Nathaniel Helms at Defend Our Marines has written a very interesting piece with information on the Haditha case which I have read no where else to this point.

Buried in the mountain of exhibits attached to the once secret Haditha, Iraq murder inquiry prepared by US Army Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell is an obscure Marine Corps intelligence summary (see pdf) that says the deadly encounter was an intentional propaganda ploy planned and paid for by Al Qaeda foreign fighters.

Veteran military defense attorney Gary Meyers said he never understood why the Naval Criminal Investigative Service special agents leading the Haditha criminal investigation didn’t “examine the linkage” between Al Qaeda, the local insurgency and the events at Haditha. Meyers was an attorney on the defense team that successfully defended Justin Sharratt, a Marine infantryman accused of multiple murders at Haditha.

The report – apparently overlooked by a Washington press corps awash in leaked Bargewell documents and secret Naval Criminal Investigative Service reports – shows that Marine Corps intelligence operatives were advised of the scheme to demonize the Marines by an informant named Muhannad Hassan Hamadi. The informant was snared by 3/1 Marines on December 11 2005 and decided to cooperate.

I too would be puzzled as to why this angle was not pursued further. With no other sources on this particular aspect of the case, it is difficult to draw any conclusions. However, in reading this entire article, it seems as though there was enough intelligence and information to believe that the Haditha attack may very well have been set up by the enemy and used as propaganda when filtered through the American press.

What leads me to believe there is far more to this case then the public has been told is the fact that it has unraveled to the point where all major charges have either been dropped or it has been recommended that they be dismissed or reduced. We shall know more soon I believe, but until then, the article noted may answer some questions for those of us who have questioned this entire case from its inception.

HT:
Clarice Feldman