The Speed Of Military Justice
by sarabeth at 6:00 am on May 30th, 2006 in Iraq WarThe wheels of military justice may go round and round. But only after someone greases them and sets them spinning (as attested by Time’s role in turning the military’s mock investigations of the Haditha massacre into a real investigation). And very, very slowly even after that (as exemplified by the Pat Tillman shooting investigation, which is now in its third year).
There is a chillingly common pattern in these scandals, the two biggest battlefield scandals we have seen in the war on terror.
In both cases, the military first conducted not one but several rounds of Mickey Mouse investigations. In the case of Haditha, an initial short-and-sweet investigation concluded that the Iraqi civilians had been killed by a roadside bomb. After Time turned over documentary evidence that the military could not ignore, they still conducted a second Mickey Mouse investigation, this time concluding that the Iraqi civilians had been caught in crossfire as the marines battled insurgents. The military launched a serious investigation (the one conducted by the NCIS, whose official report is now awaited) only some time after this second investigation was concluded, coincidentally when Time was about to go to press with a story strongly repudiating the military’s second official version of events. In the case of the Tillman shooting, it was only the Tillman family’s bitter public statements that propelled the military into reluctant investigative action. (See here for a timeline of the Tillman story.)
In both cases, the military initially put out entirely fictitious accounts of the incident, and persisted with publicly propagating these fictions long after they had become aware of the truth (which was pretty much right away in both cases).
In both cases, the truth did not begin to emerge until well into the investigative process.
In both cases, the sequence of events strongly suggests a concerted attempt by military authorities to not just spin the facts but to cover up the truth with lies.
In both cases, the investigations have taken much longer than they should have. Here’s John Murtha over the weekend, on Haditha:
“I will not excuse murder, and this is what happened,” Murtha said. “This investigation should have been over two or three weeks afterward and it should have been made public and people should have been held responsible for it.”
The massacre occurred in November. Time turned over its documentary evidence to the army in January. The Army launched the first proper investigation only in March. The fact that the Marine Corps briefed selected Senators and Congressmen last week on the outcome of the investigation suggests that the investigative phase of the inquiry has now been concluded. The word is, though, that the report will be released only towards the end of June. Far from completing the investigation in Murtha’s “two or three weeks”, it appears that they will take longer than that to just write up the report. In the case of the Tillman shooting, it took almost two years for the army to launch a criminal investigation into the shooting. This is their fourth investigation. The report is still awaited. No Congressmen or Senators seem to have been briefed on the likely findings.
CNN had a report on the Tillman shooting on Saturday:
It has been two years since Pat Tillman was shot to death by his fellow Army Rangers in Afghanistan. There remain many unanswered questions about precisely how that happened.
In part because of the family’s anger and disillusionment, the Pentagon has launched a fourth investigation — a criminal probe into whether Tillman’s death was negligent homicide — as well as a separate review of whether the Army engaged in any intentional deception.
[…]
The initial investigation — conducted by an Army captain that CNN has identified as Richard Scott — contains much harsher judgments than those reached in a later probe by a one-star general.In a sworn deposition given five months after Tillman’s death, Scott said that some stories “have changed. They have changed to, I think, help some individuals.”
The parallels never end. Murtha again:
“It’s very simple: They went out the next day (after the Haditha massacre), they knew there was something wrong. Two or three days later, they decided that these people were murdered. . . .
“It goes right up the chain of command,” added Murtha, who has emerged as one of the most vocal critics of the Iraq war. “Who said, ‘We’re not going to publicize this thing; we’re not even going to investigate it’? Until March, there was no serious investigation. There was an investigation right afterwards, but then it was stifled.”
So at this point in time, when Senator John Warner, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, made the following statement on Sunday with a straight face, I simply fell off my chair. On the plus side, I needed to pick up my jaw off the ground anyway.
The top Republican said: “I respect my friend, John Murtha. I also was privileged to wear the Marine uniform. But we’ve got to let the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the investigation system, proceed before we reach any conclusions on this matter.“
With all due respect, Senator Warner, I think we already tried that. More than once, in both cases. If there is some hope today that the truth might actually wriggle free, it is entirely because Time and the Tillman family reached some conclusions of their own. So save your breath, Senator Warner. You’ll need it for posturing before the Senate Armed Services Committee when you hold your Haditha hearings.
Murtha has been behaving very much like a man who believes that the Bush-Rumsfeld-Pace military has real trouble doing the right things unless you hold their feet to the fire, and you keep holding them there. I’d glad Murtha is there to do it over Haditha. But there’s no one turning on the heat for the Tillman investigation, more’s the pity.
