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June 26, 2008

Haditha Massacre Victims’ Kin Outraged as U.S. Marines Go Free

A U.S. military judge last week dismissed charges against another Marine connected to the massacre of twenty-four unarmed Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha. Of the eight Marines originally charged in the case, only one still faces prosecution. Criminal charges have been dismissed against six of the Marines and a seventh Marine was acquitted. We speak with McClatchy’s Baghdad bureau chief, Leila Fadel, who recently traveled to Haditha to interview survivors of the massacre.

Last week a U.S. military judge dismissed charges against another Marine connected to the massacre of twenty-four unarmed Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha.

Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani had been accused of failing to investigate the November 2005 killings. Of the eight Marines originally charged in the Haditha massacre, only one still faces prosecution. Criminal charges have been dismissed against six of the Marines and a seventh Marine was acquitted.

The journalist Leila Fadel recently traveled to Haditha to interview survivors of the massacre. Leila Fadel is the Baghdad bureau chief for McClatchy newspapers.

Leila Fadel, Baghdad bureau chief for McClatchy Newspapers. Earlier this year she won a George Polk Award for outstanding foreign reporting.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. We are broadcasting on over 700 stations. Audio and video podcasts are available on democracynow.org along with the headlines available. They are also available in Spanish for any radio station to take or to read online: democracynow.org.

JUAN GONZALES: We turn now to Iraq. Last week, a U.S. military judge dismissed charges against another Marine connected to the massacre of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha. Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani had been accused of failing to investigate the November 2005 killings. Of the eight Marines originally charged in the Haditha massacre, only one still faces prosecution. Criminal charges have been dismissed against six of the Marines, and a seventh Marine was acquitted.

AMY GOODMAN: The journalist Leila Fadel recently traveled to Haditha to interview survivors of the massacre. Leila Fadel is the Baghdad bureau chief for McClatchy newspapers. In a moment, she’ll join us, but first we want to turn to this short video posted on the McClatchey website, based on Leila Fadel’s reporting.

VIDEO NARRATION: Yousef Aid Ahmed has memorized the places where his four brothers bodies laid after they were killed by U.S. Marines, he said. The family recounts it was that November day in 2005 and says it was a massacre of the brothers, along with 20 other people following a roadside bomb in Haditha. Marines raided the house and shot the unarmed men in their heads in this back bedroom, the family said. Now they’re angry that no one is being held accountable. Charges against six of the eight Marines accused in the case were dismissed, and one Marine was found not guilty on all charges.

MOTHER (KHADIJA HASSAN) IN VIDEO: I’m angry at those who said they are innocent. They are not supposed to say they’re innocent.

LEILA FADEL:The reminders of their deaths are everywhere—the white plaster that filled in the bullet holes in the wall, the dried blood, that are now just faded gray spots under a new paintjob on the ceiling; and the closet where one brother was shot inside, and the other’s corpse leaned up against the wardrobe. Relatives did the Muslim pilgrimage on their behalf after they were killed, and their mother, Khadija Hassan, framed the certificates and put them on a wall. Now Ahmed supports his family alone, with no help from his brothers.

MOTHER: What is are our life now? This is our life. If only they had stayed alive. I don’t want anything else. If only they had stayed alive. God spared this boy to support us.

LEILA FADEL: In two other homes, women, children and men come were killed. Some no longer want to talk to journalists, angry they have told their story many times and it brought them nothing.

MOTHER: No one knows the fire inside me. My own boy lost his father. There will come an occasion when children will open their eyes with no father to oversee them. What does this mean? What is the fault? What did we do?

AMY GOODMAN: Leila Fadel joins us on the phone from Beirut. Earlier this year, she won the George Polk Award for outstanding foreign reporting. Welcome to Democracy Now! Describe your trip back to Haditha and the people you spoke with.

LEILA FADEL: Thank you. We took a drive back to Haditha last week, trying to get a reaction to the dismissals and the one acquittal regarding this case of 24 people being killed on November 19, 2005. And the ultimate feeling I came away with: people felt betrayed. They felt betrayed that journalists told them if they told their story, somebody would be held accountable. They felt betrayed investigators told them that U.S. justice—that they could depend on that, and nobody is being held accountable. Many of them said, “How many bodies does there have to be for someone to be punished for this?”

