DEFEND OUR MARINES

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Captain Randy W. Stone
Article 32 Summary

Key witnesses and testimony

Lt. William Kallop

Platoon CO, the only officer on the scene during most of the incident. The lieutenant (granted immunity) testified just prior to the 3/1's third deployment to Iraq.

• Responded to the scene of the roadside bomb with a quick-reaction force after they heard the explosion at their base a few kilometers away.

• Was told at the scene by at least one Marine [Cpl. Hector Salinas] that they were taking enemy fire.

• Ordered Sgt. Wuterich "to clear a group of buildings" south of the bomb crater.

• Later went into one of the two houses where civilians, including several women and children, were killed and others were wounded. The scene upset him, but didn't prompt him to report to superiors anything out of the ordinary.

• Spoke briefly to Sgt. Wuterich who told the lieutentant he had heard noises behind a door in a house that sounded like the bolting action of an AK-47 rifle. "From what he told me," Kallop said, "I thought that [their response] was within the rules of engagement because the squad leader felt he was going to kick in a door and walk into a machine gun nest." (The first team leader told Lt. Kallop the same thing as Wuterich.)

• Reported by radio "10 to 15" deaths into the Kilo Company operations center, but doesn't recall if he specified whether they were civilians.

• Didn't receive a post-incident report from Wuterich that noted the civilian deaths. When asked by Lt. Col. Sean Sullivan, a prosecutor, why not, Kallop responded, "They had been trying to engage the enemy in the best possible way that they can."

Quote: “I thought the Marines had operated as best they could in an uncertain environment,” Kallop said. “I had faith in my squad leader, who had told me what happened and why.”

[Sources: Marine Corps Times, San Diego Union Tribune, New York Times]

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1st Sgt. Albert Espinosa

As Kilo Company's first sergeant, Espinosa testified that one week after the Nov. 19, 2005, incident, he initiated a conversation with Stone at the battalion's command center in Haditha because, "I wasn't happy with the answers I was getting. I thought we need to do an investigation."
Stone told him that a probe was taking place at the battalion level, Espinosa said, later adding that a sergeant major also said it was being addressed at a higher level.
Espinosa said he thought that statements should have been taken from the Marines linked to the killing because that was what had happened in a 2003 incident when a 12-year-old Iraqi girl was slain. Espinosa assisted in that investigation.
Under questioning from Stone's attorney Charles Gittins, Espinosa said he was unaware of what reports were being filed at the battalion level.

[Source: North County Times]

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Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz

A corporal at the time of the incident, Sgt. Dela Cruz was granted immunity to testify. He was not involved in the house clearing, and his testimony only effects Sgt. Wuterich.

• Fired at five men at a white taxi moments after Sgt. Frank Wuterich fired a barrage of bullets at the group. (Later, Dela Cruz urinated on one of the dead bodies.)

• Decided to shoot because he assumed from Wuterich's actions that the men were a threat and he wanted to make sure they were dead.

• Claims Sgt. Wuterich asked him, and the rest of the squad, to lie about the incident at the taxi. Dela Cruz testified that Wuterich later told his entire squad to say it was done by Iraqi forces.

Quote: "They were just standing, looking around, had hands up," Dela Cruz said. "Then I saw one of them drop in the middle. I didn't know what was going on."

[Source: North County Times]

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Maj. Gen. Richard Huck

Former commanding general of the 2nd Marine Division based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, who at the time of the incident, was in charge of troops in Haditha. The general testified via video hookup from the Pentagon.

• There was no early indication that the deaths were not combat-related or warranted an investigation.

• Visited the unit's headquarters in Haditha on Nov. 22, 2005 and received no report that the issue merited review. According to court documents, Huck told investigators, "no bells and whistles went off." "It was just here is something that happened, and it was onto the next thing."

• Reports of the deaths were sent up the chain of command and up to Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq at the time of the incident.

• None of those superiors told Huck there should be further investigation into the deaths.

• On Feb. 12, 2006, learned in an e-mail from his boss, Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, that a Time magazine reporter asked about allegations including one that "four young men were herded into a closet and sprayed with bullets." According to court documents, Huck replied, "I support our account and do not see a necessity for further investigation." (On Feb. 13, Chiarelli called for an investigation.)

• The allegations surprised him because local Iraqi leaders never questioned him about the attack in his frequent meetings with them.

Quote: Huck commanded 19,000 U.S. military personnel at the time and 12,000 Iraqi soldiers and said he relied on staff reports of battle incidents such as in Haditha. "If someone felt there was a need to investigate, it could have come up from a myriad of places," he said.

[Sources: North County Times, Associated Press, Reuters]

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Sgt. Maj. Edward Sax

The 3rd Battalion's sergeant major.

• Testified that he only learned that civilians had died in Haditha when he saw the Sgt. Wuterich interview on 60 Minutes.

[Source: North County Times]

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1st Lt. Adam Mathes

Kilo Co. executive officer.

