Euphoric Reality

The case of a former Marine NCO charged with murdering Iraqis during the Battle of Fallujah is getting crazier by the minute.

Sgt. Jose Nazario’s men, Ryan Weemer and Jermaine Nelson, still refuse to testify.  After being thrown in jail twice for contempt, the two men continue to invoke their 5th Amendment rights and refuse to take the stand.

Today Cory Carlisle, a fellow squad member, testified about the incredible amounts of enemy fire Nazario and his men were dealing with in Fallujah.

Meanwhile, a civilian jury gets to Monday-morning quarterback the fiercest battle involving U.S. forces in decades.  The L.A. Times reports that “Only one of the jurors has military experience, a stint in the Navy a decade ago.”  Isn’t that awesome?

Stay tuned.

Editor’s Note: This story was written by Lance Corporal Casey Jones, a combat correspondent stationed in Camp Ramadi, Iraq. Jones recently completed a story on two Marines that were killed while defending their post. The Marines have been nominated for a Silver Star, the third highest award in the military, for their heroic actions that day. (H/T to Pat and Misha)

RAMADI, IRAQ (April 29, 2008) – It was a typical quiet morning on April 22, with the temperature intensifying as a bright orange sun emerged high from the horizon.

Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, a rifleman with 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 1, and Cpl. Jonathan T. Yale, a rifleman with 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, RCT-1, were standing post, just as they’ve done numerous times before. During a standard length watch in a small checkpoint protected by concrete barriers where they overlooked the small gravel road, lined with palm trees leading to their entry control point.

However, this morning would be different. Quickly it would turn, chaotic then tragic. Two Marines would gallantly sacrifice their lives so others could live.

A truck packed with thousands of pounds of explosives entered the area where Haerter and Yale were standing guard. Realizing the vehicles intentions Haerter and Yale without hesitation stood their ground, drew their weapons and fired at the vehicle. The truck rolled to a stop and exploded, killing the two Marines.

“I was on post the morning of the attack,” said Lance Cpl. Benjamin Tupaj, a rifleman with 3rd Platoon, Police Transition Team 3, Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines. “I heard the (squad automatic weapon) go off at a cyclic rate and then the detonation along with a flash. Then I heard a Marine start yelling ‘we got hit, we got hit.’ It was hectic.”

In the face of a committed enemy, Haerter and Yale stood their ground, in turn saving the lives of numerous Marines, sailors, Iraqi Policemen, and civilians. Both Marines displayed heroic, self-sacrificing actions and truly lived up to the Corps values of honor, courage, and commitment.

“They saved all of our lives, if it wasn’t for them that gate probably wouldn’t have held,” Tupaj said. “The explosion blew out all of the windows over 150 meters from where the blast hit. If that truck had made it into the compound, there would’ve been a lot more casualties. They saved everyone’s life here.”

According to official reports the heroic actions of Haerter and Yale’s saved the lives of the 33 Marines and 21 Iraqi Police as well as numerous civilians at the entry control point.

“They are heroes because thousands of pounds (of explosives) would’ve made its way through the gate and many more of us wouldn’t be here,” said Lance Cpl. Lawrence Tillery a rifleman with 3rd platoon. “I have a son back home, and I know if that truck would’ve made it to where it was going – I wouldn’t be here today. Because of Lance Cpl. Haerter and Cpl. Yale, I will be able to see my son again. They gave me that opportunity.”

A week after the attack, the Marines with 3rd platoon, remember their fallen brethren as good friends and Marines

“Cpl. Yale was a great guy, really friendly and kind of shy,” said Hospitalman Eric Schwartz a corpsman with the platoon.

“Haerter was an amazing guy, I knew everything about him. He was my best friend.” said Lance Cpl. Cody Israel, a rifleman with 3rd platoon, Haerter’s roommate for more than a year and half.

Haerter and Yale were both posthumously awarded the Purple Heart Medal, Combat Action Ribbon and have been nominated for an award for their valor.

More idiocy.  This is what we are breeding–the day when a terrorist can sue because he didn’t like the way he was treated.

