Lawless George's Little My Lai: Civilian Massacre in Haditha

"I watched them shoot my grandfather, first in the chest and then in the head," one child was quoted by Time as saying. "Then they killed my granny."

RESIDENTS SAY BODIES IN VIDEO FROM US RAID

A video provided by Hamourabi Human rights group shows covered bodies, which Hamourabi says are of a family of 15 shot dead in their home, possibly by US Marines, in Haditha, Iraq. A video of civilians who may have been killed by US Marines in an Iraqi town in November showed residents describing a rampage by US soldiers that left a trail of bullet-riddled bodies and destruction. (Full story here.)

A copy of the video, given to Reuters by Iraq's Hammurabi Organisation for Monitoring Human Rights and Democracy, showed corpses lined up at the Haditha morgue. The chief doctor at Haditha's hospital, Waleed al-Obaidi, said the victims had bullet wounds in the head and chest.

Most residents interviewed by Reuters in Haditha echoed accusations by residents in the video that US Marines attacked houses after their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb.

They said the Marines opened fire on houses. "I saw a soldier standing outside a house and he opened fire on the house," said one resident, who did not want to be identified.

Time magazine has published allegations that US Marines killed civilians in Haditha after one of their comrades was killed by a roadside bomb. It published detailed accounts by people in the town, west of Baghdad. A criminal inquiry into those deaths was launched last week. . .

On November 20, US Marines spokesman Captain Jeffrey Pool issued a statement saying that, on the previous day, a roadside bomb had killed 15 civilians and a Marine. In a later gun battle, US and Iraqi troops had killed eight insurgents, he added.

US military officials have since confirmed to Reuters that that version of the events of November 19 was wrong and the 15 civilians were not killed by the blast but were shot dead. . .

The video given to Reuters shows bodies piled in the back of a white pickup truck outside the morgue. Among them was a girl who appeared to be about three years old.

One man wept and leaned against a wall as he identified a relative and other residents inspected bodies in the morgue. One man's face had been torn apart by bullets, while a blackened corpse was missing legs and forearms.

Leaders perforce establish the tenor of their times, whether it be a "peace and prosperity" outlook, like Clinton's and Carter's, or the aggressive, fake macho, feckless, reckless, gloves off, anything goes outlook of Lawless George Bush.

When torture is ok, then massacres become ok. Ok?

Your tax dollars at work.


(Current WaPo story here.)
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