A Marine major general and two senior officers have been disciplined for their roles in investigating the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha in 2005, the Marine Corps said.
Major General Richard Huck, former commanding general of the 2nd Marine Division, has received a letter of censure from the secretary of the Navy for the "actions he took and failed to take" in response to the killings. The Wednesday statement from the Marine Corps did not elaborate.
In all, 24 civilians were killed by a Marine squad in the aftermath of a bomb blast that killed one Marine on Nov. 19, 2005. Among the dead were women and children who were killed in their homes.
Colonel Stephen Davis and Colonel Robert Sokoloski also received letters of censure.
Davis was cited for failure to take action when informed of the slayings in Haditha, while Sokoloski was cited for unsatisfactory performance of his duties.
"Accountability and responsibility are the foundation of all we do as Marines," said General James Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps.
"While these three officers have served their country and corps exceedingly well for decades, their actions, inactions and decisions in the aftermath of the Haditha incident did not meet the high standards we expect of Marine senior officer leadership," Conway said.
Major General Stephen Johnson, former commanding general of II Marine Expeditionary Force, was fully exonerated, the Marine Corps statement said.
In Washington, a senior Marine official said that "no investigation was initiated immediately" after the killings. He noted that the first probe started when the media reported the killings in February.
"There was no evidence of an intentional coverup," he said.
The official briefed reporters on condition of anonymity so he could speak freely about the personnel matter. He declined to release the text of the letters censure, which is the most severe in a range of administrative actions and extremely rare.
Having the censure on their records would make it difficult for the three officers to receive future promotions and could result in a reduction in rank for the purpose of calculating retirement benefits.
There is no appeal to a letter of censure, but the three can write rebuttal statements that also will be put into their records. The officers have five days to acknowledge the notification and then 15 days to submit any rebuttal statement.
The disciplinary action came as a preliminary hearing continued in the Haditha case for Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, 27, who is charged with unpremeditated murder in the slaying of 17 of the Iraqis.
He has acknowledged shooting five men who were at the scene of the bomb blast but claims he did so because they were running away.
DISASTER: The Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded a magnitude 5.7 and tremors reached as far as Kolkata, India, more than 300km away from the epicenter A powerful earthquake struck Bangladesh yesterday outside the crowded capital, Dhaka, killing at least five people and injuring about a hundred, the government said. The magnitude 5.5 quake struck at 10:38am near Narsingdi, Bangladesh, about 33km from Dhaka, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The earthquake sparked fear and chaos with many in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people at home on their day off. AFP reporters in Dhaka said they saw people weeping in the streets while others appeared shocked. Bangladesh Interim Leader Muhammad Yunus expressed his “deep shock and sorrow over the news of casualties in various districts.” At least five people,
ON THE LAM: The Brazilian Supreme Court said that the former president tried to burn his ankle monitor off as part of an attempt to orchestrate his escape from Brazil Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro — under house arrest while he appeals a conviction for a foiled coup attempt — was taken into custody on Saturday after the Brazilian Supreme Court deemed him a high flight risk. The court said the far-right firebrand — who was sentenced to 27 years in prison over a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 elections — had attempted to disable his ankle monitor to flee. Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes said Bolsonaro’s detention was a preventive measure as final appeals play out. In a video made
It is one of the world’s most famous unsolved codes whose answer could sell for a fortune — but two US friends say they have already found the secret hidden by Kryptos. The S-shaped copper sculpture has baffled cryptography enthusiasts since its 1990 installation on the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Virginia, with three of its four messages deciphered so far. Yet K4, the final passage, has kept codebreakers scratching their heads. Sculptor Jim Sanborn, 80, has been so overwhelmed by guesses that he started charging US$50 for each response. Sanborn in August announced he would auction the 97-character solution to K4
SHOW OF FORCE: The US has held nine multilateral drills near Guam in the past four months, which Australia said was important to deter coercion in the region Five Chinese research vessels, including ships used for space and missile tracking and underwater mapping, were active in the northwest Pacific last month, as the US stepped up military exercises, data compiled by a Guam-based group shows. Rapid militarization in the northern Pacific gets insufficient attention, the Pacific Center for Island Security said, adding that it makes island populations a potential target in any great-power conflict. “If you look at the number of US and bilateral and multilateral exercises, there is a lot of activity,” Leland Bettis, the director of the group that seeks to flag regional security risks, said in an
RSS