| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"=?ISO-8859-1?Q?M=F6bius_Pretzel?=" |
| Date: |
05 Dec 2007 07:38:46 PM |
| Object: |
What Happens to U.S. Oil Nazis Who Commit Mass Murder? |
What Happens to U.S. Troops Who Commit Mass Murder?
While U.S. atrocities in Iraq are generally covered up by the
government, military, and mainstream media, there have been a few
major incidents that have been impossible to keep completely hidden.
In such cases, we may hear calls for an investigation or talk that
some troops may get charged. But we rarely hear about what happens
after that. Here is a look at three horrific war crimes committed by
U.S. forces in Iraq, and what happened afterward to the troops
involved.
The War Crime: Haditha
On November 19, 2005, U.S. soldiers went on a rampage in the village
of Haditha after an IED (improvised explosive device) exploded and
killed a Marine. Aws Fahmi saw Marines going house to house, killing
members of three families. He heard his neighbor plead in English for
his life and the lives of his family. "But they killed him, and his
wife and daughters," Fahmi said. The girls were ages 14, 10, 5, 3 and
1.
Nine-year-old Eman Walid Abdul-Hameed said that the Marines burst into
her house at 7 a.m. "The Americans came into the room where my father
was praying and shot him. They went to my grandmother and killed her
too. I heard an explosion. They threw a grenade under my grandfather's
bed." Eman suffered a shrapnel wound. Her parents, grandparents, two
uncles, and a cousin were killed.
By the time Marines were done five hours later, they had killed 24
people, all civilians.
What Happened: The Marines first claimed that the IED had killed 15
civilians and that the rest of the dead were "insurgents" killed by
the Marines in a firefight. It was immediately clear this was a lie:
The victims were shot at close range, and their bodies had no shrapnel
wounds. The Marines' own photos, and a video taken the next day, show
that the houses were riddled with bullet holes on the inside--not the
outside--disproving the Marines' claim to have engaged in a firefight.
A worldwide outcry erupted after Time magazine published video
evidence of the massacre and survivors' stories. But it wasn't until
more than a year after the massacre that charges were brought against
8 Marines: 4 officers for failing to investigate or accurately report
on the killings; and 4 enlisted men for "unpremeditated" murder.
Charges were dismissed against 2 of the enlisted soldiers and reduced
against the other 2. Charges against 2 of the officers were also
dropped.
Lt. General James Mattis, head of the Marines Central Command, was
responsible for the decision to drop and reduce the charges. Mattis
said during a public forum in San Diego in 2005: "You go into
Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because
they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood
left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."
The War Crime: Ramadi
On November 13, 2006, U.S. tanks opened fire on homes in the Al-Dhubat
area of Ramadi, killing at least 35 people. The dead were civilians,
according to Iraqi doctors and witnesses. 60-year-old Haji Jassim told
Inter Press Service, "We weren't allowed by the Americans to reach the
destroyed houses to try to rescue those who were buried, so certainly
many of them bled to death."
On November 18, 2007, Marine Corp Times made available a recording
that a sergeant did of a briefing by his commanding officer after
another incident in Ramadi (August 23, 2006) which left women and
children dead. Capt. Shane Cote told the troops during the briefing,
"Earlier up on the roof, there was like five women and little girls,
OK? We fucked that area up. If we did any collateral damage, there
will be people here asking. Your answer, for the sake of yourselves--
and me--better be you were fucking shooting at muzzle flashes."
What Happened: No charges were filed in the November 2006 killings.
Nor were any criminal charges brought in the August 2006 incident,
which was treated by the Marines as an administrative "personnel
issue."
The War Crime: Fallujah
In November 2004, the U.S. unleashed Operation Phantom Fury on the
city of Fallujah. For 10 days the U.S. rained destruction down on the
people, killing thousands and leveling much of the city. The operation
included the use of white phosphorus, a skin-burning chemical weapon
which has been banned from use in combat by international treaty. Of
the roughly 50,000 buildings in Fallujah, 7,000 to 10,000 were
destroyed, and from half to two-thirds of the remaining buildings were
significantly damaged. 200,000 Iraqis who lived in the city were
forced to flee and become refugees. Under the Nuremberg Charter, which
was used to prosecute Nazis after World War 2, the "wanton destruction
of cities, towns or villages" is a war crime.
A video taken by NBC newsman Kevin Sites during the Fallujah operation
shows several wounded Iraqi men in a mosque with heavily armed U.S.
Marines standing over them. The captives had already been searched for
weapons the previous day and had been left on the floor overnight. One
Marine can be heard on the video footage saying, "He's fucking faking
he's dead." This soldier then raises his rifle and fires right into
the man's head. Blood splatters onto the wall. A second Marine says,
"Well, he's dead now." The execution of a wounded captive is a war
crime under the Geneva Conventions.
What Happened: The military ruled that the soldier in the Sites video
acted "consistent with the established rules of engagement, the law of
armed conflict and the Marine's inherent right of self-defense." No
charges were filed.
The only charge stemming from the brutal assault on Fallujah has been
against Marine sergeant Jose Luis Nazario, accused of murdering two
Iraqi men. Nazario made a call on his radio after his squad captured
four men in a house. An officer asked Nazario over the radio, "Are
they dead yet?" When Nazario responded that the captives were still
alive, he was allegedly told to "make it happen." Nazario was charged
only with voluntary manslaughter and allowed to remain free on $50,000
bail in Riverside, California, where he had become a cop after leaving
the Marines. Another soldier is being investigated for executing the
other two Iraqis in the same incident but has not been charged. The
officer who gave the order to execute the captured men has not been
identified or charged.
*
What does it show about the utterly reactionary nature of what the
U.S. is doing in Iraq, that such savage war crimes go essentially
unpunished--giving a green light for more? There is great moral and
political responsibility for the people in the U.S. to refuse to be
complicit with these crimes--to act politically to stop this bloody war
and to drive out the criminal regime behind it, through a mass
movement of millions.
http://rwor.org/a/111/iraq-en.html
---
No WMDs Yet...
(except in Israel & AmeriKKKa)
.
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