Haditha report to be made public

By: MARK WALKER and TERI FIGUEROA - Staff Writers | Tuesday, July 11, 2006 12:29 AM PDT ∞

A summary of a report said to fault the way Marine Corps brass responded upon learning 24 Iraqi civilians were killed by a Camp Pendleton unit should be released this week, a military spokesman said Monday.

Meanwhile, an attorney for that unit's leader said he doesn't believe there is enough evidence to file criminal charges against the men responsible for the Nov. 19 shootings in the city of Haditha.

"I know too much about what happened that day (in Haditha) to think that any of these kids are going to be placed in pretrial confinement," said Kevin McDermott, an attorney hired by the company commander, Capt. Lucas McConnell.

McConnell was not present when the incident took place and has said through his attorney that he informed his superiors that there was a high number of civilian casualties in Haditha immediately after learning of the shootings.

The summary is being vetted by legal affairs officers for the Marine Corps at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., Lt. Col. Sean Gibson said in a written response to an inquiry from the North County Times.

The report is a synopsis of a more than 3,000-page document prepared by Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell and forwarded to Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli in Iraq last month.

Late last week, Chiarelli sent the document and his recommendations to Gen. George Casey, commander of Multi-National Forces, Iraq.

Published reports over the last few days say the document faults Marine commanders handling the first reports of the deaths in Haditha last November. It also is said to take issue with the chain of command's handling of instructions in dealings with Iraqi civilians.

While critical of the way commanders handled the reporting, Bargewell's investigation reportedly did not find evidence of an attempted coverup by high-ranking Marine officers.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is continuing a separate probe into what happened in Haditha following a roadside bombing that killed one of the men from the unit under investigation, Kilo Company from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment based at Camp Pendleton.

None of the men under scrutiny have been jailed or face any restrictions. The unit was attached to the II Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., when the incident took place.

McDermott said Monday that if criminal allegations are brought, as many as 25 Marines could face charges between the Haditha incident and the unrelated alleged murder of a civilian in Hamdania, Iraq, by seven Camp Pendleton Marines and a sailor.

But he said he does not expect any charges to be filed in the Haditha incident. The attorney pointed to the lack of forensics ---- the military has not yet been able to get approval to exhume the bodies of the victims ---- as well as the credibility of the evidence and the sources who first complained of the shootings.

McDermott said he expects officers with the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune will face disciplinary action.

"I can't imagine the (Bargewell) report being extremely negative about a coverup at the company level," McDermott said in a telephone interview from Orange County.

Like McConnell, a 1997 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, some of the other men who were in Haditha have hired civilian defense attorneys. McDermott said he is helping some with that process, adding that a large firm in Washington, D.C., has offered help.

With congressional hearings into alleged Iraq war atrocities looming, the Marine Corps last week directed all its commanders to make certain they preserve all documents and e-mails related to the Haditha investigation and the alleged premeditated kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi in the village of Hamdania on April 26.

In the April incident, seven Marines and a Navy corpsman from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment are in the base brig awaiting pretrial hearings after being charged last month with murder, kidnapping and related offenses.

McDermott said he does not think any of the Haditha troops will find themselves in the brig.

The document directive issued last week by the Marine Corps said all commanders "should take appropriate measures to retain and preserve documents and e-mails related to the incidents, their planning, execution and subsequent reporting."

McDermott said he and other defense attorneys wonder why such a directive wasn't issued weeks ago.

In Washington, Josh Holly, spokesman for the House Armed Services Committee chaired by U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, said Monday that a hearing on alleged war crimes and how they are being investigated will probably take place before that panel the last week of this month.

U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Virginia, plans a similar hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

-- Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com. Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at tfigueroa@nctimes.com.