Some New Facts Uncovered at Haditha Hearing

Some previously unreported facts came out in Capt. Randy Stone's Article 32 hearing this week. Facts that point consistently toward the Haditha investigation being nothing more than a media driven political witchhunt. Judge for yourselves...

• The Marines paid more than $40,000 in restitution to survivors of 15 victims killed in two of the houses after determining those people had no hostile intent. Relatives of four men killed in a third house got no payment because those men were believed to be insurgents, Marine Maj. Dana Hyatt testified Saturday.
• no payments were made to relatives of the five men killed as they were held at gunpoint when they emerged from a car minutes after the bombing. No money went to their survivors because of a never-verified report that the car contained weapons indicating those men were insurgents.
• On the day he inspected the homes, Hyatt said, he asked one of the men who took part in the assault, Cpl. Hector Salinas, what had happened. "He mentioned that he thought they heard rounds being chambered in the first house and that's why they threw a grenade in there," Dana said. "In the second house, they thought there were insurgents in there."
• Last week, Capt. Jeffrey Dinsmore, the intelligence officer for the battalion, testified that “it's fairly well established through the (unmanned aerial vehicle) coverage that there were insurgents in those homes,” referring to the homes where civilians were killed
• Top battalion officers strongly believed that insurgents used the civilians who were killed as human shields for their attack on the U.S. convoy and then fled during the Marines' counterattack, Dinsmore testified.

Only two media outlets reported the above statements from the testimony. Kudos to NC Times and Sign On San Diego for having the journalistic integrity to report testimony that exonerates the Marines. And a big middle finger to Reuters and the AP for their omission in reporting the info.