3/1 C.O. Relieved

[Vulture6]

Corps sacks three commanders
Battalion under investigation in deaths of 15 Iraqi civilians


By Gidget Fuentes and John Hoellwarth
Times staff writers

Three officers — including an infantry battalion commander and two of his company commanders — were fired April 7 for “lack of confidence,” a Corps spokesman said. Relieved were Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, who commanded the Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines; India Company commander Capt. James Kimber; and Kilo Company commander Capt. Luke McConnell, said 2nd Lt. Lawton King, a spokesman for 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton.

Officials previously have confirmed that Chessani’s battalion was under investigation for an alleged Nov. 19 rampage by the battalion’s Kilo Company Marines in the Iraqi city of Haditha that left 15 civilians dead, including seven women and three children.

The civilian deaths occurred after a roadside bomb killed one of 3/1’s Marines during a combat patrol.

The decision to relieve the three officers was made by Maj. Gen. Richard Natonski, 1st Marine Division commander, “due to lack of confidence in their leadership abilities stemming from their performance during a recent deployment to Iraq,” King said.

Lawton did not explicitly connect the Haditha investigation to the firings but said the “decision was motivated by multiple incidents that occurred throughout the entire deployment.”

He referred questions pertaining to any other investigations of incidents to the military’s press center in Iraq, which couldn’t be reached before press time.

The firings came one week after the battalion returned home from Iraq and after the typical four-day liberty pass upon a deployment’s end.

Lt. Col. Phillip Chandler has taken command of the battalion, King said.

The Marine Corps won’t provide additional details on why the officers were relieved or whether anyone else has been implicated in the investigation.

“At this point, no charges have been preferred,” King said. “The investigation is still ongoing, so anything that pertains to this investigation we can’t talk about.”

A March 19 Time magazine article cited claims by local Iraqis that members of Kilo Company, 3/1, rampaged through the village killing civilians as they looked for insurgents responsible for the blast that killed Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, 20, of El Paso, Texas, who was a member of Kilo, 3/1.

According to the Time article, Marines claimed they began receiving fire from a residential building after the roadside bomb exploded, which prompted them to assault a home where 9-year-old Eman Waleed lived with her parents, grandparents, two brothers, two aunts and two uncles.

The article describes Waleed’s account of the Marines entering her house and executing all the adults inside.

“The Marines also reported seeing a man and a woman run out of the house; they gave chase and shot the man,” the article reads. “Relatives say the woman, Hiba Abdullah, escaped with her baby.”

The day after the incident, a videotape made by a Haditha journalism student surfaced.

Time magazine acquired the tape through the Hammurabi Human Rights Group, which cooperates with Human Rights Watch. The magazine reported that the tape shows victims still in their pajamas and bullet-pocked walls spattered with blood.

The video, repeatedly aired by Arab televisions the day it surfaced, also showed bodies of women and children in plastic bags on the floor of what appeared to be a morgue. Men were seen standing in the middle of the bodies, some of which were covered with blankets before being placed in a pickup truck, according to the report.

Talal al-Zuhairi, who heads the Baghdad Center for Human Rights, said his organization feared that even if the military’s investigation implicated the Marines, they would not be punished severely enough, according to a March 22 report by the Associated Press.

According to the report, “this incident shows that the forces are committing, every now and then, operations that harm civilians,” al-Zuhairi said.

“What we are worried about today ... [is that] a U.S. soldier may be discharged from the military or jailed for two years,” al-Zuhairi said in the report. “This would in no way be sufficient punishment for wiping out a whole family or killing of a large number of people through an unjustifiable act.”

The magazine spent 10 weeks interviewing local residents affected by the incident and, in January, shared these accounts with military officials in Baghdad, accounts that directly conflicted with the Corps’ initial stance that the civilian casualties were the result of the insurgent attack.

Officials with Multi-National Corps-Iraq launched an investigation Feb. 14 after Time brought the allegations to their attention. Army Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander of MNC-I, directed further review March 9 after he was presented with initial findings of the investigation.

Chiarelli then handed the findings to Marine Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer, the new military commander for western Iraq.

Lt. Col. Bryan Salas, in a March 23 e-mail response to questions, said Zilmer directed the Naval Criminal Investigative Service to look into the allegations.

The Nov. 19 incident came one year after another high-profile incident that enflamed tensions between U.S. forces and Iraqis.

On Nov. 13, 2004, a corporal with 3/1 was videotaped shooting what appeared to be a wounded insurgent inside a mosque in Fallujah, Iraq, during the major U.S. operation to retake the city from insurgents.

Like the Haditha incident, the Fallujah shooting sparked outcries from human-rights groups regarding actions by U.S. forces against Iraqis.

Agents with NCIS investigated the matter, and the following May, Natonski ruled that the Marine would not face court-martial.

The Marine was never identified.