A former Iraqi detainee filed a lawsuit against two private US military contractors Monday alleging that he was tortured tortured while held at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003, according to AP. Emad al-Janabi said that employees of CACI International and L-3 Communications, who work as interrogators for the US military, physically abused him and often left him chained naked in his cell over the course of his 10-month stay at the prison. He also alleges that the contractors conspired to hide evidence of torture from International Red Cross inspectors and military and government officials. AP has more.

This is ridiculous.  How does our government not see that we are being played like violins?  Does Matt Maupin’s father get to sue for the torture his son received before being brutally murdered at the hands of people just like this piece of trash?  They will cry and scream about brutality, and yet if given half the chance, they would do things so disgustingly animalistic and cruel that Americans would cringe.

From the LA Times:

Lawyers defending a former Marine accused of killing Iraqi prisoners during the 2004 battle of Fallouja have lost a bid to get the voluntary manslaughter case thrown out of court.

Attorneys for Jose Luis Nazario asserted that the civilian criminal system lacks legal authority over acts committed in a war zone. But U.S. District Judge Stephen G. Larson ruled this week that the law “prevents discharge from the military from serving as a shield to prosecution for crimes committed while in military service.”

Larson set a July 8 trial date for Nazario, who was a Riverside police officer when he was charged in the Fallouja case. Two active-duty Marines, Sgt. Jermaine A. Nelson and Sgt. Ryan Weemer, are also charged. Those cases will be handled in the military legal system. [emphasis added]

So Larson is already calling it a crime, already treating Nazario as a criminal, even though his sole duty as the presiding authority is to conduct a fair and impartial proceeding.

Then again, have we come to expect anything fair and impartial from the military “justice” system?

If this doesn’t get your blood boiling, I’m not sure what will.

The Democratic National Committee has sparked outrage among veterans and others across the internet by running an anti-John McCain ad that shows U.S. soldiers being blown up.

After the new ad’s voice-over castigated McCain for suggesting that the United States may stay in Iraq for “maybe 100” years, the footage becomes shocking.

The DNC ad then shows an explosive device detonating near two soldiers standing beside a palm tree. The two soldiers disappear in an explosive fireball. The video also shows images of burning vehicles.

The fact that Dems would even THINK of using the deaths of two American soldiers to further their defeatist political agenda makes me want to put THEM by a palm tree with an IED. The thing is, they’re gleeful about it. They’re unapologetic. Do they not get that those soldiers are someone’s husband and father and brother and son? What kind of ghouls are these people?

This press release came out 2 February 2007, and gives a frightening look at some of the machinations behind the Phan case. (Lt. Nathan Phan (callsign Ronin) was the platoon leader for Sgt Hutchins’ squad in Hamdania, Iraq.) NCIS misconduct, JAG misconduct, undue command influence, it’s all here.

continue reading…

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. –A hearing officer recommended a court-martial for a Marine charged with murdering an Iraqi detainee captured during fierce house-to-house fighting in Fallujah, Iraq.

Lt. Col. Thomas McCann said in his findings Wednesday that there is sufficient evidence against Sgt. Jermaine A. Nelson to order him to trial.

Nelson, 26, is one of three Marines accused of shooting unarmed captives in November 2004 during some of the heaviest fighting of the war. Nelson has said he was following orders from his squad leader, Jose Nazario Jr., who is also charged.

Worst. Possible. Decision.

WASHINGTON — Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq and the public face of the war effort there, Wednesday became President Bush’s nominee to supervise U.S. military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia as head of Central Command, putting him in position to oversee American strategy in Iraq for years to come.

Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, who worked closely with Petraeus as the No. 2 commander in Iraq until two months ago, was nominated to receive a fourth star and take Petraeus’ current job.

Why is this a bad call? Because putting 50,000 more troops in Iraq and tying their hands as tightly as the ones already there doesn’t win a war. Taking the handcuffs off the ones over there now and letting them do what needs to be done would.

