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3 senior Marine officers disciplined in slayings of 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq





CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- A major general and two senior officers have been disciplined for their roles in investigating the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha in 2005, the Marine Corps said Wednesday.
Maj. Gen. Richard A. Huck, former commanding general of the 2nd Marine Division, has received a letter of censure from the secretary of the Navy for the "actions he took and failed to take" in response to the killings.
The statement from the Marine Corps does not elaborate.
Col. Stephen W. Davis and Col. Robert G. Sokoloski also received letters of censure.
Davis was cited for failure to take action when informed of the slayings. Sokoloski was cited for unsatisfactory performance of his duties.
"Accountability and responsibility are the foundation of all we do as Marines," said Gen. James T. Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps.
"While these three officers have served their country and corps exceedingly well for decades, their actions, inactions and decisions in the aftermath of the Haditha incident did not meet the high standards we expect of Marine senior officer leadership," Conway said.
Phone messages left by The Associated Press seeking comment from the three officers were not immediately returned.
Maj. Gen. Stephen T. Johnson, former commanding general of II Marine Expeditionary Force, was fully exonerated, the Marine Corps statement said.
In all, 24 civilians were killed by a Marine squad in the aftermath of a bomb blast that killed one Marine on Nov. 19, 2005. Among the dead were women and children who were killed in their homes as Marines went on a house-to-house sweep.
In Washington, a senior Marine official said that "no investigation was initiated immediately" after the killings. He noted that the first probe started when the media reported the killings in February.
"There was no evidence of an intentional coverup," he said.
The official briefed Pentagon reporters on condition of anonymity so he could speak freely about the personnel matter. He declined to release the text of the letters censure, which is the most severe in a range of administrative actions and extremely rare.
Having the censure on their records would make it difficult for the three officers to receive future promotions and could result in a reduction in rank for the purpose of calculating retirement benefits.
There is no appeal to a letter of censure, but the three can write rebuttal statements that also will be put into their records. The officers have five days to acknowledge the notification and then 15 days to submit any rebuttal statement.
The disciplinary action came as a preliminary hearing continued in the Haditha case for Staff. Sgt. Frank Wuterich, 27, of Meriden, Conn., who is accused of unpremeditated murder in the slaying of 17 of the Iraqis.
Wuterich has acknowledged shooting five men who were at the scene of the bomb blast but claims he did so because they were running from the site of the explosion. Combat rules at the time allowed Marines to shoot at people fleeing the scene of an attack.
Capt. Alfonso Capers, to whom Wuterich reported for about two years before the killings, struggled for an answer in military court when Lt. Col. Paul Ware, the investigating officer overseeing the Haditha case, asked how Marines are trained to confront mixed crowds of enemies and civilians.
"Is there a schoolbook answer?" Ware asked.
"There's not," Capers replied.
Capers, a government witness, acknowledged some limits on tactics in such situations. He told a prosecutor, Marine Maj. Daren Erickson, that troops did not have license to kill indiscriminately because it's "a bad stain" on the Marines.
"Shoot first, ask questions later means everyone's expendable," Capers said. "You can't do that."
Prosecutors are focusing on how the five men died because they have a witness, Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz, who claims the men were not running and had their hands in the air when he saw Wuterich shoot them.
Wuterich's lead civilian attorney, Neal Puckett, said Dela Cruz's account was false.
Dela Cruz was initially charged with murdering the men, but the charges against him were dismissed and he was given immunity to testify against Wuterich.
The preliminary hearing was set to conclude Thursday, Ware said. He will eventually make a recommendation on whether Wuterich should be court-martialed. Lt. Gen. James Mattis, the general overseeing the case, makes the final decision.
In all, four enlisted Marines were charged with murder and four officers were charged with dereliction of duty for failing to investigate the deaths. Charges have so far been dropped against three of the men.

http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/national/BO61481/

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