JUAN GONZALES: What degree of coverage did this receive in the Iraqi press?

LEILA FADEL: You know, there really hasn’t been that much coverage, there’s been a lot of silence on this issue. When this first happened—well it was discovered in 2006—the prime minister said, “Somebody needs to be punished for this, there must be an investigation.” But as these dismissals and acquittals have happened, there really has been a lot of silence in the Iraqi press. When I went back to Haditha, the way they sort of found out about the situation was [prosecutors?] who flew to the United States for the case came back told them about the dismissals and in the one case, the acquittal.

AMY GOODMAN: In your article for McClatchy newspapers with Khadija Hassan, can you talk about her?

LEILA FADEL: Well, she was the mother of the six boys. Four were killed on November 19, 2005, and one remains alive. He is the one who supports the entire family. She still wears black out of grief. She wants to know why her sons were killed. This family says the Marines hauled them out, divided the women and men, and took the four men into a back bedroom and executed them. The story the Marines tell is very different. They say that these men were already in the back bedroom, with two AK-47’s. Of course this is a two houses that are pretty much attached and that’s the legal amount of AK-47’s in Iraq. So each story is very different. But the way this family tells it is these men were their breadwinners, they were engineers, border guards, traffic police. And she wants to know why her sons were killed and why no one is being held accountable.

JUAN GONZALES: What is the impact of court-martials held in the United States as opposed to in Iraq, in terms of the ability of the prosecutors to get all the witnesses they needed present?

LEILA FADEL: Right. One of the biggest problems with these cases [is] the investigation started months after the actual incident occurred. It was not until-–I believe it was February of 2006—that Time magazine broke the story and other journalists followed, including us. So the investigation didn’t start till five months after. Iraqis were unable to fly to the United States. Hassan and her family, the father of these four boys were extremely ill, and ultimately died, and they couldn’t go to the U.S. and testify. None of the children could go to the U.S. to testify. Ultimately now, no one is being charged with murder.

AMY GOODMAN: Leila Fadel, you write in your piece about Sergeant Frank Wuterich, who was on 60 Minutes and the squad leader. His charges now include voluntary manslaughter of a least nine people. He has always maintained he made the right decision, saying his Marines were under threat. Can you talk about the significance of what he had to say, both in the killing of the young man coming out of the car and telling his men as they went into the car to shoot first and ask questions later?

LEILA FADEL: Ultimately, the way I look at it is there were 23 death certificates, 24 people died. Among them were toddlers and women, and Sergeant Wuterich has said this is what his training told him to do—go into the houses, throw grenades, and apparently shoot children and women. And it did happen, no one disputes that these women and children were killed. And that is what is angering the people of Haditha, that somehow, even with all of these bodies, that no one is being held accountable. And from what I understand, the case against Sergeant Wuterich is particularly strong and he’s given eight—I think seven Marines immunity in order to have testimony against the sergeant. And he says, “I did the right thing.” But toddlers—three-year-olds—and women died.

JUAN GONZALES: The deaths did not occur in one incidents, the occurred in several instances. In several houses over a period of time. Could you elaborate on that?

LEILA FADEL: There were 12 separate shootings. [unintelligible] There were four separate incidents, as I said before. One was a van that was on the same road as a roadside bomb. They opened fire on his men, five of them. Four were apparently college students. According to the Marine report, the investigating officer said nothing was found in the car and these men were unarmed. They said they heard shooting, went to the first house, which was the house of a family, and killed—I think they killed eight people in the first house and one little girl survived. In the second house, they killed seven people and two children survived. In the last house, Hassan’s house across the street from the two families was where the four brothers were killed. That all happened on November 19, 2005, that morning.

AMY GOODMAN: Leila Fadel, thank you for being with us and for your reporting on Haditha. She is the Baghdad bureau chief for McClatchy newspapers, who recently won a George Polk Award for her coverage. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. We move now from Iraq to Zimbabwe.

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