US drops charges against Haditha marine

The US military has dropped all charges against one of the eight marines accused of killing 24 Iraqi civilians near the town of Haditha. The move came in exchange for 24-year-old Sergeant Sanick Dela Cruz giving testimony in potential courts martial for the other seven men charged. Dela Cruz was charged with premeditated murder and making a false report about the alleged massacre on Nov. 19, 2005–the most serious set of allegations against US troops since the Iraq conflict began. "Charges against him were dismissed on Apr. 2 after the government balanced his low level of culpability in the alleged crime against the potential value of his testimony," the Marine Corps said in an Apr. 24 statement. Neither Dela Cruz nor his lawyers commented on the decision, which was unusual in seeing all charges dismissed in return for testimony rather than reducing the scale of charges or the possible sentence. Dela Cruz is among eight marines–three other enlisted men and four officers–charged in December over the incident. No date for a hearing has yet been set. He could be a key witness for the prosecution, although it remains unclear whether his testimony will contradict his fellow marines' claims that they believed they were under attack and had followed proper procedures to defend themselves. Neal Puckett, the lawyer representing the marines' squad leader, Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, who is charged with 13 counts of unpremeditated murder, said Dela Cruz was "at liberty to say whatever he wants to say." The killings, which saw a number of women and children die in their own homes, happened as the marines carried out a mission in Haditha, west of Baghdad, after their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb. Last month, Wuterich used a television interview to insist he had followed military procedures and to stand by his actions. "What I did that day, the decision that I made... I would make those decisions again today," he told CBS television's "60 Minutes" program. "Those are decisions that I made in a combat situation, and I believe I had to make those decisions." Military prosecutors are building their case in the Haditha killings by granting immunity to compel testimony. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis, who oversees the Haditha cases, approved immunity for Lt. William T. Kallop on Apr. 3, part of an agreement that includes an order for him to "cooperate and truthfully answer all questions" posed by investigators and lawyers in the case. Kallop became the second central player in the shootings to be granted immunity, and he is expected to testify in hearings for seven marines and officers charged in connection to the shootings. The prosecutors' strategy is similar to that used in a case involving a killing in Hamandiya, Iraq, in which a Navy corpsman and several enlisted marines were given lenient sentences on reduced charges in exchange for testimony against the marines considered more culpable in the execution-style slaying of an Iraqi. Report on Haditha condemns Marines According to an Army general's investigation, the Marine Corps chain of command in Iraq ignored "obvious" signs of "serious misconduct" in the 2005 slayings of two dozen civilians in Haditha, and commanders fostered a climate that devalued the life of innocent Iraqis to the point that their deaths were considered an insignificant part of the war. Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell's 104-page report on Haditha is scathing in its criticism of the Marines' actions, from the enlisted men who were involved in the shootings, to the two-star general who commanded the 2nd Marine Division in Iraq at the time. Bargewell's previously undisclosed report, obtained by The Washington Post, found that officers may have willfully ignored reports of the civilian deaths to protect themselves and their units from blame. Though Bargewell found no specific cover-up, he concluded that there also was no interest at any level in investigating allegations of a massacre. "All levels of command tended to view civilian casualties, even in significant numbers, as routine and as the natural and intended result of insurgent tactics," Bargewell wrote. He condemned that approach because it could desensitize Marines to the welfare of noncombatants. "Statements made by the chain of command during interviews for this investigation, taken as a whole, suggest that Iraqi civilian lives are not as important as US lives, their deaths are just the cost of doing business, and that the Marines need to get 'the job done' no matter what it takes." Of particular concern to Bargewell was that nearly all the marines looked the other way when confronted with early reports that many civilians had been shot in fighting on the streets of Haditha after a roadside bomb killed a member of their unit. His investigation found that Marines and officers present that day immediately reported numerous civilian deaths to superiors but that the reports were "untimely, inaccurate and incomplete"–failures he attributed to "inattention and negligence, in certain cases willful negligence." Then, no one asked any further questions, Bargewell wrote, despite gruesome photographs circulating among junior Marines that showed that women and children had been killed in their beds. He cited several opportunities to investigate that were not taken, such as when more than $40,000 in condolence payments went to Iraqis after the killings.