Haditha charges dropped

By Clarice Feldman

After first reducing the charges against him, the government has dropped all charges against Marine Lance Corporal Tatum:

Tatum had been accused of shooting dead two unarmed children as Marines cleared houses near the scene of a deadly roadside bombing in Haditha, 260 kilometers west of Baghdad, on November 19, 2005.

(snip) Four soldiers were initially charged with murder and four officers accused of staging a cover-up.

However, since charges against the soldiers were first announced in late 2006, prosecutors have struggled to make the allegations stick.

Four of the eight have had charges against them dropped, while charges of murder were replaced by the lesser offence of manslaughter in the cases of Tatum and his squad leader Sergeant Frank Wuterich.

The military investigator overseeing Tatum's pre-trial hearing had recommended all charges against the soldier be dismissed.

Not a single word of apology yet from Time which first floated the lie that the marines had engaged in a deliberate massacre in Haditha nor from Congressman Murtha who accused the Marine company involved with "cold blooded murder."

But this is another major instance where the blogosphere had the story right and the major media with all their resources, propagated a lie and kept it in circulation long after it was apparent the story of the Haditha "Massacre" was a bit of enemy propaganda.