Shackles removed from confined Marines, sailor

[PJay]

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/005385.htm

The men are in solitary confinement, locked in 8'x8' cells at San Diego's Camp Pendleton, as investigators probe an April 26 incident involving the 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment, 1st Marine Division. They are behind bars 23 hours a day; family members can only see them through inch-thick Plexiglas. Military blabbermouths have told the press that the service members are suspected of kidnapping and shooting a man in the Iraqi town of Hamdaniya. The Iraqi man's family reportedly came forward seeking payment for his death as media hysteria set in over the separate alleged atrocity in
Haditha.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1875786.php

Military officials on Friday said they have decided to remove shackles put on seven confined Marines and one sailor whenever they’re outside their individual cells at the Camp Pendleton brig, a Marine Corps spokesman said.

The men are “shafted and shackled in the worst conditions being imposed,” Brahms said June 14. “Saddam [Hussein] has a better circumstance than these guys.”

It's the citizen's word that started this and seems to me they have learned such charges pay off..and I do mean cash! I think we now are in a situation that those charged will have to be found guilty of something?
The fact that our leaders paid the victims families shortly after the incident speaks volumes to this entire mess. I think this is about money the more I read and see how all this is unfolding.

Could these charges be for financial gain?

For the uninformed: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060531/ts_nm/iraq_usa_haditha_dc_6

In an interview with CNN, new Iraqi ambassador to the United States Samir al-Sumaidaie said there appeared to have been other killings of civilians by Marines in Haditha, where some of his family lives.
The ambassador said Marines shot and killed his cousin during a house-to-house search several months before the November incident.
"I believe he was killed intentionally. I believe that he was killed unnecessarily," al-Sumaidaie said.

He said three other unarmed youths were shot dead by Marines in a later incident in the area.

"They were in a car, they were unarmed, I believe, and they were shot."

Watt's investigation also reviewed cash payments totaling $38,000 made within weeks of the November shootings to families of victims, The New York Times said.

In an interview with the newspaper on Tuesday, Maj. Dana Hyatt said his superiors told him to compensate the relatives of 15 victims, but the other dead civilians had been determined to have committed hostile acts, leaving their families ineligible for compensation.

The U.S. military sometimes pays compensation to relatives of civilian victims.

My understanding ..we literally hand out money (cash) to civilians who have valid claims to damages. We bust a window, one of our vehicles bumps into a car, one of our bullets hits some Iraqi's truck..they can file a complaint and get cash. The above shows that we paid the Haditha victims to the tune of $38,000 but some were not recognized as our fault.

Beside the obvious political and propaganda value of the current claims from Haditha could "MONEY" be a driving motive for the accusations being leveled at our Marines?

Big mistake is that we paid the victims families before an investigation. That practice really needs to be evaluated IMO! To me payment is an admission to guilt in itself.

I am told in their culture, "a cash payment is required as an apology for what happened, it is not an admission of anything beyond that the person in question is, in fact, dead." Not sure. But are we setting our troops up for charges by playing a dangerous money game? I cannot believe this!! Someone explain this if you can...makes no sense whatsoever!!!

 

[willie]

I have slowly arrived at the position of.....let the Taliban have those worthless sand fleas. Pack up and come home. When they rebuild themselves into a threat again, kick their ass back to the 11th century. Next time we shouldn't even try to rebuild.

 

[residentofcre]

I may be totally out of place here.... and if I am I apologize.... but I've been thinking....

Maybe Congress shouldn't tell us when it is time for us to leave Iraq. Maybe the soldiers who faught there have a better prespective on it..... I feel that decision should be handed over the the men that have been there and have a first hand grasp of what is actually going on there... I say we stay until our soldiiers are confident in the ability of the Iraqi Nationals to take it from here...

Thanks for letting me but in.... I'll go sit out again and watch....

 

[willie]

I may be totally out of place here.... and if I am I apologize.... but I've been thinking....

Thanks for letting me but in.... I'll go sit out again and watch....

Cheer up!
This is a rough place, everybody gets their ass kicked once in a while.

 

[Ken King]

I may be totally out of place here.... and if I am I apologize.... but I've been thinking....

Maybe Congress shouldn't tell us when it is time for us to leave Iraq. Maybe the soldiers who faught there have a better prespective on it..... I feel that decision should be handed over the the men that have been there and have a first hand grasp of what is actually going on there... I say we stay until our soldiiers are confident in the ability of the Iraqi Nationals to take it from here...

Thanks for letting me but in.... I'll go sit out again and watch....

Let's see, I might be wrong but wouldn't that be the job of the Commander-in-Chief to determine when the objectives have been met and he can bring the troops home? I seem to recall that Congress gave him that specific authority in regard to Iraq and the regime change.

Realistically, I suspect we will have troops over there for many years to come. Hell we are still in Germany, Japan, and Korea many years after hostilities ceased.