JimC wrote:
Even in your best attempts, this blogger has the right idea and I agree with his view.
Posted 30 May 2006 at 4:26 pm ¶
matt wrote:
yeah, captain ed. captain of what? no one knows.
Posted 30 May 2006 at 4:30 pm ¶
JimC wrote:
Any chance you actually read the entry?
Posted 30 May 2006 at 4:46 pm ¶
matt wrote:
none.
Posted 30 May 2006 at 4:47 pm ¶
JimC wrote:
Well, allow me to give a summary, basically, el Capitan, is offended by this event as well but recognizes that we must pressume that these Marines are innocent until proven guilty even if the appearence of guilt is overwhelming. I’m not saying these marines did not do this, I am saying is that proper procedures of justice must be followed before judgement is given. If found guilty, then these Marines should be punished accordingly…
Posted 30 May 2006 at 5:01 pm ¶
matt wrote:
well, that all fine and good, but not being on their jury or an employee of the justice dept, sarabeth is allowed to write any damn thing she wants about it.
i’ll remember that when i’m a judge, and also the next time an important democrat gets into trouble.
Posted 30 May 2006 at 5:15 pm ¶
sarabeth wrote:
(Bloody hell. I am weak, weak, weak. Contemptible too. Forgive me, Jamie Beth and Spiddy-beth).
Sanctimonious claptrap is all very well, but shouldn’t it cut both ways?
Since no proper procedures of justice have been followed to establish who is guilty of the 9/11 bombings, by your logic here’s how it should go:
Coming back to Kilo Company, the evidence is what it is. These guys did what they did. The Marine Corps thinks its okay to brief Congressmen and Senators about the findings of the investigations, but the American public cannot yet be told? The American public is asked to wait till the investigation is over? Get real!
I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll write what I want now. You can read it after the investigation report is released, or after the court-martials are held, or whenever the hell you think it’s proper to read it.
Posted 30 May 2006 at 5:23 pm ¶
JimC wrote:
ummm, Osama has admitted his ordering of the attack. Furthermore, this is hardly the same thing…
By all means, you have the right to write what you want but I would think somone who so loves this country and our laws and rule of law would fight to defend our judicial process, or does that count only when it is someone you are sympathetic to?
Posted 30 May 2006 at 8:10 pm ¶
sarabeth wrote:
Surely you mean “Osama has tried to take the credit for the attacks, but proper procedures of justice have yet to be followed to verify his claims”?
And you of course are probably not aware of it, since you don’t seem to inhabit the real world, but if we hanged everyone who confessed to a killing that would have caused a major dent in our population. That’s why we have a justice system under which we still have a proper trial even for someone who signs a confession. That’s what constitutes “proper procedures of justice” in the American system. But of course that’s in the same universe in which the constitution mandates separation of church and state.
Pray elaborate!
Posted 30 May 2006 at 8:28 pm ¶
matt wrote:
suuuriously. also, i’d be curious to know if jim c speaks arabic well enough to translate bin laden’s statements for himself or if he has relied on others’ translations…
also, there are several hundred presumed innocent prisoners being held in guantanemo. they don’t even get a trial. very american of their captors.
Posted 30 May 2006 at 8:32 pm ¶
JimC wrote:
Well, one was a major attack against this nation (read all of us), a declaration of war, not unlike Pearl Harbor, BTW Matt, I’ve been meaning to ask if while on your surfing outing if you happened to visit the Pearl Harbor memorials in Hawaii? The case of the marines is that of our soldiers possibly committing a crime of which they fall under our jurisdiction. Surely you can see the difference…well, maybe…or are you suggesting we should have arrested Yamamoto and put him on trial?
Posted 30 May 2006 at 8:47 pm ¶
matt wrote:
not this trip, but twice before. certainly a moving experience. before we get too far down the road of where i’ve been, since i’ve had the privilege of extensive travel both with my family and solo, i’ve been to 44 states, nearly every revolutionary war site, and a ton of civil war sites. part of why i can’t stand this administration is because they dishonor those that came before.
the funny thing about the comparisons to WWII is the way people vacillate between thinking it is the same and thinking that it’s different.
it’s the same when it’s time to justify things and fluff our leader, but different when it comes to declarations, prisoner treatment, civil liberties, breaking the constitution, allies, popular sacrifice, taxes etc.
hard to keep track sometimes.
Posted 30 May 2006 at 9:06 pm ¶