SubscribeNYT: Haditha Locals Want To Tear Accused Apart
From "The Paper Of Treason," the New York Times:
[AP caption:] This image taken from a videotape made by a Haditha, Iraq journalism student and obtained by Time Magazine via the Hammurabi Human Rights Group, shows a scene in what appears to be a morgue following an alleged fatal raid by United States forces which took place on Saturday, Nov. 19, 2005, in Haditha, Iraq. Marine Corps squad leader Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich was charged Thursday, Dec. 21, 2006, with murdering 12 people and ordering Marines under his command to kill others during an incident that left 24 civilians dead in the Iraqi town of Haditha last year, his attorney said.
Haditha Residents on Charged Marines: Let Us Have Them
December 22, 2006
Here are excerpts from interviews with residents of Haditha, Iraq, and two adjacent towns about the announcement of charges against four American marines in connection with the killings of two dozen Iraqi civilians there last year. Four other Marine officers were charged with failing to properly report information about the killings. The interviews were conducted by an Iraqi employee of The New York Times.
Dr. Waleed Al-Obeidi, 41, the director-general of Haditha hospital
“If they plan to implement justice, then we welcome this step to refer the eight marines to the court, but we have our doubts in American justice. The verdict will be life sentences for four of them and the other four will be released, according to what we heard in the media. They blamed one soldier in the killing of a whole family, while it was carnage. The Iraqi government should have summoned those soldiers and executed them.”
Tahseen Al-Hadithi, 51, cleric and imam of the Haditha mosque
“I prefer they won’t be executed, and to be handed over to Haditha people to get the punishment they deserve.”
Mr. Hadithi said this was not the only crime committed by American forces in Haditha, and noted that charges had been brought in similar incidents elsewhere in the country:
“This is the culture of the occupying marines in our country. If we go back and remember the funeral, and if President Bush could see the family, the children and the women and how the soldiers were moving from one house to another, killing them, what would his comment be? Execution is insufficient punishment to them, and I think they won’t be executed.”
Sheikh Bairam Affan, 69, leader of the Al-Mawali tribe in the nearby town of Barwana
“I went to the U.S. forces in my capacity as a tribal sheikh along with other sheikhs after the massacre and asked the Americans to leave because we can not stop the resistance from attacking them in this area. I said to one of the American commanders if you kill people the same way as you did whenever you are attacked then no one will remain in Haditha.’
“They should get the death sentence because they carried out planned executions.”
Abu Ali, 29, a shop owner in the nearby town of Haqlaniya
“We don’t want them executed in the U.S. Let them bring them here in Haditha and we will tear them apart.”
Noor Laeq, 34, a lawyer who owns a computer and stationary shop in Haqlaniya
“I believe that the sentence will be issued against four of the accused, only. They will cover for the others. The accused will get life sentences, and it is not enough. The whole unit should be put into trial. We expect the same thing that happened in Abu Ghraib, when they convicted low-ranking officers and the higher ones got away. We demand that George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and the Iraqi government should be tried.”
The names of several of these worthies will be familiar to regular readers.
For instance Dr. Waleed Al-Obeidi is the director of the Haditha hospital who begat many of the charges in the first place. He is also a man who hates the US for their alleged brutal treatment of him. (His claims of kidnapping and torture are preposterously over the top.)
Like most of the residents of Haditha, it’s almost a certainty that Mr. Al-Obeidi and the rest of the people The Times chose to interview have close ties to terrorists if they are not terrorists themselves.
Haditha was at the time (and probably still is) run by Sunni terrorists. This includes the hospital where Mr. Al-Obeida worked only at their sufferance.
Objective accounts of the state of Haditha portray the mindless and endless savagery of the people holed up there.
It’s that same savagery the New York Times celebrates here — since it is aimed against their common enemy, the United States.