields for their attack on the U.S. convoy and then fled during the Marines' counterattack, he testified.
Marine Corps officials never investigated the Iraqis' deaths because their convoy was attacked first, Dinsmore said. The military calls that scenario “Troops in Contact,” or TIC.
“It's well-established that this was a TIC, and the civilians were unfortunately collateral damage,” Dinsmore said.
Dinsmore acknowledged that he and other officers reached that conclusion without interviewing the Marines involved or evaluating their statements about the incident.
Dinsmore didn't change his mind despite hearing complaints from the mayor of Haditha and reading a translated copy of a flyer circulated around the town to protest the killings.
“The City Council was being used as a tool for insurgent propaganda,” he said.
Dinsmore still saw no reason to investigate the Haditha deaths after a Time magazine reporter submitted a list of questions about the incident in January 2006. He said a Google search showed him that the journalist, Tim McGirk, had an “anti-military bias.”
It was an unwritten rule that civilian deaths occurring during combat didn't rate an investigation, said Maj. Carroll Connelley, the deputy staff judge advocate for the regiment, a command one level higher than Stone's.
Connelley said because he was already busy, he felt relieved to get an e-mail from Stone stating that the Haditha killings didn't require scrutiny.
“It was reconciled as having been in combat,” Connelley said. “I didn't have any concerns.”
Col. Keith Anderson, a lawyer in the Marine Corps Reserve, testified that he taught a three-day class on the “Law of War” to Stone and other officers in 2004. He said he instructed them that any loss of civilian life ought to prompt an investigation.
“If a bad act occurs, the worst thing you can do is not investigate,” Anderson said. “You don't know where these allegations are going to come from. When they do, it's better if you've looked into it.”
Stone's pretrial hearing is scheduled to continue today. Once it is completed, the hearing officer, Maj. Thomas McCann, will recommend whether the charges against Stone should be referred to court-martial.