Create Your Blog | Sign In
Next Blog

Dear Visitor(s)

Take into consideration - What if there was no "FREEDOM"?
Then you see this Blog and are reminded that you would be
missing out on so many important things...Enjoy your stay and recommend to your friends to come and taste the "FREEDOM" Geminimay

Haditha Murders, What Happened In Reality?
04 June, 2006

Haditha probe forces soldier's family to relive death

Fri Jun 2, 2006 7:41pm ET173





By Sito Negron

EL PASO, Texas (Reuters) - The family of Miguel Terrazas learned he had died in an explosion while serving as a U.S. Marine in Iraq and now, as investigators probe whether his death triggered a massacre of civilians, they are having to relive the painful event.

Lance Cpl. Terrazas, 20, known by his nickname T.J., was killed by a roadside bomb in the town of Haditha last November and at first the death of this California-based soldier did not garner much public attention in a war that has by now killed nearly 2,500 U.S. military.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did send condolences, something that has become routine for his staff. "The loss of Lance Cpl. Terrazas painfully reminds us of the perils the members of our armed forces face every day," he wrote.

Now that world opinion is focusing on what Terrazas' comrades did after his death, his brother Martin is urging caution in judging the events.

"I don't think we should rush to judgment. We should support our troops. They did what they're trained to do. A bomb goes off and they react instantly," said Martin Terrazas, 23.

He has not heard an official version from the military but believes the Marines acted in self defense. Speaking softly, his eyes low, Terrazas said recent attention to his brother's death "is putting a cloud over everything."

CONFUSION OF WAR

He told a story about his brother's unit on an earlier night patrol in Fallujah. The town was asleep; looking through the curtains of one home, Terrazas saw women, children, and a man lying on top of four mortars. The man awoke, reached for a detonator, and Miguel Terrazas shot him, Martin Terrazas said.

The brother spoke at the family shop, Ben's Tacos, an institution in south El Paso. He was standing at the counter, behind which was a shelf with a photo of Miguel, and a commendation. Martin said Miguel received the commendation after shooting an armed man. Martin said he was told by his brother that a child standing next to the man was actually holding the weapon.

"They don't wear uniforms, and they hide behind their own people. How can you tell who is who?" Martin Terrazas said.

The unit was close, the brother said, "like another family. They did everything together. They'd be out there for weeks, sleeping in the bush."

The unit deeply felt his brother's death in November.

"A lot of people were mad," Lance Cpl. Roel Briones, a friend in his unit, told the Los Angeles Times this week. "Everyone had just had a (terrible) feeling about what had happened to T.J."

At a memorial service in November, his platoon sergeant Travis Fields praised Terrazas for his warm personality, according to an account on a U.S. Marine Corps Web site.

"He was a man of heart," Fields said. "He always brought a smile everywhere he went. He is the kind of guy you can say will never be forgotten."

Back home in Texas this week, his cousin, Ray Martinez, 25, said Miguel Terrazas, the third generation in his family to join the military, was outgoing and popular.

"He was a beautiful person. A lot of people knew him. A lot of girls -- a lot of his friends were girls. That's the kind of guy you want to hang out with, right?" Martinez said.


© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.


Killings

Initial Response to Marine Raid Draws Scrutiny

By DAVID S. CLOUD and ERIC SCHMITT
Published: June 3, 2006

WASHINGTON, June 2 — Marine commanders in Iraq learned within two days of the killings in Haditha last November that Iraqi civilians had died from gunfire, not a roadside bomb as initially reported, but the officers involved saw no reason to investigate further, according to a senior Marine officer.

The commanders have told investigators they had not viewed as unusual, in a combat environment, the discrepancies that emerged almost immediately in accounts about how the two dozen Iraqis died, and that they had no information at the time suggesting that any civilians had been killed deliberately.

But the handling of the matter by the senior Marine commanders in Haditha, and whether officers and enlisted personnel tried to cover up what happened or missed signs suggesting that the civilian killings were not accidental, has become a major element of the investigation by an Army general into the entire episode.

Officials have said that the investigation, while not yet complete, is likely to conclude that a small group of marines carried out the unprovoked killings of two dozen civilians in the hours after a makeshift bomb killed a marine.