• Said the Haditha town council lodged a complaint on November 27 that 15 civilians had been killed.
• Testified that he told his superior officer, Capt. Lucas McConnell, one of the four charged with dereliction of duty. “He didn’t seem to feel that it was a very big deal,” the lieutenant said.
• Didn't believe the allegations presented by the Time magazine reporter, Tim McGirk. The questions reflected an agenda to discredit the Marine Corps and President Bush. “It sounded like very negative spin,” Mathes testified from Kuwait by video link. “This guy’s looking for blood and blood leads headlines.” Regarding his sentiment at the time, Mathes said, “It was a demonstration of how cheap (the insurgents) consider their own lives that they would use their own people for this attack. These are the lengths they are willing to go to conduct an attack on us.”

Quote: “My impression of Sergeant Wuterich is that he is a very decent, quiet, mature guy. I didn’t have any reason to question their integrity.”

[Source: Reuters, story no longer online at original url.]

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Capt. Jeffery Dinsmore

Intelligence officer, 3rd Battalion.

The accused gave unsworn testimony in his defense.

Quote: "I have never lied and have worked at all times to assist as best I could to shed light on what I knew and when I knew it. The most frustrating thing is the reality that even looking at this whole matter through 20/20 hindsight, I know I was trying to help.
"My firm belief that there was no law of armed conflict violation was the foundation for what actions I did take as well as action I did not take."

[Source: North County Times]

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And in closing...

From the Associated Press (no longer at original address):

Prosecutors portrayed Stone as a meek novice who overlooked the killings in an attempt to gain favor with the other Marines. In his closing argument, Lt. Col. Paul Atterbury said that Stone knew women and children were killed in their homes but that he did nothing in response.

"The battalion judge advocate has a duty to make sure his Marines do not become desensitized to the mortally bruising combat environment that is Al Anbar, Iraq," Lt. Col. Atterbury said.

Defense attorney Charles Gittins said that the prosecution's case was based on the assumption that Stone knew the killings were wrong, but that prosecutors had the luxury of hindsight. More senior Marines saw no need to investigate the deaths because they were deemed to have been a lawful consequence of combat, he said.

"He had no more knowledge about the deaths than the division commander, who was actually briefed by the battalion commander," Gittins said.

Lt. Col. Atterbury said it was irrelevant that Stone's superiors saw no need for an investigation.

From the New York Times:

The presiding officer, Maj. Thomas McCann, seemed disconcerted about the testimony he had heard from several officers, from the general in charge of the Second Marine Division down to the first lieutenant whose men killed 24 civilians in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005. Several officers described civilian deaths as unfortunate but justifiable if they occurred during combat.

On Friday Major McCann, an experienced Marine lawyer, interjected some unsettling questions about how many civilian deaths it would take to constitute a violation of military regulations.

Alluding to Haditha, he asked, “At what point do we have to scratch our heads that we killed a lot more civilians than enemy?”

Because so many witnesses had testified that civilian deaths from “combat action” need not be investigated, Major McCann said, “I’m trying to figure out what authority they are citing.”

Maj. Carroll J. Connolly...a lawyer for the Marine regiment commanded then by Col. Stephen W. Davis, said he saw no need to investigate the civilian deaths in Haditha because they had come during combat with enemy fighters.

When Major McCann, the investigating officer, asked what the legal basis was for drawing that conclusion, Major Connolly, who was granted immunity from prosecution for his testimony, said he could not think of any.

From the North County Times:

...a prosecutor contended that Stone needed to be held accountable for failure to investigate a suspected violation of law, a suspicion that didn't arise until several weeks later when a Time magazine reporter said he had reason to believe a massacre had taken place.

"The evidence suggests he didn't do anything," Lt. Col. Paul Atterbury said of Stone. "The questions weren't asked (by Stone) of the right Marines."

The prosecutor also contended that Stone needed to serve as a moral compass for the battalion and therefore should have known to conduct at least a preliminary inquiry....

The case boils down to accountability, and Stone failed to carry out his job, the prosecutor said.

McCann also could consider additional charges of filing a false official statement for an e-mail Stone sent in late December to another Marine officer in which some of what he knew wasn't included, Atterbury contended, adding that a charge of conduct unbecoming an officer also could be levied.

Stone's attorney, Charles Gittins, said those suggestions typified the government's case, comparing the charging decision to a dartboard at which prosecutors blindly threw darts and filed criminal accusations on the basis of where the missiles landed

"This entire case is an illusion of the truth," Gittins said during his closing argument. "This whole thing stinks -- this can't be the way the Marine Corps does business."

None of the testimony from government witnesses showed that Stone knew anything beyond the first account given by the Marines who would ultimately face murder charges in the killing, Gittins said. That account indicated that the civilians were "collateral damage" killed during the course of a combat action and no investigation was necessary.

The attorney said that if his client is guilty, legal officers and other Marine commanders far up the chain of command are similarly guilty. Three other officers, including the former battalion commander, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, face similar charges.

So those are the facts regarding the first Haditha hearing. My prediction is that the case against Capt. Randy W. Stone will not go to a court marital. I predict that charges will be dropped sometime in June or July, after the enlisted men's Article 32s.

David Allender
Defend Our Marines