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Defend Our Marines / September 13, 2007
Radio operator at Fallujah disputes claim at heart
of government's case
Doesn't back up story that Nazario was ordered to kill prisoners
______________________________________________________
 Marine
James B. Crossan, a veteran of both Fallujah and Haditha, told an
NCIS investigator that the alleged radio conversation between an
unknown Marine commander and a squad leader ordering the execution of
four Iraqi prisoners of war at Fallujah never happened.
His account refutes the statements of Sgt Jermaine
Nelson, the Camp Pendleton-based Marine Lt. Gen James N. Mattis
released Tuesday from a charge of unpremeditated murder. Nelson,
without legal counsel, managed to incriminate himself and several
other Marines for killing four prisoners of war during two interviews
with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
Nelson made his allegations in two statements to
Special Agent Mark O. Fox. The 48-year-old investigator has been
dogging 3rd Platoon, Kilo Company for almost a year. During
his investigation Fox has criss-crossed the country several times
searching out former Marines who survived the terrible battle at
Fallujah while seeking to buttress the government’s flimsy case.
Crossan, 22, was the 3rd Platoon’s radio
operator at Fallujah. He was one of the 3rd Platoon, Kilo
Company Marines celebrated in Bing West’s book No True Glory
for his bravery at the famous Hell House incident on November 13, 2004
where two Third Battalion, 1st Marine Devil Dogs earned
Navy Crosses in the same fight.
A year later Crossan was severely wounded at Haditha
when an IED blew up his Humvee on Route Chestnut. The November 19,
2005 attack killed his friend Lance Corporal Miguel “T.J.” Terrazas
and sparked the all-day engagement that inspired Time magazine
to write a specious account of the massacre at Haditha that never
happened. During the battle 24 Iraqis and one Marine were killed, and
eleven Marines – including Crossan - were wounded.
Crossan told Fox he didn’t know if the incident alleged
in the complaint against Nelson and former Sergeant Jose M. Nazario
ever happened. He told Fox he doesn’t ever remember hearing anything
about prisoners of war being either captured or killed, he said.
If any one should know it would be Crossan, experienced
Marines said. At the time, Crossan was a 19-year-old lance corporal
humping the platoon radio behind 1st Lieutenant Jesse A.
Grapes, the platoon’s outstanding leader. Nobody had a better overall
view of the battle, Marines who were there say.
Fox interviewed Crossan on March 21, 2007 at a library
parking lot in North Bend, Washington. Crossan gave Fox a roughly
eleven-minute sworn statement of his experiences at Fallujah the
morning Nazario and two other Marines allegedly killed four prisoners
of war.
Under Grapes’ command on November 9, 2004 were three
rifle squads, two led by corporals and one by Nazario, Crossan said.
Attached to each squad was a senior platoon noncom or officer. The
senior Marines were there to keep a handle on the situation and make
sure their less experienced charges kept their eyes on the ball.
Grapes, with Crossan close behind, attached himself to
2nd Squad, commanded by future Navy Cross recipient R.J.
Mitchell. They remained in close proximity to Nazario’s squad the
entire day, numerous Marines reported.
“Where he would go, I would go,” Crossan said in his
statement.
All of the squad leaders and senior Marines passed
their traffic through Crossan’s radio, he said.
Initially Fox wanted to know where everybody in 3rd
Platoon was on November 9, 2004. That is important to know because the
command to kill the Iraqi prisoners reportedly came from a senior
Marine, Fox told several witnesses. According to Crossan, only the
squad leaders and unit commanders had the capability to talk to each
other by radio and it was his job to monitor their conversations to
keep Grapes in the loop.
After a few minutes establishing where everybody was,
the forty-eight-year old special agent got right to the point. Fox
wanted to know what Crossan knew about the alleged order to kill the
prisoners, an order Nazario has said is a total fabrication.
Fox: “What would have been the procedure say if one of
the other squads, a squad you weren’t with, 1st or 3rd
Squad, had taken prisoners, what would have been the procedure?
Crossan: “Talk to command, tell them they’ve got some
detainees, and they would send up somebody, the supply guy, to check
them out.
Fox: “When you say command, what command is that?
Crossan: “They [squad leaders] would talk to me and
then I would talk to higher ups.”
Fox: “Did you receive any calls [about prisoners] from
any of the squads that day?”
Crossan: “I don’t remember.”
