Only Haditha Massacre By Media & Murtha

In a surprise that shouldn’t be one, the prosecution dropped all charges against Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum just as his court martial was about to start this morning. The dismissed charges, for involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment, were a reduction subsequent to his Article 32 hearing on charges of negligent homicide.

The prosecution put its best face on it, “This was done in order to continue to pursue the truth-seeking process into the Haditha incident,” with speculation that Tatum’s testimony against Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich would be damaging to Wuterich. But, Tatum’s attorney says, ''Absolutely, there is no deal,'' with the government for the dismissal and that Tatum would not be a prosecution but a neutral witness at Wuterich’s court martial. The defense attorney continued, “It became clear to the experienced prosecution team that the right thing to do was to dismiss all charges.”

The attorney for the last enlisted Marine standing charges for Haditha, Wuterich, recognizes that the prosecutors know their case is weak, but feels they are determined to hang Wuterich whatever it takes.

Wuterich's attorney, Neal Puckett, said the dismissal is "another indicator of how desperate the government is to win a conviction" in the Haditha killings.

"They have insufficient evidence, and they are hoping Lance Corporal Tatum can deliver a conviction against Staff Sergeant Wuterich," Puckett said in a telephone interview. "We always thought the prosecutors would do whatever (they) thought was necessary to try and convict Staff Sergeant Wuterich because they have always felt that he was the one responsible for everything that happened."

This is natural caution for an attorney, especially when his client and others accused of Haditha crimes have been subjected to unprecedented resources of investigation and prosecution, ordered by then Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, as revealed by Lt Col Chessani’s attorneys’ discovery revealed this week. Of course, Chessani’s attorneys, and Wuterich’s, will claim – with much justification – this constitutes undue command influence, grounds for dismissal.

But, at the same time, critics of the U.S. and Marines cannot claim that every effort hasn’t been made to either find truth or convict.

That still leaves the major media and John Murtha on the hook for their rush to convict the Haditha Marines before the American and world’s onlookers.

Massacre refers to a savage and indiscriminate slaughter. The only ones who have done that are the reckless media and Murtha – of the Marines’ and America’s reputation -- in their drive to destroy the fighting morale of our troops and citizens.

Saturday's Washington Post reports:

Mark Zaid, a civilian lawyer who represents Wuterich, said that he looks forward to hearing Tatum's testimony and that he hopes it will clarify some events.

"The dismissal of Tatum's charges is yet another indication that there was a rush to judgment concerning the events of that day," Zaid said. "I don't know if we're ever going to see or truly know exactly what happened, but I can say that there's an argument to be made that the prosecution of these young Marines has caused more damage to our country's reputation than the event itself."