A senior Marine general familiar with the investigation, which is being led by Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell of the Army, said in an interview that it had not yet established how high up the chain of command culpability for the killings extended. But he said there were strong suspicions that some officers knew that the Marine squad's version of events had enough holes and discrepancies that it should have been looked into more deeply.

"It's impossible to believe they didn't know," the Marine general said, referring to midlevel and senior officers. "You'd have to know this thing stunk." He was granted anonymity, along with others who described the investigation, because he was not authorized to speak publicly about it.

In recent weeks, investigators have interviewed the Marine commanders who were serving in Iraq at the time of the killings, including Maj. Gen. Stephen T. Johnson, commander of the Second Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq, and Maj. Gen. Richard A. Huck, commander of the Second Marine Division, a senior Pentagon adviser said.

Military officials said Friday that interviews with all senior officers in the chain of command were a routine part of any wide-ranging inquiry, and did not necessarily indicate culpability on their part.

But even before the investigation is completed, the Marine Corps commandant, Gen. Michael Hagee, is considering relieving some senior Marine commanders who served in Iraq at the time of the killings, the Pentagon adviser said, citing what the adviser called a "loss of confidence" in those officers.

General Hagee has not decided whether to relieve any of the officers in positions of command, and was said to be weighing whether such a move would damage morale and be seen as prejudging the outcome of the investigation.

Lt. Col. Scott Fazekas, a Marine spokesman, said he had "no information" about the possibility of officers being relieved.

On Friday, in a visit to Camp Lejeune, N.C., where the Second Marine Expeditionary Force is based, General Hagee addressed a gathering of marines on compliance with international laws of armed conflict and the military's rules of engagement.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, speaking at a security conference in Singapore, cautioned that inquiries and any possible cover-up were still under review. "We'll soon know the answers," Mr. Rumsfeld said.

Another officer, who served with the Second Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq and has been questioned by investigators, said in an interview that he recalled nothing in the reports on the Nov. 19 killings that indicated marines had acted improperly after their convoy was hit that morning by a roadside bomb.

He acknowledged that the initial reports from the field indicated inaccurately that noncombatants were killed in the bomb explosion. The Marines also issued a press release the day after the killings that said 15 Iraqi civilians had died in the bomb blast and 8 insurgents had been killed in an ensuing firefight.

Yet debriefings on Nov. 20 gave rise to another version of events. Marines at the site said that the civilians had been killed by cross-fire during a firefight with suspected insurgents, the officials said.

Investigators have since come to the view that 24 civilians died, apparently from shots fired at them by Americans, and not as random victims of stray bullets in a gunfight.

But the senior officer said, "On the 19th and 20th of November, there was no information to indicate there was a law of war violation."

The fact that Iraqis were killed by gunfire, not by the bomb explosion, did not raise any red flags because marines were saying that insurgents had been firing at them after the bomb went off, he said. In addition, the bomb attack that morning was followed by a series of other insurgent attacks that day, further confusing the situation.

In retrospect, he said, it might have been advisable to correct the inaccurate press release, but the Marines did not consider doing that then. Investigators have been examining whether there were signs of a cover-up by marines that senior officers missed or ignored, including the circumstances of the shooting of five Iraqi men in a taxi shortly after the roadside bomb exploded.

In interviews with Col. Gregory Watt of the Army, who conducted a preliminary inquiry into the killings, the marines maintained they gave hand and arm signals, directing the taxi approaching their position to stop, according to a military official in Iraq who was briefed on the colonel's report.

Seconds later, the marines said, the bomb exploded. Fearing that the car's occupants either detonated the explosive or acted as spotters for those who did, the marines ordered the five men who were getting out of the car to stop and lie down on the ground.

Instead, the five men — four students and a driver — turned and ran, and the marines shot them, the troops told Colonel Watt.

But the investigator pressed the marines: if none of the Iraqi men had weapons and none had threatened the marines, why did the troops shoot them? The marines did not have a convincing reply, said the official who was briefed on the report.

Along with General Bargewell's inquiry, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating whether criminal charges should be brought against the marines involved. Investigators in that inquiry have confiscated 12 weapons from the Marine squad that carried out the killings, the Marine general said.

But he added that the process of matching weapons with bullets in bodies had been delayed because families of the Iraqi victims were refusing to exhume the bodies.

John Kifner contributed reporting from Buffalo for this article.

Comments

Add comment
authimage
Authentication
A service provided by Al Bawaba