Undaunted, Fox continued his search to discover the
mysterious “voice” that allegedly gave Nazario the cryptic command to
kill the four Iraqi prisoners that 3rd Squad had captured.
Nelson, a former assaultman in the squad, says he saw, but didn’t
hear, Nazario receive such a command on his inter-squad radio, called
a “PRR” in the interview. Crossan said that was impossible because
that particular radio was only capable on inter-squad communications.
In his account, Nelson “reads” Nazario’s face when the
message comes in, he said, followed by the “lets get it done” command.
He didn’t actually learn of the order until after it was given, he
said. Nelson’s account is similar to that of former Cpl Ryan Weemer,
except the former 3rd Squad fire team leader claims he
heard it for himself.
Weemer is reportedly being recalled to active duty from
his college in Kentucky to face murder charges. Nelson claims Weemer,
in addition to himself and Nazario, killed the four prisoners of war.
Weemer’s Cincinnati, Ohio-based attorney Paul Hackett has not yet
responded to numerous inquires about the status of his client.
At the heart of the case is the alleged kill-on-command
report that has been the centerpiece of the alleged murder scheme
since the story began circulating about two years ago. According to
Weemer – who initially revealed the allegations without implicating
himself - Nazario was told to kill the prisoners after inquiring what
to do with them.
The Marines captured the four insurgents in a house
they had to blast their way into using C-4 explosives. The insurgents
were found hiding under a staircase with their weapons nearby during a
fierce battle that had already killed one Kilo Company Marine and left
several others wounded.
“They’re still alive?” the cryptic voice demanded of
Nazario when he asked what to do with the prisoners, Nelson and Weemer
later claimed. When Nazario replied they were, the mystery voice told
him to kill them.
“Make it happen,” the order came back.
Nelson says he discovered the four prisoners under the
stairs when he went inside the barricaded house to escape the fierce
gunfire. He didn’t have any orders to be there, he explained to Fox,
but assaultmen were routinely left outside to guard the perimeter and
he didn’t feel like getting shot, he said.
Nelson told Fox he discovered the men downstairs when
he began clearing the first room he entered. First he saw an elbow,
than a man, and finally four men, but he didn’t see any weapons, he
recounted in his statement. Taking them into custody with a flurry of
Arabic commands, Nelson ordered them to lie face down alternately head
to foot on the floor “to prevent communications,” he told Fox. That
is when Nazario took charge, he said
According to Nelson, the Iraqis denied having any
weapons. A quick search by Nazario, revealed a stack of AK-47s and
their loaded magazines close by. That is when Nazario declared them
insurgents and called in his report, Nelson said.
Crossan doesn’t remember any of it, he said.
Fox: “During that day, I am told, is a group of Iraqi
males were encountered. They were detained and Sergeant Nazario called
in to somebody and said, ‘We’ve detained these individuals and what do
we do with them. And the response he received was ‘Are they dead yet?’
And he asked whoever he was talking to come again and again it was
‘Are they dead yet?’ Did you hear any communication like that that
day?”
Crossan: “Not that I remember.”
Fox: “Do you think you would remember if that had been
said?”
Crossan: “Probably not. No.”
Fox: “Has anybody talked to you about this
investigation, James?”
Crossan: “No.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Nazario pleaded not guilty to
two counts of voluntary manslaughter handed up in an indictment by a
federal grand jury for the US District Court for Central California in
Riverside. His attorney Kevin B. McDermott, who also represents former
Kilo Company commander Capt. Luke McConnell in the unrelated Haditha
affair, said his client has no intentions of accepting any plea deals.
“Nazario is completely innocent,” McDermott said. “He
has absolutely no recollection of any of the allegations. He thinks
some of the squad members made up the story.”
McDermott said Nazario may be the first active duty
service member charged in civilian court under a relatively new
federal law created to prosecute unscrupulous civilian contractors
working for the government overseas. With Nelson’s charges now
dismissed, Nazario is the only Fallujah veteran currently facing
criminal charges.
Nazario served eight years in the Marine Corps before
leaving to join the Riverside Police Department. He had less than two
months to go on his probationary period when he was charged in federal
court and summarily dismissed from his job. He is married and has one
child.
Nathaniel R. Helms
Defend Our Marines
12
September 2007
Note: Nat Helms is a Contributing Editor to Defend Our
Marines. He is a Vietnam vet, journalist, combat reporter, and, most
recently, author of
My Men Are My Heroes: The Brad Kasal Story (Meredith Books, 2007). |
