Two Haditha Marines Still Need Your Help
The following is a plea from the editor of Newsmax.com, Christopher Ruddy, in regards to the legal defense funds of two remaining Marines facing legal action stemming from the haditha incident…
Dear Reader:
Two Marines need your help . . . again.
Last year, I wrote to you about the plight of three American heroes, Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum, Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, and Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich.
The three were under investigation for allegations that they committed atrocities in Haditha, Iraq, in November 2005.
When I first wrote to you about these courageous men, they were under Article 32 investigation — the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing.
The hysteria against these Marines was set off by a Time magazine reporter whose only sources were known insurgent propagandists, civilian supporters of al-Qaida, or civilians intimidated by al-Qaida thugs.
On the basis of the Time story alone, and despite the fact that Time was forced to retract parts of the initial story four times, the media across the world reported that the Kilo Company Marines had gone on a rampage.
The Time report claimed Marines had massacred 24 innocent civilians on Nov. 19, 2005, in retaliation for the death of one of their fellow Marines. The Marine was killed by a roadside bomb.
In response to the media charges and those echoed by Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., and a badly bungled investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS), the three heroes were falsely charged with multiple counts of murder.
When we alerted you to this grave injustice, Newsmax readers rose to the occasion. You donated more than $250,000 for the legal defense funds of these Marines.
And your help made a big difference.
At the end of the Article 32 hearings, the presiding military officer recommended strongly that all charges be dropped against the three Marines.
Sharratt was fully exonerated.
But suddenly the Pentagon ignored the findings of the military tribunal relating to Tatum and Wuterich and recommended that these Marines should face courts-martial.
Both are scheduled to go to court in March, with long jail sentences looming.
As you can imagine, the legal defense costs for these Marines have placed an enormous burden on them and their families, and have well exceeded even the $250,000 our readers have donated to their cause.
We have been informed that these Marines are in desperate need of financial resources to continue their legal struggle.
To Read the full article at Newsmax click here.
To go straight over and help the two Marines, click here.
Nods to LftBhndAgn.
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