Thursday, June 15, 2006
One military trial that should be open to the press
As Cassandra says, major schadenfreude alert:
A criminal defense attorney for a Marine under investigation in the Haditha killings says he will call a senior Democratic congressman as a trial witness, if his client is charged, to find out who told the lawmaker that U.S. troops are guilty of cold-blooded murder.
Attorney Neal A. Puckett told The Washington Times that Gen. Michael Hagee, the Marine commandant, briefed Rep. John P. Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat, on the Nov. 19 killings of 24 Iraqis in the town north of Baghdad. Mr. Murtha later told reporters that the Marines were guilty of killing the civilians in "cold blood." Mr. Murtha said he based his statement on Marine commanders, whom he did not identify.
Mr. Puckett said such public comments from a congressman via senior Marines amount to "unlawful command influence." He said potential Marine jurors could be biased by the knowledge that their commandant, the Corps' top officer, thinks the Haditha Marines are guilty.
"Congressman Murtha will be one of the first witnesses I call to the witness stand," Mr. Puckett said yesterday.
If the press had a clue in the world, Rep. Murtha would be in a tough spot. Cassandra:
If he says Hagee told him the Marines were guilty, Murtha will have made it all but impossible to claim these "cold-blooded killers" got a fair trial.
If, on the other hand, it comes out that Hagee offered no opinion on the guilt of the accused Marines (as seems likely given his refusal to speculate on the matter), Murtha is revealed to be a liar.
Which choice do you think Murtha will make?
I'm sure he'll be up all night worrying about it.
Democrats usually stand up for the accused, and unlike many conservatives I commend them for that. We need people to stand up for the accused, even if that means that occasionally some criminal gets off. Why is it, though, that Democrats seem to forget all about their principles when the accused are soldiers or businessmen? Do they actually forget, or is it just convenient to forget?
7 Comments:
By 
, at
Thu Jun 15, 12:53:00 PM:
There is another possibly interesting wrinkle to this story.
President Bush has nominated Lt Gen James T. Conway, USMC, to be the next commandant, replacing Gen Hagee.
Gen Hagee's term does not end until December. If Hagee "talked out of school" to Murtha about the Haditha incident, perhaps this might be the President's/Secdef's way of announcing that they have lost confidence in the Gen Hagee.
Westhawk
By 
Charlottesvillain, at
Thu Jun 15, 12:58:00 PM:
By Cassandra, at
Thu Jun 15, 01:22:00 PM:
Westhawk:
FWIW, Conway's name has been in the hat for some time now - we had a side bet in my house that he would be the next commandant months ago. And he has yet to be approved by the Senate.
Just as an example, Gen. Jones (he came after Krulak) was nominated in mid January and the change of command took place June 30th of the same year.
Hagee's announcement came out Sept. 5th and he took over in January of the next year. So at least judging by those two examples, there seems to be a 5-6 month lag between nomination and the change of command.
By Cassandra, at
Thu Jun 15, 01:24:00 PM:
...soldiers or businessmen...
or even worse, RethugliKKKans :)
By Assistant Village Idiot, at
Thu Jun 15, 10:18:00 PM:
I think it is not because Democrats want to defend "the accused," but to defend whoever seems to exude less societal power or more victimhood. Which is often but not always, the accused.
The base idea is "the world isn't fair. The right people don't come out on top." Therefore, they will be on the side of upending the side which is unfairly in power, regardless of the facts on the ground.
They know the world is unfair because all those people in business have status denied to all those brilliant folks with humanities degrees. It just shows how inequitable it all is, right?
By , at
Fri Jun 16, 12:36:00 AM:
This is a great time in history for Sen. McCain to reach out with all he's clout to protect those Marines. What say you? Mr Anti Border Protection?
Regards,
Bill O'Wizzy
By Cassandra, at
Sun Jun 18, 04:56:00 PM:
AVI:
I think you have hit the nail right on the head. Very perceptive.
