The database began with In the Dark’s reporting on the killings of civilians in Haditha, Iraq, on November 19, 2005. That morning, a squad of Marines, led by Sergeant Frank Wuterich, was hit by an improvised explosive device, which killed a beloved lance corporal. In the hours that followed, Marines killed men, women, and children on the street and in nearby houses. Four of those Marines, including Wuterich, were charged with murder. Three of their cases were later thrown out, and, when Wuterich went to trial, he was allowed to plead guilty to a single count of negligent dereliction of duty. A judge demoted Wuterich in rank. “Essentially a parking ticket,” Wuterich’s lawyer, Haytham Faraj, said of the sentence. “It’s meaningless.”
- delirious_owl ( @delirious_owl@discuss.online ) 4•3 months ago
we were often told that, unless we could provide names, especially those of the perpetrators, agencies couldn’t carry out searches for documents. When we provided names, some departments refused to release records, citing the privacy rights of the people we had identified.
Sounds about right
- t3rmit3 ( @t3rmit3@beehaw.org ) 3•3 months ago
The War Crimes That the Military Buried
So… all of them?