From the CENTCOM “Good News From Iraq” weekly briefing:

TIKRIT, Iraq – The Iraqi Department of Border Enforcement discovered a cache of anti-tank mines after taking small arms fire from an unknown number of terrorists, April 14.The Department of Border Enforcement soldiers returned fire in self-defense, driving the terrorists toward the Iranian border. More than 160 anti-tank mines were found after the terrorists broke contact.The Iraqi Department of Border Enforcement in northern Iraq includes more than 8,700 agents and covers nine points of entry. The Department of Border Enforcement is responsible for patrolling the border and conducting other assigned law enforcement duties.The Department of Border Enforcement in northern Iraq is part of the overall 150,000-person Iraqi Security Force.

Don’t miss the show–Saturday night at 9 pm Eastern on BlogTalkRadio.

As promised, here are the first of many documents to come in the Pendleton 8 case. This is the autopsy of a dead Iraqi that even the report admits is only “believed to be” Awad. You’ll see handwritten notes throughout the report, and these are the notes of Sgt Larry Hutchins himself.

What makes this document so incredible is that there is no proof that the man autopsied is even the man the Marines killed that night. In fact, there is some evidence to show that the government autopsied someone who was NOT Awad, and then used that autopsy in their railroad job of the Pendleton 8. To cover their tracks, the NCIS claims they did DNA research on the man and the DNA “matches.” What they don’t tell you is that the “match” was only between the man autopsied and the man exhumed from a gravesite that may or may not have been Awad’s. The only thing the NCIS “proved” was that the man pulled out of the ground was the man they autopsied–not that they autopsied Awad.

Am I saying that the government may have literally grabbed a random Iraqi corpse and used it in a murder case against American Marines? Yes. That is exactly what I’m saying. By the time you’re done reading all of this, you’ll be saying it too.

We’ll be talking about this autopsy report and other documents tonight at 8 pm Central on The Front Line. You’ll be able to call in with questions and comments as well. Don’t miss it.

I will also be publishing a walkthrough of the report soon. Stay tuned.

Download the Autopsy Report and Pathology Report (25 MB and 35 MB, PDF format)

The Pendleton 8: Exposed
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

TSO over at The Sniper has a fantastic laugh today. He works on K Street in Washington, D.C., and he had some visitors over his lunch hour.

A couple of things.
1) You people simply have no musical potential. I mean none. I realize you’re working with a bucket, but I’m thinking rhythm is not your strong suit. I’m Irish, I know lack of rhythm.
2) Your marching also sucks. It’s 9 to the front, 6 to the rear people. Eyes straight ahead. Now, some of you look borderline deformed, walking all Quasimodo style, but for the love of Spongebob, try to synchronize.
3) The F word is not what it once was. And whoever spent the better part of the last month finding rhymes for it needs to get off mom and dad’s dime. Seriously, you ain’t a poet, and everyone knows it. It gave me fits, because you rhyme like comprehensive immigration reform.

Read the whole thing. It’s worth it.

Michael Yon does it again with another tear-jerker update from Iraq. I am so damn proud of these men.

Around the corner, the CSM and I walked up to one of our Valorous Award winners who suffered a severe hip injury in that same attack. The first thing he asked me was if I thought he would be able to recover and get back to his platoon before we redeployed. A few days earlier, two other Cavalry Troopers were in the emergency room being treated. CSM Jones and I walked in together and as we approached our first soldier he yelled out,”Prepared and Loyal, Sir”. His face, arms and legs were speckled with shrapnel but all he could think about was the unit. As the nurse wheeled himout for further examination, he unashamedly told his fellow injured platoonmate that he loved him and he got the same response back. I have seen the toughest men I know cry for one another and encourage each other through some difficult times. Whoever you know in this unit, know that they are heroes. This is a very personal endeavor, indeed.

Good news on the missing soldiers in Iraq:

Weapons that once belonged to a missing Soldier and two others who were killed in action were recovered outside of an Iraqi’s house in Fetoah Village, Iraq Oct. 9.

Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) out of Fort Drum, N.Y., followed Concerned Local Citizens to the cache site just seven miles north of where 2nd BCT Soldiers of the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment were killed and kidnapped May 12.

