Charges Dismissed In Latest Haditha Case

Military judge dismisses charges in Haditha killings
By CHELSEA J. CARTER, Associated Press Writer

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

CAMP PENDLETON, CA (AP) — A military judge dismissed charges Tuesday against a Marine officer accused of failing to investigate the killings of 24 Iraqis.

Col. Steven Folsom dismissed charges against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani after finding that a four-star general overseeing the case was improperly influenced by an investigator probing the November 2005 shootings by a Marine squad in Haditha.

"Unlawful command influence is the mortal enemy of military justice," Folsom said. "In order to restore the public confidence, we need to take it back. We need to turn the clock back."

Chessani was the highest-ranking officer to face a combat-related court-martial since the Vietnam War…

Of eight Marines originally charged in the case, only one is still facing prosecution in the biggest U.S. criminal prosecution involving Iraqi deaths to come out of the war…

Folsom’s ruling comes two weeks after Gen. James Mattis took the stand — a rare courtroom appearance for such a high-ranking officer — to address the judge’s initial finding that there was evidence of unlawful command influence in the case.

Col. John Ewers, the military lawyer who investigated the killings and took Chessani’s statement, later became a top legal adviser to Mattis and sat in on briefings that helped Mattis decide who would be charged…

Military policy prohibits Ewers from offering legal advice because he also was an investigator in the case…

If you are talking about the chirping noises in your head...They are all yours.......Dream on

The Dims have lost their mind over not being in power. Yesterday Kerry said (him and Jacko served in Viet Nam, altho I bet Jacko did more than 4 months) Kerry said Bush's policy on terrorism is an utter failure and has not kept us safe. However, most people can't recall another attack on US soil since 911. Apparently Kerry can. Maybe Keifer Sutherland has kept it secret from us.  

I think the D's have gone so far to the left that they cannot recover. I think they see they are on death's doorstep and so are willing to go to any lengths to return to power. If it means treason, so be it. If it means demeaning the military, so be it. If it means driving the economy into the ground by talking about how they are going to put in all kinda new taxes thereby scaring the shit out of Wall Street, so be it.

Talk about destroying the village in order to save it! (Oops. VN reference might bring out many headed Jacko spewing inanity after inanity.)

the dismissal was not on the merits of the accusation, it was because the initial investigator went straight to the CG, instead of thru channels.

On the street, this will be seen as a simple dismissal, and there are probably few people around who really know whatever happened.  Hopefully, the Corps will see to it on its own that the merits are resolved, and there aren't panicked officers or NCOs leading people into combat.

Looks like some field grade need some PT.  Where is Cpl Punishment?!   We also need some fairies to work on the chick, or our stalwart troops will be bringing home burkas for their womenfolk.

Now what?

Oh my, oh my.

I'll refrain from commenting on your copy and paste skills. You can go back to playing with your Star Wars dolls.

Just echoing your grammar school level nonsense from another thread.

If you don't want it repeated...don't say it bubba.

more than enough FUBAR going around for everyone GB. just don't wanna see any good men get hang up for public consumption..

where all your reviews are.

We have a special on rebar today, and for the low low price of $29.95, we'll let Chewbacca shove it up your ass himself.

If you knew who I am, you wouldn't ask that question.

Nice alias btw.

Name calling? Wow, now isn't that a unique approach?

Grow up and ask me that question by pm.

Otherwise, just imagine the list.

and some of that stuff had to stay under wraps for different reasons.

The important thing is that the services clean their own homes, so the people don't have to do it for them.

As painful as it is to admit that the Crotch doesn't have a monopoly on good men, these events recall the careers of 2 excellent Korea/Vietnam era soldiers, Anthony Herbert and David Hackworth, both of whom got into issues about the proper policies and conduct of troops toward non-combatants.

Insurgencies invite this sort of trouble, and I suspect it's not nearly as bad as Vietnam, because of the different nature of the situations.  One of the built-in problems of the American govt seems to be that the civil authorities rarely have a good  understanding of the limits of military force - infantry are well organized and trained to "kill people and break things", but they are not well organized as social workers, or even cops, and when we give them that job, it's inviting trouble.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HceZ6xsLiQQ