posted May 28, 2006 11:32 AM              

The pictures show other victims, shot execution-style in the head and chest in their homes. An American government official said they revealed that the marines involved had “suffered a total breakdown in morality and leadership”.

The killings are emerging as the worst known American atrocity of the Iraq war. At least seven women and three children were among those killed. Witness accounts obtained by The Sunday Times suggest the toll of children may be as high as six. “This one is ugly,” a US military official said.

In Britain, the chief of the defence staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, said yesterday that the “appalling” reports of the massacre could undermine British support for the war. “This sort of accusation does make that harder to achieve,” he said.

The pictures of the dead, which are being closely guarded by the US naval criminal investigation service, were taken by a military photographer who is believed to have arrived on the scene moments after the shootings.

Many American forces are accompanied by photographers to gather intelligence and to shield soldiers from false accusations of torture, intimidation and violence. In this case, the evidence points fatefully to a murder spree by marines.

The stain on the American military could prove harder to erase than the photographs of sadistic prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.

Comparisons are being made to the My Lai massacre in 1968 in Vietnam, in which American soldiers slaughtered up to 500 villagers.

Up to a dozen marines may face criminal charges including murder, which carries the death penalty, dereliction of duty and filing a false report. Three marine commanders were suspended last month.

The naval inquiry is focusing on the actions of a sergeant who may have been the leader of a four-man “fire team”.

Miguel Terrazas, 20, a lance-corporal from El Paso, Texas, was travelling in a convoy of four Humvees in Haditha just after 7am on November 19 last year when a roadside bomb struck his vehicle, killing him and wounding two others.

The events that followed are the subject of two military inquiries due to report soon: one into the facts, the other into a cover-up.

One witness, Aws Fahmi, heard his neighbour, Yunis Salim Khafif, plead for his life in English, shouting: “I am a friend, I am good.”

“But they killed him, his wife and daughters,” Fahmi said.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2200170,00.html

posted May 28, 2006 03:47 PM              

DON'T THINK - JUST DO IT!

"....Video games provide the same technique used by the military to program soldiers in basic training...When it was discovered that only 15 % of all people could kill their perceived enemy due to moral considerations, that number was increased through by-passing critical analysis ...to NOT THINK just 'do it!'....."

"....these trained soldiers are NOT deprogrammed when turned back into society! Now they are still shooting without cause...blasting citizens in public restaurants, post office, public playgrounds..."

"I am deeply concerned about all the programmed military minds that have been turned back onto the streets with out being deprogrammed. "

"Even more alarming is that these programmed people are prime candidates for terrorists to redirect. They're already trained and highly suggestible, and are being moved into terror camps within this country and a round the world..."

posted May 30, 2006 04:09 PM              

By JONATHAN KARL, ABCNews.com

(May 29) - As military officials investigate the Haditha killings in Iraq, one of the Marines involved has spoken out about what he saw last year.

What Happened in Haditha?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Watch Video: Eyewitness Accounts Emerge

More Coverage:
· Bush Learned of Deaths When Reporter Called

Talk About It: Post Thoughts

Only hours after Iraqi civilians were killed, a second team of Marines was sent in to take the victims' bodies to a local morgue.

Lance Corp. Ryan Briones was among the Marines sent in to recover the bodies, and he told the Los Angeles Times he is still haunted by what he saw, including a young girl who was shot in the head.

"[The victims] ranged from little babies to adult males and females," Briones told the newspaper. "I can still smell the blood."

Briones says he and another Marine were told to photograph the bodies. Military officials say those photos -- which they say show people shot at close range in the head and chest -- clearly contradict initial reports that the civilians were killed by a roadside bomb.

'Something Broke Down Here'

Officials familiar with the investigation say Sgt. Frank Wuterich was the top-ranked Marine to enter the houses where the civilians were killed and is the center of the investigation.

In an interview with "Good Morning America" today, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said there are now two investigations into the killings that occurred last November.

"One is to find out what happened. The other is to find out, why did it take us so long to find out what happened?" said Gen. Peter Pace.

Most Popular Stories


· Wave of Bombings Kills at Least 40 in Iraq
· Gas Price Complaints Turn Ugly at the Pump
· Argument May Have Preceded Cruise Ship Jump
· Mobster Rises to Power, Then Rats Out Accomplices
· Wounded CBS Reporter Sent to U.S. Base in Germany


More than two months after the incident Time magazine asked the military to respond to allegations of the killings.

The magazine says a Marine spokesman responded with an e-mail stating, "I cannot believe you're buying any of this. This falls into the same category of al-Qaida in Iraq propaganda."

It was only after Time magazine showed a video in February to another military spokesman in Baghdad that an investigation was begun.

"Something broke down here in the sense that no investigation was conducted immediately," said Gen. Jack Keane. "Therefore, people most likely in the chain of command who had knowledge and should have taken action appropriately did not and they will be under investigation for the failure to do that."