The cache consisted of 28 blasting caps in their original packaging, 50 pounds of home made explosives, three 60mm mortar rounds, an AK-47 and matching rigged pouch, two U.S. M-4s (one with a M-203 grenade launcher attached), a single M-203 and a M-249 squad automatic weapon.

After finding the M-4s and the M-203, analysts checked each of the serial numbers to identify to whom they belonged.

The M-249 belonged to Spc. Alex Jimenez Jr., who was abducted by terrorists after his position was attacked May 12 in Qarghulli Village.

Currently, Jimenez and Pvt. Byron Fouty are classified as missing-captured.

One of the M-4s with the M-203 attached to it belonged to Sgt. Anthony Schoeber, who was killed in the same attack.

Another M-4 belonged to Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr., a Soldier who was classified as Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown for 11 days after the May 12 attack until he was found dead near the Euphrates River.

The Soldiers’ identification cards and wallets were found in an al-Qaeda safe house in Samara, Iraq, in Multi-National Division -North’s area of operations, but these weapons are the first piece of physical evidence in the 2nd BCT’s area of operations.

During the search, Soldiers also discovered a man-made hide site near the house that the weapons were discovered.

During this latest search, nine locals who were in the area were detained and are being held for questioning.

The weapons that were found will be turned over to the Criminal Investigations Department for fingerprints and DNA samples.

2 BCT Soldiers will continue to patrol the area of operations in search of more evidence that can lead them to the missing Soldiers or the attackers.

This find comes only weeks before the 2nd BCT will be replaced by the 3rd BCT, 101st Airborne Division out of Fort Campbell, Ky., who will continue the search for the missing Soldiers and their attackers.

By now you’ve probably heard about the ruckus this week in Iraq, when U.S. forces killed 25 in an airstrike on a town north of Baghdad.  The NY Times can barely contain its glee, with headlines like “Accounts Differ Sharply on U.S. Attack in Iraq.”  Don’t you just love that?  “U.S. Attack.”  If you read the actual account of what happened, it was hardly an “attack.”  More like a stomping out of a bunch of holed-up terrorists who were using everything from RPGs to automatic weapons and even an anti-aircraft missile.  They were advancing on U.S. troops.  What exactly do these idiots in our country expect our guys to do?

Yes, it sounds like civilians were killed.  But let’s stop and think for a moment.  Which insurgents aren’t civilians?  In fact, I challenge you to find me any of the enemy over there wearing uniforms.  That means that yes, every time U.S. soldiers take a life, that life–however worthless and savage it is–is a civilian.  There is no military enemy.  How many times do we need to go over this?  And yes, children die in war.  I’ll tell you what.  When liberals stop advocating that it’s okay to murder their OWN unborn children, I’ll stop telling them to shut the f— up about the children of terrorist sympathizers.

And let’s take a look at the Times’ article.   Written by Alissa J. Rubin, an American reporter who resides in France and recently moved from the LA Times to the NY Times, the article has all the hallmarks of a typical liberal media offering.  In fact, some cursory research into Rubin’s writings on the Middle East show not only a distinct anti-American bias, but her work is posted at several militant anti-war group websites, including Why War?  Not only that, but the contributors to the article include Khalid al-Ansary and Qais Mizher from Baghdad, and “an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Diyala Province.”  Wow.  I wonder where their allegiance is.  And this “employee…?”  Can you say “terrorist sympathizer stringer?” I sure can.

So.  Let’s get out the list of things you need to start the now-all-too-familiar media frenzy:

- Large photo showing dead body and grieving Iraqi, that may or may not actually be from the incident in question…check.

- Headline that characterizes the incident as an “attack” and breathlessly insinuates that U.S. troops lied about the events…check.

- Mention of plural “witnesses” that may be terrorists themselves…check.

- Article structure that paints the military as trying to cover its six after making a huge tactical error…check.

Well, I guess we have all the elements in place.   All we need now is a member of Congress to denounce the troops, more media to pick it up, and we’ll have another Haditha–another group of our finest warriors and defenders, dragged under the bus of political expediency and appeasement until their lives and honor are gone, and all that’s left is a tarnished name and the bitter knowledge that they were innocent.

Well, over my dead body.