Report: Five Marines may face charges in Haditha killings

By: WILLIAM FINN BENNETT - Staff Writer | Tuesday, November 21, 2006 9:59 PM PST ∞

NORTH COUNTY -- Military authorities may soon charge five Camp Pendleton Marines in the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in the city of Haditha just over one year ago, according to a story Tuesday on National Public Radio that named the five men.

The radio network reported that prosecutors are weighing whether to file charges of negligent homicide or murder against the men. The five are identified in the story as Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who has since been promoted to the rank of staff sergeant, Cpls. Hector Salinas, Sanick De la Cruz and Lance Cpls. Stephen Tatum and Justin Sharratt.

Marine Corps spokesman Lt. Col. Sean Gibson said he could not confirm the radio report, which attributed its information to unnamed Pentagon sources.

"We are not making any announcements," Gibson said from his office at Camp Pendleton. "No decisions have been made."

The Haditha case is unrelated to charges that seven Camp Pendleton Marines and a Navy corpsman conspired to and did kill a 52-year-old Iraqi civilian in April in the village of Hamdania. That case is being prosecuted with four of the defendants having accepted plea agreements and trials are looming for four others.

Wuterich is stationed at Camp Pendleton, his attorney Mark Zaid said in a telephone interview Tuesday. While Zaid said he couldn't say for sure where the other four men are, he said Wuterich has told him that he frequently runs into several of the men on the Marine base. Zaid added that none of the men is or has been in custody nor have they been restricted to base.

Eleven women and children were among the two dozen Iraqis gunned down in Haditha in the Nov. 19, 2005, incident. The killings sparked an international outcry when the case came to light earlier this year, but no one has been charged.

Iraqi witnesses have contended that Marines from the 1st Squad, 3rd Platoon of Kilo Company attached to Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment went on a rampage after one of their own was killed by a roadside bomb as the Marines passed through the city.

This summer, Wuterich made statements defending himself and the other Marines, saying the deaths occurred as the troops pursued what they believed to be enemy insurgents.

Wuterich's attorney Zaid said Tuesday that he was getting tired of unsubstantiated reports out of the Defense Department that his client and other Marines are "about" to be charged.

"The cowardly anonymous DOD sources have been saying for the last four months that charges were imminent -- so we have stopped trying to figure out when it is," Zaid said.

Tatum's attorney, Houston-based Jack Zimmerman echoed those feelings.

"People have been predicting somebody was going to get charged in this case ever since last summer -- so eventually, someone is going to be right," Zimmerman said in a phone interview late Tuesday. "Lance Cpl. Tatum did not commit any crime."

In August, Wuterich filed a lawsuit against U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., after the congressman told reporters in May that the Marines in the Haditha incident had "killed innocent civilians in cold blood." Murtha is a retired Marine colonel.

Wuterich reported that after his convoy was hit by a roadside bomb, a car full of "military-aged" men approached in a taxi. When the men ran after being ordered in Arabic to stop, the Marines shot and killed them, Wuterich stated in the complaint against Murtha.

In Tuesday's radio story, however, the network reported that investigators took photos a short time after the killings that showed all five bodies were next to the cab and no evidence that "any of them ran."

Zaid, who is representing Wuterich in the lawsuit against Murtha, said that even though the photos may show the bodies very close to the cab, that doesn't mean the men weren't fleeing.

"First of all, I don't believe any rumors coming out of the Defense Department -- I need to see the physical evidence," Zaid said. "We have no idea if anybody moved any of the bodies."

Secondly, most people have a "non-wartime" perception about what it means to say they started to run, he said. The convoy had been attacked at the time the men showed up and they failed to obey the order shouted in Arabic to get out of the car and on the ground, he said.

The Marines had no idea if the men were armed, and under the rules of engagement, once the men failed to obey orders and "started to run" -- even if only a few feet from the cab --- they could be considered hostile.

"I definitely think the rules of engagement permitted them to have fired," Zaid said.

Washington attorney Gary Meyers, who represents Lance Cpl. Sharratt, said his client was not near the cab at the time passengers were shot.

He added he is not overly concerned that charges may be filed.

"If charges are brought, charges are brought and we'll see what they are," Meyers said, adding negligent homicide should not be one of the charges.

"It's absurd to apply civilian standards of 'due care' in a combat environment," Meyers said. "Negligent homicide cannot be on the table in this setting."

In Wuterich's lawsuit against Murtha, the sergeant alleges that gunshots were heard from homes at the side of the road and that the Marines then invaded three of the houses in pursuit of what they believed were enemy combatants.

In the third house, the Marines saw a man running into the home, pursued him and killed him and three others as they "attempted to fire their weapons," the lawsuit complaint stated.

National Public Radio reported that Pentagon sources told its reporter that only one AK-47 rifle was found in any of the houses.

-- Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett at (760) 740-5426 or wbennett@nctimes.com.

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