[USMCRET6391]

Not to draw any unwarranted comparisons....but can anyone say My Lai?

[Guy Gordon Young]

USMCRET6391 Just about the same thing.

[Grimmy]

Or not to jump to conclusions but can anyone say set up with human shields? and news stories fed to our MSM stright from the mouths of the enemy via the stringers they employ that used to be Saddam appointed watchers?

[Panzerman]

Hardly a My Lai. This was just a squad on the rampage trying to find an IED trigger man. This kind of shit is way, way more common than you'd think over there.

Doubt they were human shields, and doubt it was setup to happen that way. A grunt squad taking casualties turns into an empassioned killing machine in a heartbeat - civilians caught in the way are pretty much fucked. That's just how it works over there. I'm suprised this is the first time this sort of thing has gotten media attention.

[Guy Gordon Young]

Panzerman.---A grunt squad casualties turns into an empassioned killing machine in a heartbeat-cicilans caught in the way are pretty much fucked. This is not ture. If this happens to a squad it has no leadership. The civilians. There have been countless Marines and Army guys killed when they stoped firing because civilians are in the way. MyLai was the fault of real high Army brass. Lt Cally(sp) was not fit to comand a fireteam. The Army when they formed the "Ameracal Div." All units saw a way to get ride of shitbags and sent them there. This is what happens when leadership gos to hell. The Marine Corps will not transfer there shitbages untill there rotation dates. The CO of a company will deal with his shitbags.

[Donald]

Thats the different between a professional Army and a rag tag leadership Army. Self control and professional disicipline. If a mate gets hit then certainly take out the target, however not at the risk of local casualties. The US/British Forces are out there in Iraq to rebuild the country after Saddam messed it up. Re-teach the locals good values by example. I know that is very hard to remember that when your oppo is there lying in bits. That is the hard lesson learnt by the British Forces in the 30 odd years of "Police Action" in Northern Island during the "Troubles".

[SpongeJuan]

What I don't understand is how they can say that terrorists have a right. They brought up that incident when the Marine shot the wounded Terrorist. That's all bullshit!!! He was a terrorist that had probably killed others, he had no rights in my book. I can understand them talking about the little boys and girls and the women too, but maybe they did get the IED trigger man. I say they were a human wall, and had something to do with it. It just doesn't seem normal for Marines to kill inocent people without there being an answer. If we could only hear it straight from the ones that were there.

[USMCRET6391]

Originally Posted by spongejuan

What I don't understand is how they can say that terrorists have a right. They brought up that incident when the Marine shot the wounded Terrorist. That's all bullshit!!! He was a terrorist that had probably killed others, he had no rights in my book.

Your stance then is, because it was a terrorist the Marine had the right to act as a terrorist?

[Vulture6]

It is real easy to second guess those guys on the ground, and easier still to walk the ground in the aftermath looking at bullet holes, bodies, and blood trails and piece together what seems like a reasonable and accurate picture of what happened. That doesn't mean that it is anywhere near accurate.

While strong leadership is important, and incident like this one doesn't mean that it wasn't present. We are not fighting a foe who recognizes any of the rules that we operate by. Their definition of combatants and non-combatants doesn't coincide with ours. However, their definition of newsworthiness and the value of headlines is well recognized. While I have never set a foot in Iraq, I recognize this enemy. On city streets 12 years ago, I saw him fire over the heads or between the legs of women and children in a crowd. I have seen him use small children to run out under fire and bring ammunition to him. I have seen him hold a family hostage to engage U.S. forces from their house.

Do I know that this was the case here with 3/1? No. I have no more information on this incident that what is published in the article above. I posted it for two reasons - 1. To put it out there for those folks who may be heading into theather in the near future as a warning of what they may face. and 2. To add another piece to the puzzle that forms the picture of our enemy over there.
Don't make the mistake of looking at him through our Judeo-Christian lense and thinking that he'll think and act like us in a similar situation. Comparing the situation in Northern Ireland to that in the Sunni triangle is about like comparing apples to skyscrapers. We hold our leaders accountable for the deaths of possible non-combatants while they glorify their leaders for the same actions.


Was there a failure of leadership in this case? Maybe - that'll come out in the investigation. Just realize before we make a snap judgment that we are dealing with an enemy who excels at manipulating the press and public opinion.

[SpongeJuan]

Well that one Marine who shot the wounded terrorist did bad judgement by killing him, but you have to remember that he probably had a rush, and wasn't thinking straight. I know I wouldn't think the same way I do now if an hour prior I saw my friend go down, and then the same guy who shot him faked that he was dead. But if I were to put myself in his position this instint, I think I wouldn't have shot him, but who knows what I would do when I find myself in the sandbox.

[Donald]

Vulture6,

I agree with your point re the difference between NI & Iraq. However my underlying point is that we, - US/UK, must never lower ourselves to their level. We must maintain our own high moral and professional standards.